Coca-Cola Racing Family In The Archives

I received two big boxes of artifacts for the Archives this week.  The team that works with NASCAR and the Coca-Cola Racing Family had told me to expect some items, but when I opened the box I was amazed.  It contained autographed helmets, hats, jackets and even a giant Powerade bottle used as a trackside display.  They will also be delivering a few of the Coca-Cola Racing Family vending machine fronts the Friday.  The rare Dale Earnhardt vend front will be included with the delivery.

The jacket I am wearing in the photo was autographed by Dale Jarrett, Kyle Petty, Tony Stewart, Jeff Buton, Bobby Labonte, Steve Park, Bill Elliot, Ricky Rodd, John Andretti and Michael Waltrip.  It will look great in some future exhibit as the World of Coca-Cola!

Watermelon Queen and Coca-Cola

I found a couple of interesting items today as I reviewed a collection of letters written by Coca-Cola Bottlers around the world addressed to J.J. Willard, the editor of the Coca-Cola Bottler magazine.  The bottlers were sharing photographs and stories they hoped Willard would include in the publication.  The collection dated between 1930 and 1945.

The first item is a letter (below) from the Grenada Mississippi Coca-Cola Bottler with a photograph of the 1933 Queen of the Watermelon Carnival in Water Valley Mississippi.  The day of the judging, the bottler proudly noted they sold 1,000 cases of Coca-Cola.  If you look closely at the photograph, you will notice the "Loving Cup" that was presented to the Queen.

Name That App!

We need your help!  Last October we launched the Coca-Cola Heritage Timeline app for the iPad and then this May we updated the functionality of the app and began to offer it for iPhone users.  We created these apps for our fans and now we really want our readers to have a role with them.  Even if you have never heard of crowdsourcing, you can be a part of it today.

We are trying to find a better name for the application to reflect the fact with the added blog functionality, it is now more than just a timeline. If you have not downloaded the apps and you have an iPhone or iPad, follow this link to download the free programs.  Download and try out the app, then sample one of your favorite Coca-Cola products to get your creative juices flowing and submit your idea for a new name via the comment section to this post.  We will be open for submissions for at least two weeks.  When we select the new name, the contributor will win a reprinted set of four Norman Rockwell Coca-Cola posters.  Also, if you have any added functionality or content for the applications, we would love to get your thoughts and comments.

May the best name win.

Coke On The Road

When I travel, I always note and quite often stop to photograph old Coke signs or vending equipment I run across.  As I was leaving Mt. Rainier National Park while on vacation recently, I saw a great Coke sign to add to the collection.  I could not help but notice the iron statutes all over the yard as I got out of the car to take the photograph.  It turns out I had stumbled across Ex-Nihilo, the outdoor sculpture park for Recycled Spirits of Iron by artist Dan Klennert.   I enjoyed the artwork and would have loved to have stayed longer, but after a day of hiking the mountain, it was time to move on.  If your travels ever take you to Washington State, take a side trip down State Road 706 to enjoy the art, and, as Dan says, "Welcome into my imagination, please wipe your feet."

125th Exhibit Cases For Turkey

We just finished building a new set of exhibit cases highlighting our Company heritage.  The exhibit has five cases and is very similar in design and content to the show that we opened in Singapore in early June.  The new exhibit cases will be shipped to Istanbul, Turkey tomorrow and are scheduled to go on display on September 9th.  While the quality of this cell phone photograph is not great, the case on the left highlights significant events in our history and the case on the right focuses on FIFA and the Olympic Games.  Each case has a video monitor to show additional items and the descriptions are shown on iPads mounted to the front of the case.  If your travels take you to Turkey this fall, look for the exhibit.

Ticket to a Century of Progress

We recently acquired a sample coupon that would have been used at the 1933 Centruy of Progress Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois. The fair celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Chicago.  The Expo, whose slogan was "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Adapts," featured numerous exhibits envisioning the future.  Some of the most popular exhibits were the "Homes of the Tomorrow," and one focusing on dream cars.  The innaugural Major Leage All-Star game was held at Comiskey Park in conjunction with the fair.  Over 40 million people attended during the two years the Exposition was operating.

The Century of Progress was very important in Coca-Cola history because it was the location for the introduction of the Dole Master fountain dispenser.  We have blogged about the dispenser before, but this was the first automated fountain device to provide cooling at the point of service for carbonated water and syrup.  From the photos, it looks like quite a few of the 40 million people stopped at the Coke booth to get a sample!

Antiques Roadshow Films In The Archives

Last Saturday, the team from the popular public television program, Antiques Roadshow were in Atlanta filming for upcoming 2012 episodes.  While over 6,000 people brought their items to the Roadshow appraisal area to be reviewed, the Roadshow team sent a film crew to the Archives to record a segment.  The segment will focus on the three missing Norman Rockwell Coca-Cola paintings.  While Rockwell painted six for the Company, we only have three of the works and have been searching for the other three (Wholesome Refreshment, Office Boy, and Old Oaken Bucket) for decades.

First, host Mark Walberg and noted appraiser Lelia Dunbar were filmed discussing the importance of both Coca-Cola advertising and the works of illustrator Norman Rockwell.  Then Mark and I recorded a session discussing the three missing paintings and how people can contact us if they are found.  The team from WGBH was very professional and I would like to offer special thanks to producers Adam Monahan and Sarah Elliot for their guidance, and Bob Birkett and Charlie Collias, the camera and sound guys for making us look and sound good!

The program will air in 2012 and we will make sure to let you the date once it is set.

From Calendars to Cardboards

One Coke image would often take on various forms of advertising in different shapes and sizes by the time it was all said and done. We came across a 1950s letter in our collection noting that overseas Coca-Cola offices in various countries wanted to use some of the 1956 Calendar images on lithographed cardboard pieces. Because of the demand, rough design sketch layouts of how the cardboard signs would look with the tag lines included were developed and distributed to the offices. The specific dye transfers and colors to be used for captions and frames (such as the "Red Caption" and "Green Frame" notes on the above Couple on Steamer piece) were all specified by the Coke Advertising Department. The below lithograph sketch was an adaptation of the image from the January-February page of the 1956 calendar. The version of the calendar shown below is actually from Trinidad & Tobago. We found these sketches in our Export Collection which details our business internationally.