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Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
The story of a pantry shelf, an outline history of grocery specialties: a machine-readable transcription.
Why "Rastus Grins"
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Why "Rastus Grins"
His Smiling Face Bespeaks to All the
World and His Family the Superior Excellence
and Purity of One of the First and
Best Breakfast Cereals, "Cream of Wheat"
His Smiling Face Bespeaks to All the World and His Family the Superior Excellence and Purity of One of the First and Best Breakfast Cereals, "Cream of Wheat"
In Grand Forks, North Dakota, in 1895, there was a small flour milling concern called the North Dakota Milling Company. While they manufactured a high-grade flour, the business had not been unduly prosperous since the panic of 1893 and the officers were looking for means to increase their earning capacity. In this search they found that the product now universally known as "Cream of Wheat" made a very delicious breakfast cereal. Not only was it a delicious cereal, but they found it made delicious desserts, puddings, etc. And with all this, it had the wonderful properties of a high energy value combined with extreme ease of digestion. These properties made it especially valuable as a food for all the family--for infants, children and grownups alike.
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In view of this information on the product, the officers of the milling company felt they had the groundwork for a real business--and so Cream of Wheat was originated.
The first Cream of Wheat packages were cut by hand from cardboard. The first packing boxes were made from old lumber about the mill. For the label, Mr. Emery Mapes, an officer of the company and the man who afterward directed the advertising for the company, picked out a rough cut of a negro's head, which he found among some old newspaper cuts in the office.
Mr. Emery MapesFifty cases of thirty-six packages each comprised the first shipment of Cream of Wheat. This was consigned to the company's sales representatives in New York. The agents were requested to do their best to market this first lot. By noon of the day the shipment reached New York a wire order for an additional fifty cases was received by the company. By night an additional wire, ordering a car, was received.
The business soon outgrew the capacity of the mill in Grand Forks and the plant was moved to Minneapolis. Started in a small way in Minneapolis in 1897, the business rapidly outgrew first one and then another plant. Finally, in 1903, the company built its present plant in Minneapolis.
Mr. Mapes was not satisfied with his original negro cut for the Cream of Wheat package, and was on the lookout for a better figure. On one of his trips to Chicago he dropped into Kohlsaat's restaurant for a meal. His waiter was a genial, smiling negro, whose face attracted Mr. Mapes. An offer of $5.00 for a photograph was readily accepted. The photograph was made, and that photograph has been the basis of all the Cream of Wheat chefs which have appeared since
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then on the millions of Cream of Wheat packages and on the advertisements of the company down to the present time.
Originally, the packing was done by hand. Now this is all done by automatic machinery. The product is never touched by human hands from the time the raw material is delivered to the plant until it reaches the consumer's kitchen.
From a local distribution, through consistent advertising in the national magazines, the business of the company has grown to the world wide and "Cream of Wheat" to be a household word throughout English-speaking countries.
Always has there been the same careful selection of only the best hard wheat for the product; always the same pains-taking determination to thoroughly purify and sterilize and pack Cream of Wheat, so that its quality can be depended upon by the housewife wherever she buys it. These efforts have been rewarded by an ever-increasing sale of Cream of Wheat and confidence in the product on the part of the consuming public.
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