Brown & Bigelow
Encyclopedia
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
that produces advertising specialties, or promotional products, such as clocks, pens, cocktail spoons with corkscrew and cap-lifter, and advertising calendars. The company was founded in 1896 by Herbert Huse Bigelow and Hirm Brown.
In 1925, Brown & Bigelow began a tradition by publishing calendars for the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
, many of which were illustrated by Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
. In 1969, as a tribute to Rockwell's 75th year birthday that year, officials of Brown & Bigelow and the Boy Scouts of America asked Rockwell to pose in this calendar illustration (pictured).
In 1936, then president Charlie Ward paid the large amount of $10,000 to Maxfield Parrish
Maxfield Parrish
Maxfield Parrish was an American painter and illustrator active in the first half of the twentieth century. He is known for his distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery.-Life:...
for exclusive rights to his work "Peaceful Valley." Brown and Bigelow also published art, including works by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge , was an American visual artist, best known for his paintings in the "dogs playing poker" genre. He was also known as Cash Coolidge ....
, Rolf Armstrong
Rolf Armstrong
Rolf Armstrong was an American painter of pin-up art.-Biography:Rolf Armstrong was born in Bay City, Michigan on April 21, 1889 to Richard and Harriet Armstrong. His father owned the Boy-Line Fire Boat Company, which included a line of passenger ships. Some were deployed in Chicago for use at the...
, Gil Elvgren
Gil Elvgren
Gil Elvgren , born Gillette Elvgren, was an American painter of pin-up girls, advertising and illustration. Elvgren was one of the more important pin-up and glamour artists of the twentieth century. Today he is best known for his pin-up paintings for Brown & Bigelow...
, Earl Moran
Earl Moran
Earl Steffa Moran , born in Belle Plaine, Iowa, was a 20th Century pin-up and glamour artist. Moran's first instruction in art came under the direction of John Stich, an elderly German artist who also taught the great illustrator W.H.D. Koerner...
, Vaughn Alden Bass, Mabel Rollins Harris, and Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
. In the late 1940s, it was one of the biggest calendar printers in the world, employing some of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
' best pin-up artists and putting calendars into an estimated 50 million homes.
Ward served time in prison for tax evasion where he became close friends with Morris Rudensky
Morris Rudensky
Morris "Red" Rudensky was an American prohibition-era gangster, prominent cat burglar and safe-cracker...
, infamous safe-cracker. The company was also notable for the fact that it hired hundreds of ex-convicts.