National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquisition made possible through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Series 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.
Series Citation:
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Beverages, 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).
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Volumes
Vocabulary
Date:
1898
Scope and Contents:
Vocabulary listed according to categories in Powellʼs printed outline with added information on culture, customs and religion.
Biographical / Historical:
Informants: Gunʹ -si Vigil, interpreter, educated at Santa Fe and Fort Lewis Indian schools; Juan Quintana, "authority for many names of plants and narrator of most of the animal tales and information regarding the sun;" and Reuben [Quintana], interpreter for Juan.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 1302-a
Local Note:
Identified as Jicarilla Apache by comparison with manuscript numbers 115 and 116.
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Accounting and Bookkeeping 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:
Temperance contains material documenting perspectives on alcohol use and regulation as well as the impact of various temperance movements on society and the government. The collection covers the issues related to these movements through multiple eras and social lenses, and addresses both pro and anti-temperance perspectives though there is significantly more material that supports the temperance and prohibition movements.
Materials represent a sampling of newsclippings, realia (ribbons, fans, and pendants), artwork in various mediums, and educational resources. No extensive records of any particular group or region exist, and no particular depth is present for any singular subtopic. The subject of temperance often overlaps with news and developments about the women's suffrage movement, elections, and wars.
While newsclippings are divided into specific subject categories, there may be significant overlap between regional issues and files pertaining to legislation and elections due to newsclippings frequently addressing multiple issues.
Arrangement:
Temperance is arranged in four subseries.
Perspectives
Organizations
Regional Issues
Political Parties
Individuals
Genre
Cigarette and Tobacco Documentation
Event Documentation
Images, Writings, and Music
Realia
Serial Publications
Subject
Medicinal Uses
Temperance and Government
Temperance and Religion
Temperance and Society
Temperance and War
Oversize
Miscellaneous
Related Materials:
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:
Temperance 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 Subject Categories: Temperance, 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).
14.46 Cubic feet (consisting of 30.5 boxes, 1 folder, 11 oversize folders, 1 map case folder, 1 flat box (partial).)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Business ephemera
Ephemera
Recipes
Date:
circa 1795-1970
Summary:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Food 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 material consists primarily of advertising cards, bills/receipts, printed advertisements, catalogues, price lists, business cards, circulars, scattered correspondence on letterhead stationery, import/export documents, fruit crate and other types of labels, publications of various types and pamphlets and books from companies involved in the food industry. These businesses include manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers of food and food products, growers, commission merchants, importers and stores selling food either exclusively, as in grocery stores or food emporiums, or together with other products in general stores. The bulk of the material consists of bills and receipts and trade cards.
The large collection of fruit crate labels consists of three boxes, primarily from growers of apples and pears in the Pacific Northwest. The images on these labels range from caricatures, primarily of Indians, to lush images of the fruits being sold. There are numerous pictures depicting or related to the names of the growers or the brand name being used, such as Mountain Brand, Pyramid Brand, Eskimo Brand, a wren for F.O. Renn or a strongman for E.C. Sampson. Some of the more common images in addition to the Indians and fruit include cowboys, children, flowers, birds and river and mountain views. Several of the images and/or brand names appear on the labels of more than one company.
There are a number of publications included in the materials. There are magazines and journals, both for the trade and for the general public. There are books published about a particular type of food, often by a manufacturer or distributor of that food. There are also histories of some of the companies, usually written by or for the company. Also, in this category, are catalogs of large metropolitan food stores such as S.S. Pierce of Boston, the Joseph R. Peebles' Sons Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Park & Tilford and Francis H. Leggett, both of New York.
Materials in boxes one through eighteen are organized alphabetically by name of company. All materials relating to a particular company, with the exception of import/export documents, publications (if that is the only material) and fruit crate labels, are included with the company related materials.
Boxes eighteen through twenty-one contain the fruit crate labels. These are arranged alphabetically by company. The first folder of each letter contains labels of companies for which there is only one label. The last folder contains labels with no company name. Box twenty-two contains other food labels which are primarily from cans and jars. They are arranged alphabetically, first by type of product such as corn and corn products, ketchup, pasta and peaches, then alphabetically by company for companies with a large number of labels and lastly a folder containing labels with no company name. The labels in the product folders are arranged within the folder first alphabetically by company followed by labels with no company name.
Boxes twenty-three through twenty-seven contain import/export documents. These are also arranged alphabetically by company in the same manner as the fruit crate labels. The import/export documents are primarily from the Port of Philadelphia. The documents cover goods coming into the port on sailing ships and, starting in the 1870's, steam ships and leaving the port on rail and river conveyances. The products were imported from such places as Cuba, Antigua, Trinidad, England, Italy, Germany and Singapore and included cocoanuts, pineapples, dried fruit and nuts, macaroni, cheese, sausages, cooked meats, pickled fish, spices and coffee and tea.
Box twenty-eight contains magazines and periodicals. Some of the publications include What to Eat from 1896 and 1899, The Dietetic Gazette from 1889, Culinary Review from 1943 and Wholesale Grocer. This box also contains correspondence and order forms relating to magazines and periodicals.
Box twenty-nine contains miscellaneous food publications. These are such things as account books, articles from other publications, publications on diet and infants and children and newsletters. Box thirty contains food related publications that are published by or about specific companies for which there is no other material. Box thirty also contains material relating to food equipment and manufacturing. This is arranged initially by company and then contains folders on canning and preserving and patents. The equipment manufactured includes such things as evaporators, sorters and washers.
Box thirty-one consists of publications about specific types of food and general works. The food types include publications about such foods as asparagus, milk and rice. These folders are arranged alphabetically by food type. General works consists of material which is not, or cannot be, related to a specific company or do not fit into one of the major categories set forth above. These are: general images which are not labels, advertising cards, correspondence, food instructions, legislation, miscellaneous price lists, railroad receipts and claims, recipes, shipping and tax stamps.
Arrangement:
Food is arranged in nine subseries:
Manufacturers and Distributors of Food and Food Products
Labels
Import/Export Documents
Magazines and Periodicals
Menus
Publications
Law & Legislation
Food Types
General Works and Miscellaneous
Partial List of Company and Proprietor Names, General Materials:
American Fruit Growers Incorporated Ana-Co
Apple Growers Association
Associated Fruit Company Barnhill Fruit Company Bear Creek
Blue Mountain Fruit Exchange
Boehmer Incorporated Bolinger Orchards
Brewster Distribution Unit
Brewster-Bridgeport Growers Incorporated
Butler Trading Company Incorporated Buck Fruit Company
Casca Growers
Cascadian Fruit Shippers Incorporated
Cashmere Fruit Exchange Cashmere Fruit Growers Union Chelan Falls Orchards
Clark-Baker Company Columbia Basin Orchards Connell Brothers, Company D
Dahn, Floyd Fruits Incorporated
Davidson Fruit Company Del Rio Orchards
Denison, H.S. and Company
Denney and Company Dow Fruit Company
Duddy-Robinson Incorporated/ Thompson-Duddy-Robinson Company
Duthie and Company Earl Fruit Company
East Wenatchee Fruit Growers
Entiat Fruit Growers League
Fairview Ranch Company
Foster's, Myron Hesperian Orchards Fruitland Fruit Association
Fruit Sales Company Incorporated
Gellatly Fruit Company
Greig, W.M.-Bonanza Orchard
Growers Service Company
Hafener Fruit Company
Haskell Packing Company
Hood River Fruit Company
Hood River Produce Exchange
Independent Fruit Shippers
Jennings Fruit Company
Kelly Brothers Company Incorporated
Koon Tai and Company
Koop, The C.M. Company
Lake Chelan Fruit Growers
Lake Chelan Fruit Growers Union
Lake Entiat Growers, Incorporated
Lippmann, J & G
Lockwood, C.M.
Mad River Orchard
Malott Growers Union
Manson, A. Fruit Growers
Marsh, A.E. Company
Methow-Pateros Growers Incorporated
Mojonner & Sons
Monitor Federated Growers
Mutual Sales Agency
Nellis, F.E. & Company
North Pacific Sales Company
Northern Fruit Company
Northwest Wholesale
Northwestern Fruit Exchange
Nuchief Sales, Incorporated
Okanogan Growers Union
Olive Apple Company
Omak Sookum Growers
Oneonta Trading Corporation
Onnail Fruit Growers
Orando Community Packing
Pacific Fruit & Produce company
Paddock, C.R. & Company
Palmer Corporation
Paxton Rivers Company Incorporated
Perhann Fruit Growers
Peshastin Fruit Growers Association
Plummer & Edwins
Renn, F.O. Fruit Company
Richey & Gilbert Company
Rivers, Burnand & Rivers
Robertson, D.O.
Rock Island Unit
Ryan Fruit Company
Sampson, E.G.
Segerstrom, H.N.
Sellers, Ben F. /Spinner Fruit Corporation/Sellers & Spinner
Sgobel & Day
Sisler, J.A.
Smith & Holden
Spokane Fruit Growers Company
Stadelman Fruit Incorporated
Standfield Fruit Growers Union
Steinhardt & Kelly Incorporated
Sterlin-Slater Fruit Growers
Stratford Orchards Company
Stubbs Fruit & Storage Company
Sunnyslope Fruit Exchange
Tedford, R.A. & Company
Tonasket Federated Growers
Trunkey-Wolfe Company, Incorporated
Vernon Orchards
Wade, J.M. Fruit Company
Wagner, E. & Son
Washington Fruit & Produce Company
Weaver, C.H. & Company
Wells & Wade Company
Wenatchee Apple Land Company
Wenatchee District Co-Op Association
Wenatchee Fruit & Storage Company
Wenatchee Fruit & Warehouse Company
Wenatchee North Central Fruit Distributers
Wenatchee Produce Company
Wenatchee Valley Fruit Exchange
Wenatchee-Beebe Orchard Company
Wenatchee-Northern Warehouse and Marketing Company
Wenatchee-Okanogan Warehouse Company
Wenatchee-Skookum Growers
Western Fruit & Produce Company, Incorporated
White Brothers & Crum
Wright Fruit Company
Yakima County Horticultural Union
Yakima Fruit Growers Association
Yakima Fruit Growers Exchange
Partial List of Company and Proprietor Names, Oversize Materials:
An & Company, Shredded Coconut, Location unknown
Armour Packing Company, White Label Soups, Kansas City, MO
Price, Joseph J., Dealer in Family Groceries, Wines, Liquors, and Imported Cigars, Albany, NY
Procter & Gamble Company Crisco, Cincinnati, OH
Rowland, James and Company Fancy Groceries, Teas, and Coffees Location unknown
Royal Cocoanut Company, New York, NY
Schepp, L. and Company Schepp's Cocoanut, New York, NY
Snow, F.H. Canning Company
Stickney & Poor's, Premium Spices and Mustards Location unknown
Stone, Arthur and Company Wholesale Grocers, New Orleans, LA
Thurber, H.K. & F.B. and Company Grocer, New York, NY
United Fruit Company Bananas, Boston, MA
Washington Dehydrated Food Company Washington Brand Dehydrated Apples Yakima, WA
Washington Frosted Foods, Inc.
Wells, Miller & Provost Wholesaler Warehouse New York, NY
Wendell, Jacob L. Pickling and Preserving Philadelphia, PA
Wholesale Grocers and Commission Merchants Petersburg, VA
Worth, William E. and Company Wilmington , NC
Young & Lyon, Providence, RI
Materials in the Archives Center:
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
Forms Part Of:
Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
Series 1: Business Ephemera
Series 2: Other Collection Divisions
Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers
Series 4: Photographic Reference Material
Provenance:
Food 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 Subject Categories: Food, 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).
Undated photograph. On back: Bill Mitchell, Photography, E. 106 Ridgewood Ave., Paramus, N.J. 07652, 212-283-4113,201-664-1373.
Local Numbers:
AC1148-0000010.tif (AC Scan No.)
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research access on site by appointment. Gloves required with unprotected photographs.
Collection 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.
1.83 Cubic feet (consisting of 3.5 boxes, 1 folder, 2 oversize folders, 1 map case folder, 1 flat box (partial).)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Advertising fliers
Reports
Mail order catalogs
Business records
Technical reports
Commercial catalogs
Print advertising
Technical manuals
Business ephemera
Legislation (legal concepts)
Commercial correspondence
Illustrations
Advertising cards
Advertising
Advertising mail
Advertisements
Catalogues
Publications
Trade literature
Periodicals
Photographs
Printed materials
Printed material
Receipts
Sales letters
Manuals
Catalogs
Sales catalogs
Trade cards
Business letters
Manufacturers' catalogs
Test reports
Trade catalogs
Ephemera
Business cards
Invoices
Legal documents
Printed ephemera
Sales records
Correspondence
Letterheads
Date:
circa 1832-1959
Summary:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Accounting and Bookkeeping 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 note:
Contains a broad scope of freshwater capture and use topics, with particular emphasis on the machinery and systems required for managing water resources and business aspects of the costs of goods and services. Includes coverage of home and farm use, agricultural solutions, and large scale operations such as public utilities such as damns, watersheds, reservoirs. Some of the technologies used are drilling, wells, hydraulics, engines and pumps, in addition to natural power sources in the form of windmills and turbines, and water wheels. both as methods of conveyance of water and in powering other devices such as grinders and saws. Purification and softeners address make up the bulk of treatment. Some materials address legal and regulatory issues but water rights is not significantly covered.
Materials include business records, marketing and advertising, some informational documentation in the form of guides and reports. A few schematics are present. A small amount of regulatory publications provide a glimpse of how municipalities dealt with local water issues, including billing and taxation. Miscellaneous writings includes a few tangential topics such as inland waterways and swimming pools, and a perspective essay on water.
Arrangement note:
Waterworks is arranged in three subseries.
Business Records
Genre
Subjects
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:
Waterworks 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 Subject Categories: Waterworks, 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).
Printed advertisements, scrapbooks, correspondence, marketing research, radio commercial scripts, photographs, proof sheets, reports, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, television commercial storyboards, blueprints, legal documents, and audiovisual materials primarily documenting the history, business practices, and advertising campaigns of the Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated. Collection also documents the professional and private lives of the Hills family; insight into the cultivation, production, and selling of coffee; and construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists of printed advertisements, scrapbooks, correspondence, marketing research, radio commercial scripts, photographs, proof sheets, reports, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, television commercial storyboards, blueprints, legal documents, and audiovisual materials. These materials primarily document the history, business practices, and advertising campaigns of Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated. Correspondence, genealogies, and home movies reveal a more domestic and social Hills family while company records document business activities outside of the home. Company records also provide insight into the cultivation, production, and selling of coffee, and the company's technological responses to the changes in the coffee trade, and consumer consumption demands. Of interest is the company's participation in social and cultural events including the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915, and the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939. In addition, the collection includes the company's documentation of the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936. The collection is arranged into thirteen series.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into thirteen series.
Series 1, Hills Family Papers, 1856-1942, undated
Subseries 1.1, Austin Herbert Hills, Sr. Papers, 1856-1875, undated
Subseries 1.2, Austin Herbert Hills, Jr. Papers, 1875-1923
Subseries 1.3, Herbert Gray Hills Correspondence, 1923-1942
Series 2, Background Materials, 1896-1988, undated
Series 3, Coffee Reference Files, 1921-1980, undated
Subseries 3.1, Hills Bros. Coffee Company Literature, 1921-1976, undated
Subseries 3.2, Coffee Industry Literature, 1924-1980, undated
Series 4, Advertising Materials, circa 1890s-1987, undated
Reuben Hills, on one occasion, stated regarding his company's growth; ...success in business is fifty per cent judgment and fifty per cent propitious circumstances." The rise of Hills Bros. Coffee Incorporated from a retail dairy stall in San Francisco's old Bay City Public Market reflects the reality of Reuben's statement. Aided by brother Austin's three years of experience in the retail dairy business the early success of the brothers was in Reuben's own words both circumstance and hard work. When Reuben and Austin began to produce roasted coffee there were at least twenty-five other companies already engaged in some form of coffee production and distribution in San Francisco including, of course, the well-known Folger Company started by William Bovee (which began in San Francisco thirty years earlier). Most of these coffee businesses were started by family groups which contributed to the growth of San Francisco.
San Francisco in the nineteenth century was ripe for the importing and roasting of coffee. The foundation for commercial production of coffee dated back to the 1820s when English planters brought coffee to Costa Rica. By the early 1840s German and Belgian planters followed with coffee plantations in Guatemala and El Salvador, two of the several Central American countries where Hills Bros. would obtain its mild coffee beans. During the Gold Rush (1849) San Francisco rapidly expanded and grew. Coffee was imported and sold, after roasting, to restaurants and hotels. Yankee gold miners and others without equipment to roast and brew their own coffee, populated "coffee houses." In 1873 two brothers, Austin Herbert and Reuben Wilmarth Hills arrived in San Francisco from their home in Rockland, Maine with their father Austin who had come to California some years earlier. Five years later in 1878 A. H. and R. W. Hills established a retail stall to sell dairy products in the Bay City Market under the name of their new partnership "Hills Bros." Their small business expanded in less than four years with the acquisition of a retail coffee store titled Arabian Coffee & Spice Mills on Fourth Street in San Francisco. In two more years (1884) still larger quarters were occupied at Sacramento and Sansome Streets. Soon after this they disposed of their retail dairy business but continued as wholesale distributors of some dairy products including butter. Their coffee was labeled "Arabian Roast"' supported by the now famous trademark design of a man in turban and beard with a flowing yellow gown. This was created by a San Francisco artist named Briggs and since then (1897) has remained as the official trademark of Hills Bros. Coffee - a lasting symbol of coffee quality. Hills Bros. dairy division was eliminated in 1908 after company destruction by the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. By 1924 all miscellaneous products including tea, had been dropped by the company which from then on referred to itself as "coffee only."
Emphasis on the quality of the finished product has long been a major selling point in the history of Hills Bros. advertising and marketing. The company's desire to keep abreast of technological advances in coffee production is a legacy of Austin and Reuben Hills, and is reflected in the company records, in its advertising and its self-perception. It was probably 1898 when Austin Hills and Thomas Hodge, partners who managed the wholesale dairy product operations were looking for a suitable can for exporting butter that could not be manufactured in San Francisco at that time, decided to consult Norton Brothers, a progressive can manufacture company in Chicago. Whether Austin traveled to Chicago or arranged with his brother Reuben to stop off there in route to New York (where he frequently spent time at the New York Green Coffee Exchange) to present the problem to Norton Brothers, which brother made the actual contact with Norton Brothers is not important today, but the results of that visit were real. Norton Brothers had just received patents on a process for packing foods in vacuum and thought it might solve the butter problem. In short order arrangements were made for shipping cans and machinery from Chicago to San Francisco including agreement for exclusive use on the West Coast for a reasonable period. Thus, Hills Bros. butter became the first known food product to ever be packed in vacuum. Once this started Reuben Hills had the idea that what worked well with butter might also be used for coffee. Experimental vacuum-packing of coffee in butter cans supported the theory that taking the air out of coffee would keep the product fresh for indefinite periods. No time was lost in getting new cans and more machinery and in July 1900 Hills Bros. Coffee as "the original vacuum-pack" was placed on the market. With the advent of this technology Hills Bros. changed the product name from "Arabian Roast" to "Hills Bros. Highest Grade Java and Mocha Coffee" and continued with the new trademark that had been started in 1897. Vacuum-packing extended the shelf life and travel ability of the product, thus new markets, national and international, were opened.
A change in the coffee industry of America was on the way. Hills Bros. remained the pioneer of vacuum-packing for thirteen years until a similar process was adopted by M.J.B., another leading coffee company in San Francisco. Other packers on the West Coast soon followed, but it was not until after World War I that East Coast coffee producers turned to vacuum-packaging.
Production and advertising of coffee continued to change with new technology. In the late 1880s San Francisco coffee importers began to "cup test" coffee beans for quality but the majority still depended on sight and smell. Reuben Hills and a few other coffee personalities in San Francisco are credited with the cup test method of appraising coffee quality. In its new home office and plant opened in San Francisco in 1926, Hills Bros. adopted "controlled roasting" in which coffee was roasted a few pounds at a time, but continuously. Developed in 1923 under the direction of Leslie Hills and Lee Maede, company engineer, "controlled roasting" employed the use of instruments to control the temperature and speed of operations, resulting in perfect roasting control that could not be depended on from batch to batch by even the most experienced coffee roasting expert. In 1914 the partnership known as Hills Bros. was incorporated under the same name. In 1928 a sales organization was formed under the name of Hills Bros. Coffee, Incorporated, but within four to five years the parent company absorbed Hills Bros. Coffee, Incorporated and adopted its name. A second plant was built in Edgewater, New Jersey, completed in 1941 to meet the needs of the increasing growth of areas between Chicago and the East Coast.
During World War II Hills Bros. faced conservation rules restricting use of tin for coffee cans. A timely method of high-speed packing in glass jars by Owens Illinois Glass Company made it possible for Hills Bros. as well as other companies in the industry to continue vacuum-packing during this period. Price control and coffee rationing were other war time necessities to which the industry adjusted.
Hills Bros. Coffee, Incorporated passed out of family ownership in 1976 when the company was purchased by a Brazilian corporation named Copersucar. In 1983 a group of local investors in San Francisco brought ownership back to where it had started and sold the business in 1984 to Nestlé Holdings, Incorporated, (effective January 1, 1985) which handled the acquisition of several companies in the United States for Nestlé S. A. Vevey, Switzerland.
Historical note written by T., Carroll Wilson, company historian and archivist, 1993.
Related Materials:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
NW Ayer Advertising Agency Records, NMAH.AC0059
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, NMAH.AC0060
Princeton University Posters Collection, NMAH.AC0433
Landor Design Collection, NMAH.AC0500
Industry on Parade Film Collection, NMAH.AC0507
Sandra and Gary Baden Collection of Celebrity Endorsements in Advertising, NMAH.AC0611
Fletcher and Horace Henderson Collection, NMAH.AC0797
Division of Cultural History Lantern Slides and Stereographs, NMAH.AC0945
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Records, NMAH.AC1086
Alice Weber Photograph Albums, NMAH.AC1144
Henry "Buddy" Graf and George Cahill Vaudeville and Burlesque Collections, NMAH.AC1484
Division of Cultural History, National Museum of American History
Artifacts include coffee packaging, Golden Gate International Exposition sampling cups and saucers, a bowling shirt, and coffee cans.
Provenance:
These records were donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History by Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the negatives and audiovisual materials are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
A collection of ephemera and advertising materials relating to brewing and brewing companies.
Scope and Contents:
An artificial collection of archival materials relating to brewing in America. As accruals are received, the collection will be organized according to donor. Initial donation from the Anchor Brewing Co. is an original press sheet from the first printing of an Anchor Steam beer bottle label, 1968.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into six series.
Series 1: Anchor Brewing Company
Series 2: Louis P. Hutchins
Series 3: Jeff Lebesch
Series 4: Michael J. Lewis
Series 5: Bill Owens (Buffalo Bill's Brewery)
Series 6: Joseph Williams
Provenance:
Collection donated by the Anchor Brewing Company though David Burkhart in 2017.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
The Stanley Lomas Television Commercial Collection consists of 226 television commercials for products including dishwashing soap, beer, cigarettes, soft drinks, and breakfast cereals. The collection also includes a short 1954 film demonstrating the DuMont Electronicam, a camera designed for simultaneous live broadcast and film recording. There is also an oral history interview conducted with Stanley Lomas in 1990. Supporting documentation includes memoranda about the use of television in advertising, photographs, articles by or about Stanley Lomas, and an abstract of the oral history interview.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in two series.
Series 1: Supporting Documentation, 1947-1990
Series 2: Audiovisual, 1950-1990
Subseries 2.1: Television Commercials, 1950-1956
Subsubseries 2.1.1: Reel 1
Subsubseries 2.1.2: Reel 2
Subseries 2.2: Oral History
Biographical / Historical:
Stanley A. Lomas (1913-2003) began working in television in 1948 at the DuMont network. He started his career producing sports broadcasts.. He went on to produce television commercials, first live and then filmed, for William Esty and Company, Inc., an ad agency with major clients including R.J. Reynolds, Coca Cola, and Colgate Palmolive. Around 1949 Lomas became Esty's vice president for televison commercial creation and production. Lomas often used celebrities to promote the products in his commercials. Many of the commercials in the Stanley Lomas Collection feature baseball players, Hollywood actors, and television personalities. Among the most well-known commercials are those that have doctors recommending specific cigarette brands. Lomas left Esty in 1957 and later founded his own agency, Stanley A. Lomas & Associates which specialized in market research. After retiring Lomas embarked on a career as an artist.
Provenance:
Donated by Stanley Lomas, January 18, 1990.
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Only reference videos may be used. Reel 1 has been digitized and is available in the Smithsonian Institution Digital Asset Management Systen (DAMS).
Rights:
Reproduction fees for commercial use. Copyright restrictions. Contact staff for information.
Topic:
Baseball players -- 1950-1960 -- United States Search this
Athletes -- 1950-1960 -- United States Search this
Celebrities -- 1950-1960 -- United States Search this
Television advertising -- 1950-1960 -- United States Search this
Client files, administrative files, artwork, and collected food labels from graphic and industrial designer Francis Mair. Mair specialized in beverage labels and packaging during his many years with Landor Associates in San Francisco. Late in his career, he directed Landor's Museum of Packaging History. His prolific freelance career included designs for furniture, decorative arts, letterhead, and corporate images. His personal artwork included alphabets, typefaces, and sketchbooks. Much of his personal artwork is humorous or erotic.
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists largely of client files and artwork from Mair's years with Landor Associates and his freelance design work. Mair's specialty was the design of beverage containers, labels, and packaging, and there is a significant body of material produced for West Coast and national breweries and wineries. Mair also managed Landor's Museum of Packaging Antiquities, and there are several boxes of the Museum's administrative files. Of particular interest is Mair's large collection of historical and contemporary wine, liquor, and fruit crate labels (both foreign and domestic). The labels seem to have served as an inspiration and a record of his work, as well as documentation of historical packaging for the Museum. Mair's freelance clients were diverse, though most of them were small businesses and organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to food and beverage labels, these commissions included posters, promotional materials, letterhead and personal announcements, invitations, and cards. Lastly, the collection includes personal artwork and records of entrepreneurial projects (such as the Flexigon, a flexible geometric toy).
Arrangement:
Collection is arranged into eight series.
Series 1, Professional Materials, 1956-1991, undated
Series 2, Landor Associates Files, 1946-1993, undated
Series 3, Landor Museum of Packaging Antiquities, 1960-1989, undated
Series 4, Freelance Client Files, 1946-1989, undated
Series 5, United States Naval Training School, Radio Chicago, 1943-1945, undated
Sereis 6, Personal Artwork and Designs, 1935-1994, undated
Series 7, Reference Files, 1950-1985, undated
Series 8, Labels, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Francis Marion Mair was born in Streator, Illinois to Alexander Morrison Mair and Jessie C. Williams on May 5, 1916. He began his career as an artist and designer at the University of Illinois School of Design in Chicago receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting in 1938. That year he joined the United States Navy and where he designed visual aids for the Naval Training School in Chicago, Illinois. Even at this early stage in his career, acute design sense and humor are evident in his work. In 1949, he joined Landor Associates in San Francisco, California where he worked for forty years, retiring in 1989. At Landor, he specialized in designing packaging and labeling for beverages. He also was the director of Landor's Museum of Packaging History which shared quarters with Landor Associates on the Ferryboat Klamath. Throughout his career, Mair took on diverse freelance projects. One of his most successful was the Suva line of rattan furniture and decorative objects for Decorative Imports. Mair published articles in Advertising Age, Industrial Design, Advertising Techniques, and Wines and Vines. Mair died on April 29, 1991 in Contra Costa County, California.
Related Archival Materials:
Materials at the Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Industry on Parade (NMAH.AC.0507)
Reel #167, Sitting Bull's Last Stand, 1953. Peter Meindl, a German woodcarver, making cigar store wooden Indians, New Hampshire.
Walter Landor and Associates (AC0500)
NW Ayer Advertising Agenecy Records (AC0059)
Hills Bros. Coffee Company Records (AC395)
Emmett McBain Afro American Adertising Poster Collection (AC0192)
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (AC0060)
Marilyn E. Jacklear Memorial Collection of Tobacco Advertisements (AC1224)
Marlboro Oral History and Documentation Project (AC0198)
Related Materials:
A glass final production version of a French's mustard jar and three hand-carved, solid-wood prototypes for this jar are in the Museum's Division of Work and Industry. These were found in Mair's home studio.
Provenance:
Collection donated by LaVeda Mair, April 23, 1996.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Copyright for a portion of the collection held by the Smithsonian Institution. Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: fees for commercial use.
A map of the United States tipped at an angle to look like the profile of Uncle Sam drinking a glass of rootbeer.
Arrangement:
In Series 2, Box 28, Folder 2.
Local Numbers:
AC0059-0000014 (AC Scan)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Physical Access: Researchers must use microfilm copy. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.
Technical Access: Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire; listening to audio discs requires special arrangement. Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
Collection Rights:
Publication and production quality duplication is restricted due to complex copyright, publicity rights, and right to privacy issues. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Illustrations of a coffee-tester at work, five methods of making coffee and a small inset about the film "Behind the Cup" showing at the Hills Bros. Exposition Theatre, Golden Gate International Exposition..
Arrangement:
In Series 3?, Box O/S 265, Folder Hills Bros 1930-1939.
Local Numbers:
AC0059-0000020 (AC Scan)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Physical Access: Researchers must use microfilm copy. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.
Technical Access: Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire; listening to audio discs requires special arrangement. Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
Collection Rights:
Publication and production quality duplication is restricted due to complex copyright, publicity rights, and right to privacy issues. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Restaurateur drinking a cup of coffee with chef at the coffee urn in the background.
Local Numbers:
AC0059-0000063 (AC Scan)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Physical Access: Researchers must use microfilm copy. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.
Technical Access: Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire; listening to audio discs requires special arrangement. Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
Collection Rights:
Publication and production quality duplication is restricted due to complex copyright, publicity rights, and right to privacy issues. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Text tells that Mrs. Thomas was revived by a drinking a cup of coffee in the afternoon.
Local Numbers:
AC0059-0000064 (AC Scan)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Physical Access: Researchers must use microfilm copy. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.
Technical Access: Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire; listening to audio discs requires special arrangement. Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
Collection Rights:
Publication and production quality duplication is restricted due to complex copyright, publicity rights, and right to privacy issues. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
and prctically three-fourths of all coffee consumed in the United Staes comes from Brazil.
Local Numbers:
AC0059-0000065 (AC Scan)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Physical Access: Researchers must use microfilm copy. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.
Technical Access: Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire; listening to audio discs requires special arrangement. Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
Collection Rights:
Publication and production quality duplication is restricted due to complex copyright, publicity rights, and right to privacy issues. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Illustration of a cup and saucer with coupon inside a mailbox.
Arrangement:
In Series 3?, Box O/S 268, Folder 1960-1964.
Local Numbers:
AC0059-0000169 (AC Scan)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Physical Access: Researchers must use microfilm copy. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.
Technical Access: Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire; listening to audio discs requires special arrangement. Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
Collection Rights:
Publication and production quality duplication is restricted due to complex copyright, publicity rights, and right to privacy issues. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
