In our role as “Custodian” of the painting industry’s past, Painting in Partnership from the Chicago area, has assembled a large collection of paint memorabilia, which we plan on displaying in a “virtual” paint museum in the not too distant future. I would like to tell you about our most recent paint memorabilia acquisition.

An antique book dealer contacted me recently. He had made a rare find: a 40-page, 1916 edition of a Seroco Paints catalog. It was the equivalent of a paint store in print, with a few hundred products, including color charts, tools, ladders and a broad array of paints, clear finishes and sundries.

How did the Seroco name came about? It was derived from combining the first two letters of the name of a famous retailer: Sears, Roebuck and Co. from Chicago. The company offered a complete line of paints from house paints, barn paints, buggy varnishes etc.

Why is it significant that Sears was involved in the paint business? Because of its vast distribution network

and its huge catalog business, Sears had considerable influence over the color choices of Americans for their homes, inside and out. Another part of the reason is that, from 1908 to 1940, Sears sold over 70,000 pre-fabricated, ready-to-assemble homes. During the Great Depression, because the company was also involved in mortgaging those houses, Sears found itself with a mountain of defaults. In a landmark decision, Sears decided to write off $11 million of those loans, thereby creating immense goodwill among the American public.

For those reasons, Seroco Paints hold a special place in the history of colors used on American homes in the first half of the twentieth century, which are now referred to as “”period” houses in many cases.

Painting in Partnership’s reputation as a “custodian” of the painting industry’s past goes far and wide. A few weeks ago, we were contacted by a gentleman in Texas who had a collection of sixty three vintage photographs from an old-time Chicago paint company: Elliott Paint and Varnish Co., which was merged out of existence in the 1970s.

Upon agreeing on a price, Painting in Partnership became the owner of the photos and the collection came back to Chicago, its rightful place. Most of the photographs were taken by a famous Chicago studio called Apex Photographs Co. For instance, Apex took this photo from Lou Gehrig in the late 1920s.

Their work for Elliott Paint took place during the 1920-30s. They took shots of the exterior of the manufacturing facilities, loading docks, labs, offices, manufacturing process and warehousing. The collection gives a unique perspective on the different aspects of the paint manufacturing process during that time period. Three photos from the collection are attached for your viewing pleasure.

Elliott Paint and Varnish Co. was founded in 1897. It rapidly blossomed into a full line paint manufacturer. During the 1970s, it was acquired by Valspar, which had just moved

its headquarters from Rockford, Illinois to Minneapolis, following its merger of with Minnesota Paints, Inc. in 1970.

At Painting in Partnership, house painting contractors from the Chicago area, we believe that understanding our past as an industry is essential to empower our future. This is what moves us to collect and preserve painting memorabilia.

Collecting Chicago paint memorabilia has been a passion of mine for a long time. Being “custodians of the past” for the house painting industry is a direct extension of the work we do in the historical paint restoration and historical preservation areas. Over the years, we have assembled a collection of many hundreds of pieces, from signs, tools, equipment, cans, supplier catalogs and paint dealer catalogs.

Because of Painting in Partnership’s national reputation as a custodian of the painting industry’ past, we were recently contacted by a Valspar employee in Minneapolis to see if we had an interest in obtaining a collection of paint color cards from bygone Chicago paint companies. How did this Chicago memorabilia end up in Minneapolis?

Over the years, Rockcote Paint of Rockford, Illinois, acquired many old-time Chicago paint companies and, in the process, inherited their paint memorabilia. In 1970, Rockcote merged with Minnesota Linseed Oil Paint Co. and changed its name to Valspar. Following the merger, that Chicago paint memorabilia was shipped to Minnesota for safekeeping. In the recent past, Valspar made the decision to find other suitable custodians for their collection.

Valspar contacted the Chicago History Museum and the Minnesota History Museum. Fortunately for us, theses museums were only interested in some items and had no interest in anything that had a paint sample in it. Consequently, Painting in Partnership became the recipient of choice for an amazing collection of original color cards from the 1920’s through the 1960’s, thereby providing us with an invaluable source of “Period Colors”.

Paint memorabilia and color cards from seven paint companies were sent to us: Armstrong Paint & Varnish Works, Enterprise Paint Manufacturing Co., Chicago Paint Works, Republic Paint and Varnish Works, Stetson Paint Works, Continental Works, Co. and The Elliott Paint and Varnish Company. Some of these items included paint dealer books with the entire offering of paints from those manufacturers, along with their accompanying color cards, preserved in mint condition. Above is a sampling of the items from Chicago Paint Works.

Thanks Valspar for entrusting Painting in Partnership with the safekeeping of this unique slice of the history of the house painting industry in Chicago.

For more interesting Paint Memorabilia trivia, please visit our Paint Memorabilia Corner.