Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 26

Grubstake to Grocery Store: Supplying the Klondike, 1897-1907

by Margaret Archibald

Appendix B. Brand Names ot Commodities.

This appendix lists the brand names of commodities that appeared, or probably appeared, in Dawson City from 1897 to 1907. The date beside each item records one date when that item was known to exist either in Dawson or as part of a Klondike-bound outfit. This does not necessarily represent the article's first appearance in Yukon warehouses.

The majority of references have come from the Dawson Daily News and the Klondike Nugget, but a number of other sources¹ have each given rise to one or two brand names. Artifacts in the Dawson Museum, the Dawson Hardware Company Museum and the McBride Museum in Whitehorse have added several brand names to the list (especially in tobaccos), names which are understandably undated in this appendix, since the exhibits did not give this information. Photographs from the Public Archives of Canada were extremely helpful, but names gathered in this way are apt to be misspelled and the description of the article is likely to be less than complete. A sizable proportion of the articles, which are registered as having appeared at the time of the initial rush, were recorded in advertisements in guidebooks such as William Ogilvie's Klondike Official Guide and the Alaska Commercial Company's To the Klondike Gold Fields as well as in newspapers published in the centres of Klondike outfitting; that is, newspapers like the Vancouver World and the Victoria Daily Colonist. In many cases the goods so advertised cannot be traced with any certainty to an ultimate Klondike destination. Nevertheless, our premise is that a sufficient quantity of these goods did, in all probability, reach the Klondike to warrant their inclusion in this appendix.

The range of brand-name grocery products which probably found their way to Dawson shelves has been increased by the use of additional subsections which include goods advertised at the time in the Canadian Grocer. This trade magazine has been consulted as the major source of advertising for Canadian and imported food products in the period. Whether or not these foods were ever sent down the Yukon River, their inclusion in this appendix makes sense from a contextual point of view. In cases where goods were advertised both in Dawson newspapers and in the Canadian Grocer, they have been listed only once, in the Dawson section.

Italics have been used to designate registered trade-marks (under the Trade Marks and Design Act of 1879, as found in the Trade Marks Registry) as well as common appellations which had the force of trade marks in the mind of the buying public. Unfortunately, since the registration of trade marks was not compulsory, it is not always possible to make the distinction between a company's name and that of its product. Similar problems exist in trying to distinguish between manufacturer and distributor. These problems have given rise to some apparent inconsistencies in the lists.

The following symbols have been used to describe or qualify the items listed below:

* Advertised or sold in a known outfitting centre as part of a Klondike outfit, 1897-98.

† Appearing initially as part of an outfit, but later advertised or mentioned as stock on the Dawson market.

‡ Advertised or sold as a luxury item.

§ Information derived from photographs.

? Label or package found undated in one of the Yukon museums.