Queen of the Cotton Festival – 1941

As I was zipping through my Google Reader last night, I was stopped dead in my tracks by this image posted over on W5ARAN. After doing a little bit of extra digging, I found this tidbit of information about the festival, held in the textile-centric city of Gastonia, North Carolina:

The Grand Cotton Festival was held 1938-1941 and again in 1946 after World War II to showcase the area’s textile manufacturing industry and to celebrate the emergence from the Great Depression.

I’m more intrigued than ever, and look forward to learning a bit more about the town and this festival. Does anyone else have more information? Share it in the comments!