USMC Clothing Contract Database

1. Type valid characters in the white text area provided then click on the search button or press your enter key to initiate a search.
2. Only one query can run at a time.
3. Search criteria are NOT case sensitive.
4. Any part of a name can be entered in the Contractor Name or Item Name search fields.
5. The Contract Number lookup requires an exact match to yield a result.
6. Ampersands, hyphens, and apostrophes were sometimes used in contractor and item names and are allowed where appropriate. If a special character is included in a query but doesn't return a result, try the query again omitting the special character.

Special Notes About the USMC Contract Database

• The number of contract records available for inclusion in the USMC database will be limited relative to what is available for similar Army, AAF, and Navy databases. This is so for a number of reasons. The smaller size of the Marine Corps relative to the other branches of service meant a lesser overall demand for clothing. The list of clothing items indigenous to the Marine Corps was smaller than those of the other branches. The Marine Corps relied heavily on the Army and Navy during the War for many clothing items including shoes, field jackets, parkas, utility clothing, etc. In addition, a large number of clothing items were produced at the USMC Depot of Supplies located in Philadelphia, PA. Clothes manufactured there were simply stamped with a "Quartermaster Depot, US Marine Corps" label along with the fiscal year in which the article was produced.
• Accumulation of eligible contract information is made more difficult because ink stampings were one of the primary methods of applying contract labels to Marine Corps clothing. These stampings are notorious for being unreadable. At the time of application, little care was given to ensure the stampings were applied clearly or with enough ink to render them legible.
• USMC clothing procurement was, for the most part, centralized and initiated by the office of the Quartermaster General located in Washington, DC. This office number is indicated by the N0m prefix to the contract number.
• USMC contracts were assigned a five-digit contract number during the WW2 era. This number, unlike Army and Navy contract numbers, did not start over or alter its pattern at any point and continuously increased over time. Beginning in 1935, the number was at approximately 17500 and by mid-1946 it was at approximately 50000. Most of the contract numbers contained in this database will fall within this range.
• Some large military contracts, those with a value of $50,000 or more, were listed in the Alphabetic Listing Of Major War Supply Contracts published by the Civilian Production Administration, Industrial Statistics Division. Where these records are available, additional information is provided in the database including the value of the contract in thousands of dollars and the contract completion month and year. While there were numerous large contracts, many, many contracts were small in size and are not listed in this source. These smaller production runs have to be recorded from original clothing examples with legible contract information but are crucial to providing a more complete view of an item's production history.
• Some WW2 clothing contracts were quite large being valued in the millions of dollars. To deliver on these large contracts, some firms divided production among different plant locations. When this was the case, the contract number can appear more than once in the database. When multiple entries appear, the location of each plant involved in production will be shown along with the proportion of the contract, in thousands of dollars, that was assigned to each.
• Many contracts involved the production of more than one type of garment. For example, it was common for utility coats and trousers to be made at the same time. When this was the case, the contract number will be shown for each type of garment in the database. This is done for the sake of clarity in sorting and analyzing different clothing types.
• Where a major change occurred in the design of an item during the war, an unofficial designation is shown next to the item name to indicate which version was produced. This designation consists of a capital "P" followed by the year the new pattern was introduced. For example, "Utility Coat (P-44)" is shown for the new type of coat introduced in 1944.
• During the War, the Marine Corps used a distinctive sizing system for many types of garments that was designed to simplify ordering and maintenance of proper stock levels and proportions of sizes. This system was numbered 0 through 6 and included the suffixes L, M, and S. The Size Search feature includes these sizes along with the detailed measurements, in inches, that they represent. It should be noted that the measurements are for unaltered garments and that many garments were, in fact, altered upon issue.

FAQ
Q:  Does this database contain a complete listing of all the USMC clothing contracts issued during the WW2 period?
A:   No. However, new contract info is being added all the time. The database only stores info on clothing contracts between approx. 1933 and 1947. The current number of contracts can be found here....

Q:   Where can I find contractor names and item names to enter as search criteria?
A:   Contractor names can be found on clothing labels and war supply contract listings. Item names are also found on clothing labels, as well as in a variety of other sources including official uniform regulations and manuals, price lists of clothing and equipment, the Clothing Index section of this website, and many other publications covering the topic of WWII USMC clothing.