The Yarn Carrier, a monthly magazine published by the Wyomissing Industries, celebrated the young women who, during World War II, stepped up to work in the Berkshire Knitting Mills, Narrow Fabric Company, and Textile Machine Works located in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Some of those same employees would go on to enlist in various branches of the armed services. The publication also provided photos of pin-up girls recruited from its employees and letters to and from those deployed.
“Introducing the WOW girl. The term WOW was originated by the Army and is applied to the woman ordnance worker. All over the nation the WOW is being glorified for her efforts in helping to win the battle of production.
As a group the WOWs have no governmental organization, no standard uniform and no official status. Yet in public imagination they stand beside the WAACs, WAVEs, WAFs, SPARs and other volunteers. Identified merely by her bandana headdress and coveralls, the WOW girl has won her place in in the hearts of America.
The WOW on our cover, typical of the hundreds of WOWs at the Textile Machine Works, is Mildred Wise of the Inspection Department.” The Yarn Carrier, April 1943, V13 N 1, p.2
As the “Predecessor Institute of Academic Excellence” for Penn State Berks, the Wyomissing Polytechnic Institute was initially conceived by Henry Janssen and Ferdinand Thun in 1927 as the Educational Department of the Textile Machine Works, one of the Wyomissing Industries that published The Yarn Carrier. The journal contains a wealth of social and industrial history and is now a part the digitized archival collection of the Penn State Berks Library. It can be accessed within the Wyomissing Polytechnic Institute Collection.
Celebrating Women’s History Month with the Radical Girls @ Penn State Berks