Finding Aids

Avon Products, Inc. is a manufacturer and direct selling company of beauty products. It is one of the oldest direct selling companies in America. The company was founded in 1886 by David H. McConnell (1856-1937) as the California Perfume Company (CPC). McConnell established a manufacturing headquarters and research laboratory in Suffern, New York, in the 1890s. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, CPC expanded its line of products to include cosmetics, household cleaners, food flavorings, and toiletries. The collection consists of photographs, negatives, slides, films, videos and sound recordings date from 1856 to 2000. The materials depict Avon products, their manufacture, packaging and sale, Avon employees and representatives and the offices, laboratories, factories and other structures owned by Avon Products, Inc. The collection is organized into ten series: Administration, Conferences, Non-sales employees, Domestic locations, International locations, Public relations, Sales managers and representatives, Selling methods and sales aids, Company history and philosophy, and Library, music, and museum.

The Zanol Products Company was a door-to-door consumer goods distributor. Founded in Cincinnati, Ohio circa 1908, Zanol developed its own line of household products which the company sold directly to consumers via door-to-door representatives. This collection consists of one salesman's case containing pamphlets, trade cards, trade catalogs, sewing needle cases, books of blank order forms, and other ephemera from the Zanol Products Company.