a history of Stanley Home Products.

I came across this suitcase at the last auction I attended in 2015. This suitcase, as well as a second one, was filled to the brim with vintage Stanley Home Products, or Stanhome as it was frequently referred to. Catalogs, order forms, pencils, hair brushes, and even lipstick samples spilled out.

I can only imagine the lady of the household receiving this suitcase filled with samples and a promise to have her own "business." While I would not be going door to door selling any products, there was no way that I was leaving the auction without my own Stanhome start up suitcases. To my surprise and happiness, not one single person bid against me. Perhaps it was my "auction face" or quite possibly who would want fifty year old hair brushes? Of course I would, naturally.

Google-ing the history of Stanley Home Products leaves much to be desired for. There are dribs and drabs, but no history of the company that suited my needs. When that happens, we know what happens: research. The best place to start was in the suitcases and looking through the glorious ephemera of vintage catalogs.

Stanley Home Products Hostess-Customer Catalog Product Premium 8/65, number 5706 provides a brief introduction to the history of Stanhome. The following is taken from page five of the catalog:

"From its humble tobacco shed beginnings in 1931, Stanley Home Products, Inc., has grown to a multi-dollar corporation with subsidiaries in several different countries. Millions of women have found Stanley products the answer to their house-cleaning tasks and they enjoy the party plan way of selling. 'Stanley' products are designed with today's homemaker in mind, to help her save time, effort, and money. Not only does Stanley develop cleaning helpers for every household task, but also a complete line of cosmetics and good grooming aids for daily use by every member of the family."

Hostess-Customer Catalog Product Premium 1/66, number 5707 provides a similar history lesson but with a few different details:

"Thirty-five years ago, in a tobacco shed in Westfield, Massachusetts, Stanley Home Products was founded by Frank Stanley Beveridge and Miss Catherine O'Brien. It was their idea and ideal to build a company that would be a benefit and a blessing to all who worked for it, or purchased its products. During their first full year of business they sold $72,000 worth of household chemicals and brushes. Today the idea and ideal of Stanley's co-founders has grown into a multi-million dollar corporation with subsidiaries in several foreign countries - Mexico, Canada, Venezuela, Italy, Australia, Puerto Rico, - as well as branch offices in all 50 states. Stanley's 18 strategically-located distributing stations in the continental United States alone assure dealers and customers alike that their orders will be processed quickly and accurately."

So who was this Mr. Frank Stanley Beveridge and what path led him from a tobacco shed to the household industry? A little research is necessary...