B.W. HARRIS MANUFACTURING CO.:
An Inventory of Its Advertising Materials at the Minnesota Historical Society
Manuscripts Collection
Part or all of this collection is restricted.
For
details, please see restrictions.
OVERVIEW
| Creator: | B.W. Harris Manufacturing Co. (Saint Paul, Minn.), creator. | |
| Title: | B.W. Harris Manufacturing Co. advertising materials. | |
| Dates: | 1931-1992. | |
| Language: | Materials in English. | |
| Abstract: | Advertising and promotional materials, product catalogs, some photographs, audio recordings, films, style books with fabric samples, and newspaper advertisement scrapbooks of a Saint Paul-based, family-owned manufacturer of outerwear and sportswear founded in 1916 and perhaps best known for its Zero King line of men's coats. | |
| Quantity: | 5.3 cubic feet (5 boxes), 2 master film reels: 16mm., 2 user video files: MP4 (150 MB), 3 master audio files: WAV (83.7 MB), and 3 user audio files: MP3 (16 MB). | |
| Location: | See Detailed Description section for shelf locations. |
HISTORICAL NOTE
B.W. Harris, a privately-held, family-owned manufacturer of men's outerwear, was founded in Saint Paul by Barney W. Harris (1886-1933) in 1916. The company began as a manufacturer of fur, sheepskin, leather, and textile outerwear, and was also a wholesaler of raw furs. Its Zero King line was established in 1917. In later years the company became a manufacturer of nationally distributed outerwear and sportswear for men, women, and children, much of it under the Zero King label. The main thrust of the business through the years was men's coats and jackets marketed to young, affluent urban professionals.
In 1971 the headquarters office was moved from Lowertown Saint Paul to suburban West Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 1978 B.W. Harris was sold to Palm Beach, Inc. (Cincinnati, Ohio), becoming an autonomous division of that firm. The following year B.W. Harris took over management of Powderhorn Mountaineering (Jackson Hole, Wyoming), another Palm Beach unit. In 1983 the Harris family repurchased the company.
By the 1990s B.W. Harris was producing mostly for private labels, and was no longer manufacturing in Minnesota. In 1995 the company went out of business.
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
Includes information about the history of the company; its products, including fur and textile coats, jackets, ski wear, leisure suits, and other apparel for men, women, and children; the company’s manufacturing plants; advertising campaigns; and American fashion trends over a 60-year period.
ARRANGEMENT
These documents are organized into the following sections:
| Accession 15,235: Advertising and Publicity Materials | ||
| Accession 17,225: Style Books and Newspaper Advertisement Scrapbooks | ||
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Availability:
The collection is open for research use.
Use Restrictions:
Copyright to advertising and publicity materials constituting accession 15,235 is retained by the donor. Consult the reference staff for more information.
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. B.W. Harris Manufacturing Co. Records. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.
Provenance:
Materials constituting accession 17,225 were formerly in the collections of the Goldstein Museum of Design at the University of Minnesota.
Accession Information:
Accession number: 15,235; 17,225
Location of Master Files:
Digital masters of the audiovisual material are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.
The original audiocassettes and audio reel were disposed after the material was digitally reformatted into wav files.
Processing Information:
Digitization and encoding by April Rodriguez, July 27, 2023.
Digital audiovisual transferred from the master audiovisual material by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (July 2023).
Digitization was made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.
Catalog ID number: 990017341740104294
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
ACCESSION 15,235: ADVERTISING AND PUBLICITY MATERIALS
COPYRIGHT RESERVED.
| Box | |||||||||||||
| 142.E.8.4 | 1 | Clippings, 1962-1974. | |||||||||||
| Clippings include newspaper stories about the construction of a new B.W. Harris plant in Lake City, Minnesota (1962), Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton modeling a Zero King coat (1965), and a visit by designer Bill Blass to the company's main plant in West Saint Paul (1974). | |||||||||||||
| Commercials: | |||||||||||||
| Radio: | |||||||||||||
| Zero King radio advertisement, undated. 1 master audio file (1 minute, 50 seconds): WAV (9.3 MB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (1.7 MB). | |||||||||||||
| 1. There's no place like home; 2. Windstorm | |||||||||||||
| Container note: Produced by Levine, Huntley, & Schmidt. | |||||||||||||
 Digital audio | |||||||||||||
| Zero King Coat radio advertisement, undated. 1 master audio file (2 minutes, 22 seconds): WAV (12 MB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (2.3 MB). | |||||||||||||
| Digital audio | |||||||||||||
| Zero King cooperative radio spots Minneapolis 1947 series, 1947. 1 master audio file (12 minutes, 22 seconds): WAV (62.4 MB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (11.8 MB). | |||||||||||||
| Digital audio | |||||||||||||
| Television: | |||||||||||||
| Zero King Stanton coat (Kingdom), 1970s. 1 master film reel (1 minute, 7 seconds): optical sound, color; 16mm. positive print, and 1 user video file: MP4 (75.9 MB). | |||||||||||||
 Digital version | |||||||||||||
| Zero King Kenwood coat (The Adventurous One), 1970s. 1 master film reel (1 minute, 5 seconds): optical sound, color; 16mm. positive print, and 1 user video file: MP4 (74.2 MB). | |||||||||||||
| Digital version | |||||||||||||
| Corporate history, 1966-1979. | |||||||||||||
| Photographs, undated, 1940-1972. | |||||||||||||
| Includes photographs of Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton and B.W. Harris president of J. C. Harris in the company's Zero King Smuggler coats (1965); President Richard Nixon (with other American and Chinese dignitaries) touring the Great Wall of China while wearing a Zero King President coat (1972); and a photograph (1970s) of newsman Chet Huntley wearing what presumably is another Zero King coat. The Tarkenton photographs are accompanied by a press release-type document issued by Daniel J. Edelman & Associates (New York/Chicago). | |||||||||||||
| Product catalogs: | |||||||||||||
| Two disassembled scrapbooks of magazine advertisements include Zero King ads that ran in The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, and Esquire magazines, the New York Times Magazine, and in other publications. | |||||||||||||
| undated, 1931-1992. 9 folders. | |||||||||||||
| Women's fur coats, circa 1935. | |||||||||||||
| Scrapbooks: National advertising campaigns, 1955-1979. 4 folders. | |||||||||||||
| Miscellany, undated, 1947-1977. | |||||||||||||
| Includes ad copy for the Zero King and Powderhorn Mountaineering product lines, promotional packets for retailers (including fabric samples), and information about B.W. Harris' entry into the leisure suit business (1970s). | |||||||||||||
| [0.5 cubic feet empty, double-oversize] | |||||||||||||
ACCESSION 17,225: STYLE BOOKS AND NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT SCRAPBOOKS
Records are concerned principally with the Zero King line of clothing. Volume numbers were assigned by the Goldstein Museum of Design.
| Box | |||||||||||||
| 142.C.5.1 | 2 | Style books, with fabric samples: | |||||||||||
| Vol. 11. Fall 1957. 1 volume. | |||||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||||
| 144.E.2.2F-1 | 3 | Vol. 10. Fall 1963. 1 volume. | |||||||||||
| Fall 1972. 1 volume. | |||||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||||
| 144.E.2.2F-2 | 4 | Newspaper advertisements: | |||||||||||
| Vol. 7. R.E. Harris, undated. 1 volume. | |||||||||||||
| undated, 1943. | |||||||||||||
| Vol. 8. 1948-1949. | |||||||||||||
| Vol. 9. 1958. 1 volume. | |||||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||||
| 142.C.5.1 | 2 | Vol. 19. 1960. 1 volume. | |||||||||||
| Vol. 16. 1967. 1 volume. | |||||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||||
| 142.C.5.7 | 5 | Vol.18. Fall 1972. 1 volume. | |||||||||||
| Vol.17. 1979-1980. 1 volume. | |||||||||||||
CATALOG HEADINGS
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
- Topics:
- Advertising -- Clothing and dress.
- Advertising campaigns.
- Children's clothing industry -- Minnesota.
- Clothing factories -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.
- Clothing trade -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.
- Coats -- Minnesota.
- Family-owned business enterprises -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.
- Fashion -- United States -- History.
- Fur garments -- Minnesota.
- Men's clothing industry -- Minnesota.
- Radio advertising.
- Retail trade -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.
- Sport clothes -- Minnesota.
- Television advertising.
- Television commercial films.
- Women's clothing industry -- Minnesota.
- Place:
- Saint Paul (Minn.) -- Manufactures.
- Person:
- Tarkenton, Fran.
- Organization:
- St. Paul Winter Carnival.
- Types of Documentation:
- Advertising.
- Catalogs.
- Motion pictures.
- Photographs.
- Print advertising.
- Sample books.
- Sound recordings.
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