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page 3 -- J & P Coats, Winch Brothers, Steele & Emery, Daniel F. Beatty, W.F. Brainard, Kerr & Co.

updated 17 December 2018
Coats thread and so forth
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boy appearing to examine right frame of picture with fascination. He is wearing tan hat, red shirt with white cuffs and collar, and tan pants
Gimp was used to enhance the faded color of this enlargement.
Colors on the original scanned page above have not been changed from the original scan.
The original color of the cards when new was probably somewhere in between.

Woman with gray hair holding glasses & case stand to left of boy holding box of J&P Coats color threads
"That's the Kind! Bring me some more!"


Three children "fish" and "sail" in large wash tub outside their home while puppy watches with front paws over side of tub

girl in white dress teases three dogs of various breeds by holding egg above their heads

J & P Coats spool of 200 yards best six cord thread surrounded by ad copy


Google Books source Fibre & Fabric gives on an idea of how big the J & P Coats operation was at its height:

further expansion of company in Paisley thwarted by "interference" of "female employees" (citation in text of this page)
Add caption

Before:

Anchor Mill purchased by Phoenix Trust for redevlopment, article from Rampant Scotland Newsletter, 31 May 2003
--Rampant Scotland Newsletter 31 May 2003

After: Google Street View captured the Paisley headquarters of J & P Coats in June of 2015:

Anchor Mill building catches rays of sunshine from mostly cloudy sky

For an additional Coats card, see page 78 of the Earl J. Arnold Advertising Card Collection.
Another Coats card and some company history, is  on page 174 of the Arnold Collection.


See page 42 of the Earl J. Arnold Advertising Card Collection for additional information on the Winch Bros.


Reverse of a Czar card from Digital Commonwealth
A Google Image search reveals many variations of Czar advertising:


Looking at some of these images from the 19th century from a 21st century perspective reveals gender and racial stereotypes that are very offensive. For more information on this perverse aspect of advertising, I recommend:

(Raising Racists, p. 69)
According to Randall Beach of the New Haven Register, "Steele and Emery, a wholesale spice and coffee house located on Crown Street, marketed its powder as “The Purest, Healthiest, Strongest and Best Baking Powder in the World.” They named their Czar Baking Powder in honor of Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov, at the time ruler of Russia."


Crown St., New Haven CT
Google Street View, Sept 2014


(The Public Ledger, 11 March 1881)
The Wikipedia entry for "Pump Organ" features an illustration of a Beatty pump organ uploaded from "Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly Magazine" Vol. XIII, No. 4, April, 1882, p. 516. New York: Frank Leslie (Publisher) by Centpacrr

According to Martha Beth Lewis,
"It was the vogue, around 1900, to use composers' names as piano names. Beethoven was one of them. The most prominent builder of the Beethoven was Daniel F. Beatty Piano & Organ Company (Washington, New Jersey, founded 1869). What made Beatty's Beethoven notable was that he was one of the first piano manufacturers to sell by mail, aggressively mail-bombing with his advertising fliers. Rural areas were especially-favored areas, as these folks weren't likely to get to a big-enough city to visit a piano showroom. (See Beckwith.) In 1892, Beatty's enterprise was taken over by Needham Piano Company."
From the American Agriculturalist via Google Books comes this ad for a Beatty piano:




Everything Beatty appeared in this Poultry Monthly ad (via Google Books):

Finally, here's a third ad for Beatty products from a Google Books source:
 


Kerr & Co. was a Scottish company that had a factory in Fall River MA and Newark NJ.
  • Title: Kerr Thread Mill. All over 16. Having fun with camera man. Good conditions in this mill. Caps to protect hair from dust and to keep hair from getting tangled in machinery. These girls worked in an operating room - not the cloth room. Location: Fall River, Massachusetts / Lewis W. Hine.
  • Creator(s): Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940, photographer
  • Date Created/Published: between June 12 and June 20, 1916. (from Library of Congress description)
Kerr was still manufacturing thread in 1932 when this picture from the Keeley Library collection was taken:


Chapter XIV of the Phillips History of Fall River informs us that, "The Kerr Thread Company (three mills) , incorporated in 1888, was the promotion of Robert C. and John P. Kerr of Paisley, Scotland, who started with a capital of $229,400 . The first mill, of five stories, was built in 1890. Robert C. Kerr was the first treasurer. In 1897 the company became a unit of the American Thread Company . There are 105,732 spindles, capable of an output of 3,500,000 yards annually."

The Kerr factory buildings were substantial, but plain. The Michigan Technological University Industrail Image Archive presents the evidence:


The entire Kerr Thread complex was destroyed by fire 11 January 1987.




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