"Bought with 3 Suits"

Item Detail

"Bought with 3 Suits" — Goods or services purchased with donated American clothing in the Near East

Context

Companion image to "Bought with 60 Suits." The deliberate contrast between the two — sixty suits versus three — was the point: NER wanted donors to see a granular picture of how their contribution scaled, however small. Three suits could buy something concrete; sixty suits could buy considerably more; both mattered.

In the inflation-distorted economies of post-war Constantinople and the Caucasus, donated American clothing functioned as a de facto second currency, and NER's Bundle Day drives depended on that hidden exchange rate.