Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ketchup

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Well . . . not exactly. I just like that title. A better title would be “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heinz.” When we go on a trip, we enjoy eating what we can’t eat at home. When I did a little research on what foods we should try in Pittsburgh, I was surprised to learn that one of them was Heinz Ketchup! How appropriate! I forgot to include that essential item on the Notty and Little sleepover menu—ketchup. It’s not a condiment; it’s a separate item on the menu!

On display in the Great Hall on the first floor of the Senator John Heinz History Center . . .

. . . is a Conestoga Wagon built in 1837. The Conestoga wagon is a symbol of westward expansion in the United States. It was originally designed to haul freight over mountains. It is named for the Conestoga River Valley in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where they were first built.

Nearby is this Heinz wagon constructed from 1979-1983.

When Henry John Heinz was eight years old, he began selling vegetables from his mother’s garden in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1869, when Heinz was 25 years old, John Henry Heinz and his business partner L. Clarence Noble began selling horseradish. They soon added pickles, vinegar, and other products. They sold them in clear glass bottles so that customers could view the quality of the products.

Heinz added other products through the years . . .

. . . and other containers and labels.

In 1877 Heinz began producing tomato ketchup. We enjoyed seeing over 400 ketchup bottles stacked in the shape of an 11-foot ketchup bottle. We also enjoyed seeing this giant ketchup bottle with tomatoes falling out.

By the 1940s, Heinz products were looking a little more like the products we are familiar with today.

Heinz insisted on high quality and was a master at marketing.

This case shows the different sizes of Heinz pickles.

This card invites a homemaker to the Geon Brothers store. It tells her that a Heinz demonstrator will be in the store from October 20-27 to serve samples and explain the merits of Heinz products.

I enjoyed this kit that Walgreen’s lunch counters could use to prepare Heinz soups and beans for their customers, complete with can opener and bean pot.

This display illustrates young Henry John’s humble business beginnings. When Heinz and Noble began bottling horseradish in 1869, the vegetables came from a vegetable patch that Heinz’s parents gave to him. From those gardens, the Heinz company has expanded into almost every country in the world.

When Henry Heinz grew older, he remembered the moral and ethical lessons his mother Anna Margaretta Heinz taught him. Heinz desired to influence other people with the values his mother instilled in him. In his will, he left a bequest to the University of Pittsburgh to fund a building in honor of his mother. He directed that its purpose be for religious training and social activities. Heinz did not specify what kind of building it would be, but his two sons, daughter, and son-in-law decided to build Heinz Memorial Chapel which still stands on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Note: The Senator John Heinz History Center is named for Henry John Heinz’ great-grandson and namesake, U.S. Senator John Heinz.

Thank you for all the moral and ethical lessons you teach your children. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to give these instructions to the young minister Timothy.

You, however, continue in the things you have learned
and become convinced of,
knowing from whom you have learned them, 
and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings
which are able to give you the wisdom
that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:14-15

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