Fort Howard Company Records, 1919 – 2009
FORT HOWARD COMPANY RECORDS, 1919 – 2009 Abstract Records, product samples, photographs, video recordings, and artifacts of a Green Bay, Wisconsin paper manufacturer. Fort Howard was one of the nation’s largest producers of disposable paper products such as: toilet paper, paper toweling, napkins, placemats, and wipers. Documented are Fort Howard’s innovations in the use of recycled paper and other environmental issues, inventions and patents of paper making and paper folding machines, expansions, acquisitions, mergers, employee activities, and company philanthropy. Biographical information on the Cofrin family and other company leaders is also present. Presented by the Georgia Pacific Corporation (South Broadway Plant, Green Bay), 2001 Processed under the direction of Deb Anderson, Archivist, by Renee Ettinger, Jeanne Neidenbach Jean Wentz and Jeanine Mead (2001-2010). History The Fort Howard Company was founded in 1919 by Austin E. Cofrin, with backing by a handful of investors. Built on the west side of the Fox River in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the company takes its name from an 1800s military outpost located near the mouth of the Fox River. The company was dedicated to the mass manufacture of sanitary paper products (namely bath tissue, colored crepe, facial tissue, and paper toweling in the early days). Their marketing strategy of “elegant yet affordable” made Fort Howard’s products widely available to the majority of the population, including private, business, and commercial sectors. From the start, Fort Howard operated nearly self-sufficiently. It supplied many of its own needs that would normally have been be purchased or contracted through outside sources. They created their own power, they made some of their own chemicals, they maintained their own landfills, and they built and serviced their own machines.
[Show full text]