Delaware Valley Archivists Group

This article first appeared in the winter edition of the Hagley MagazineHagley received an important addition to its packaging collections in July when Leonard R. Walton of Lancaster donated material amassed by his father Leonard W. Walton (1911-2005). The elder Walton began working at the Milwaukee Printing Company, later Milprint, Inc., in 1936 and retired in 1976 as the manager of its Downingtown plant.The Milwaukee Printing Company was founded by Max T. Heller (1877-1949) and William Heller (1885-1962) as a small family operation in 1899. The brothers developed a method of printing on glassine paper in 1908, which led the company to specialize in printing packaging materials. They were first to develop printing on cellophane in 1919, on foil in the 1920s, and on polyethylene in 1947. The Heller brothers were able to get in at the beginnings of the mass marketing of consumer goods, when individually sealed wrappings implied safety and purity. Milprint, Inc., now a subsidiary of the Bemis Company, remains a major producer of printed packaging.Fully two-thirds of the Milprint records collected by Leonard W. Walton are printing samples on a full range of media. They include candy and bread wrappers, cigarette boxes, and potato chip bags. Some are for such well-known goods as Marlboro, Memorex, Arnold’s bread, and Southern Comfort, while many are for now-vanished local brands. Of particular note are glassine wrappers for military rations in World War II.The remainder of the collection consists of an assortment of company correspondence, photographs, advertising, and folksy homilies sent by William (Billy) Heller to inspire his sales force. There are runs of several employee newsletters and magazines, including the Milprint Communiqué (1942-1945), which carried news of employees serving in the armed forces.The Leonard W. Walton Collection is an important addition to Hagley’s documentation of package design and production, complementing such earlier acquisitions as the Irv Koons collection, the Avon records, and DuPont records relating to cellophane. It preserves a number of rare and fragile images, most of which were intentionally made to be torn, crumpled, and thrown away at the first opportunity.For more information about this collection, contact us at Ask Hagley or call 302-658-2400 ext 227.