Showing posts with label patriotism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patriotism. Show all posts
Monday, July 26, 2010
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
The patriotic origins of Liberty House
A tidbit about Liberty House, the department store that's now part of Macy's, and its parent company American Factors.
I never realized Liberty House, which put hibiscus flowers all over its shopping bags, had such a martial past. It's interesting that Liberty House didn't seem to play up the rah-rah American origins of its name.
(My apologies if you all know this already. I learned this for the first time the other day.)
The predecessor of American Factors (Amfac) was H. Hackfield, a merchandise house founded by a German sea captain in 1849. Still owned by Germans in 1917, when America entered World War I, Hackfield was taken over by the Alien Property Custodian and sold to a group of Hawaii businessmen in 1918. It was given the patriotic name of American Factors, and its main retail store, which had gone under the name of B.F. Ehlers, was renamed Liberty House.
- "Islands in Transition: The Past, Present and Future of Hawaii's Economy," By Thomas Kemper Hitch. p. 89
I never realized Liberty House, which put hibiscus flowers all over its shopping bags, had such a martial past. It's interesting that Liberty House didn't seem to play up the rah-rah American origins of its name.
(My apologies if you all know this already. I learned this for the first time the other day.)
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