1.92 Cubic feet (consisting of 4 boxes, 1 folder, 4 oversize folders, 1 map folder, plus digital images of some collection material. )
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Ephemera
Business ephemera
Date:
1793-1967
Summary:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Coffee forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana
Scope and Contents:
This Coffee- subject category consists primarily of scattered correspondence on letterhead stationery, bills, receipts, printed advertisements, advertising cards, envelopes, seals, labels, packages, business cards, premiums, photographs, caricatures, newsletters, articles and import/export documents from importers, roasters, and dealers of coffee. There are a few companies that sold imitation coffee. A number of these companies tended to be grocers and carried other products such as teas, spices, tobaccos, cigars, baking powders, salaeratus, mustards, cream of tartar, indigo, cocoa and chocolate. The bulk of the material is late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
There is very little information from companies who sold equipment needed to prepare coffee. Few references are made to coffee and tea pots, ums, coffee cleaners, stone separators, coffee huller and mill machinery.
Images include a richly illustrated atlas produced by Arbuckle Brothers Coffee Company consisting of fifty principal nations of the world. They also produced a series of National Geographic cards depicting animals and cards depicting states or territories. On the reverse side of these cards was an advertisement for the coffee. Often these ads offered explanations about why Arbuckle's brand of coffee cost more or why coffee should be ground at home. These cards were included in each package of Arbuckles' Coffee and were meant as lessons for the young and old. There are a number of illustrations of children, birds, flowers and fruit which were on coffee cans and packages.
Publications include articles relating to some aspect of the coffee industry. Such topics include advice from an hygienist regarding coffee and auction mart coffee-rooms. There are a number of copies of the Coffee Newsletter which was published monthly by the Coffee Brewing Institute in New York. The newsletter often included recipes and some general articles on the production, distribution and preparation of coffee. The newsletters date from December 1963 to February 1967 and include most of the issues between these periods. For more periodicals and newsletters see materials under company names. There are also a number of books and pamphlets relating to the coffee industry. These publications cover such topics as the origin of coffee, blending coffee, vacuum packed coffee and roasting. Most of these pamphlets and books were published by coffee associations organizations.
This collection also includes patent information about coffee and tea. A coffee bibliography can also be found among these materials.
Arrangement:
Materials in boxes one and two are arranged in alphabetical order by name of company. Box
three is organized by type of material. Publications on the coffee industry are in box four and arranged by type.
Partial List of Brand Names and Corresponding Manufacturers and/or Distributors:
Brand names / Manufacturers and/or Distributors:
ACME / Thomas Wood and Company
ANCHOR / Boos and Holbrook
ARIOSA / Arbuckle Bros.
ARROW / W.J. Dilworth Company, Inc.
BATAVIA / Sprague, Warner and Company
BIG CHIEF / Chas Hoofnagle Company
BLUE PACKAGE / S.A. Schornbrunn and Company
BLUE RIBBON / Bower and Bartlett
BLUE SEAL / Lewis DeGroff and Son
BREAKFAST / P. Weiser
BUNKER HILL / Delano Potter and Company
BURSA / C.H. Walrath and Son
Materials in the Archives Center:
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
Forms Part Of:
Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
Missing Title
Series 1: Business Ephemera
Series 2: Other Collection Divisions
Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers
Series 4: Photographic Reference Material
Provenance:
Coffee is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
