A well-received Smithsonian Institution exhibit on sweatshops in America won’t be traveling to Chicago or anywhere else outside the capital. That’s because the show got a flat turndown or a cold shoulder from a number of museums around the country, including the highly respected Chicago Historical Society in Lincoln Park.
“I’m disappointed the show is not traveling,” said Harry Rubenstein, co-curator of “Between a Rock and Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops, 1820-Present.”
Adds co-curator Peter Liebhold: “We thought that Chicago had such a rich history of involvement with the garment industry, it would be an appropriate show. We were unsuccessful in convincing people that would be the case,” said Liebhold.
He attributes the exhibit’s lack of popularity to timidity by museum development officers, who would rather not tackle heavy topics and risk offending deep-pocketed corporate donors.
But the situation is less clear at the Chicago Historical Society. A society spokeswoman says the museum never said “no” to the sweatshop exhibit. It just didn’t get around to making a decision on it.
Society development director Jay Frey adds that the sweatshop exhibit didn’t even make it onto his radar screen for prospective fundraising.
And he denies that the museum shies away from controversial topics out of deference to the tender feelings of corporate executives, citing an exhibit on drug abuse in the United States that was sponsored by Baxter International Inc.
Still, Liebhold suspects the exhibit would have been better received around the country if it had confined itself to sweatshops of the Industrial Revolution. But the show is much more up-to-date than that, featuring a large-scale replica of the apparel factory in El Monte, Calif., where 72 Thai nationals were discovered working as virtual slaves behind razor-edged barbed wire.
It’s easy to spot one potential Midwestern rub: The exhibit mentions 11 retailers, including Montgomery Ward & Co. and Dayton Hudson Corp., that settled out of court for $2.5 million because they had received goods from the El Monte factory.
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If the Chicago Historical Society were to find a place in its schedule for the traveling sweatshop exhibit, it’s too late now anyway. The Smithsonian pulled the plug a month ago.
Bad omen: It’s been a good year for most retailers so far. The weather has been mostly cooperative, and shoppers have been spending freely.
But after raising hopes among retail executives, American consumers may be ready to dash them. Not because they want to, but because they have to.
After paying down some of their credit card debt in May, consumers added $6.7 billion in installment credit in June, according to the latest figures from the Federal Reserve.
The June rebound was the strongest monthly pick-up in consumer credit in three months, with auto loan growth climbing sharply and credit card debt up $2.5 billion, which translates into a 5.5 percent annual increase.
“It’s not surprising,” said Catherine Williams, president of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Chicago. While it appeared consumers were paying off debt in May, many were simply transferring unsecured debt loads to home equity credit lines, which are not reflected in the installment debt figure.
The combination of strong employment levels, low interest rates and easy money from lenders may have lulled consumers into a false sense of security, Williams warns.
It may be having a soporific effect on retailers.
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Susan Chandler’s retail column appears Saturday. Contact Susan at [email protected].