Scope and Contents

Collection documents the history of brewing beer in the mid-Atlantic region primarily between the 1890s and the beginning of consolidation and large-scale, industrial production in the 1960s. Materials consist of correspondence; class notes on the brewing process; beer labels; journal reprints and technical papers on brewing; trade literature on beer, bottling and the bottling process; printed material from beer events, such as the meetings of the Master Brewers Association of America; papers on the legal aspects of brewing; articles, including historical articles on beer; cartoons; and brewing magazines and books. The collection is arranged into four series: Series 1, Personal Papers, 1931-1967, undated; Series 2, Beer Industry, 1932-1979, undated; Series 3, Publications, 1891-1969, undated; and Series 4, Associations, 1934-1966, undated.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into four series.

Subseries 2.1, Technical Information, 1938-1979, undated

Subseries 2.2, Sales, Marketing, and Distribution, 1932-1966, undated

Subseries 3.1, Books, 1891-1964, undated

Subseries 3.2, Periodicals, 1910-1969, undated

Biographical / Historical

Walter Herbert Voigt was a brewer and collector of beer related materials. He began in the beer brewing business soon after the 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition. He was born in 1906 in Vermillion, South Dakota of German immigrant parents, Fritz and Minna Voigt. Voigt attended the Siebel Institute of Biotechnology, the oldest beer brewing school in the United States. During the 1930s, he spent two years training in brewing at the Largay Brewing Company in Waterbury, Connecticut. Voigt began his career with the Amsterdam Brewing Company in Amsterdam, New York, and then moved to the American Brewing Company in Baltimore, Maryland about 1941 as assistant brew master. During his life, he was a member of the Master Brewers Association (MBA) and held the position of Secretary of the District of Baltimore for the Master Brewers Association (MBA). Voigt later retired from the American Brewing Company and died in 1983 at the age of seventy-seven in Salisbury, Connecticut.

Related Materials

Christian Heurich Brewing Company Records (AC1104)

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (AC0060)

Landor Design Collection (AC0500)

Francis Mair Papers (AC0548)

Archives Center Brewing History Collection (AC1419)

DFS (Dancer, Fitzgerald Sample) Advertising Agency Falstaff Beer

Advertisements (AC0332)

Albert W. Hampson Commercial Artwork Collection (AC0561)

Custodial History

Transferred to the Archives Center from the Division of Work and Industry in 2010.