Linen Towels

During the Cold War of the 1950’s, while the US was building bombs in preparation for the nuclear holocaust to come, Sweden prepared for the impending disaster by weaving linen towels for use in hospitals—thousands and thousands of them. In the past 50 some years, they have been stored away in boxes, and only recently were offered for sale in a Swedish outlet store. My friends Steve and Nancy Denkin (of Unicorn Books) acquired several boxes, this particular set woven in 1957. The towels, tightly woven in point twill and crisply starched and pressed, are beautiful in their simplicity. Was it a Swedish folly to weave all these towels that were never used? Better towels, than bombs, I say.