Original Item: Only One Available: With a depleted male work force and an increased demand for manufactured munitions due to the U.S.’ entry into World War I, the Women’s Munition Reserve answered the call for help, providing hundreds of female laborers to manufacture munitions at a powder packing plant built in Henrico, Ohio. This is an impossible-to-find grouping of work clothes for a female work force that only lasted a single month.

This is a WWI women’s uniform grouping to a worker in the Women’s Munition Reserve, the only American organization during the war to provide female labor for munition production. The grouping includes:

- Privately tailored Women’s Munition Reserve tunic with a WMR patch stitched onto the left sleeve. The patch features a red flaming ordnance bomb above the acronym WMR. On the opposite sleeve is an Army Sergeant’s rate. This ranking system was almost certainly used to distinguish those with more experience in the plant. There is a long tear in the back of the uniform. All buttons are remaining, there is very light mothing on the uniform. This coat was tailored by Mary Ruffit Clothes in New York.
- The matching skirt for the above tunic, has two pockets similar to those on the tunic, with similar staining and one small rip near the bottom. The skirt is in overall great shape.
- Another identical privately tailored tunic, but without the insignia on the first example.
- 2 identical Women’s work shirts, both matching the pantaloons.
- 2 identical sets of Women’s work pants, a VERY rare piece of female clothing for this era.
- One black set of women’s pantaloons.
- Women’s Munitions Reserve side cap, with a VERY rare “Active Service Women’s
- Munition Reserve” Badge.
- A Pair of female black work shoes, all laces retained.

In 1918, the United States government purchased twelve square miles of land in Henrico, Ohio, to construct a powder packing plant after negotiating a cooperative effort with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad and the Du Pont Engineering Company. Within three months, an army of 6,000 workers cleared the land and constructed roads, rail lines, and warehouses to create the “Mightiest munition-packing plant in all the world.” Members of the Women’s Munitions Reserve worked in the powder-bag loading plant. Formally opened on October 12th, 1918, the armistice was signed less than a month later. Production was halved on November 26th, 1918, before production stopped altogether.

This is a one-of-a-kind set of women’s worker uniforms for a very small organization of women whose tenure within the factories only lasted a single month. You will almost certainly never see another set like this.

Approximate Measurements:
Jackets -
Collar to shoulder: 9"
Shoulder to sleeve: 21.5”
Shoulder to shoulder: 14.5”
Chest width: 18.5"
Waist width: 16"
Hip width: 25.5"
Front length: 29.5"

Pants:
Waist: 15.5"
Inseam: 22"

Black Pants:
Waist: 16"
Inseam: 17.5"

Skirts:
Waist: 14.5"
Inseam: 28.5"

Shirts:
Collar to shoulder: 9.5"
Shoulder to sleeve: 19”
Shoulder to shoulder: 16"
Chest width: 21.5"
Waist width: 15"
Hip width: 15"
Front length: 20.5"

The Sandston Historic District
The Sandston Historic District in Henrico County (located southeast of the city of Richmond) consists of 226 acres of one- to two-story single-family dwellings, churches, a small number of commercial and civic buildings, and community facilities largely dating from 1918 to 1966. The unincorporated community began after the United States Housing Corporation built 230 kit houses for employees of Seven Pines Loading Plant #3, a munitions factory owned and operated by the E. I. DuPont de Nemours Company, a major supplier of munitions for the Allied powers during World War I. Still largely in place, the houses were built from materials supplied by the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan, or from actual Aladdin kits, and consisted of four models of six-room bungalows designed by the DuPont Engineering Company (a subsidiary of the company running the munitions plant) and built by the U.S. Housing Corporation. The DuPont Company’s plan envisioned accommodations for approximately 3,000 workers, three-quarters of whom were young, single women. To underscore the importance of female workers, the Commonwealth formed a quasi-military organization called the Women’s Munitions Reserve, which by August 1918 had 500 members. After the war, when munitions production ceased, the federal government sold most of the buildings associated with the plant, including the 230 houses, to the Richmond-Fairfield Railway Company (RFRC) in 1921. Under the leadership of RFRC president Oliver J. Sands, the company transformed the workers village into a suburban enclave for working-class commuters; it built affordable housing, platted additional streets, and developed infrastructure for commerce. Today, the architecture of the district varies in style, from houses of similar designs that span entire blocks—including Colonial Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, Spanish Mission Revival, and Minimal Traditional—to commercial and institutional buildings exemplifying Classical Revival, Moderne, and International styles. Sandston Elementary School and three community churches are among the most notable institutions in this historic railway district.