Greetings Everyone,

I am posting these two images to several textile history listservs in
the hopes of getting information about the ragstock business in the
U.S. in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. This box was called a
fabric press by the descendents of the family that used it. It stood
in the basement of their store, and old textiles were dropped down a
chute into the box and pressed into a bale. I am attempting to
discover what was done with the ragstock, and whether it was a local
business that utilized them. Uses of textiles after their primary life
was over is not something I know much about, and we are trying to
determine if this is an artifact we want for our collection.

Thanks,
Peggy Derrick
Curator, La Crosse County Historical Society