Finding Aids

The Dayton Display Fixture Company manufactured and sold grocery store display equipment. Headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, the firm operated between 1919 and World War II, selling metal shelving and refrigerated and electrified fruit and vegetable displays. This collection consists of a single album containing sales sample photographs that show product and floor displays for grocery store fruits and vegetables and dry goods in the 1930s.

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.

Kelvinator was founded in Detroit in 1916. Nathaniel B. Wales (1883-1974) was the founding engineer, and he had been developing home refrigeration units. By 1923, Kelvinator had the lion’s share of the electric refrigerator market at eighty percent. This album appears to be a wholesaler's catalog showing sketched illustrations of the exteriors and interiors of Kelvinator refrigerator models.

Frigidaire Corporation manufactures and distributes major appliances for domestic and industrial use. By 1929, Frigidaire sold one million refrigerators. This item is a floor demonstration display catalog, a well-illustrated sales pitch for purchasing Frigidaire's refrigerators. It includes text, diagrams, color plates of Frigidaire models, and black-and-white photographs.