Sweet Georgia Brown Hair Dressing Pomade Packaging, 1926-1944

01

Artifact Overview

Valmor Product Company, founded in the mid-1920s, sold beauty products to Black Americans. The company's product packaging was designed by Charles Dawson, a successful Black commercial artist whose illustrations of attractive modern Black Americans contributed to a burgeoning culture of positive Black identity. But the company's legacy is complicated--many of its products pushed a white assimilatory ideal, promising effects like skin lightening.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Packaging

Date Made

1926-1944

Creator Notes

Cover art by Charles C. Dawson, product distributed by Valmor Products Co. of Chicago, Illinois.

Location

Not on exhibit to the public.

Object ID

2022.57.1

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Katherine White.

Material

Metal

Color

Orange (Color)
Black (Color)
White (Color)

Dimensions

Height: 0.313 in
Diameter: 1.188 in

Inscriptions

on lid: Sweet Georgia Brown / REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. / HAIR DRESSING POMADE on bottom: FOR / MEN AND / WOMEN / Use complete contents of / this can for one application. / Rub into the hair with finger / tips. Brush and comb into / place. Get full size can for / 50c from Agent or write / Distributed by / VALMOUR PRODUCTS CO. / CHICAGO, ILL. / U. S. A.