United States, 1900s

From our NPG sub-collection is this lithographed tin stereo viewer advertising Diadem Coffee. It has the tiny NPG logo as well as the U.S. patent printed on it. The W. & J. G. Flint company, founded in 1858 by brothers Wyman and John Gardiner Flint, was prominent among early coffee roasters of Milwaukee. The “W” was dropped in 1880 when John bought out his brother Wyman. The company established and owned The Star Coffee and Spice Mills, a direct importer of teas, coffees, and spices — this would explain the star logo printed on the viewer. John died in 1896 and his son (also named Wyman), a Harvard law school attendee who’d been working in his father’s business since 1893, took over and assumed the roles of president and treasurer and oversaw its incorporation as J.G. Flint Company in 1901. In 1911, Jewett & Sherman Company took over the company.