The Duluth Public Library’s Nostalgic Newsstand Sale was a source of many things to write about. Here is another advert from my collection of now-recycled magazines.

This advert for Linoleum got me Googling. Apparently, Linoleum, at the time this ad was printed, in the 1930s I think, is made from chemical extracted from flaxseed.  Duluth was, in the 1920s, a major transit spot for Flaxseed.

According to this senate report, flaxseed went from farms on the rails to Duluth or Minneapolis. Some processing happened in Minneapolis; Duluth loaded the flaxseed onto boats.

Honestly, I would have imagined linoleum to be a product made from oil. Maybe it is now. So interesting to think that the product in this advert might have been born in a crop that passed through Duluth.