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The E. Lee Schneider Pepperidge Farm Collection

Collection, MsB106

1938 – 1988
Fairfield Museum
E. Lee Schneider joined the staff of Pepperidge Farm in 1950 as a Management Trainee at its Downington, Penn., bakery.  He started the biscuit (cookie) operation in 1954; in 1960 he was appointed Vice President of the newly established Baked Foods Division based in Norwalk and in 1966 he was promoted to Vice President for Production. 

          Pepperidge Farm bakery was started by Margaret Rudkin at her home in Fairfield in 1937.  She hand carried her first loaves of healthy bread to Mercurio’s market on the Post Road.  Word of her tasty loaves quickly spread and the business grew steadily.  In 1940 the bakery moved to the site of a former hospital on Connecticut Ave. in Norwalk.  Other plants soon followed.  The company was purchased in the 1960s by the Campbell Soup Company.
 
The collection primarily consists of publicity and financial records collected by E. Lee Schneider during his tenure at Pepperidge Farm. The materials are arranged in three series, then organized chronologically. Series A encompasses financial records, including an account book kept by Margaret Rudkin herself. The volume

contains special, dividend, capital, loan and other accounts from 1938-1946. Additional financial records consist of a “Synopsis of past, present and future activities” from 1939-1970 prepared for Mr. Schneider; a booklet of graphs on sales projections, 1967-1968; and blank franchise contracts, n.d.

Employee’s Records are arranged in Series B. An employee handbook from 1957 is found in folder 1, while a scattered series of employee newsletters, 1957-1988, follow. The newsletters include brief histories of the company and profiles of employees and officers.

Publicity records in Series C consist of press releases, 1963, 1964, n.d.; photographs of Margaret Rudkin, other staff, and products; newspaper clippings, 1960-1966; published articles from an assortment of magazines, including the Reader’s Digest and the New Yorker, 1939-1972 ; a recorded interview with Mrs. Rudkin, n.d.; and a history of Pepperidge Farm compiled by long-time employee H. A. Baldwin.
Series A. Financial Records, 1938-1946 Box 1

Series B. Employee Records, 1957-1988 Box 1

Series C. Publicity, 1939-1972 Box 1, Box 2, oversize
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