Happy Holidays from the Shockoe Examiner.

Two new exhibits from Special Collections and Archives,

James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries

(thanks to Tom Ray for the Miller & Rhoads boxes

and the Reynolds foil wrapping paper).

  

The exhibit cases are located on the fourth floor of the Cabell Library.

Double Click on the
Images for a Much Larger View.

Holidays Past –

Ukrop’s, Miller & Rhoads, and Reynolds’s Metals Co.

A grocery store, a retail department store, and a firm that sells aluminum foil. They were all long time Richmond companies that had strong cultural and economic ties to the city. They are all gone now.

Ukrop's

Ukrop’s was the Richmond area’s leading local grocery chain. Established in Richmond in 1937, the supermarket grew to 25 stores in central Virginia by 2000. The store had a reputation for great customer service and community involvement. When the chain began to lose market share the family owned business decided in 2009 to sell its stores to the Giant-Carlisle's Division of the Dutch based conglomerate Ahold. Their former stores now operate under the name Martin’s. 

These items were collected by library staff before the store closed in the Spring of 2010.

Miller & Rhoads

Miller & Rhoads was founded in Richmond in 1885. The firm expanded in the first few decades of the 20^th century and by the late 1940s it had become one of Virginia’s most successful retail stores. After just over 100 years of success, competition from other stores forced the chain to close in 1990.

Their large store on Broad Street in downtown Richmond was a key destination point for Richmonders.  For many years, Miller & Rhoads' Santa was purported to be "the real Santa Claus." A number of actors, many featuring a snowy white real beard, portrayed Santa. 

The Miller & Rhoads green (1970s) and yellow gift boxes (1980s) were donated by a friend of the library in 2009.

 

Eddie Weaver Plays Christmas Music – Phonograph record produced in 1969 on the Miller & Rhoads Custom Records label. Eddie Weaver (1907-2000) was a well-known local organ player who played at the Lowe’s Theatre (now the Carpenter Theatre) for over twenty years and the Byrd Theatre for many years as well.

The Reynolds Metals Co.

The Reynolds Metals Co., now part of the Alcoa Company, was founded in 1919 in Louisville, Kentucky by Richard S. Reynolds, Sr., a nephew of R.J. Reynolds, the tobacco magnate of Richmond. The company is known primarily for producing Reynolds Aluminum Foil. The company moved to Richmond in 1938 and operated here until 2010.

The Reynolds Gift Wrap displayed here dates ca. 1970 and was a gift to Special Collections and Archives by a donor in 2009.

Wondering what do get someone

special for the Holidays?

Why not recently published works

on Richmond history?

These titles are available in Special Collections and Archives

and at your local bookstore.

“You are a part of all of us”: Black Department Store Employees in Jim Crow Richmond" - by Beth Kreydatus, University College, VCU.

Just found this online - what an interesting topic - the PDF file of her paper can be accessed HERE.:

“You are a part of all of us”:
black department store
employees in Jim Crow Richmond
Beth Kreydatus
University College, Virginia Commonwealth University,
Richmond, Virginia, USA

Abstract:

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of a significant group of retail employees, specifically the African-American operations and service workers that worked behind the scenes in department stores during the Jim Crow era, defined here as 1890-1965.

Design/methodology/approach – Department stores have rightly occupied a prominent place in business historiography. This wealth of scholarship can be explained partly by substantial archival resources, but especially by department stores’ significance to US business, cultural, and social history. Yet, despite this rich historiography, a significant number of department store employees have been overlooked, and this omission has distorted the picture of the work culture and marketing strategies of these massive and influential retail institutions. Department stores employ a large number of operations and service staff, such as delivery people, housekeeping and maintenance workers, elevator operators, stock workers, packers, and warehouse workers. These positions make up roughly one-fifth of all department store work. 

This paper presents a close study of the two most prominent department stores of early and mid-twentieth century Richmond, Virginia – Thalhimers and Miller and Rhoads – to offer insight into the work culture and workplace experiences of these employees. Findings – Ultimately, this paper shows that African-American employees played an important role in the maintenance and image of Richmond department stores. Store managers place high demands for “loyalty” and “faithfulness” on their black staff to demonstrate their lavish services to the buying public. For black employees, this means that the work environment can be highly stressful, as they seek to meet competing demands from customers and co-workers. However, department store work offers opportunities, in particular, steady employment among a close network of African-American coworkers. Finally, the presence of segregated black employees undermines managements’ attempts to convey their workforce as one “happy family.”

Research limitations/implications – The research is entirely based on two high-end department stores, Miller & Rhoads and Thalhimers, both based in Richmond, Virginia. Two store archives – available at the Valentine Richmond History Center and the Virginia Historical Society – are the primary resources for this project. Because, the papers in these archives are donated by store managers, a limitation to this study is the dearth of unmediated voices of the employees themselves.

Originality/value – This research adds to the historiography of department stores by shedding light on employees who are expected by employers to remain nearly invisible in their jobs, and unfortunately, have been fairly invisible in the historical record as well.

The paper can be accessed HERE.

Christmas Wish from Miller and Rhoads, 1909

[From the Dec. 25, 1909 issue of the Richmond Times Dispatch -
Visit the Chronicling America site and search Richmond
newspapers for the city's history in print.]