J.M. Bemis & Co. was founded in 1858 when Judson Moss Bemis opened a factory in St. Louis, Missouri to produce the first commercially machine-sewn, color-printed textile bags in the United States, bags that had previously been hand sewn and hand stenciled. The business grew steadily, and by 1881 J.M. Bemis & Co. had additional offices in Boston and Minneapolis. After Bemis' brother Stephen took charge of the St. Louis plant in 1885, the official name of the company changed to the Bemis Brothers Bag Company. That same year, the company was incorporated and introduced its cat-in-the-bag logo.
By 1900, Bemis Bro. Bag Company operated eight textile bag factories across the country, making burlap and cotton bags for grain, flour, feed and other products. By the early 20th century, the company also ran two cotton mills and became the worldæs largest importer of burlap from India. In 1913, Bemis built its first paper mill in Peoria, Illinois, beginning its expansion from cotton and burlap packaging into the manufacture of paper products.
Judson Moss Bemis died in 1921, to be succeeded first by his son, Albert Farwell Bemis, then his nephew J.S. Bemis, and later his grandson F.G. Bemis. The company continued to expand, with some factories producing other canvas goods such as tents and tarpaulins. In the 1930s, the company began to design and manufacture machinery to fill and close bags, and in the 1940s, it expanded into plastics, using polyethylene for bags and packaging materials, and as an additive to strengthen its textile products.
In the late 1950s, Bemis entered a phase of growth characterized by heavy acquisition of companies that used related technologies. During this period, in 1964, the Bemis Bro. Bag Co. became the Bemis Company, Inc. and abandoned its cat-in-the-bag logo for the "b" shaped bar and oval still in use today. The acquisitions period ended in the 1970s, to be followed by phase of internal restructuring and growth focusing on increasing profits.
In the 1980s, Bemis sold the rest of its textile mills and expanded manufacturing to produce plastic film for packaging foods, polyethylene packaging and pressure sensitive materials. The company continued to develop new plastic film products and modernize its plants through the 1990s. Today Bemis continues to be a major producer of flexible packaging and pressure sensitive materials.
The Seattle plant was one of Bemis' many facilities across the country. Built in an industrial area just south of the downtown business district, the Seattle plant became the ninth branch of the Bemis Bro. Bag Company. Traveling to Seattle from the Omaha plant with a rail car full of bags to be broken down for delivery, Robert MacAusland set up a small sales office in Seattle in 1904. With the permission of company president Albert Farwell Bemis, MacAusland and J.M. Bemis' son-in-law Reginald Parsons joined forces to build a Bemis plant in Seattle. The new building was constructed on Colorado Avenue near Atlantic Street in 1904 and bag production began the following year. A 1917 addition to the original building, designed and constructed by Thomas M. Scruggs, more than doubled the floor space of the plant. The original building was badly damaged in the 1949 earthquake and a third building was subsequently constructed.
The Seattle plant began with production of textile bags and expanded into manufacture of paper bags in 1941, with textile production phased out completely in 1978. The Seattle plant closed in 1993 and its production was transferred to the Vancouver, Washington plant. The four-story brick building was subsequently bought by a group of artists who reopened it in 1996. The Bemis Building currently operates as a space for artists to live and work and includes a gallery for fine art exhibitions.
The collection includes employment and financial records, equipment manuals and specifications, blueprints of Bemis facilities and equipment, and ads and promotional publications; most of these are specific to the Seattle plant though a few items (such as an annual report and some promotional materials) relate to the Bemis Company in general. The series comprised of the original artwork for over 400 accounts gives an indication of the range of products and companies for which the Seattle Bemis plant produced bags. The collection also includes a biography of company founder Judson Moss Bemis, as well as a 1912 article by Bemis.
The photographs in the collection document the original Seattle plant building, the 1917 addition to the building, earthquake damage and subsequent construction. The various work areas of the interior of the plant are depicted, including equipment being delivered, installed and in use in the plant. Photographs show employees working on various aspects of the production of bags, from graphic designers drawing bag graphics to finished bags being prepared for shipping. One photo album documents the construction of 1917 addition to the Seattle plant; a second album includes a collection of photographs of Bemis employees at company events such as parties, picnics and performances.
The collection has been arranged into series:
View selections from the collection in
The collection is open to the public by appointment.
The Museum of History & Industry is the owner of the materials in the Sophie Frye Bass Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from MOHAI before any reproduction use. The museum does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.
Bemis Company Records, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle
Donated by the Bemis Company, Inc. in 1994.
Processed by Anne Petersen in 1995 and Jody Hendrickson in 2006.
Two additional copies of Bemistory employee magazine from 1968 and 1976 were added to the collection in September 2014.
These materials are part of a donation that also included a number of artifacts. These artifacts are cataloged and stored separately by MOHAI's Collections Department. A complete inventory of the Bemis artifacts is also available in the Library.
132 cards organized by factory departments and employee positions within each department (such as "sewing machine mechanic," "rubber cutter," et cetera ).
Includes Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, characteristics of workforce, progress report, internal audit, copies of job listings, labor agreements and two 1977 copies of "Bemistory", a publication for employees
Ledger contains records from 1950s through 1970s on pins and buttons awarded to employees for long term employment at Bemis
Includes a story about the retirement of Ellis Comfort, Bemis art director and photographer
Binder with list and descriptions, with graphics, of Bemis' registered trademarks. Trademarks dated 1921-1964
Includes statement for state and local taxes, personal property tax statement, and copy of personal property return.
Manuals for equipment by other manufacturers, probably equipment used at the plant. Arranged in groups
as received from Bemis under these headings:
Includes "Numerical List of All Blueprints and Tracings", compiled in 1929, which lists blueprints in blueprint number order including brief description, date and an indication whether it is a tracing or drawing. Includes blueprints for various machines involved in the manufacture of bags (such as the bag sewing machine, printing press, burlap stripper and hemmer) and architectural blueprints. Includes a section of "foreign blueprints" of equipment by other manufacturers, and of Bemis equipment at other facilities, such as the St. Louis and Minneapolis facilities.
Arranged in groups as received from Bemis under these headings:
Blueprints for equipment used at various Bemis plant locations; also architectural drawings of plants.
A binder of ideas and suggestions received from various Bemis factories for improvements in factory operations. Some ideas include blueprints.
Result of an investigation into the relative merits of using a polyethylene coated sheet in place of two asphalt laminated sheets in multiwall bags.
Original art for bags produced at the Bemis Seattle plant. Artwork is drawn on a standardized 8 1/2" x 11" bag shaped template and stamped "proof." The group includes artwork for 371 different accounts. Artwork is organized first into three series based on type of product: Flour, Feed and Grain, and Miscellaneous; then alphabetically within series by account name. Complete list of accounts is available at the repository.
Arranged alphabetically by account name. Dates span 1949-1984, with bulk from 1950s and 1970s. Each folder contains proofs, copies of printed, unfolded bags bearing account logo, memos from Bemis to clients concerning changes to be made, negatives or transparencies of artwork, and copies of nutritional information from the product. Complete list of accounts is available at the repository.
Booklet describing the products, markets and technologies of Bemis' major operations across the country. Includes company history and addresses and phone numbers.
Booklet with company profile including list and description of subsidiaries and index to Bemis products
Book of tables for calculating prices of fabric bags.
Handbook for use of personnel of Bemis Bro. Bag Company, about the growing, marketing and trading of cotton, and the manufacture of cotton goods and sewing twine, and the testing, bleaching, dyeing, printing and finishing of cotton textiles.
Pages from calendar with portraits of U.S. Presidents printed on bag fabric.
Five posters directed to employees about the importance of good customer service.
Includes letters extolling the relative good looks of the teams, apparently in response to a photograph of the Seattle team.
3 Polaroids
35mm slides for "Bemis Operations" slideshow
Includes J.M. Bemis, A.F. Bemis and G.N. Roberts.
Pages 1-38 of the album are entitled "Progressive Photographs-Seattle Addition" and dated February 17, 1917-October 11, 1917. These pages consist of photographs of the construction of the 1917 addition to the Seattle building, showing progress of the work from various views, both exterior and interior. According to the initial correspondence of February 20, 1917 to A.F. Bemis at the Boston office, the photographs were taken by a Mr. Goddard and a Mr. Scruggs (probably Thomas M. Scruggs). The pages show installments taken once a week to once a month of approximately three views each. Each two-page spread displays the photographs on the right and a copy of the correspondence with date and description on the left. Prints are numbered serially and marked with the date and the direction of the view. The pages also include portraits of Thomas M. Scruggs, Jr., engineer for Bemis Bro. Bag Co., and A.R. Thompson, superintendent for James Black M. & C. Co.
Loose page removed from album.
The album consists largely of photographs of Bemis employees at company events, including the following: