Flour mill: simplified model, use Gold Medal Flour. . . ; A kernel of wheat: Washburn-Crosby’s Gold Medal Flour. . . [Two large colour lithograph linen-backed posters].

Item Details

[Minneapolis, MN] & Chicago, IL:, Washburn-Crosby Co., Edwards & Deutsch Lithographing Co.,, ca. 1920]., N/A

First Editions, VG

Two large colour lithograph linen-backed posters sized 28 x 41 in., with the first illustrating the 24 steps with illustrations and text in green, black & red, green & red borders, and lettering; 2nd cutaway image of wheat kernel on deep blue background (minor edgewear, dustsoiling to fore-edges, some minor creasing & wear), still a VG pair of original posters.

First editions, thus, of these marvelous colour lithograph advertising and education posters detailing the Gold Medal Flour Milling process by the Washburn-Crosby Co. mills during the Progressive Era. Washburn-Crosby Co. had been founded in the 19th-Century, and after inventing the middlings purifier for producing high quality flour from the Spring wheat grown in Minnesota and the Dakotas, quickly expanded. Washburn-Crosby also introduced the gradual reduction process through pulverizing porcelain, chilled iron, or steel rollers to gradually pulverize the purified middlings and integrate the gluten with starch, and finally they installed the exhaust system of William de la Barre to reduce the risk of explostions. A smaller version of this cutaway design of a Washburn-Crosby flour mill first appeared in the 1915 Wheat & Flour Primer advertising their Gold Medal Flour, and this one was issued just a few hours later in a larger format detailing how the consumer could trust the purity of Gold Medal Flour. The second cutaway poster vividly illustrates the ideal Spring wheat kernel used by the company, and details the various layers, and their terminology. Edwards & Deutsch Lithographing Co. was first founded in 1896, and continued to be one of Chicago’s most successful poster and packaging colour lithography printers through the 1920’s. Worldcat locates 2 copies of the 1st (Cleveland Pub. & Nat. Agr. Lib.); No copies located of 2nd.