The foundations of modern business corporations were established during the same time period that the souvenir spoon movement was most prevalent (1890 - 1920). This includes the establishment of the giant corporation, monopolies, vertical and horizontal integration and many of the other business organization concepts that we still use to this day. In fact some of the laws such as the Sherman Anti-trust Act which the government wants to use against Microsoft was passed during this time period.

The New York Skyline featuring the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge along with many high rise buildings was an important feature of the American image around the world. In the bowl of this spoon, the mighty Woolworth building is engraved with its inspired gothic architecture and huge size literally piercing the heavens. When this  world's largest building was opened in 1916, a huge ceremony was held. President Woodrow Wilson switched on the eighty thousand electric lights to create the most magnificent lighting display ever seen in the history of the world to that time. All of this stemmed from the power of nickel and dime purchases.

The stock exchange in St. Joseph, Missouri

Cambridge Board of Trade
made by A. Weiscopf, but no purity marked

There were several stock exchanges at this time

As we might expect, New York and Chicago were centers for the development of the biggest buildings, but as we will see, other areas also had important business establishments.

left: the Abraham Strauss department store in New York was the largest modern style department store in the country.

right: The Singer building is still a historic New York building.

Metropolitan Building, NY

The great mid-west portion of the country had many important industrial applications as well as the east coast. In addition, the mid-west was really the "heart" of the middle class. In the Eastern communities, there were millions of new immigrants mostly from the poorer sections of Europe, but the mid-west area was primarily second or third generation Americans who had better educations and stronger roots in the community. They were also good spoon collectors, thus we have lots of spoons from this region.

left: engraved view of the milling district in Milwaukee. The engraving on this piece is exquisite (sorry the picture does not show it, the camera couldn't pick up the details on this gold plated spoon , despite 5 attempts). Scenes from this area are fairly common on souvenir spoons. A similar embossed view is shown below

right: The Wells building in Milwaukee was a huge office building

Hand Engraved view of the
Union Central Life Insurance Building, Cincinnati, Ohio

left: furniture factory, Grand Rapids, Michigan

right: Pearl button factory, Manchester, Ohio

left: The Krell French Piano factory, New Castle, Indiana (a beautifully engraved piece to which the picture just does not do justice)

right: demi of the Swift meat packing factory in Ft. Worth, Texas

milling district, Minneapolis, embossed view ..........Minneapolis Handle with symbols. The reverse of the handle also shows the court house, library, and post office. A souvenir spoon which was probably very popular with tourists.

Cement plant, acid etched, Independence, Kansas --Memphis Trust Co.Bldg, Memphis, Tenn

Grain Elevator, Duluth, Minnesota

Steel Factory, Pueblo, Colorado (Minnesota Steel Works)

I found this interesting picture of a steel mill blast furnace on a Pennsylvania spoon

Beautiful enameled sugar beet finial and hand engraved picture of the sugar beet factory in Grand Junction, Colorado

The west coast did not have a large industrial base at this time in history. At this time I do not have any industrial spoons from this region.

Both of these spoons are from the Casino in Santa Cruz, California. These pictures are markedly different. I suspect that the original building was destroyed (probably by fire (left)) and then reconstructed. I have not done my homework on this building, so if anyone wishes to enlighten me, please email.

Alaska Building, Seattle, Washington (embossed)

and Seattle skyscraper

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