Stock room Jantzen Knit Wear, flexible for knitting. Each package is kept carefully wrapped in moth-proof wrapper; “Main Knitting” Dept.; Office of Factory [Three large mounted silver gelatin photographs showing Jantzen Knit Wear factory operations during World War I].

Portland, OR: Jantzen Knitting Mills, Pope, 1072 Hawthorne Ave., [1917-1918]. Three 8 x 10 in. silver gelatin photographs mounted on tan embossed studio board, embossed borders, sized 10 x 14 in., w/ image bearing the Jantzen Knit Wear logo w/in the negative, and paper caption mounted at lower fore-edge, other two w/ typed captions at lower fore-edge, embossed photographer’s mark, typed label on 3rd photo partially torn, all three images NF. These photos depict the Jantzen factory operation before and after it moved from their location on Stark Street in Portland to their larger three-story building at 31 N. Fifth St. where the factory and wholesale department later moved in August, 1918 when the company became officially the Jantzen Knitting Mills. These images show the carefully stored knitting yarn, followed by factory floor shot showing men and women hard at work at their knitting machines creating the swimwear, hats, caps, and more that the company was selling at the time. The third photo shows the office with two women stenographers and clerks working at their desks, and sales manager working at his desk with Jantzen ads in the back ground (possibly Heinemann). In the background there is also the Jantzen girl ad “How do I look in my Jantzen Bathing Suit” with advertising sales broadside showing sales methods on poster to the right. Jantzen Knitting Mills were founded in 1910 as the Portland Knitting Company, and within a few years they were producing a wool suit for rowing teams, and then began offering bathing suits in their catalogue. By 1918 the demand for the “Jantzen Suits” had increased so much the company changed their name to the Jantzen Knitting Mills, and in 1921 the red Diving Girl logo appeared as part of a national advertising campaign. The Jantzen trademark was purchased by Perry Ellis in 2002. Pope (1858-1928) was a longtime photographer in Hillsboro, OR with galleries in Cornelius, and Forest Grove who sold his Hillsboro operation to Winifred Guniston in 1911, and moved to his larger studio on Hawthorne in Portland where he shot portraits and commercial advertising photos until his death. See: Carrie Snyder & Debra Regan Cleveland, Jantzen Inc. -- Fashion Designer Encyclopedia; Jantzen Timeline (2016); John A. Zehntbauer, History of Jantzen (2009), pp. 23-54.