Month: July 2023

New in the collection: Shoe polish ad blotter

Blotter for Nu-Shine, noting that Nu-Shine "Beautifies footwear, preserves leather, makes old shoes look new, restores color, lasts longer, looks better, and lengthens life of new shoes." The blotter includes an image of a Nu Shine bottle.

“While it will not be a year old until Nov. 15, [1922], it is now marketed in 27 states…. Our sales have shown over 100 percent increase each month.”

— B. R. Stone, president, Nu-Shine Manufacturing Co., Reidsville, N.C.

“Nu-Shine has a very large interstate business; hardly a shoe store east of the Mississippi River is without it.”

–From “The Status of Chemical Industries in North Carolina in 1926” by Frank C. Vilbrandt in Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 

“Robert Payne Richardson III assisted his father in the [Old North State smoking tobacco] factory, and after it was sold [to Brown & Williamson] he joined in 1927 the Nu-Shine Manufacturing Company, a local producer of shoe polish.”

— From NCpedia

In 1938 Nu-Shine was bought by American Products Co. and seldom heard from again.

New in the collection: Gastonia milk bottle

 

One-quart milk bottle with the words Sunrise Dairy, Gastonia, N.C. in red letters.

“As with cotton, the price of milk was volatile. ‘Milk wars’ were common, as distributors continuously undercut one another….

“According to the Gaston Gazette, a milk war was occurring in Shelby in 1972, when Ab Wolfe of Sunrise Dairy in Gastonia said of a proposed regulation, ‘It discriminates against the little distributor. The big boys are going to eat us up.’ ”

— From “Cleveland County Agriculture” (2016)

“Sunrise Dairy, Gastonia, N.C., ceased operation in June after 46 years as a dairy processor. Management is liquidating and disposing of equipment.”

— From “Sunrise Shutters” in Ice Cream Field and Ice Cream Trade Journal (1974)

More on North Carolina’s once prominent dairy industry, as told through its bottle lids here and here.

A second side of one-quart milk bottle with the words "Please Return Bottles Daily," and an image of a man carrying a large milk bottle on his back.

New in the collection: Fontana Dam tape measure

 

Measuring tape featuring colored, hand-drawn sketch of Fontana Dam.

“In order to develop atomic weapons during World War II, the federal government needed a source of energy to power the top-secret Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Out of that need the Fontana Dam, Fontana Lake and Fontana Village were born. Located in Graham and Swain counties in western North Carolina, the region is collectively known simply as Fontana….

“Completed in 1944 at a cost of over $70 million, the dam is 480 feet tall and almost ½ mile wide at its crest. The Appalachian Trail winds across the top of the dam as it makes its way from Georgia to Maine. Hikers have named the nearby trail shelter the ‘Fontana Hilton,’ since it is one of the few stopovers with hot showers nearby.

“Fontana was not designed as an overflow dam, so it has a somewhat distinct appearance: its length is accentuated by the absence of water spilling over the top. Whenever the reservoir reaches capacity, water is released downstream through spillways tunneled through the base of the dam.”

— From Fontana Dam at DigitalHeritage.org

I’ve seen such celluloid tape measures dating back as far as 1900, not long after the introduction of celluloid political buttons, but this one probably appeared on a souvenir shop shelf circa 1950.

New in the collection: Dickens festival pinback

 

Pinback button for the first Dickens fair in Raleigh. The button includes an image of a young man wearing a 19th century cap and with a red scarf around his neck.

“Clothing designers sent the grunge look down runways for spring, but thanks to the Dickens Fair, Raleigh will be full of fashionables sporting their own brand of street-urchin wear next weekend.

“Fayetteville Street Mall will be transformed into Victorian England for the street fair celebrating of one of the world’s most celebrated writers.

“Dickens Pen & Inc. — an outgrowth of the Dickens Disciples, kind of a Charles Dickens fan club organized by N.C. State University adjunct English professor Elliot Engel — is offering an incentive: Anyone dressed in period costume gets into the fair free.”

–From “A Dickens of a Dress Code” by Mary E. Miller in the News & Observer (Dec. 4, 1992)

The Dickens Fair ran annually until 1999.

New in the collection: burlap fertilizer bag

Burlap bag for tobacco fertilizer featuring the words "Golden Eagle Tobacco Fertilizer," an image of an eagle, and a list of the fertilizer ingredients.

Wilmington Fertilizer Co. must have been among the most prominent of the city’s many such manufacturers, but I’ve had little luck nailing down details of its existence. This sign claims 1889 as the company’s birth, and the design of this clock suggests it was still around as late as the 1970s.

Perhaps the area’s best-known fertilizer maker was Navassa Guano Co., whose history is deeply reported here by the inimitable David Cecelski.

I strain to imagine what it was like for laborers who spent their days lifting and unloading 200-pound bags of guano.