Historical Background
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Fuller Brush Company
setName: label: See more items in
content: Fuller Brush Company Records
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1916-2001
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1459, Series 1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This series contains material commemorating milestones in the history of the Fuller Brush Company, and relating to founder Alfred C. Fuller. 

Historic background material related to the Fuller Brush Company includes press releases, news clippings, published histories, event programs and related correspondence, photographs, and 16-mm film reels. The series includes items related to the Fuller Brush Company's recognition of its own heritage, such as a scrapbook, predominately related to its cosmetics campaign (1950); ephemera and a reprint of a testimonial letter by Billy Graham, set aside for the company's archives; and printed company timelines. The 16mm film reels (1949-1961) promote the Fuller Brush Company and its values while informing the viewer about brush manufacturing processes. Programs, press clippings, photographs, and other event materials document the grand opening of Fuller Brush Company facilities in Hartford, Connecticut (1922), East Hartford (1960), and Great Bend, Kansas (1971), and the grand opening of Fuller Industries, Incorporated, in Great Bend, Kansas (1989); dedication of boats; company anniversary dinners; national and international company meetings; and awards received and distributed by the company.   

Material in the series related to Alfred C. Fuller includes published histories and press clippings; membership cards; programs from events attended by Alfred C. Fuller, and related convention addresses; and contracts, correspondence, draft excerpts, and publicity material related to Alfred C. Fuller's 1960 autobiography A Foot in the Door, written in collaboration with Hartzell Spence. The series has some personal ephemera of Alfred C. Fuller, as well as clippings and photographs concerning the Fuller family and their holidays. Also noteworthy in the series is a design patent for a toothbrush (1916), submitted by Alfred C. Fuller.