Ivory Soap Essay Contest Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Nixon, Helen
label: Creator
content: Ellis, Winifred
topic: label: Topic
content: Soap
label: Topic
content: Contests
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This collection was donated by Helen Nixon's niece, Winifred N. Ellis, 2002.
creator: label: Creator
content: Nixon, Helen
label: Creator
content: Ellis, Winifred
setName: label: See more items in
content: Ivory Soap Essay Contest Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: Documents saved by the winner of an essay contest, including: two congratulatory telegrams, two letters, three photographs of the winner with the car she won, an article, and an owner identification card from the car dealer.
bioghist: label: Biographical/Historical note
content: Helen Nixon, a dietician at Wichita General Hospital in Wichita Falls, Texas, was the winner of a nationwide essay contest sponsored by the Proctor & Gamble Company in 1940.  Contestants were asked to finish the statement, "I like Ivory Soap because…" in twenty-five words or less.  Nixon's award-winning essay expounded upon the soap's "general utilitarian value...which meant more convenience and greater economy in every household," according to an article about her in The Bulletin of Texas Dietetic Association.  Her prizes included a Buick Eight Sedan, one thousand gallons of Texaco gasoline, and a fifty dollar certificate for automobile accessories.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 9 Items
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1940
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0818
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Letters (correspondence)
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Articles
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into one series.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Processed by Kiley Orchard (intern), 2008; supervised by Vanessa Broussard-Simmons, archivist.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Letters (correspondence) -- 1900-1950
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver gelatin -- 1940-1950
label: Genre/Form
content: Articles
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: Collection consists of documents about Helen Nixon's award-winning essay in the 1940 Ivory Soap contest, including a telegram and letter from Proctor & Gamble notifying her that she had won, a similar letter from Texaco, three photographs taken when she received the keys to her new Buick, and an owner's identification card for the car.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Materials in the Archives Center

Ivory Soap Advertising Collection, NMAH.AC.0791

Warshaw Collecion of Business Ameraicana, NMAH.AC.0060