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Jay T. Last Collection of Beverage Prints and Ephemera: Finding
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priJLC_BEV
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Title: Jay T. Last Collection of Beverage Prints and Ephemera
Dates (inclusive): approximately 1840-1949
Bulk dates: approximately 1850-1915
Collection Number: priJLC_BEV
Collector:
Last, Jay T.
Extent:
approximately 3,240 items
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Prints and Ephemera
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract:
The Jay T. Last Collection of Beverage Prints and Ephemera contains approximately 3,240 printed items advertising beverage
products and related businesses in the United States from the 1840s to the 1940s, with the bulk of the items
spanning from 1850 to 1915. The collection consists largely of lithographed ephemeral items produced for American businesses
affiliated with the manufacture, distribution, and sale of beverages such as coffee, tea, juice, milk, carbonated beverages,
and alcoholic drinks including beer, wine, whiskey, and other liquors.
Language: English.
Note:
Finding aid last updated on November 20, 2019.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities.
The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the
researcher.
[Item title, Call number]. Jay T. Last Collection of Beverage Prints and Ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
This collection forms part of the Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, which was
donated to the Huntington Library by Jay T. Last in 2005 as a gift in progress. The bulk of the beverage prints and ephemera were transferred to the Library between 2010 and 2013.
The Jay T. Last Collection is an unparalleled archive of printed paper artifacts that documents American lithographic, social,
and business history. The collection began in the early 1970s when
physicist and Silicon Valley pioneer Jay Last moved to Southern California and started collecting citrus box labels he found
at local flea markets and rummage sales. As his collection grew,
Last realized that these labels conveyed important information about commercial printing, graphic design, and social history,
and he expanded his collection to include other forms
of American visual culture. Today this collection contains more than 200,000 lithographic prints, posters, and ephemera of
mostly nineteenth- and early twentieth- century American
origin and represents works by more than five hundred lithographic companies.
The Jay T. Last Collection of Beverage Prints and Ephemera contains approximately 3,240 printed items advertising beverage
products and related businesses in the United States from the 1840s to the 1940s, with the bulk of the items
spanning from 1850 to 1915. The collection consists largely of lithographed ephemeral items produced for American businesses
affiliated with the manufacture, distribution, and sale of beverages such as coffee, tea, juice, milk, carbonated
beverages, and alcoholic drinks including beer, wine, whiskey, and other liquors.
Materials are arranged in two series: small-size items (11 x 14 inches or less) and large-size items (more than 11 x 14 inches).
Small-size items are described broadly at the series level; large-size items and select small-size items are fully inventoried
and all printers,
artists, and publishers are indexed by name. The collection includes approximately 65 large-size items comprised mainly of
lithographed advertising prints and product labels for tea, coffee, and spirits. Small-size items number nearly 3,200 and
contain a variety of promotional materials including trade cards, calendars, die-cut scraps, booklets, and printed billheads
and letterheads with manuscript text.
The collection deals with beverage production, merchandising, advertising, and consumption -- including depictions of families
and other groups drinking together -- and the images provide a resource for studying the history
of American beer, liquor, coffee, tea, and carbonated beverage industries along with the evolution of their advertising in
the 19th and early 20th centuries. Materials in the collection produced for manufacturers and distributors of alcoholic
beverages also provide a perspective on their advertising strategies in the
face of a growing temperance movement in the United States leading up to Prohibition. As graphic materials, the prints offer
evidence of developing techniques and trends in printmaking, and of the artists, engravers, lithographers, printers,
and publishers involved in the creative process.
Note
The Jay T. Last Collection is a gift in progress. Container numbers may change as
the collection expands.
Alternative Form of Materials Available
Visit the
Huntington Digital Library: Jay T. Last Collection
to view digitized items from this collection.
Related materials in the Huntington Library
Items are arranged broadly by size in two series, which have been further arranged in subseries according to product type:
- Series I. Beverage Prints and Ephemera (small size)
- Subseries A. Beer, Liquor, and Wine (small size)
- Subseries B. Coffee and Tea (small size)
- Subseries C. Juice, Soda, and Water (small size)
- Subseries D. Milk (small size)
- Series II. Beverage Prints and Ephemera (large size)
- Subseries A. Beer, Liquor, and Wine (large size)
- Subseries B. Coffee and Tea (large size)
- Subseries C. Juice, Soda, and Water (large size)
- Subseries D. Milk (large size)
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Billheads.
Broadsides.
Business cards.
Business records.
Business records -- United States -- 19th century.
Business records -- United States -- 20th century.
Calendars.
Chromolithographs.
Ephemera.
Ephemera -- United States -- 19th century.
Ephemera -- United States -- 20th century.
Engravings.
Labels.
Leaflets (printed works).
Letterheads.
Lithographs.
Price lists.
Printed ephemera.
Promotional materials.
Relief prints.
Scraps (Decorations)
Trade cards.
Views.
Advertising -- Beer.
Advertising -- Beverages.
Advertising -- Carbonated beverages.
Advertising -- Coffee.
Advertising -- Liquors.
Advertising -- Milk.
Advertising -- Soft drinks.
Advertising -- Tea.
Advertising -- Tea trade.
Advertising -- Wine.
Brandy.
Breweries -- Pictorial works.
Brewing industry.
Coffee industry.
Commercial streets -- Pictorial works.
Distilleries -- Pictorial works.
Gin.
Grain -- Pictorial works.
Grapes -- Pictorial works.
Groceries.
Horse-drawn vehicles -- Pictorial works.
Industrial buildings -- Pictorial works.
Mineral water industry.
Soft drinks -- Pictorial works.
Storefronts -- Pictorial works.
Tea trade.
Whiskey.
Wine industry.
Printer, Publisher, Artist Index
The following is a complete list of printers, publishers, and artists represented in the large-size items in this collection.
American Fine Art Co.
American Oleograph Co.
Berninghaus, Oscar E. (Oscar Edmund), 1874-1952.
Cosack & Co.
Crosby, Charles H., 1819-1896.
Crow, Thomas & Eno.
Deckert, J.
Donaldson Brothers (Firm)
Drummond, Dominick I., approximately 1830-1899.
Ehrgott & Krebs.
Graphic Company.
Henderson Lithographing Co.
Heppenheimer, Frederick, -1878.
Hinds, Ketcham & Co.
Ketterlinus Lithographic Manufacturing Company.
Kollner, Augustus, 1813-1906.
Lane & Scott.
L.E. Neumann & Co.
Major & Knapp Engraving, Manufacturing & Lithographic Co.
Reagles & Co.
Rease, W. H.
Rolph and Clark
Sarony, Major & Knapp Lith.
Shober & Roth
Strobridge & Co. Lith..
Strobridge Lithographing Company.
Thomas & Eno.
Ulffers, Mortiz.
Wagner & M’Guigan.
Wittemann Brothers.
Wimar, Carl, 1828-1862.