General
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Hills Bros. Coffee, Inc.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated Records
label: See more items in
content: Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated Records / Series 9: Office Files
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1915-1986; undated
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0395, Subseries 9.1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Comprises of material documenting the legal, packaging, sales and promotional activities of the company beginning with its participation in the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915.  At the exposition Hills Bros. installed and operated the first automatic machine created to vacuumed-pack coffee. Other materials from the expo include rules and regulations governing the delivery, location, installation, maintenance, and transportation of exhibits and merchandise. The Museum's Division of Cultural History has some of the artifacts relating to the exposition. 

Legal records, including court documents for the Federal Trade Commission versus Hills Bros. Company case in 1925 and the United States Department of Justice, Anti-Trust Investigation, 1948, are included among the materials. There is correspondence granting Hills Bros. exclusive rights to use "Hot Coffee" for radio and advertising purposes and information relating to the company's cooperation with the National Recovery Administration, President's Reemployment Agreement. In addition, there is correspondence collected by the company relating to rumors, religion, and race dating from 1958-1964. 

Packaging materials dating from 1931-1969 primarily document the history and uses of various types of containers used by Hills Bros. for its products and labels. Included among these materials are a paper written by Ralph Vilas discussing the historical evidence of vacuum packaging from 1931-1934, correspondence and photographs of packaging for the "Blue Brand," an article discussing the selling and merchandising of carton coffee, memos and newspaper clippings relating to vacuum packing, a paper discussing the tinplate used in can making, requirements for packaging, and information relating to the coffee can using an Ansel Adams' photograph. 

In the 1930s Hills Bros. created the Arab Chronicle and Broadsides which, were primarily distributed to retail grocers. These publications were the size of newspapers and folded to about one-sixth of a page for mailing. They consisted of photographs, advertisements, information relating to new advertising campaigns, advice to increase sales, and news of events around the world.  In addition to the final copies there are also drafts of the articles for each issue. 

Promotional materials relating to a coffee house created in 1958 by the company at Disneyland in Anaheim, California can also be found. The coffee house operated as a restaurant for several years and provided a sandwich-type menu with its coffee products. It was also used as a facility for taste-testing by the marketing research department.  

In the 1960s Hills Bros. owned and operated three vans known as Hillsmobiles.  The Hillsmobiles were used for promotion sales in various communities. The vans would ride through the neighborhoods distributing free samples of coffee.  Included among the materials are letters, memos, and manuals for the promotion and operation of the Hillsmobiles as well as photographs, images, and negatives of the vehicles.  

Random materials include a Gertz Bros. Company catalogue dating from 1925, information about Chase and Sanborn coffee, maps illustrating where to go in New England, a marketing map of the United States used as a practical aid for economic sales and advertising, and information about St. Augustine's oldest store museum. Materials in this series are arranged in chronological order.