BEECH-NUT GUM is good for your nerves

Unlike Double Mint gum, which claims to make you beautiful, Beech-Nut goes with calming your nerves as their claim to fame.

Now, I always thought riding in a rumble seat would be fun, but Beech-Nut has now given me a different perspective. And frankly, from the looks on the faces of these two I'm guessing chewing gum is the farthest thing from their minds. I think the fellow might have just swallowed his gum.

Click on image to see it larger. (SOURCE: The American Magazine, October, 1936)

Beech-Nut baby food was the only baby food I would eat. Finicky from the beginning.

Beech-Nut's roots go back to 1891, to the Mohawk Valley town of Canajoharie, New York. Raymond P. Lipe, along with his friend John D. Zieley and their brothers, Walter H. Lipe and David Zieley, and Bartlett Arkell, founded The Imperial Packing Co. with the production of Beech-Nut ham. The product was based on the smoked hams of Raymond and Walter's father, farmer Ephraim Lipe. The company's principal products were ham and bacon for the first seven years. David and John Zieley sold their shares to the Lipe brothers in 1892.

The company was incorporated as the Beech-Nut Packing Company in 1899. In 1900, the company's sales were $200,000. Engineers from Beech-Nut patented the first vacuum jar with a design that included a gasket and top that could remain intact in transit and became a standard of the industry.

During the first 25 years of the 20th century, the company expanded its product line into peanut butter, jam, pork and beans, ketchup, chili sauce, mustard, spaghetti, macaroni, marmalade, caramel, fruit drops, mints, chewing gum, and coffee. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

The illustrator of this ad was Willaim Meade Prince (1893-1951). His archives are at the University of North Carolina where the following appears:

William Prince, born in Roanoke, Va., and raised in Chapel Hill, N.C., was a successful magazine illustrator in the 1920s and 1930s. He was head of the Art Department at the University of North Carolina during World War II and produced drawings and posters in aid of the war effort.

The Southern Part of Heaven, his boyhood memoir, was published in 1950.

Actress Lillian Hughes Prince, William's wife, appeared in many stage productions in and around Chapel Hill, particularly with the Carolina Playmakers. She also played Queen Elizabeth in Paul Green's The Lost Colony, 1947-1953, and acted with the touring company of Howard Richardson's Dark of the Moon, 1945-1946. The couple had one adopted daughter Caroline, who returned to her birth parents in 1941.

The bulk of the collection is correspondence, mostly between the Princes, much of it during their courtship. Also included are professional letters relating to William Prince's career as an illustrator and writer and to Lillian Prince's stage career; journals and diaries of both Princes; drafts of two unfinished books by William Prince; collected material, including a scrapbook about The Southern Part of Heaven and three scrapbooks about Lillian Prince's stage career; financial material; and photographs of family members and friends, stage productions, and William Prince's book and magazine illustrations. There is also a small group of materials relating to the purchase of land by the Order of Gimghoul at the University of North Carolina in the 1910s.

The Addition of 2004 contains photographs, correspondence, and other papers. Photographs are primarily of William Meade Prince and Lillian Hughes Prince; they include photographs of the Princes with their adopted daughter, Caroline. There are also letters from William Meade Prince to Lillian Hughes Prince written during their courtship, letters to the Princes from Caroline, and other items. (SOURCE: UNC)

To read more about Prince and see more of his work visit the following links at Today's Inspiration: here, here, here, and here. To see more of his work visit Google images here.