undated
GUSN-384820
Sign is a fragile paper board advertisement. Copy reads: Borden's Condensed Milk. Anchor Brand. W.K. Lewis & Brothers, Manufacturers of and Wholesale Dealers in Pickles, Preserves, Ketchups, Hermetically Sealed Meats, Fish, Etc. Boston.
The central 14 x 9 black-and-white photograph depicts a two-story, white painted, factory building with a smokestack in a large open field. A sign over the factory door reads " W.K. Lewis & Brothers Boston". 4 people stand on the porch and in doorways.
The highly stylized type on the sign has been colored gold, red, silver and blue with a smoke effect drawn onto the photograph.
Augustine H. Folsom, Photo; 113 Washington Street, Boston is printed in red type under the photograph.
advertising
business enterprises
shop signs
photographs
advertisements
signs (declatory or advertising artifacts)
black-and-white photography
typefaces (type forms)
1 paper board sign, black and white photograph; 21.75 x 18 inches
EP001
Ephemera collection
2025
EP001.15.050
Library & Archives Purchase
Boston (Suffolk county, Massachusetts)
Folsom, A. H. (Photographer)
advertisements
signs (declatory or advertising artifacts)
black-and-white photography
typefaces (type forms)
W.K. Lewis & Brothers
Manufacturing
Factory-made
Losses around edges and general brittleness. Sign is acidic and yellowing. Some discoloration and silvering on the photograph.
Item
Group portrait of the employees of the W.K. Lewis Brothers Pickle Factory, Broad Street, seated outdoors
Trade card for W.K. Lewis & Brothers, manufacturers and wholesale dealers in pickles, preserves, ketchups, syrups, No. 93 Broad Street, Boston, Mass., undated
The W.K. Lewis company was established by William K. Lewis around 1835 after several years apprenticed to and partnered with William Underwood - the first pickle manufacturer in America.
Lewis took what he had learned from his time with the William Underwood Company and implemented the production of processed meats, preserves and sauces in a building on Broad St. in Boston. The company expanded in 1842, including a facility in Portland, Maine - Lewis's hometown - that was producing "hermetically sealed meats, soups, fish, vegetables, poultry and milk." These items were in increasing demand as west-ward expansion flourished. Most particularly, the mass movement of people to California as part of the gold rush brought prosperity to canning companies like W.K. Lewis.
In 1859, W.K. Lewis purchased the right, under the patent of Gail Borden, to manufacture condensed milk; for which the company developed a factory at Shirley Village. 1865 saw the building of another condensed milk factory at West Brookfield. These factories utilized what was at the time the most state-of-the-art machinery and technology to manufacture and can such products. By the late 1870s the monthly production of the West Brookfield factory was 36,000 one-pound cans of condensed milk, and 6,000 quarts of "plain condensed milk."
Brooks, David.(2015, October 21) Friends of Schoharie Crossing. Blogspost. More Small Details - W.K. Lewis & Brothers Gherkins. www.friendsofschohariecrossing. Retrieved 02/12/2026
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