The Larsen Company records documents a family owned canning company based in Green
Bay, Wisconsin, in the twentieth century. The collection contains administrative
records including information regarding trademark disputes, product information
including a canning procedures manual, advertising examples, and product labels. The
collection also includes considerable historical information and a few
photographs.
The History of the Larsen Company series is extensive, with material created between
1930 and 2006. Information is included from its early days in the 1890s when it was
known as the William Larsen Canning Company, up through its merger with Dean Foods
in the 1980s. Publicity about the company runs from the 1940s through the 1990s. A
list of factories and products from the 1990s is included, as well as several
speeches about the company made over the years. Also included is a small amount of
information about the Larsen family.
The Administrative Records series, from 1900 to 1992, is the bulk of the collection.
The series is arranged into nine sub-series: By-laws and articles of incorporation;
Correspondence; Annual reports; Financial reports; Minutes; Legal documents; Stocks;
Human resources; and Fox Valley Canning Company records.
The By-Laws and Articles of Incorporation, 1925-1986, include the original by-laws
and articles of incorporation from 1925, as well as various amendments and
reorganizations. Also included are papers relating to a company takeover in 1953,
company objectives from 1957, documents relating to the merger with Dean in 1986,
and mission statements of both Larsen and Dean from the 1980s.
The Correspondence is very sparse. There are a few letters from 1900 and 1911, and
letters scattered from the 1940s, 1960s through the 1990s. The Annual reports
include printed reports for every year from 1953 through 1985.
The Financial reports are strongest from the early to mid-20th century from 1923
through 1959. Also included is an examination of William Larsen’s estate, a small
amount of information about the Larsen Company Foundation, which began in 1985 as
the charitable end of the company, and a small amount of financial information from
1992.
The Minutes from board meetings are mostly complete from 1925 through 1982. The
original volumes, which housed the minutes, were arranged with the most recent
minutes in front and the oldest in back, this order was retained, while the binders
were discarded. Also included is a list of minute excerpts from 1959 through
1980.
The Legal documents are further organized into three sections: relating to land;
trademark and copyright; and agreements with other companies. The documents relating
to land, 1922-1983, include land acquisitions, abstracts of title, and maps of land
owned by the Larsen Company from Green Bay and Brown County, Cambria and Darien, and
Hortonville, Wisconsin. The land in Hortonville, Wisconsin, was owned by the Fox
Valley Canning Company, before being acquired by Larsen. The trademark and copyright
documents, from 1908 to 1992, cover registration of trademarks and copyright and
cases against other companies for trademark infringement. The agreements with other
companies, from 1921 through 1946, include agreements with truckers and railways in
order to ship their product.
The Stocks sub-series includes documents relating to being publically traded in the
stock market in 1962 as well as some stockholder information from 1984 to 1992. It
also includes several stocks that were held by the Larsen Company in 1987. The Human
resources subseries only includes two documents, one relating to pensions in 1943,
and a welcoming document for new employees from 1961.
The collection also includes a few records from the Fox Valley Canning Company
records, which was acquired by the Larsen company in the 1970s. Included are a few
audit reports from 1932 and the 1940s, as well as minutes from 1955 through
1971.
The Products series, from 1895 through 1999, documents the various products produced
by the Larsen Company. Included are canning procedures from 1970 to 1999, covering
apples and carrots, to burnt sugar and condiments, and for turkey and chicken. The
fried chicken procedures are divided for United States procedures versus Canadian
procedures. There is information about some of their specific lines of products such
as Veg-All, Layer-Pak (a can with five different vegetables divided by parchment
paper), and FreshLike. Also included are recipes, price lists, seals of approval,
and a disaster preparedness packet highlighting their canned water from the early
1960s.
The Visual Materials are further divided into three sub-series: Advertisements,
Labels, and Photographs. The advertisements include some early examples from the
William Larsen Company all the way up through the 1980s. There are coupons and
recipes, along with special promotions. The Veg-All line is particularly well
documented including a broadside advertisement with a “Wagon Wheel pie”
using Veg-All vegetables.
The labels include examples from the 1930s through the 1950s of their Green Bay
brand, FreshLike, Larsen general brand, Diet Pak for individuals who needed to eat
special diets, the strained brands for babies, Toytown, and Veg-All. Also includes a
Voila! label mock-up from the early 2000s, some Fox Valley Canning Company labels,
and a few labels of competing brands. The Photographs, dating from 1895 to 1997, are
not extensive, but do cover several aspects of the company. There are a few
photographs of the company buildings in Green Bay from the early years of the
company, images of harvesting crops and sorting in the 1970s and 1980s, and
products, promotions, and displays. The displays include the “World’s Largest
Veg-All Display”; in a Los Angeles market in 1997. Also includes a few
photographs of family members including William Larsen Sr., and of employees.
