H.J. Heinz Company

A photographic history of one of America's oldest and best-loved companies, and a study in how to “do the common thing uncommonly well.”

In 1869, the American diet was a dreary affair. Kitchen staples included bread, potatoes, other root vegetables, and meat. Tomatoes—at the time called “love apples”—were an exotic fruit. Then, twenty-five-year-old Henry J. Heinz helped to change all of that.

Heinz established his company based on a single premise: quality. He demonstrated this commitment by bottling his first product, grated horseradish, in clear glass jars to showcase its purity. From his hometown near Pittsburgh, Heinz sparked a revolution. A colorful marketing genius, he was a foresighted entrepreneur whose peripatetic travels birthed the global H.J. Heinz Company, which today is the most international of all United States-based food companies. This book contains vintage images from the archives of one of America’s first industrial photography studios—capturing both the products and the memorable and creative marketing from the “57 Varieties” company.