Germanus Wilhelm Firnstahl founded Pacific Food Products in 1921 after the family moved to Seattle from Wisconsin. Germanus and his wife Cecilia chose their youngest son Lowell to be the face of Sunny Jim, their new peanut butter brand. Despite his untimely death in 1933 in a football accident, Lowell's image would be synonymous with Sunny Jim until the company was sold in 1979.
Germanus's daughter Celeste Rogge ran the company during the prime years of the 1950s and 1960s when the company sold one third of the peanut butter in Seattle, as well as jams, jellies, and soda pop. The brand eventually lost out in popularity to national brands.
This paste-up for a Sunny Jim newspaper ad appears to date from the 1930s or 1940s.
Caption information sources: "Grandma No Cookie Maker, by Patrick Connolly.Eugene Register-Guard, Oct 10, 1977, p. 7; "Vanishing Seattle" by Clark Humphrey, p. 88. Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Seattle Historic Sites, Inv.# FAC 014.
Physical Description: 1 drawing ; paper and cardboard pieces on cardboard mount ; 9 x 9.75 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
