Like Uncle Sam, Lady Columbia was a personification of the United States. She is usually represented as a dynamic and bounteous figure sometimes with a helmet, spear and shield of stars and stripes (Jay, Trade Cards in America p. 62). She is sometimes draped in an American flag. She is also commonly shown presenting goods to the world in trade cards. As for billheads, she is commonly shown as part of a company's trade mark for a product named "Columbia".
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.
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