history of the dennison manufacturing company, part 5

     In 1878 Frank E. Ewing was employed as office boy in the Cincinnati store of T Dennison &. Co. He traveled in Ohio and the central states for a time and was then transferred to New York in 1886. Mr. Ewing gave up traveling in the early 1990s and specialized in selling Dennison goods to business consumers. In 1898 he was given charge of the entire sales organization of the New York division. In 1909 he was elected a director and was transferred to Framingham. Mr. Ewing became vice-president in April, 1910, and was elected president of the company in October, 1912. He relinquished the presidency in 1917, but remained on the board of directors until his retirement in 1918.

      The following president of the company, Henry S. Dennison, was a grandson of the founder. He entered the company's employ July 17, 1899, at Framingham. After working on various jobs he was made foreman of the wax department and then later transferred to the factory office. He was appointed works-manager in 1906, elected a director in 1909 and treasurer in 1912. In 1917 he was elected president.

Some of the First Catalogues. The Three Pictured below are from 1919.

      The first Dennison catalogue of which a copy remains was printed in the early seventies. It was pocket size and contained but 24 pages. As the line grew, more pretentious books were issued, and in the eighties there were published quite sizable catalogues bound in boards with woodcuts of our stores on the front cover, and cuts of the various factories on the back cover. Turning into the new century the catalogues expanded into books of over a hundred pages and were properly illustrated in color.

      The Dennison catalogues, like the goods which they illustrate, enjoy the reputation in their field of being the best published.

An "Ad" in 1860 and One Which Appeared in the "Ladies' Home Journal," Dec. 1919.

Office in Buenos Aires
and below
Corner of London Salesroom

      "People began talking about the Dennison goods seventy-five years ago, and more people have talked about the same thing each year, so that now it is just a truthful statement to say that millions of people know our name. The quality of Dennison goods is the most important factor in all of our advertising and without it there would be no advertising." 1919 quote

      When Mr. Dennison invented the shipping tag he began to put his name on the patch eyelet. This was publicity gratis, but it was very valuable. Think of the billions of tags imprinted with the name Dennison which circulated all over the globe since 1863. By 1920, one could find the Dennison imprint on practically all of the goods that were made.

      Mr. Dennison believed in advertising and in the early days his advertisement appeared in trade journals and on the backs of directories. The advertising program grew with the business and in addition to many special instruction booklets, the dealers helps prepared yearly, a successful campaign in the magazines with a view of introducing more Dennison goods into homes across America.

      The first move toward developing an export business was made in 1884 when Charles S. Dennison went to London to open a branch there. He entered into a business agreement with a firm of English manufacturing stationers, Mrs. Cooper and Walkden, and the name of the concern became Cooper, Dennison &. Walkden.

Office at Framingham
and below
Factory for crepe paper

      In 1912 this partnership was dissolved and they incorporated an English company known as Dennison Manufacturing Co., Ltd., to sell their goods in Great Britain. A continental office was opened at the same time in Germany, but the beginning of the war put a stop to activities on that continent.

      Dennison travelers began to go to Cuba and Mexico 1900. In 1913 an office was opened in Buenos Aires to take care of the South American trade, and in 1917 a office was opened in Rio de Janeiro. Since the signing of the armistice, offices were opened in Mexico City and Copenhagen, and Dennison representatives started to make trips to Australia and the Philippines.

      A world market for Dennison goods was rapidly established.

   
The following figures were recorded by the company in 1919: 

Some of the "Old Guard"

      The Dennison business is one of small units and the average order is comparatively small. We make 10,000 stock items. Each day the Dennison workers produce over 15,000,000 separate pieces of merchandise. Over 100,000 customers are on our books. In round numbers 1,000 orders flow in every day."

      Think a few minutes about the figures just given and you can realize the scope of the Dennison business. Every store, factory and home is using or is a prospective user of Dennison goods.

      Seventy-five years ago we had one salesman and we turned out a few hundred gross of jeweler's boxes in a year.

      The business which E. W. Dennison called "Aaron's baby" has surely grown to a man's estate.

      The greatest feature of Dennison manufactured products is quality, and the principal attribute o Dennison men and women is loyalty. One Dennison worker, old in years but young in spirit, in telling how she worked for us first in Boston, then in Roxbury, and finally in Framingham, said, "I suppose if  the Dennison had moved to China, I would have gone with them."

• Under the supervision of Eliphalet Dennison, the company developed into the Dennison Manufacturing Company, which existed until 1990 when it merged and became the Avery Dennison Corporation with headquarters in Pasadena, California.
• Read more about Aaron Lufkin Dennison

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5