occupational impression

[Drygoods]

My husband and I are thinking of some new personas for next year, and would like to view some occupational images. If anyone could suggest a site for occupational images, with either portraits or street scenes, it would be great, and much appreciated.

One of the ideas that I have is to portray a coffee vendor, any assistance with that sort of interpretation would be wonderful. Since I consider coffee the most important meal of the day, I'd like to make some sort of cart or portable tray that would be suitable for one person to operate....nothing like those large SC coffee wagons. Any ideas?

[tomarch]

Re: occupational impression

Mrs. Peebles

As I remember, there is a photo in one of the Lords Encyc. showing a two wheeled coffee cart provided by Chase & Sanborn to dispence coffee to the troops. I will try to find a more exact reference for you.

[BenjaminLDavis]

Re: occupational impression

Mrs. Peebles

As I remember, there is a photo in one of the Lords Encyc. showing a two wheeled coffee cart provided by Chase & Sanborn to dispence coffee to the troops. I will try to find a more exact reference for you.

Now THERE is an impression I would greatly enjoy, and patronize, if the Army ever
sees fit to pay us again . . . and someone else could make my coffee for a change!

[benjclark]

Re: occupational impression

A shade early in some instances, but a good place to start:
http://daguerreian.org/fm3/galleries.php

[PetePaolillo]

Re: occupational impression

here is a great link to some photos that someone showed me that has been listed here before. These are mostly laborer impressions but, it might interest you.

http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?sid=97284ef4611f8e260f5f46591e5bd2d4;page=index;c=lysh;g=imls

[Drygoods]

Re: occupational impression

Thank you both for the link to the images. It always helps to have a photo in hand when visualizing what you think you might want to do.:p

[Drygoods]

Re: occupational impression

Well, I'm certainly going to put together a wagon or cart and do a new impression as a coffee vendor. Two questions puzzle me, what is the opinion of going with a period coffee name, like Chase and Sanborn or some other large coffee company? I don't know if C&S had an exclusive area contract to sell their coffee to the army so would appreciate any information. I did a search with John Arbuckle's coffee and received conflicting dates of either his business starting in 1860 or 1865 depending upon the source, so think that perhaps his logo might not be used. Most likely, I think that I'll use a period business directory and find the name of a vendor from that, and prepare some sort of sign from that information. It's a very low key operation.:wink_smil

Second question, what would a cup of coffee from a street vendor have cost? I'm going with a half-dime per cup, or is that too high a price?:sarcastic

[PogueMahone]

Re: occupational impression

If it were me, and it ain't, I'd paint me a sign what reads:

"Hot Coffee!" and under it would read: "Mrs. Peebles, prop."

Which is more important: The brand name or the product?

[Drygoods]

Re: occupational impression

If it were me, and it ain't, I'd paint me a sign what reads:"Hot Coffee!" and under it would read: "Mrs. Peebles, prop."Which is more important: The brand name or the product?

Hello Joe,
Well, I think I've got a better name for that sign, H. M. Popplewhit And as soon as the month is over, and I can break down my two coffins, the stand for that new coffee emporium will begin. I'm lucky that guy I married is rather handy with scrap wood, plus he's a dandy of sign painter.

My main concern is building the impression, who and where the coffee comes from -- all the way from the ship it arrived on, the wholesale depot, the merchants who sold it to me, or perhaps the roasting company, and last what the cost should be. I will keep my prices current to the time, I've never been good at business and see no point in making a profit now at this age in my life.....I just want to have fun with the new venue.:wink_smil

[PogueMahone]

Re: occupational impression

If you look at the signs on buildings and such, they emphasize the products sold and the proprietor. There may be displays inside that indicate brand names, but that would appear to have been secondary in most cases. The only exceptions to this rule I can think of are "franchises" or "agent offices" of Adams Express, Western Union, etc. But those thing were also sometimes simply signed "Telegraph" or "Express".

[Drygoods]

Re: occupational impression

Mr. Smotherman, quite correct with what you said about the signs, few detailed name brand products. My only interest in business names is so that I can easily describe how I got where I got to...meaning under Federal scrutiny I need a good alibi, or at the very least a really good yarn.:sarcastic

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: occupational impression

Well, I'm certainly going to put together a wagon or cart and do a new impression as a coffee vendor. Two questions puzzle me, what is the opinion of going with a period coffee name, like Chase and Sanborn or some other large coffee company? I don't know if C&S had an exclusive area contract to sell their coffee to the army so would appreciate any information. I did a search with John Arbuckle's coffee and received conflicting dates of either his business starting in 1860 or 1865 depending upon the source, so think that perhaps his logo might not be used. Most likely, I think that I'll use a period business directory and find the name of a vendor from that, and prepare some sort of sign from that information. It's a very low key operation.:wink_smil

Second question, what would a cup of coffee from a street vendor have cost? I'm going with a half-dime per cup, or is that too high a price?:sarcastic

In researching sugar and coffee, I found the following information. The Arbuckle company began business in Pittsburgh in 1860 and John Arbuckle was granted a patented for glazed, pre-roasted cofffee beans in 1868. These glazed coffee beans would keep the oil in the roasted beans to oxide and become rancid. Prior to then, most coffee beans were sold green, unless there people were in large cities where they could purchase roasted coffee at their grocer's.

Caleb Chase and the Messrs. Carr and Raymond in started a firm (Boston) in 1864 and James Sanborn, a coffee and spice merchant joined in 1878. The name was changed to Chase and Sanborn in that year.

There were many large roasting firms in major cities that sold pre-roasted coffee in 5 to 10 pound packages to grocers in that area but I couldn't find any that still exist today but I'll admit that I didn't check each one in each city in the country.

For further research on coffee, you might wish to check the following books:

Arbuckles: The Coffee That Won the West by Francis Fulgate
All About Coffee by William Ukers

There are also a number of primary source material that may assist you but unfortunately I don't have the time to go through my files to give you all the titles.

[Drygoods]

Re: occupational impression

Mrs. Mescher, thank you for the information. It was from the book by Fulgate that I heard the earlier date of 1860 when John Arbuckle started his business. Someplace I have lecture notes about the history of Arbuckles that I received from ALHFAM, so suppose today I'll be searching for it. To be honest though, I don't really want to go with Arbuckles, it's done too much and too easily identified. As I said earlier, I think that I'll work with either a period business directory, or other period source, certainly something small.

Have you any idea of what the price of a cup of coffee was at that time?

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: occupational impression

Mrs. Mescher, thank you for the information. It was from the book by Fulgate that I heard the earlier date of 1860 when John Arbuckle started his business. Someplace I have lecture notes about the history of Arbuckles that I received from ALHFAM, so suppose today I'll be searching for it. To be honest though, I don't really want to go with Arbuckles, it's done too much and too easily identified. As I said earlier, I think that I'll work with either a period business directory, or other period source, certainly something small.

Have you any idea of what the price of a cup of coffee was at that time?

I did find one reference to a price of a cup of coffee in the early war. It was taken from Vicki Betts' collection of newspaper excerpts (http://www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/) . The quote was from the THE EASTERN CLARION [PAULDING, MS], October 11, 1861, p. 2, c. 2. "Sept. 22, 1861 .... After many miles march we came to one Allen Sherley's, where some of the boys asked for a cup of coffee, for which they were charged a dime, others paid twenty five cents for a bowl of clabber. Some ordered dinner, for which they paid from fifty to seventy-five cents—bill of fare, beef and corn bread.. . . "

I'm not sure how close this area was to a town or city and if it was yet affected by shortages so those factors would make a difference.

What city would you be near? The coffee roasters in most cities were listed in Uker's book. Coffee companies and their location were also listed. In the store ledgers I've studied and transcribed, coffee was sold by the type, if any differentiation was made, it was the variety of coffee, i.e. rio, java, Louisiana (combined with chicory), santos, cape, mocha.

Most of the ledgers I viewed, were rural, so with the quantity of coffee purchased at one time, I expect that the coffee was purchased green and was roasted at home. Even with the several ledgers of city stores I have looked at, it seems that they coffee that was purchased was green rather than roasted since it a larger quantity was purchased at one time.

[Drygoods]

Re: occupational impression

Mrs. Mescher,
Yes, I agree with you, coffee purchases were likely green and could be a variety of beans or additives. I intend to offer a variety, even a pot or two of chicory or other make-do flavors.
Funny thing, about an hour ago while antiquing, I found a Chase and Sanborn coffee tin, and it was HUGE! Neat but not really necessary for my impression.