Shute & Merchant
advertising
The ad on the left is from an 1896 issue of Boston & Maine Courier. It repeats the same image used on the blotter, which was also used on the billheads for the firm around this same time. On the right is a 1906 ad from a Good Housekeeping magazine. This ad is for the same line of products being advertised on the post cards Shute & Merchant sent out to clients during that same year.
From a 1907 edition of the Good Housekeeping Magazine, in a section of “Notes on Campaign” they comment on food products being admitted to the GH Roll of Honor: Shute & Merchant’s codfish in glass, Shute & Merchant, Gloucester Mass, a particularly find articel, carefully prepared in the most cleanly and attractive manner, free of preservatives. This particular section of the issue, was commenting on the petitions to congress and the state legislatures regarding signing a petition in support of an Act related to good food.
In 1894, Shute & Merchant ran a half-page ad in the New England Kitchen Magazine. In another section of that issue, the publisher included notes about some of the items included in the magazine, including the Shute & Merchant ad. (the notes indicate the ad would be found on page 120, but it was actually on page 118 of that issue)
This ad also helps to confirm that it was at least as early as 1894 the firm was offering copies of its cookbook. All you need to do was to send them three 2 cent stamps, and a copy of the cookbook would be mailed to you.
During the time period from 1904 to 1906, Shute & Merchant placed a number of ads in the popular Youth's Companion Magazine.
Many of these were also used in the later editions of their cookbook.
