Puffed Wheat

Title: Universal Exposition of 1904
Type: Document
Date: 1904
Source: Jean Chesley, Red Wing, Minnesota

Description: The American Cereal Company operated a concession stand introducing puffed rice at the Universal Exposition of 1904 in St. Louis.
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Activities:

1. How much did the American Cereal Company make in gross receipts (total sales) at its concession stand during the Exposition? How much of that money did the American Cereal Company need to give to the Exposition company (net collections) to pay for use of the booth?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The American Cereal Company made a total of $8,723.65 at its concession booth selling rice puffs. From this total, $2,226.41 went to the company that ran the fair.
2. The signs on the booth call rice puffs "The New Confection." A confection usually refers to a kind of candy or treat. Why might the American Cereal Company have used this term to describe a cereal? How do you think the product was sold at the fair?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: When the Exposition was held, rice puffs were a fairly new invention and the American Cereal Company was not yet sure how to market them. At the Exposition they were sold as a food similar to popcorn or candy—a consumer bought a bag of the puffs and ate them as a snack.
3. The man in the center of the photograph is Alexander P. Anderson, the inventor of puffed rice and puffed wheat. How might we be able to identify the other people in the photograph?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Without a caption to the photograph, this could be difficult. We could study the company records to find a list of the people who were employed at the booth, or ask those who worked for the company in the past to identify some of the workers. The older a source becomes, the less likely we are to find anyone able to identify the people in the photograph.
4. What do you think might be in the "cage" in the middle of the booth? Why would the American Cereal Company include this in their display?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The machinery inside the cage was probably the machinery that would make the puffed rice to sell at the Exposition. The company may have decided to puff it at the fair because the cereal was easier to ship unpuffed—it took up less space and couldn't get crushed as easily. Also, puffing it at the booth would ensure a fresh product and satisfy the interest of visitors who wanted to see how the product was created.