Susan Marks Book Signing Event at Mill City Museum both Informative and Humorous

Last night we enjoyed the 'In the Mood for Munsingwear' book signing event with Susan Marks at the Mill City Museum.

The program started with a performance by a costumed History Player portraying Eva Valesh, a journalist for the St. Paul Globe in the 1880s who exposed working conditions for women Minneapolis factories, including Munsingwear’s predecessor, Northwestern Knitting Company:

In her new book, "In the Mood for Munsingwear: Minnesota’s Claim to Underwear Fame," Susan Marks shows how the history of the company and its ad campaigns reveal a great deal about America’s changing mores.  Through photos and anecdotes, Susan covered working conditions and labor relations and how they affected the people who worked at Munsingwear, the underwear manufacturer founded in Minneapolis in 1887. It was once the nation’s largest manufacturer of underwear.

In response to poor public image, increased union activity and safety concerns after the fatal Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire of 1911,  Munsingwear built a mammoth "fire proof" manufacturing facility (the present-day International Market Square) and implemented numerous employee programs.

A few examples are sponsored employee sports, on-site health and dental staff, music, on-site library, and an employee-run newspaper.  Despite all the improvements there were disgruntled employees, such as a fellow in shipping who took to selling stolen underwear.  He was caught, thanks to "Operative 71".

It was interesting to see their advertising morph from innocent to outright racy:

Several former employees of Munsingwear shared their own stories. The gentleman pictured below brought in a manual slide ruler used for calculating the amount of cloth required for each size garment. He also shared some sample leisure suits. 

Another former employee explained how her "piecemeal" position at Munsingwear in the early 70's led to a career in international undergarment design, including the likes of Victoria's Secret.

Afterwards, Susan signed copies of her current book, as well as her 2005 book, "Finding Betty Crocker".  Both are available for sale in the Mill City Museum gift shop.

The exhibit, "Underwear - A Brief History" is currently on display at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul.