THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

Julius W. Orr was born in Ireland in 1815. He was brought to the U.S. as a child. He studied word engraver in New York and later established his own engraving business.

Hope you enjoyed these billheads while you ring in the new year!

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.

Besides having highly decoative billheads, many companies also carried this over into the receipts for collection. These receipts are smaller than billheads are are normally printed lenghtwise. Think of a piece of letterhead but have the size. Many of these were pre-printed with blanks to fill in the amounts owed.