Remember Me: Camp Butner Pillow Covers

Our collection includes at least 29 Camp Butner pillow covers with most pictured below. The vast majority are specifically for sweethearts with wife, mother, and sister following close behind. Most contain a short poem which we have transcribed for easier readability.

Pillow covers commemorating military events seem to have come to use just before the First World War; however, there is fictitious information out there claiming that pillow covers date back to the War of 1812. There is no proof for such a claim. Pillows from World War I rarely reflect a relationship between the sender and recipient (wife, mother, sister, etc.) and are lacking in poetry which is so characteristic of WWII pillow covers. Instead, WWI covers incorporated imagery of flags, Lady Liberty, General Pershing, Columbia, and eagles. This is much different from what these pillow covers morphed into by WWII.

Pillow covers remained a facet of American life during the interwar years, specifically during the Great Depression. Pillow covers were sold to Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) members, also known as "Roosevelt's Tree Army." CCC pillow covers share more commonalities with WWII pillow covers in that they tended to focus on relationships between sender and recipient and carry the same sort of poetry.

Ultimately, these pillow covers function much like a modern day greeting card and for some, may represent a last point of contact with people the senders cared about. Unlike greeting cards, these pillow covers were not cheap! In 1944, each would have cost about $7.50 which is equivalent to $136 today. This was definitely a financial commitment considering a private earned $50 a month.

While we know gifting pillow cases to loved ones was a common practice during WWII, there are a lot of lingering questions that remain. How did the themes of relationships (predominately with women) get joined with war and what does this link signify? Why did buyers of these pillows, largely service personnel, buy them? What did their recipients think? Why do these pillow covers seldom recognize relationships with men? Dad only appears to be an option when connected with Mom and brother pillows do not appear to be an option at all. Was it just assumed that brothers were in uniform too or would grow up to be the buyers and senders of these same pillow covers?