Manuscripts Collection
The company that would become International Multifoods Corporation
began as a small flour mill in 1892 on property leased in New Prague,
Minnesota. The mill was operated by F. A. Bean, Sr., a man who, with his
father, had previously owned the Polar Star Milling Company of Faribault which,
in 1890 or 1891, had closed with an amassed debt of over $100,000. After four
years of profitable operation at the New Prague site and at a site purchased in
Wells, Minnesota, Bean lost the New Prague lease due to questionable
circumstances surrounding the owner's redemption of mortgages held against the
property.
[F.A. Bean, "Interesting Events in the Early Days of the Company,"
In 1902, ten years after its initial start-up, the New Prague Flouring Mill expanded by acquiring a mill in Wells, Minnesota. Four years later the company acquired a third operation in Davenport, Iowa. In 1908 the company purchased the Moose Jaw Milling Company in Saskatchewan, Canada and began its international operations by marketing the Robin Hood brand of flours. The company was renamed International Milling Company in 1910 and, in 1912, Bean repaid the debts owed by the Polar Star Milling Company from some 20 years previous.
Throughout the remaining first half of the twentieth century, International Milling Company continued to expand operations within both the United States and Canada by acquiring or building additional mills in New York, Texas, Minnesota, Michigan, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec. To augment its manufacturing operations the company added docks, terminal elevators, and warehouses to its assets. Beginning in 1951, the company diversified its trade lines through the purchase of the Eagle Roller Mill Company of New Ulm, Minnesota, manufacturers of rye flours and the Supersweet animal formula feeds. By the early 1960s the company had mills manufacturing feed products in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.
During the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s the company continued
to expand its international operations and to diversify its product lines.
Flour mills in Puerto Cabello and Maracaibo, Venezuela were opened under the
subsidiary Robin Hood Flour Mills Limited of Molinos Nacionales C.A. (MONACA).
A sales office was opened in Caracas in 1960 and mill facilities were purchased
in Cumana and constructed in Valencia. An Ecuadorian feed mill was purchased in
1961 and was replaced by new facilities in 1966. In 1965, after acquiring
several poultry and egg operations across the midwestern United States, the
company "purchased a substantial (approximately 50%) interest in La Hacienda,
an agricultural processing and manufacturing business in Mexico. Included in
the business were three formula feed plants, an alfalfa dehydration plant, a
feed equipment fabricating factory, three chicken hatcheries and seven poultry
farms."
[From the chronology in Harry's Bay Research Files found in the
Historical Background series of the International Multifoods Corporation
corporate records.]
The 1960s and 1970s were a period of self examination, reorganization, and movement toward an increased presence in consumer markets. In 1964 the corporation first offered common stock to the public. In 1970 the company renamed itself International Multifoods Corporation and, in August of 1971, began listing its stock on the New York Stock Exchange. During this time the public relations department undertook a number of studies regarding the corporation's identity, examining its name, symbol, and logo. Product diversification continued and the corporation entered the consumer foods market with prepared mixes, delicatessen items, and frozen foods. At the same time, the corporation also began restaurant franchising and marketing home interior accessories. Some of the companies acquired during this time included the Kretschmer Wheat Germ Company of Carrollton, Michigan (1964); Bick's of Canada, a pickle manufacturer, (1966); Mister Donut of Weston, Massachusetts (1970); Kaukauna Cheese of Kaukauna, Wisconsin (1972); Freeman-McFarlin of El Monte, California and Nadler Lighting of Cleveland, Ohio (1973); Smokecraft of Albany, Oregon (1976); Hickory Farms of Wichita, Kansas (1978); and Morey Fish Company of Motley, Minnesota (1979).
Following this period of expansion and diversification, the corporation underwent major restructuring in the 1980s and early 1990s in an effort to increase efficiency and to streamline its operations. During this time many of the companies acquired throughout the 1960s and 1970s were divested including its interior decorative lines, its consumer and pet food operations, its restaurant franchises, and its agricultural operations. As part of this streamlining the corporation even sold to General Mills, Inc. the operations which gave the company its start, the United States flour milling firms. By 1992, the year of the company's centennial, Multifoods enjoyed a major presence in the food industry with over $2 billion in annual sales.
Historical background files (1895-1992), office and plant facilities (1895-1992), general correspondence (1900-1990), reports (1938-1995), financial records (1876-1988), legal records (1885-1974), subject files (1920-1974), public relations files (1911-2000) including microfilmed files (1914-1987), corporate contribution files (1970-1991), ephemera (1920-1955), printed material (1891-1992), photographs (1861-1985), sound recordings ([ca. 1941]-1976), and visual recordings (1933-1981) documenting one of Minnesota's largest agricultural and food processing firms. Also includes corporate records of Shellabarger's Inc. (1887-1952), a Kansas flour mill acquired by Multifoods in 1947.
Of particular note are the oral histories conducted between 1958 and 1965 with senior executives and office, mill, and laboratory personnel; the printed materials and the sound and visual recordings, which provide information about the company's history and advertising campaigns; and the extensive exterior and interior photographs of the corporation's office and plant facilities.
The collection contains historical, biographical, fiscal, legal, pictorial, and printed information on the evolution of the New Prague Flouring Mill into International Multifoods Corporation. The bulk of the collection covers the corporation's executive officers, its office and plant facilities, product lines, advertising, and packaging. Topics include the acquisition and divestment of company subsidiaries, the diversification or consolidation of product lines, and the packaging and marketing of products. Photographs and printed material are heavily represented, as well as sound and visual recordings.
The collection was initially compiled by the corporation's public relations department in 1957 to augment the publication of its internal newsletter and culminated in the 1992 publication of a centennial history at which time the collection was transferred to the Minnesota Historical Society. Record groups include various series from Shellabarger's Inc., a Kansas flour mill acquired by International Multifoods in 1947, and series from International Multifoods Corporation, itself.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
Annual reports for both International Milling Company and International Multifoods Corporation are available in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.
A set of the corporation's internal newsletter,
Three-dimensional objects including flour bags, packaging, and promotional displays have been transferred to the Minnesota Historical Society museum collections.
Company records, 1885-1969, of the Wabasha Roller Mill Company, acquired by International Multifoods in 1943, are available in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.
Materials pertaining to the Bean family are available in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections, cataloged separately as the F. A. Bean Papers (1893-1955) and the Atherton Bean Papers (1918-1998).
A history of the corporation's Canadian milling operations entitled,
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should
Access to records less than 25 years old requires written permission. News releases, clippings, commonly available publications, photographs, and sound and visual productions are excluded from this restriction. Restricted materials are noted in the box and container lists. Researchers wishing to see restricted materials must apply in writing for permission. Please consult the reference staff for more information.
Quotation or publication of anything based on records less than 25 years old requires written permission. News releases, clippings, commonly available publications, photographs, and sound and visual productions are excluded from this restriction.
Please consult the reference staff for more information.
Accession number: 14,992; 15,544; 16,038
Processed by: Monica Manny, June 1996; Lynn Leitte, August 2001
Catalog ID number: 09-00041686
Records from Shellabarger's Inc. (1887-1952) include an historical background file containing a souvenir booklet from 1926, a letterpress copybook for the period January 1 - April 9, 1887, and four volumes of minutes covering 1921-1928 and 1936-1952. The minutes record meetings of the board of directors, its executive committee, and stockholders, and covers the period when the company was purchased by International Multifoods Corporation.
Series within the International Multifoods Corporation group include: historical background files (1895-1992, office and plant facilities (1895-1982), general correspondence (1900-1990), reports (1938-1995), financial records (1876-1988), legal records (1885-1974), subject files (1920-1974), public relations files (1911-2000), corporate contributions (1970-1991), ephemera (1920-1955), maps (1926-1935), blueprints (1928-1933), printed materials (1891-1992), photographs (1861-1985), sound recordings ([ca. 1941]-1976), and visual recordings (1933-1981).
Materials relating to International Multifoods Corporation's organizational evolution, as well as biographical information on F. A. Bean, Sr., F. A. Bean, Jr., and other corporate executives. Subseries include biographical files (1911-1967), organizational files (1886-1990), literary works (1900-1965), office and plant facilities (1895-1982), and oral history project (1955-1965). Documents within these files include correspondence, memoranda, anecdotal narratives, chronologies, essays, meeting presentation speeches, F. A. Bean, Jr.'s college thesis on Minnesota warehouse law, and references to articles appearing in the corporation's internal newsletter. To supplement information contained within this series, researchers may wish to review the employee training publications, the filmstrips, or the documentary motion pictures for items that highlight the corporation's history, structure, mission, and products.
Files include biographical sketches and photographs of corporate executive officers.
Particularly noteworthy are Harry Bay's research files, which were compiled as part of an effort to write a corporate history. The research files include an 1840-1983 chronology of the company detailing its acquisitions, divestitures, and personnel changes; biographical and genealogical notes on Charles Ritz (president, 1943-1955; chairman of the board, 1955-1965); and photocopies of bank ledgers from the Bank of New Prague for the New Prague Flouring Mill (1902-1909).
Other highly informative materials are the oral history project interviews conducted between 1958 and 1965. A total of 19 individuals were interviewed for this project including high profile executives, such as Atherton Bean and Charles Ritz, as well as mill, office, and laboratory employees. These interviews provide rich detail on the policies and practices of the company, as well as intimate glimpses into the personalities of the company's founder and senior executives. The interviews are available both in their original audio format and as typewritten transcripts. See the sound recordings section of the Detailed Description for the audio format of these interviews.
Transcript references to tapes (Tape 1, Tape 2, etc.) refer to the original reel-to-reel audio tapes (the restricted master recordings), not to the sound cassettes (the user copies) available in Box 13 of the collection.
The files on the company's office and plant facilities provide information about the company's mill, warehouse, and elevator sites, but are not all inclusive. These files are arranged alphabetically by state, thereunder by city. Sites outside the United States are filed by nation, province, and city. The files may include correspondence, historical narratives, reports, studies, site plans, newspaper clippings, photocopies from industrial and business reference sources, postcards, and other illustrative material.
The general correspondence files contain less than 0.5 cu. ft. of letters, memoranda, file notes, departmental reports, committee minutes, clippings, and internal announcements, which contain extremely scattered evidence of the company's management decisions. Materials within these files appear to have originated from the offices of F. A. Bean, Jr., Atherton Bean, and William G. Phillips.
Researchers should note that annual reports for International Multifoods Corporation are available within the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.
Files include planning materials, photos, and speeches.
Materials represented within the financial records provide limited and incomplete information. The financial series are arranged alphabetically by document type.
Some are copies and transcripts of originals.
These records consist of balance sheets, income and loss statements, year end reports, and other compilations of financial data. They are not audits or formal publications on the company finances.
The legal records include a wide variety of documents that provide very limited evidence of the corporation's business activities.
This company was set up to oversee employee purchases of stock and buy back of said stock upon retirement or death of the employee.
The subject files, A-W (1920-1974), cover a wide variety of topics and include manuals, mill studies and proposals, sales circulars, and dock and site plans. Of particular note are the manuals, which cover such issues as flour milling and laboratory procedures, cable and telegraph codes, and sales methods. Other topics within the subject files include bulk flour handling, plant capacities, and wheat consumption. Keys to the corporation's personnel may be found in a 1945 roster for Robin Hood and in a 1948 telephone directory for the Minneapolis headquarters. Of note are two folders containing the reports and minutes of a business simplification analysis committee (1958-1959). The committee was charged with analyzing the cost-efficiency of the multiple flour brands and grades marketed by the corporation.
Public relations files include both subject files (1920-1992) and an extensive series of news clippings (1911-1987) kept by the corporation's public relations department.
The subject files are arranged alphabetically by topic and contain correspondence, committee minutes, design sketches, news clippings, and press releases documenting some of the corporation's promotional activities, as well as the evolution of its name and logo. These files are richest for the 1960-1980 period, providing greatest detail on the corporation's New York Stock Exchange listing in 1971 and the diversification of its product lines during the 1970s. Also included within this series are files containing memoranda documenting the transfer of material within the archives. The archives files can provide clues to the original source and purpose of items contained within the Multifoods collection.
Includes logos for Durum Flour, International Milling Company, Mister Donut, and Robin Hood Flour.
The public relations department kept a sizable file of press and industry trade clippings published between 1911 and 1987. The bulk of these clippings date from 1957 through 1987. The majority are general in content, covering every aspect of the corporation's life, and represent news coverage from across the United States, Canada, and Venezuela. The files were arranged on a chronological basis and can provide a quick, factual overview of market trends and issues, corporate developments, personnel changes, and local news regarding the corporation's products and its various office and plant facilities. Some of the clippings may not appear in chronological order or may appear in reverse chronological order.
Microfilmed as M592 by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes, the clippings were originally filed in various arrangements and formats. Some were pasted into scrapbooks, some were pasted onto backing sheets of paper, and some were loosely filed in envelopes and folders according to year or subject groupings. Clippings from October 1972 to September 1984 (with the exclusion of 1980) were filed as individual articles in chronological order by their publication source. The inventory for M592 provides additional information about the clippings.
Two subject-specific clipping files are arranged at the end of the general clippings series. The first of these pertains to an explosion at the Davenport, Iowa mill in 1975. The second file contains 1964-1971 clippings concerning William G. Phillips, president and chief executive officer of the corporation between 1969 and 1985.
Includes reports, memos, and budgets relating the foundations charitable contributions.
The ephemera consist of awards, dinner menus, a guest book,
resolutions, and a tribute used in special events sponsored by the corporation
to honor particular individuals on the occasion of their retirements,
birthdays, or deaths. The ephemera also includes a few externally-generated
items, most notably an award issued to F. A. Bean, Jr. by the Minnesota
Commission of Public Safety for his wartime service (1920), and a menu from a
dinner given by the publishers of
Annotated in red, orange, and green pencil with Robin Hood northern stocks, railroads, airports, and other transportation routes.
Annotated in red and orange pencil.
Printed material includes the following subseries: advertising (1891-1992), cookbooks and recipes (1910-1988), newsletters (1975-1991), packaging (1912-1986), price lists (1916-1948), and publications (1930-1967).
Advertising materials are arranged alphabetically by product and include pamphlets, flyers, and posters directed to the wholesale and consumer retail markets. The advertising subseries also includes a set of advertising proofs and a set of three scrapbooks containing cards and newspaper clippings documenting the United States and Canadian advertisement of products manufactured by Brodie & Harvie, a Montreal milling company acquired by International Multifoods in 1952. The cards and clippings appear in English, French, and Hebrew.
The cookbooks and recipes section include general cookbooks for flour-based baking as well as recipes for specific product lines. The files are arranged alphabetically by publisher, milling company, or product and are further arranged in alphabetical order by title under each publishing source. Individual cookbook titles are indicated by italics in the container list. For folders where an individual title is not indicated, recipes in pamphlet, loose leaf, or card formats are evident. Some Robin Hood Flour titles are bilingual, being printed in both English and French; some are wholly French. One title, published by Monaca, is in Spanish. In some instances, a cookbook may have been published in both English and French editions. Subsequent and revised editions are filed in the same folder with earlier editions.
The newsletters consist of scattered runs of four internal
publications aimed at corporation employees, retirees, and their families.
These publications are arranged alphabetically by title and include:
The Minnesota Historical Society serials collection also
includes a complete set of
Packaging samples are arranged alphabetically by product name. Materials within this series include examples of jar labels, boxes, flour and bird seed bags, merchandise tags, menus, napkins, drinking cups, and other printed items associated with the retail packaging, marketing, or consumption of International Multifoods products. Information provided by the samples includes product symbols and brand logos, ingredients, packaging weights, and consumer directions. The samples attest to the wide diversification of International Multifoods product lines during the 1960s and 1970s. Included within these samples are evidence of the corporation's entry into livestock feed and veterinary products, restaurant franchises, and home interior decorative accessories. Evidence of the corporation's veterinary lines is included in the form of jar labels from AgriPharm and Osborne products, and its livestock feed products are demonstrated in the form of Supersweet packaging samples. Evidence of the corporation's home interiors product lines are included in the form of merchandise tags for Freeman-McFarlin potteries and Nadler Lighting. The corporation's entry into restaurant franchising is evidenced by items from Boston Sea Party and Mister Donut.
Researchers should note that approximately 5.0 cu. ft. of flour bags, three-dimensional displays, and other packaging items were transferred to the Minnesota Historical Society museum collections.
Limited information about the wholesale cost of Multifood's mill products is provided in the price lists for commodities marketed by Brodie & Harvie (1939) and the Eagle Roller Mill of New Ulm (1916). More complete information is provided by the Robin Hood Mills wholesale price lists, which cover a thirty-one year period (1917-1948). The price lists also include a booklet (1931) detailing the costs charged by the Terminal Dock and Warehouse Co. (a Vancouver facility built by the International Milling Company between 1925 and 1928) for the wharfage, handling, loading, and storage of commodities. This booklet also describes the dock's services and facilities.
The publications include printed materials which were not
specifically used for advertising purposes but which may have been used as
promotional items or as educational literature aimed toward the household
consumer. Included within this series are such promotional items as a 1941
booklet entitled
Included within the publications are a set of booklets which
were specifically aimed toward employee training. Some of these publications,
such as
Photographs are heavily represented within the collection, comprising 3.0 cu. ft. The majority of the photographs are black and white 8" x 10" prints, but a large number of smaller format and color prints are also included, as well as a small number of cyanotypes and oversize black and white prints. Many of the photographs were used in the corporation's newsletters and are accompanied by their newsletter captions. Many are unidentified. The photographs have been arranged as subseries in alphabetical order.
The photograph album carries captions for each photograph and may evidence an item which was produced for promotional purposes. The captions provide explanations of the milling process, the machinery used in milling, and the corporation's laboratory and baking proof tests.
Photographs depicting the corporation's office and plant
facilities represent the greatest bulk of the series and are further arranged
by facility type (i.e. elevators, feed mills, flour mills, headquarters,
laboratories, pet food plant, poultry operations, research and development
center, shipping, Supersweet research farm, and warehouses). Within each type
of facility the photographs are further arranged by location. Views include
exteriors, aerials, panoramas, and interiors. Interior views may include
illustrations of plant machinery and laboratory amenities. Identified views of
docks, Great Lakes carriers, railroad yards and cars, truck trailers, and bulk
handling equipment are arranged by location under the heading
The portraits include both individual and group photographs illustrating the business and recreational faces of the corporation's senior executives. Portraits of individuals include each of the Bean family members who served as corporate executives as well as portraits of Charles Ritz, William G. Phillips, and several sales agents. Several candid photographs of F. A. Bean, Jr. as a young man with unidentified family members and friends are included under his name. One amusing cyanotype shows F. A. Bean, Jr., an amateur photographer, taking a self-portrait in front of a mirror. Group portraits depict various attendees at board of directors', management, sales, and stockholders' meetings. Other group portraits include prints of a football team sponsored by the Seal of Minnesota flour brand, in which F. A. Bean, Jr. is also depicted.
The sound recordings include advertising (radio commercials and product jingles, 1967-1976), filmstrip and motion picture soundtracks (1960-1965), interviews (1958-1964, 1970-1971), profit-sharing messages (1954), recordings of sales and stockholders' meeting presentations (undated, 1963), and a few broadcast programs (1941-1948). The recordings exist as 33-1/3 rpm sound discs and as cassettes and 1/4" reel-to-reel audio tape.
Corresponding transcripts of these recordings are available in Box 2.
Visual recordings include both 35mm color filmstrips and 35mm and 16mm motion pictures.
Amariya; Robin Hood; Monaca; La Comadre.
The filmstrips were primarily used as employee training tools
between 1960 and 1969, providing background information on the corporation's
history and organization. A number of filmstrips addressing workplace accident
prevention are also included. Some of the filmstrips are accompanied by
soundtracks on 33-1/3 rpm sound discs. Revisions or French editions of
soundtracks for the filmstrips
See Sound Recordings for audio tape soundtrack.
See Sound Recordings for French narration audio tape.
See Sound Recordings for revised audio tape.
See Sound Recordings for Charlie Boone final track and revised audio tapes.
Motion pictures include both color and black and white films, some with accompanying soundtracks, which were used for both advertising and documentary purposes. Two television broadcasts of interviews with William G. Phillips (president, 1969-1974; chairman and CEO, 1970-1985) are also included. The films are arranged in the Detailed Description according to their purpose. Advertising films are further arranged by product line. One reel of advertising film contains Japanese commercials for Mister Donut. The documentary films are arranged by title. Included within the documentary films are a series illustrating the corporation's office and plant facilities in both the United States and Canada. Also included within the documentary films is one reel illustrating a tour of the Soviet Union taken by Charles Ritz (president, 1943-1955; chairman, 1955-1965) in 1956.
Used during 1965 Employee Meeting regarding IMCo.'s public ownership. See Public Relations, Subject Files, Archives, March 15, 1965. See Sound Recordings for audio tape of motion picture soundtrack.
New Prague Mill, Minneapolis Office, Davenport Mill, Buffalo Office and Plant, Sioux City Mystic Mills, Moose Jaw Mill, Calgary, Saskatoon Plant, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ft. William, Montreal, Greenville Plant.
Minneapolis Office, St. Louis Park Interior Elevator, New Prague, Wabasha, New Ulm Rye, St. Paul A, St. Paul B, Duluth Elevator, Davenport, Salina Mill and Elevator, Newton, Blackwell, Ponca City, Greenville, Atlanta, New York City, Buffalo, Lockport, Baldwinsville, Cleveland, Detroit.
Bulk flour; automatic bag closer on Bemis Packer.
Montreal Office, Montreal Plant, Brodie & Harvie, Quebec Sales Office, Moncton, Humberstone, Toronto Sales Office, Winnipeg Sales Office, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, Calgary, Ft. William Dock, Vancouver.
Exterior and interior; Packing Department assembly line.
Conveyor bridge and new railroad siding alongside starch plant.
Conveyor system and spiral chute for loading feed bags.
Includes 16mm films and reel-to-reel audio recordings. Some are advertisements; the remainder are unidentified.
Use copies of Project Correspondence and Transcripts are available in Box 2. Use copies of the recordings are available in Box 13.
No corresponding sound recording is available.
No corresponding sound recording is available.
36 sound cassettes; arranged chronologically by year, thereunder alphabetically by name of person interviewed. Reproduced by Hal Johnson, MHS, September-October 1996: