As regular readers of this blog know, I enjoy looking through old magazines to see what folks were interested in during any given month and year. This is especially helpful in constructing fictional characters because those old periodicals provide subjects that they might have discussed at the kitchen table or in their favorite tavern. The advertisements can also tell the reader what the popular products were, all of which leads me to Snider’s Catsup.
Does anyone remember this brand?
In reading through the February 17, 1947 issue of Life magazine, I discovered a full-page ad for Snider’s Catsup, a brand that I never knew existed. An internet search revealed a television commercial from 1956, meaning that it was still around when I was about to enter the world, yet, as a brand, it seems to have just disappeared. The photo caption of one of its shipping crates, posted by the National Museum of American History, states that the company began as the T. A. Snider Preserve Company of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1879 and was one of the largest catsup makers by the turn of the 20th century. A Pinterest page indicates that Snider’s was also manufactured in Marion, Indiana.
An on-line article on the television show Mad Men lists Snider’s as a brand that existed at the time the show opens, adding that it was bought and sold by the Bird’s Eye division of General Foods, which apparently had already happened by 1947 when the Life magazine ad appeared, because “General Foods” appears in very small print in the ad itself.
Further searching on the Internet reveals all kinds of ads and bottles for sale on e-Bay, but no real information on the company or what happened to it.
Therefore, I’m calling on all readers to become detectives! First, does anyone remember Snider’s Catsup? Second, I know I have at least one reader each in Cincinnati and in Indiana: Do you all have any local information on Snider’s? I’d like some company as I dive down this catsup rabbit hole!
Nope! Never heard of it.
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No one has yet!
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I remember it from the sixties in Chicago. They had tomato and sweet pepper versions.
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Good to know that someone remembers!
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From Linnea’s Bottles and History Blog:
The TA Snider Preserve Company
In 1879, 2 men, Thomas A Snider and Robert T Skinner formed a canning business based in Cincinnati, Ohio. According the the book Pure Ketchup, their tomato ketchup recipe was derived from Thomas’s wife’s tomato recipes, a woman well known for her excellent preserved food.
TA Snider Preserve company was later formed after Skinner and Snider dissolved the canning business. The TA Snider company was known for their use of all natural ingredients. The company often advertised the fact that the brand lacked preservatives to appeal to consumers who were looking for a healthier ketchup. TA Snider also sold canned tomato soup as well as canned beans, relish, and oyster sauce. His products were distributed around the United States and Canada. TA Snider was one of the most popular tomato ketchup brands in the United States.
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Thanks for sharing that information!
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I grew up in Eastern Iowa and my aunt, whose last name was Snyder, used it and I still remember how good it was. This would have been in the mid to late 50’s.
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Thanks for chiming in, John!
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I remember eating Snider’s Catsup in the 50s and 60s. It was the only kind my mom bought. She worked at the local A&P and purchased it there. When I got married in the early 70s, I would buy Heinz, because it didn’t taste as spicy or strong as Snider’s did. I don’t remember the last time I saw Snider’s in a store in the Chicago area, as that’s where I’ve lived my who life.
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Interesting! Thanks for commenting, Mari.
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