I love collecting things, I always have. I was one of those kids who built a rock collection out of the pebbles they found on the way home from the park. Lately, with more time on my hands due to COVID, I’ve been really enjoying building and researching my vintage Girl Guide collection. COVID has also given me time to practice my writing so I thought I would combine the two and share my research into my collection in a blog.
Most of these entries will probably begin the same, with a late-night eBay search. I would like to believe that eBay is the universal Achilles' heel to all collectors of unusual things and it’s not just me. One night in early August I found a sales listing that piqued my interest. The title read “Rare 1930s (1st ever?) Girl Guide Cookie Box, Girl Scouts, Suncrisps. Canada.“ It included an image of a long green box that among other text read ‘Suncrisp Cookies: Cookies Made Exclusively for the Girl Guides of Canada’.
Being a lifelong Girl Guide and having never heard of Suncrisp cookies, I knew this would make a fun little research project. I quickly bought the box and messaged the seller to figure out how he came into possession of it. He recently bought it as part of a collection of vintage food containers and guessed its age based on the manufacturers’ dates of the other items. I knew off-hand that cookies became the official fundraiser for the Girl Guides of Canada sometime in the late 1920s, but I could only determine from the photos that this box was pre-1961 due to the trefoil on the side reading ‘CGG’ instead of ‘GGC’. In 1961, the organization’s name changed from ‘the Canadian Girl Guides Associated’ to ‘Girl Guides of Canada - Guides du Canada’.
Luckily after a few short days, I received the box in the mail and with it, in hand, I was able to find details that hadn't made themselves apparent in the sale photos. The breakthrough came when I noticed the line of text that read that the cookies were produced by ‘The Independent Biscuit Company’. Knowing the name allowed me to do an online search and find out that the company used to be based in a warehouse in Calgary, Alberta from 1926-1974. The warehouse is actually still around today and is now named the ‘Biscuit Block’ after the company. Recently the building has had an extension added that uniquely celebrates the blend of Calgary’s industrial past with modern architecture.
Knowing that the box was manufactured in Alberta, I could then direct my next few questions to the Girl Guide Museum in Edmonton run by the Alberta Girl Guide
Council. Fortunately, I already had the lead archivist, Janet Allcock’s email from a past project. Alternatively, I could have also emailed the National Girl Guide Archives in Toronto if my Edmonton lead hadn’t panned out. However, I was hesitant to do so since I have been unable to get a response from them since the start of March and I assume they are currently closed due to COVID. Janet was able to use her notes at home to let me know that Girl Guides Cookies in the 1930s and 1940s were organized provincially and made by local manufacturers rather than a national source. ‘The Independent Biscuit Company’ was the Alberta Council cookie source as early as 1940 to 1957. After 1957, the company was sold to George Weston but Alberta purchased from him until at least 1988. Janet was also able to provide some references to photos of these cookies being sold by Girl Guides in a book about Alberta’s Guiding History. Luckily, I had the book on hand since my dad kindly gifted it to me last winter and there is a very similar box shown in a photo from 1952 but it's too small to make a good comparison.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to date the box exactly due to the Alberta museum being closed or find out what type of cookies they were but I’m very thankful we got as close as we did and maybe in a couple of months, I can do an update post. Cookie boxes are meant to be thrown away and not many have survived from the early days of Guiding so I feel very lucky to have this box 60 or 70 years after it was manufactured. It is now the oldest box in my collection with the previous being the ‘1967 Red Box’. However, I believe that box was saved more to its connection with the Canadian Centennial rather than its Girl Guides connection. This little research project also allowed the Alberta museum to have another photo example of an ‘Independent Biscuit Company’ Box and I couldn’t be happier about that. In the field of history, as it is in Sparks, it is always better to share and be a friend.
Special thanks to the Alberta Girl Guide Museum.
For those who want to learn more about ‘Biscuit Block’: https://www.avenuecalgary.com/City-Life/Calgarys-Oldest-New-Buildings-Biscuit-Block-Victoria-Park-School/
Thanks for reading!
EM
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