Frigidaire Corporation sales scrapbook
Creation: 1925-1929Abstract
Frigidaire Corporation manufactures and distributes major appliances for domestic and industrial use. Gilead Elijah Turner (1903-1929) worked for the company's Advertising Stock Department from 1928 until his death in 1929. The scrapbook was assembled by Turner and dedicated to his co-worker, Dean M. Livingston (1903-1963), who worked in the same department. The album contains sales catalogs, sales forms, and pitches for the company refrigerators focusing on food preservation and avoiding food spoilage due to mold, yeast, and bacteria. Numerous newspaper clippings are about sales executives and company founders, developments in food safety, and the importance of hard work for company success.
Dates
- Creation: 1925-1929
Creator
- Frigidaire Corporation (Organization)
Extent
1 volume(s)
Physical Description
1 album : burgundy, cloth ; 14.25 x 10 in. (closed) containing 140 pages of newspaper clippings, notes, drawings, and trade catalogs.
Biographical Note
Gilead Elijah Turner (1903-1929) worked for the Advertising Stock Department at the Frigidaire Corporation from 1928 until his death in 1929.
Turner was born to Nettie Singley Turner (1870-1952) and Elijah H. Turner (1870-1921). He had congenital heart disease and suffered his first heart attack at seventeen. After attending the University of Dayton Law School for one term, he transferred to the University of Cincinnati Law School, where he earned his degree. He clerked for Judge Edward Dixon (1882-1958) from 1922 to 1926. He passed the Ohio state bar exam in 1927, and had a law office in the Beckel Building in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Turner became ill a week prior to his second heart attack, which was fatal. He died on July 8, 1929.
Historical Note
Frigidaire Corporation manufactures and distributes major appliances for domestic and industrial use. The company was founded as Guardian Frigerator Company in 1916 by Nathaniel B. Wales (1883-1974) and Alfred Mellowes (1879-1960) for their invention of the self-contained electric refrigerator. In 1918, William C. Durant (1861-1947), the co-founder of General Motors, purchased the company and adopted the name Frigidaire in 1919. In 1921, the firm's headquarters moved from Detroit, Michigan, to Dayton, Ohio, and transferred as a division to the Delco-Light Company, a General Motors (GM) subsidiary. Delco-Light manufactured individual electric generators for rural use.
In 1926, the Frigidaire business overshadowed the sale of Delco-Light units, and GM separated the two operations. The Frigidaire Corporation became a new subsidiary. By 1929, Frigidaire sold one million refrigerators.
In January 1979, General Motors announced it had sold Frigidaire to White Consolidated Industries of Cleveland, Ohio. The Frigidaire name, product line, and distribution system continued. In 1986, White Consolidated Industries was acquired by Electrolux, a Swedish company and leader in the appliance industry. In 1991, Frigidaire Appliance Company supplanted White Consolidated Industries as the Electrolux subsidiary.
Scope and Contents
This scrapbook was assembled by Gilead E. Turner, an attorney who worked with Frigidaire's Advertising Stock Department while operating his own law office. He dedicated the scrapbook to his co-worker, Dean M. Livingston (1903-1963), who also worked in the Frigidaire Adverstising Department. The album contains sales catalogs, sales forms, and pitches for the company refrigerators focusing on food preservation and avoiding food spoilage due to mold, yeast, and bacteria. The catalogs included are, "Answers to Objection;" "Frigidaire Automatic Refridigeration for Household and Commercial Uses;" "The New Frigidaire;" "Frigidaire in Every Home;" "Frigidaire for the Florist;" and "Your Baby," which urged food safety for aiding in the development of children. Turner includes sales contracts, sample posters, and talks from food preservation trade shows. The newspaper clippings are about sales executives and company founders, developments in food safety, and the importance of hard work for company success.
Access Restrictions
This collection is open for research.
Language of Materials
English
Finding Aid & Administrative Information
- Title:
- Frigidaire Corporation sales scrapbook
- Author:
- Laurie Sather
- Date:
- 2022
- Description rules:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description:
- English
- Script of description:
- Latin
Repository Details
Repository Details
Part of the Audiovisual Collections Repository
