Collection documents the business activities of the Sandford Card Company and include the papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford, founder of the company, and her immediate family.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the business activities of the Sandford Card Company primarily in the early part of the century. It includes product designs and samples; advertising and marketing materials, as well as, correspondence and financial papers. In addition, there are the papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford, founder of the company, and her immediate family. These materials consist primarily of diaries, photographs, correspondence, family histories and genealogies. The collection is arranged into four series. Series one documents the business activities of the Sandford Card Company. Series two contains the personal papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford, her husband Frank Sherman Sandford and their children. Series three is the personal papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford's parents and siblings. Series four is the personal papers of extended family members mostly by marriage.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into four series.
Series 1: Sandford Card Company Records, 1880-1967; undated
Series 4: Other Family Papers, 1840s-2004; undated
Subseries 4.1: Durkee Family, 1864-2004; undated
Subseries 4.2: Gilman Family, 1840s-1902
Subseries 4.3: Gilman Family, 1916-2004; undated
Subseries 4.4: McDowell Family, 1920; undated
Subseries 4.5: Pease Family, 1953-1984; undated
Biographical / Historical:
Mary Elizabeth Kennedy Sandford founded the Sandford Card Company in Dansville, New York in 1907. The Sandford Card Company was intended to provide consumers a means to send messages to family and friends. Such products contained more thought out verses and images than the typical postcards that were available during this time period. Initially, Mary Elizabeth created four verses with images and had five thousand of each printed by the F. A. Owen Publishing Company. The four samples were sent to two hundred bookstores and drugstores. Sales were later made with distributors and agents in various cities throughout the country. In addition, the company also sold cards to fraternal organizations using their symbols or mottos in the design. Eventually, fraternal organizations became a big part of the company's customer base expanding to more than fifty groups. The company grew as a mail order business. All card shipments were made directly from Dansville, New York to forty-eight states and countries including Canada, Alaska, Cuba, Japan, Guam, Philippines, Hawaii, Panama, and Netherlands, West Indies, England and Scotland. Although the Sandford Card Company started as a greeting card business it eventually offered place cards, calling cards, calendars, program folders, napkins, banquet supplies, gifts and souvenirs to its product line. All printing work was contracted out to lithographic businesses in New York, Boston and Cincinnati. With the death of Mary Elizabeth Sandford and her husband Frank Sherman Sandford the company continued to be operated under the guidance of their daughter Ruth Louise Sandford. In 1948, Ruth Sandford hired John G. Holden as business manager. In 1965, the company moved from Dansville to Baldwinsville, New York under the management of the third generation of the founding family. It continued to operate as a family business until it was sold to John G. Holden. The company was later purchased by Rodney Pease the grandson of Mary Elizabeth Sandford's sister Lillian Frances Pease. Pease eventually changed the name and direction of the company.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
Lillian Pease Card Company Records (AC1251)
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives Center in 2011 by R. Thompson Gilman, Executor for the estate of Elizabeth G. Essley.
Restrictions:
Collection open for research on site by appointment. Unprotected photographs must be handled with gloves.
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 collection, which dates from circa 1974 to 2006 and measures 1.16 linear feet, documents the history of the Chitlin Market and Company, founded in 1995 in Hyattsville, Maryland, by Shauna Renee Anderson. The collection is composed of business documents, correspondence, promotional materials, clippings, publications, photographs, books, and VHS and cassette tapes.
Scope and Contents note:
The Chitlin Market and Company was founded in 1995 in Hyattsville, Maryland, by Shauna Renee Anderson. The collection is arranged into five series: Series 1: Career, Series 2: Publicity and Marketing, Series 3: Photographs, Series 4: Audiovisual, and Series 5: Publications.
Series 1: Career consists of correspondence and business documents related to the founding and operations of Chitlin Market and Co. and Anderson's other business ventures.
Series 2: Publicity and Marketing contains clippings, publications, writing, and promotional and packaging materials.
Series 3: Photographs consists of 24 images of Anderson's family, business, and customers. Notable in this series is a signed photograph of singer Diana Ross.
Series 4: Audiovisual consists of nine VHS and two cassette tape recordings of media coverage of Anderson's business endeavors.
Series 5: Publications consists of three books, two inscribed to Anderson and one a memoir written by Anderson herself.
Arrangement note:
The collection is arranged by subject and format into five series: Series 1: Career, Series 2: Publicity and Marketing, Series 3: Photographs, Series 4: Audiovisual, and Series 5: Publications.
Biographical/Historical note:
Shauna R. Anderson is a statistician, restaurateur, author, film producer, historian, and businesswoman. She was born in the Shaw area, Northwest Washington, DC, in 1954 to Geneva Anderson and Walter Chris Holmes. Her parents were entertainers, and her mother sang professionally under the name Jean Anderson on the Chitlin' Circuit, a network of performance venues in the eastern and southern US where African Americans could safely perform during segregation. Anderson was raised by her maternal grandmother Virginia Lee Battle, who taught her how to prepare chitlins.
Anderson had a successful accounting business when she decided to revive the demand for chitlins in the early 90's. She saw a market for high-quality cleaned pork chitterlings, and knew that making them available would offset the loss of a longstanding African American culinary tradition. She founded Chitlin Market and Co., selling chitlins online across the country and from a storefront in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Anderson lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, with her daughter Jonvieve, where she still operates her Chitlin Market and Company as a mail-order-only business.
Provenance:
The Chitlin Market and Company records were donated to the Anacostia Community Museum in 2006 by Shauna R. Anderson.
Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Rights:
The Chitlin Market and Company records are the physical property of the Anacostia Community Museum. Literary and copyright belong to the author/creator or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, and to obtain permission to publish or reproduce, contact the Museum Archives.
