Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Jane Parker Cake Advertising Book

Summary
Forever More
Forever More
Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0720
Creators:
Thill, Charles
A & P Stores
Devos, Leon, 1897-1974
Greb, George
Jane Parker Pastry Chefs.
Litho-Krome Company.
Muray, Nickolas, 1892-1965
Dates:
1947
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.3 Cubic feet
1 folder
Repository:
A sample book containing laminated pages illustrating "Jane Parker" made to order cakes, baked by in-store pastry chefs for the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) grocery chain. "Jane Parker" was the house brand of A&P.
Scope and Contents
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of one copy of the Jane Parker Special Occasion Cakes sample book. It was produced for the 1947 advertising and bake shop campaign for the A&P chain of grocery stores. The book was created by Litho-Krome of Columbus, Georgia. Pages are loose with each page consisting of a plastic laminated color lithograph of the specialty cake, specifications with regard to size and number of servings, and a listing of choices, or options, pertaining to that particular cake. The cakes and their decorations and uses all speak to a specific time in American society following World War II when the country's emphasis was returning to the home, marriage, and child rearing.
Arrangement
Arrangement
1 series.
Biographical / Historical
Biographical / Historical
Jane Parker was one of the in-house store brand names created by The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) grocery chain. A&P was the first grocery chain and the credited inventor of the "supermarket". Within each store there was a full service bakery supplying fresh baked goods, breads, specialty cakes and cookies to the buying public. The goal was "one stop" food shopping and maximizing customer purchases by providing under one roof a variety of goods usually found in small specialty shops.
To advertise their specialty cakes, A& P employed leading food photographers to photograph their cakes; these photographs were lithographed by the Litho-Krome Company and combined into a promotional book for distribution among the Jane Parker bake shops. J. Tom Morgan, Jr., founder and president of Litho-Krome Company, Columbus, Georgia, writes about the development of this particular book,
"We were proud; we were confident; we were beginning to gain a well-earned reputation for quality. No longer would we wince when we remembered, "You will never, not ever, do fine color lithography in the South. NEVER!"
The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) grocery chain had become our first New York account in 1946. We produced for them color reproductions for aisle end cards and color brochures regularly each month.
In 1947 Hi Williams, one of the leading food photographers in New York City, had received a tremendously large order from A&P, which planned to open a Jane Parker bake shop section in a select group of its many stores all over the nation. As part of its campaign for these bake shops, A&P planned to focus on their bake shop's ability to prepare special occasion cakes - cakes for weddings, for births, for anniversaries, for almost any special occasion. A Jane Parker special occasion cake book in full color was part of that campaign, and Litho-Krome was chosen by A&P's advertising agency, Paris and Peart, to lithograph the book. Paris and Peart account executives were Ray Largo and Remus Harris.
For the special campaign a sample cake for each of approximately fifty different special occasions was prepared, and each cake was photographed separately. Several different photographers did the photographic work. I had the opportunity to meet and work with several of the great color photography pioneers and experts: men like George Greb, Nickolas Muray, Charles Thill, and Leon DeVos. Each of these photographers became acquainted with Litho-Krome and were later responsible for sending work to our company. Litho-Krome could do justice to their beautiful color pictures, and they liked that." AC NMAH Control File
Administration
Author
Franklin A. Robinson, Jr.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
More than likely collected for the Advertising History Collection of the National Museum of American History in the 1960s by Dr. John Hoffman.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Found in collections. ACNMAH 720.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Franklin Robinson, 2002.
Using the Collection
Conditions Governing Use
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Restrictions on Access
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Preferred Citation
Jane Parker Cake Advertising Book, 1947, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Related Materials
#60 Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (Baking).
#396 Product Cook Book Collection
#690 Pillsbury Company Bake-Off Collection
Keywords
Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Cake Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cake decorating Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sales catalogs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Catalogs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Grocery trade Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
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