LSU Textile & Costume Museum
140 Human Ecology Building
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
225-578-2403/2281

Gallery hours: The museum is currently under renovation and will open again Fall 2007.

Past Exhibitions

Converting Commodity Bags: Recycling Circa 1940
This exhibition was open from April 2005 - June 2006 at LSU.

Traveling to Eunice, LA to the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park - Acadian Prairie Culture Center - from FEB 26, 2007 to APR 9, 2007

This exhibition illustrates the history and uses of commodity bags in the mid-twentieth century. Commodity bags, woven fabric bags that originally packaged products such as animal feed, flour, sugar, and salt, were an important resource in home sewing for women from the 1930s through the 1960s. This exhibition educates visitors about commodity bags and the many ways they were used by industrious women, particularly in rural areas, to clothe their families and decorate their homes. Numerous examples of clothing and home textiles made from commodity bags by Louisiana women are highlighted.

This exhibition is funded through a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and through the continued support of the Friends of the LSU Textile and Costume Museum.

	A trio of Louisiana commodity bags, c.1940s
	A feed sack to be converted to a tablecloth, c.1950s
	A flour sack with recipes printed on the back label, c.1950s
	An apparel item constructed from commodity bags by a Baton Rouge woman, c.1940s/1950s.