Jane Parker Cake Advertising Book
name: label: Creator
content: Thill, Charles
label: Creator
content: A & P Stores
label: Creator
content: Devos, Leon, 1897-1974
label: Creator
content: Greb, George
label: Creator
content: Jane Parker Pastry Chefs.
label: Creator
content: Litho-Krome Company.
label: Creator
content: Muray, Nickolas, 1892-1965
topic: label: Topic
content: Cake
label: Topic
content: Cake decorating
label: Topic
content: Grocery trade
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: More than likely collected for the Advertising History Collection of the National Museum of American History in the 1960s by Dr. John Hoffman.
label: Provenance
content: Found in collections. ACNMAH 720.
creator: label: Creator
content: Thill, Charles
label: Creator
content: A & P Stores
label: Creator
content: Devos, Leon, 1897-1974
label: Creator
content: Greb, George
label: Creator
content: Jane Parker Pastry Chefs.
label: Creator
content: Litho-Krome Company.
label: Creator
content: Muray, Nickolas, 1892-1965
setName: label: See more items in
content: Jane Parker Cake Advertising Book
abstract: label: Summary
content: A sample book containing laminated pages illustrating "Jane Parker" made to order cakes, baked by in-store pastry chefs for the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) grocery chain.  "Jane Parker" was the house brand of A&P.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Jane Parker was one of the in-house store brand names created by The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) grocery chain. A&P was the first grocery chain and the credited inventor of the "supermarket". Within each store there was a full service bakery supplying fresh baked goods, breads, specialty cakes and cookies to the buying public. The goal was "one stop" food shopping and maximizing customer purchases by providing under one roof a variety of goods usually found in small specialty shops.

To advertise their specialty cakes, A& P employed leading food photographers to photograph their cakes; these photographs were lithographed by the Litho-Krome Company and combined into a promotional book for distribution among the Jane Parker bake shops. J. Tom Morgan, Jr., founder and president of Litho-Krome Company, Columbus, Georgia, writes about the development of this particular book,

"We were proud; we were confident; we were beginning to gain a well-earned reputation for quality. No longer would we wince when we remembered, "You will never, not ever, do fine color lithography in the South. NEVER!"

The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) grocery chain had become our first New York account in 1946. We produced for them color reproductions for aisle end cards and color brochures regularly each month.

In 1947 Hi Williams, one of the leading food photographers in New York City, had received a tremendously large order from A&P, which planned to open a Jane Parker bake shop section in a select group of its many stores all over the nation. As part of its campaign for these bake shops, A&P planned to focus on their bake shop's ability to prepare special occasion cakes - cakes for weddings, for births, for anniversaries, for almost any special occasion. A Jane Parker special occasion cake book in full color was part of that campaign, and Litho-Krome was chosen by A&P's advertising agency, Paris and Peart, to lithograph the book. Paris and Peart account executives were Ray Largo and Remus Harris.

For the special campaign a sample cake for each of approximately fifty different special occasions was prepared, and each cake was photographed separately. Several different photographers did the photographic work. I had the opportunity to meet and work with several of the great color photography pioneers and experts: men like George Greb, Nickolas Muray, Charles Thill, and Leon DeVos. Each of these photographers became acquainted with Litho-Krome and were later responsible for sending work to our company. Litho-Krome could do justice to their beautiful color pictures, and they liked that." AC NMAH Control File
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.3 Cubic feet (1 folder)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1947
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0720
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sales catalogs
label: Type
content: Catalogs
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: 1 series.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by Franklin Robinson, 2002.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sales catalogs
label: Genre/Form
content: Catalogs
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This collection consists of one copy of the Jane Parker Special Occasion Cakes sample book. It was produced for the 1947 advertising and bake shop campaign for the A&P chain of grocery stores. The book was created by Litho-Krome of Columbus, Georgia. Pages are loose with each page consisting of a plastic laminated color lithograph of the specialty cake, specifications with regard to size and number of servings, and a listing of choices, or options, pertaining to that particular cake. The cakes and their decorations and uses all speak to a specific time in American society following World War II when the country's emphasis was returning to the home, marriage, and child rearing.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: #60 Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (Baking).

#396 Product Cook Book Collection

#690 Pillsbury Company Bake-Off Collection