Whitman's was recently bought by Russell Stover. We did call Russell Stover
and they of course knew nothing and their only suggestion was ebay. I went
to the Whitman's website (www.whitmans.com) where they had a history of the
company and had quite a bit of information on the packaging. However, there
was no contact information that I saw on that site.
From the site I did learn that Whitman's made some special tins. However, I
observed major differences between those and the one I have:
Theirs: tins that are painted and have a lot of words printed on them
(weight, slogans, names, etc.)
Mine: brass, no paint, etching or engraving of some kind, stamped "Made in
China," just a Whitman's sticker and no other markings.
We did recently find contact information for an organization called Candy
Container Collectors of America (www.candycontainer.org). We emailed their
Vice-President since he is in Philadelphia, PA (home of Whitman's) and he
along with their historian (in Hershey, PA; America's home to chocolate) are
going to help research this some more. We were hoping that they might be
able to tell us if there was a museum or history society or a Whitman's
archive in the Philadelphia area, but it appears that there is nothing
specific to Whitman's, but we are grateful that they are going to try to
assist us.
And even though Lynne's gorgeous wooden box is not the same thing as mine, I
think her point was that there is a precedent for wood being used in candy
boxes and I should not let the fact that my box has wood be the determining
factor in deciding if it is an actually a Whitman's box or not.
Other than that, I just LOVE it when we share with each other all the pretty
artifacts that we get to work with.
Heather-Marie Wells
>From: Micki Ryan <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Help identifying object
>Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 10:58:24 -0800
>
>I may have missed some responses on the Whitman's box issue, as I was away
>for a few days and could not deal with all the evolution stuff when I
>returned. However, here is my two cents: doesn't Whitman's have a corporate
>archivist? Wouldn't that be the appropriate place to go? That carved
>wooden
>box sent as JPG was gorgeous, but doesn't sound like the same thing
>described by the original poster. Good luck! My apologies if this repeats a
>response I missed.
>
>Micki Ryan
>Curator
>Highline Historical Society
>Burien WA
>
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