Camay soap production photograph   Save
Ohio Guide Collection
Description: Dated ca. 1935-1940, this photograph shows Camay soap pellets during production at a plant in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a note on its reverse which reads "The milled Camay is pressed together until all air has been removed." Camay is the name of a scented hand and body soap formerly produced by Procter & Gamble. It was first introduced in 1926 and marketed as a "white, pure soap for women," as many soaps of the time were colored to mask impurities. Camay is not sold widely in the United States any longer and is sold mostly to online distributors and Europe. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B07F08_003_1
Subjects: Cincinnati (Ohio); Proctor and Gamble Company; Manufacturing industries; Soap
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)