The Rise and Fall of the Kalamazoo Corset Company

Postcard of Kalamazoo Corset Company factory, circa 1912 (Image courtesy of Kalamazoo Valley Museum.).

Rise

The origins of the Kalamazoo Corset Company date back to the Warren Featherbone Corset Company in Three Oaks, Michigan. Entrepreneur Edward K. Warren patented a process for using turkey feather quills as ribbing for corsets in the 1880s, replacing the popular whale bone that had been used for decades. While he claimed this innovation, he was involved in several lawsuits charging patent infringement.

In 1891, company president James H. Hatfield moved the business to Kalamazoo and renamed it the Kalamazoo Corset Company. The demand for corsets was closely tied to late nineteenth and early twentieth century fashions that emphasized a very narrow waist. Many health reformers charged that this emphasis on fashion jeopardized the health of American women. It would not be the first time that women’s fashion ideals outweighed health concerns.

Kalamazoo Corset Company employees at work, circa 1912 (Photo courtesy of Kalamazoo Valley Museum.).

The Kalamazoo Corset Company factory was in a four-story building near the intersection of Eleanor and Church Streets in downtown Kalamazoo. The majority of employees producing one and a half million corsets each year were single women under the age of thirty. The Madame Grace and American Beauty corsets manufactured by the Kalamazoo Corset Company were well known undergarments and sold in retail establishments throughout the United States. Like many other companies of the period, the Kalamazoo Corset Company produced promotional sheet music and trade cards that promoted its product line.

Kalamazoo Corset Company workers on strike, 1912 (Photo courtesy of Western Michigan University Archives and Regional History Collections.).

The Strike

Perhaps motivated because of the activism following the famous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, female employees of the Kalamazoo Corset Company began a labor strike on March 2, 1912. Their issues were poor wages, long hours and sexual harassment. The female employees of the Kalamazoo Corset Company paid for the thread they used to produce the corsets, and workers alleged that male supervisors sometimes granted special favors, such as providing the thread at no cost if they agreed to meet them after work. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union sent Josephine Casey and others from New York to help organize the workers.

The picket lines angered the owner, and he obtained a court order to stop the women. Meanwhile, the company employees gained national attention. On March 30th, a parade of 1,500 union workers marched through the city streets showing their support. The picketing resumed, and several people were arrested and jailed. By June, newly elected Mayor Charles B. Hays and a local minister, Reverend Dr. W. M. Puffer, presented a compromise proposal to the workers. A contract was approved by the union on June 15, 1912. While the financial gains were modest, the greatest victory came in the empowerment the women gained in a better working environment.

Fall

In some ways, this victory also marked the beginning of the end for the Kalamazoo Corset Company. President James Hatfield left in 1914 and founded a new company, the National Corset Company. The Kalamazoo Corset Company was renamed the Grace Corset Company in 1922. Fashion changed in the 1920s, as the narrow waist fell from favor, and the androgynous flapper style gained favor. Corsets would be eventually replaced by girdles.

For More Information

Records of the Warren Featherbone Company are at the Western Michigan University Archives and Regional History Collections.