Billhead Comparison

Billhead Comparison - Booth

I thought it would be interesting to show two billheads for A. Booth Packing Company packers of oysters, fish and canned goods. I have handled a lot of Booth billheads for Chicago. Booth billheads are always pre-printed with the goods it sells. All of the Chicago billheads focus on the company's oysters brands.

This Chicago billhead has mainly pre-printed oyster products: oval, A. Booth, extra select, celery and fish. Nice decorative billhead with medals and factory scenes. The Chicago billheads also never indicated who printed it.

Along comes another Booth billhead, this one for the Duluth fisheries.

What I liked about this billhead was that it was pre-printed with the firm's fish offerings: whitefish, small trout, large trout, pike, pickerel and herring. This billhead also indicated in the upper left corner who printed it - Shober & Carqueville Litho Co. of Chicago.

For the history buffs, a little bit about Alfred Booth.

Alfred Booth was born in Glastonbury England, he emigrated to the US in 1848 at the age of 20. He lived in Kenosha WI but moved to Chicago in 1850. He opened a small fish and vegetable store. Margaret Beattie Bogue, in her book Fishing the Great Lakes indicates that lore has it he bought fish directly from Lake Michigan fisherman and sold it through Chicago's streets via a cart. Booth was able to capitalize on the Civil War economy and by 1870s, Booth sons, Alfred B. and William had joined the firm, A. Booth & Sons. Before 1871, Booth had acquired a salmon-canning operation in California and the properties of DD Mallory oysters on the East Coast. Booth expanded its operations into Lake Superior and established a house in Duluth MN in 1886 where it shipped fish west by rail. Canadian expansion was next for the company in search of more whitefish. The firm would incorporate as A. Booth & Co. which took over the business of the A. Booth Packing Co. By 1908, the firm would fall into receivership with liabilities of $5.5 million. The firm would come out of bankruptcy in 1909 as the Booth Fisheries Co. and would eventually be purchased by the Sara Lee Corp. in the 1960s.

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Baking Powder Billheads

In 1843 the first modern version of baking powder was discovered and manufactured by Alfred Bird, a British chemist. In 1846, Justus Von Liebig in Germany experiments with yeast made from sodium bicarbonate and hydrochloric acid with explosive results. In 1885, Eben Horsford and George Wilson manufacture chemicals which eventually became the Rumford Chemical Works. Horsford formulated and patented Rumford Baking Powder, the first calcium phopshate baking powder. In 1889, William Wright and chemist George Rew developed a double-action baking powder marketed under the name Calumet Baking Powder. Below find some examples of baking powder billheads.

Rubber Goods

The rubber industry in the United States can hardly be said to have had any real and tangible existence until the discovery of the process of vulcanization in 1844 by Charles Goodyear. The first rubber ever imported into this country was brought into Boston in the year 1800 and came in In that same year a patent was granted to one Jacob Hummel, of Philadelphia, for a gum-elastic varnish; of which, however, there seems to have been no further mention. Some ten years later, in 1823, a Boston sea-captain, coming from South American ports, brought with him a pair of gilded rubber shoes which excited the greatest interest. Two years later, 500 pairs of rubber shoes, made by the natives along the Amazon, were brought into Boston, this time without the fantastical refinement of gilding. They were exceedingly thick, clumsy, and unshapely shoes, and yet they sold readily, bringing from $3 to $5 per pair as they were found that they were a secure protection against dampness. This was the e

Billhead of the Month: Schmit Bros trunks Oshkosh WI

I picked up this Schmit Brothers billhead recently in Eau Claire. I currently have it for sale on ebay right now. It is a nice triple graphic billhead. Here is my ebay write up: 1895 billhead for The Schmit Brothers Trunk Company manufacturers of trunks, traveling bags and valises of Oshkosh Wisconsin. Great header graphics with three images. Left side is the firm’s mill at Summit Lake, middle is the firm’s factory and left side is the firm’s warehouse. Billhead has creases. Peter Schmit was born in 1840 in Prussia. He emigrated to the U.S. in June 1854 and located inRacine WI. He was engaged in farming until 1861 when he enlisted in Company D, 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He engaged in the battles at Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Mine Run, Bull Run, Gettysburg, Atlanta, Macon, and Savannah. He was mustered out in June 1865. He came back to Racine and kept a hotel until 1866 when he joined his brother Henry’s trunk business. Henry had established the bus

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