57 Varieties

When I visited the Senator Henry J Heinz History Centre in Pittsburgh last week, I was curious to know more about the Heinz family and their connections to the city.

The business goes back a long way to the end of the nineteenth century and began with the entrepreneurship of a young boy living inPittsburgh, Henry Heinz, who at 12 years old grew horseradish to make sauce which he sold.

Under his leadership as a young man the business went from strength to strength..

From just one product, the Heinz enterprise grew and grew to many hundreds of varieties.  The number 57 as shown on tins and bottles of product was in fact an arbitrary number, chosen just to demonstrate that many items were available and as an instantly recognizable trademark to be used on products, billboards and even on transport..

The other part of the famous logo is the Heinz name on the background shape of a pickled gherkin.

Gherkins were a major part of the growing Heinz offering in the USA and this leather pocket case was carried by salesmen so that they could demonstrate to potential retail customers the size and number of gherkins (dill pickles in the US) could be expected in each jar.

One part of the exhibit focused on products which were specific to certain countries - here the United Kingdom.  I was surprised to learn that the original Baked Bean product for the U.K. market included pork sausages, I had thought that these were a later addition.

Another promotional item on display was this world map, surrounded by seeds and beans to demonstrate where different products were grown and produced.