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International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society

The purpose of the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society is to foster the collecting of, and research into, sewing machines.

Not So Green

ISMACS News
April 1991
Issue 31
Singer Sewing Machine Cabinet Factory

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THOSE GREENS amongst you will Shudder at the following story concerning the Singer company and its wood-working and cabinet department.

As early as 1868 Singer set up a special cabinet factory in South Bend, Indiana, an area chosen for its location on the St Joseph River in a region abundant in forests full of walnut, oak and maple.

By the turn of the century those forests had gone and in the 1920s Singer was having to transport its timber from supplies up to 800 miles away.

Singer, in fact, owned vast forest tracts in Arkansas which kept the 76-acre South Bend factory going for years, although there are no reports of any reforestation programmes.

~GF


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