Whitman's

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An old ad from a wartime newspaper printed in France, circa 1918.

Whitman's is one of America's largest and oldest chocolate production companies. Originally a "confectionery and fruiterer shoppe" set up in 1842 by 19 year old Stephen F. Whitman on a Philadelphia waterfront, Whitman's first became popular with travelling sailors and their wives. They would often bring imported fruits, nuts and cocoa from their trips back to Mr. Whitman so that he could make the popular European confections people craved in that era. Before long Whitman's chocolates were popular all along the north-eastern section of the United States.

The first prepackaged Whitman's candy was produced in 1854. It was a box of sugar plums adorned with curlicues and rosebuds. Whitman then began advertising in newspapers, shortly before the beginning of the Civil War. The business thrived and in 1866 an entire building at 12th and Market Streets in Philadelphia was taken over by the company. In 1877, Instantaneous Chocolates were introduced in tin boxes that became much admired. Whitman's introduced the perennial popular and still best selling Whitman's Sampler in 1912. This marked the first use of cellophane by the candy industry. In 1946 Whitman's helped General Electric to develop a refrigerated display case to prevent melting of the product and extend the selling season through the summer months.

Besides the Whitman's Sampler, Pickaninny Peppermints were also a popular Whitman confection. However, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and, at the time, NAACP lawyer took issue with the name. In a 1941 article directed at Whitman's published in the Afro-American, Marshall urged Whitman's Candies to realize its racial insensitivity. Whitman's denied the term "pickaninny" was racist and responded to Marshall by saying that it meant "cute colored kid." Still the product was soon dropped.

Whitman's has enjoyed over 160 years of chocolate production since its beginning. They have also maintained a longstanding tradition of supporting American servicemen and servicewomen during wartime. During World War I millions of tins were shipped to American soldiers throughout the world. During World War II, women at the Whitman's production line secretly slipped handwritten notes of encouragement into candy boxes to help soothe soldiers' homesickness.

In the early 1960s, Whitman's was purchased by Pet, Inc., an evaporated milk company that was in the process of becoming a food products conglomerate. In 1978, Pet was acquired by IC Industries in a hostile takeover.^[1] In 1993, the Whitman's brand was sold to Russell Stover Candies ^[2], the major supplier of boxed candy in the United States. Russell Stover began as a family business in Denver, Colorado in 1923. It remained a private partnership until 1969. It now distributes to 50 company stores and 40,000 other outlets, having expanded internationally to Canada, Mexico, Australia, and the United Kingdom.