Cream of Wheat Corporation

Product Details

Beautifully engraved antique stock certificate from the Cream of Wheat Corporation dating back to the 1960's. This document, which contains the printed signatures of the company President and Secretary, was printed by the American Bank Note Company, and measures approximately 12" (w) by 8" (h).

This certificate features the company's iconic "Rastus" the chef, flanked by shocks of wheat.

Images

You will receive the exact certificate pictured.

Historical Context

In 1889, Emery Mapes, the former publisher and editor of the Nelson County News in Lakota, moved to Grand Forks to go into the milling business with George Bull. The two men purchased the milling machinery from the Diamond Flour Mill after a fire had destroyed the company's original milling facility near Mankato, Minnesota.

The mill's new operator, Tom Amidon, discovered that a smooth white cereal was the result of cooking the wheat farina. This new cereal was given the name Cream of Wheat. After sending some samples to New York brokers, they received orders for many more boxes of the cereal. In early 1897, when Mapes and Bull realized the demand for their cereal was high and sales were likely to increase, they decided to move their company to Minneapolis, a much better location for distribution.

On May 1, 1897, Bull suffered a heart attack and died. Mapes took over supervision of the booming company in its new location, and, through his insistence, quality control was given top priority. He used his experience as a publisher to implement great strides in the area of advertising. One day while eating at a Minneapolis diner, Mapes was served by a smiling, African-American waiter, and it suddenly occurred to him that a depiction of this man should serve as the symbol for his new cereal.

Mapes rushed back to his office and hastily sketched out a drawing of the waiter and dressed the man in a "rakishly tilted chef cap." He named the chef "Rastus," and the idea for a highly successful advertising campaign had begun. Years later, his advertisements were judged to be racist because the likable Rastus was seen as a stereotypical uneducated African-American servant.

The primary directive given to the artists by Mapes was to create illustrations that would catch the attention and appreciation of the target population — mothers. Very little attention was to be given to the taste of the product and mention of nutritional value was nonexistent. The Rastus ads were run in all of the popular magazines of the time and soon one-quarter of the entire Cream of Wheat expenditures — $500,000 — was plugged into advertising, an unprecedented practice at that time.

Mapes' competitors deemed the ads a waste of money because "advertisements that failed to mention positive attributes about their product were doomed to failure." Mapes proved them wrong when his product, Cream of Wheat, became a major cereal on the world-wide market.

Under Mapes’ leadership, Cream of Wheat became the top-selling hot breakfast cereal, replacing Quaker Oats.

Mapes credited much of the success of his cereal to the numerous and colorful Rastus illustrations. The picture's popularity was much like Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers that appeared 40 years later. According to a 1916 article in Printers Ink, "There are thousands of persons who collect Cream of Wheat illustrations faithfully."

Because of the success of Cream of Wheat, Mapes gained the admiration of the advertising community, and he also became very wealthy. In 1913, he was elected president of the Association American Advertisers. On Lake Minnetonka, southwest of Minneapolis, Mapes had a showcase brick Renaissance Revival palace constructed, and it was among the biggest mansions on the lake.

Despite the success of the company, turmoil existed within top management. Of the three original partners — Mapes, George Bull, and George Clifford — only Mapes was still alive 20 years after the formation of the company. Daniel Bull replaced his father, and Fred Clifford had replaced his brother.

While Fred Clifford tried to oust Mapes, Daniel Bull sided with Mapes and forced Clifford to the sidelines. The infighting took a toll on Mapes, and he "developed a drinking problem that hastened his death," which occurred on October 9, 1921.

The Cream of Wheat Corporation remained a single-product company run by three generations of the Bull family and two generations of the Mapes and Clifford families for 69 years. In 1961, it was purchased by Nabisco.