Old Things Considered
Advice and trivia for the do-it-yourselfer
Ghislaine Darden

Did you know….?

Did you know that the earliest known ‘sampler’ was created by Jane Bostocke in 1598?

Mothers used these ‘samplers’ to teach their daughters how to embroider. Eventually, samplers grew into beautiful works of art, prominently displayed in homes to memorialize births, deaths and weddings; family histories; inscriptions, as well as lessons; the alphabet, math tables, and even maps.

By the time that Walter Sharp’s grandmother created her sampler in the mid to late 19th century, styles and depictions had changed, with designs becoming more pictorial. In 1912 Mr. Sharp, the third president of Whitman Candies, was inspired to use his grandmother’s design on the cover on America’s oldest package of boxed chocolates. The “Whitman’s Sampler” offered America a mix of different popular candies (with accompanying identification chart) from all the kinds that had been sold in Whitman’s original Philadelphia store, first established in 1842.

With the start of World War I, Whitman Candies began another very important tradition: sending chocolates to American servicemen and women stationed overseas. By World War II, Whitman would send in excess of 6 million pounds of chocolates overseas to our armed forces. The women working the 1940s production lines began to sneak comforting notes of encouragement into the boxes of chocolates destined for soldiers serving abroad.

Working with the American Red Cross, Whitman Candies continues their long tradition of honoring our armed forces overseas. Today, service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan are still sent Whitman Sampler boxes of chocolates; and yes, production workers still slip in those comforting notes of support. The Whitman Sampler is still the number one selling candy. A “Sampler “ is sold on average every 1.5 seconds.

Did you know that both Napoleon and our Civil War generals shared a common problem of how to feed their respective armies? In 1795, Napoleon offered a prize to the person who could devise a method to preserve food so that it could be shipped to his vast army. By 1810, Nicolas Appert wins the prize, using early sterilization methods. Between 1810 and 1900, many patents would follow in its wake; the first focus would be on crafting a metal canister, an alternative to the fragile glass jar.

Tin-plated iron canisters yielded some success, but the fabrication process was slow and arduous. In the early years between 1810 and 1846, production did jump from 60 canisters a day to 60 canisters an hour. Still these canisters weren’t the best. There was no top or lid; the food product was sealed with a tin top that was lead soldered onto the canister base, which presented health issues, like lead poisoning. Opening these tin canisters was no easy feat either. The French soldiers used their bayonets or smashed the tops with rocks.

During our Civil War, Messrs. Gilbert (a tinsmith by trade) and Hester Van Camp were busy grocers in Indianapolis. Selling fruits and vegetables in canisters from their very own grocery store, they won a contract with the Union Army to provide pork and beans to the Union soldiers in tin cannisters. By this time, the word “canister” was shorten to a term still familiar to all of us: the “can.” By 1909, the Van Camps went on to dominate the canned food industry and they had become the major suppliers of pork and beans in a can.

Ghislaine Darden of Benner Street is an old house enthusiast and a Highland Park resident since 1984. Send her your antique and restoration questions to oldthings@hpmirror.com