H. J. Heinz Co. Collectibles

By Roy Nuhn

As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, March 2009

Ketchup or, if you wish, catsup, goes back centuries. But it was in 1876 that the newly organized F. & J. Heinz Co. first began selling commercially made ketchup to America's housewives.

Up to then the weekly ketchup-making ordeal had been a laborious and difficult task, one which took many hours in the family kitchen.

Like so many other household necessities, such as candles, soups, soaps and breads, it had to be made, until recent times, at home by the family. In 1876, Heinz became one of the first companies to begin selling a large variety of pre-packaged and pre-bottled foods. One of these was ketchup.

The era was the beginning of the canned food industry. It initiated a shift in emphasis from the home kitchen to the

grocer's shelf as the primary source of food. The story of Henry John Heinz and the company he founded is, in many ways, the story, of that industry.

He was born on October II, 1844, the first of eight children of Henry and Margaretha (Schmidt) Heinz, in a section of Pittsburgh called Birmingham. His father owned a brickyard and Henry, after schooling at Duff's Business College, entered the family business as a bookkeeper. By his 21st birthday he had achieved a partnership. Though he would very shortly leave the brickyard forever, he retained a lifelong interest in bricks and the profession of bricklaying. Along with collecting watches, it remained always a hobby.

At the tender age of eight, young Henry was busy as a vendor ,selling surplus produce from the family gardens. By the time he was 16, this enterprise had grown considerably. Using the latest scientific knowledge available about agriculture, he enlarged the acreage used for gardening and was getting two to three crops every year. With the aid of three women he had hired, frequent selling expeditions were undertaken by wagon to various grocery stores in Pittsburgh.

In 1869 he and a friend, L. C. Noble, became partners in a scheme to grow and market grated horseradish. The business moved downtown to Pittsburgh proper and another Noble joined the firm. Within six years, unfortunately, the enterprise failed and went into bankruptcy. Henry quickly paid off his share of the debts and began scouting around for another venture.

It was now 1876 and America was celebrating its Centennial year. Along .with his brother, John, and their cousin, Frederick, he formed the F. & J. Heinz Company with the goal of manufacturing prepared foods such as pickles and condiments.

Ketchup was one of the first products they marketed. Henry was the manager and guiding genius of this fledgling operation.

Twelve years later the partnership was reorganized and the firm became known as the H. J. .Heinz Co. It was incorporated in 1905 with Henry becoming president.

Their famous advertising slogan, "Fifty-Seven Varieties," appeared for the first time in 1896. The company was actually selling far in excess of 57 different foods, but Henry Heinz thought "it sounded magical."

Less than a half-century later, the H. J. Heinz Co. was, employing over 6,000 workers and in 1919 had 25 branch factories in operation, as well as 85 pickle salting stations. It owned its own bottle, box and can stations and several seed factories.

The output of more than 100,000 acres was being processed each year into thousands of bottles, cans and barrels. By the turn of the 20th century, the firm had become well known for its pioneering efforts in the pure food movement. Heinz refused to adulterate any of its many products.

Growth and expansion continued, even after Henry's death in 1919 and Heinz is today one of the nation's largest. Until recent times it remained a family affair. In the late 1970s, a Heinz, representing the state of Pennsylvania, sat in the United States Senate.

It was at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago that H. J. Heinz Company became nationally famous. Henry had a flair for advertising and his exhibit  in the Agricultural Building quickly became one of the major attractions of the Exposition because he gave away small one-and-one-quarter inch pickle pins made of gutta-petcha, a tough plastic-like material.

One of the most famous giveaways in the history of merchandising, one million were handed out from the company's hand carved antique oak pavilion to fairgoers attracted there by small advertising cards fashioned in the shape of baggage checks and handed out by an army of small boys.

Heinz's pickle pin idea was, such a successful promotion that they continued to be distributed in a centuries-long series of promotions. In the 1980s, for instance, a free pair was offered on the Public Broadcasting System in connection with the Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra. Also being given away were miniature ketchup bottle magnets. The Heinz Company was a supporter of these radio broadcasts.

From pickle pins, it was but a short step to issuing pickle-shaped trade cards. First handed out in 1893, 25 different designs, with 39 variations, have been documented.

The die-cut pickle cards were made of standard trade card thin cardboard stock. Each pictured a little girl with a product jar, plate, or package; or just with the inset of a lovely woman.

Naturally, the card's background, which is of a pickle, is green colored. They also came embossed in such a way as to give the impression of the natural groves found on the real thing.

Some of the products advertised on the backside, which contains a message promoting the company, are no longer with us “apple butter and plum pudding" etc. - except in specialty shops by other small food processing companies.

Heinz's pickle cards continued to be made up to 1904, when they were phased out. Most likely, the 1904 advertising pictorial postcard set of factory scenes that was distributed to visitors at the main Pittsburgh plant, took their place.

The company also produced a series of postcard-size trade cards picturing children with baskets of their many products.

The sweet faced children were placed in parks and woods. These apparently were first introduce in ad campaigns sometime around 1900 and were in use for at least another decade. Over a dozen different illustrations are known to collectors.

Along with the numerous full and partial page advertising the Heinz company placed in America's newspapers throughout the 20th century and their other handouts - illustrated premium booklets, coloring books, nursery rhymes pamphlets, advertising postcards, the actual cans and jars themselves and their labels, etc. - trade cards, pins and other giveaways offer collectors endless possibilities. And, the most widely used topical on all of these are the company's famed pickle and its legendary ketchup.

Join Our Mailing List

Email:

For Email Marketing you can trust