ABSTRACT
Many summers ago, when this study was still a work in progress, I was leafing through a JC Penney sale catalogue. When I got to page 71 of the catalogue, my attention was riveted. There, beneath the headline “White Sale! It’s our lowest price ever!” was the Indian of the Massachusetts Bay Colony seal (Arlington). I truly couldn’t believe my eyes, but, indeed, there he was with his bow and arrow, and his banner-like plea for help staring back at me from, of all places, curtain panels. Reading the description a bit more closely, I learned that the Indian on the seal was a part of a fabric series manufactured by Penney’s dubbed “Arlington,” which, according to the catalogue, was a pattern that had the “[t]raditional look of toile with [a] patriotic American theme” (Arlington). Patriotic. Really?
