Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. True Value sales materials, 1941-1942

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Summary

Creator:
Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co., True Value Company, and John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History
Abstract:
Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. was a hardware wholesaler based in Chicago. In 1963 John Cotter reformed the firm's assets and intellectual property into the True Value Company, a cooperative that licensed the True Value brand to independent retailers. Collection consists of issues of the dealer sales periodical True Value Planned Selling, along with materials pertaining to Christmas sales merchandising and promotional displays for hardware, toys, and household furnishings. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.
Extent:
1 Linear Foot
Language:
Materials in English.
Collection ID:
RL.13123

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists of issues of the periodical True Value Planned Selling along with materials pertaining to Christmas sales merchandising and promotional displays for hardware, toys, and household furnishings.

Biographical / historical:

Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. was a hardware wholesaler based in Chicago. In 1963 John Cotter reformed the firm's assets and intellectual property into the True Value Company, a cooperative that licensed the True Value brand to independent retailers.

Tuttle, Hibbard & Co., a dry goods firm, was formed in Chicago in 1855. Surviving partner William G. Hibbard (1825-1903) and Franklin F. Spencer (1918-1890) formed Hibbard & Spencer in 1865 and were later joined in 1882 by employee Adolphus Clay Bartlett (1844-1922) to form Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. The company created the True Value brand of hand tools in 1932. John M. Cotter (1904-1989), who had founded the retailer-owned hardware firm John Cotter & Co. in 1948, acquired the assets and intellectual property of Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. in 1962 and formed the True Value Company. True Value merged with ServiStar Coast to Coast in 1997 to form the TruServ Corporation.

Source: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/ "Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co."

Acquisition information:
The Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett Co. True Value sales materials were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase from Walkabout Books in 2024.
Processing information:

Processed by Richard Collier, Feb. 2025;

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2024-0142.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. True Value sales materials, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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