carp tea towel, image c.1904 - 100% cotton flour sack

Put one in the bathroom and one in the kitchen and you'll be handling fish every day! Almost too pretty to use, but USE IT! This 100% cotton tea towel will get even softer and more absorbent with use. Makes the perfect gift for your fishing/outdoorsman friends! Bring a little art into your kitchen, bar, or trailer!

Enjoy this engraving of three carp species that appeared in a 1904 US Bureau of Fisheries publication. The book highlights findings from observations of how the carp, having been introduced to American waters about 20 years earlier (as a potential food source) were affecting the fisheries.  Still hopeful at the time that Americans may develop a taste for the invasive carp (they never did), the author also threw in "the possible amusement and recreation to be had in taking carp with hook and line" but that "the American sportsman will scoff at the very idea, and would regard the pastime with disdain." How wrong was he?