The ubiquitous Dixie Cup, created in the 20th century, initially served to halt the spread of disease and then to meet the needs of the food industry.
Commercial drinking vessels in America can be traced to the colonial era where people patronizing an inn or tavern shared a drinking (punch) bowl, tankard, goblet or cup to quench their thirst. Up until the early 20th century a common cup, tin dipper, glass tumbler, or other container could also be found in places such as schools, public drinking fountains, factories, communal water pumps, and railroad stations and trains.
“It’s cholera to blame” By Pavel Fedotov
The First Dixie Cup
In 1907 Lawrence Luellen, a Boston lawyer, listened to another lawyer, Austin Pinkham, about developing a single-use paper drinking cup. A vending machine attached to a water cooler would dispense it.
So, a year later Luellen began developing a cone-shaped pleated paper cup, with a separate flat- bottomed piece attached to the cup. He also developed a vending machine to go with it. The vending machine had an ice container with a water jug on top, a section in the middle for wastewater and a bottom repository for used cups. The dispenser, with the column of cups, was in front of the vending machine.
On April 4, 1908, Luellen and a group of investors incorporated the American Water Supply Company of New England in Boston. Soon the firm began making the metal dispensers for the cups, which sold for a penny apiece.
On Feb. 3, 1909 Luellen and Hugh Moore established the Public Cup Vendor Company in New York for leasing vendor machines to the railroad industry. On Dec. 15, 1910 they formed the Individual Drinking Cup Company of Maine. By 1912 its drinking cup became known as the Health Kup made by its first semi-automatic machine.
An ad for the HealthKup
Waterborne Diseases
When Luellen formed his company in 1908, public concern about waterborne diseases (e.g., typhoid fever, cholera, and dysentery) in urban and rural areas was emerging. A study of contaminated cups in public schools by Alvin Davison contributed to that concern. After Kansas abolished the communal drinking cup in 1909, other states followed. A further increase in demand for the single-use paper cup came between 1918-20 with the arrival of the Spanish flu.
Needing to differentiate its business from emerging competitors, Moore decided in 1919 to rename the Health Kup the Dixie Cup. He took the name from Alfred Schindler’s Dixie Doll Company in New York City, with Schindler’s permission.
With Moore now running the company and Luellen a shareholder and consultant, the firm moved in 1921 to a larger location in Easton, Pa. The new facility soon offered Dixie Cups for sale for home use.
The Dixie Cup Company in Easaton, Pa.
New Uses for the Dixie Cup
Prior to 1923, ice cream was sold in quarts or pints out of bulk containers in drugstores, soda fountains and other locations. In 1923 ice cream makers were aware of the success of the single-serving Dixie Cup and looked for a convenient way to distribute their product. So, they contacted the cup maker. The franchise deal had the Dixie brand on the cup, but the ice cream maker’s name was on the lid. The small paper cup, with a wooden spoon (spade), was heavily advertised. It was sold to ice cream parlors, drugstores, soda fountains and convenience stores.
In 1928 the company created the Dixie Circus radio program, which appeared on NBC/CBS. By 1930 the firm was using circus animals and performers on its ice cream lids. Other ideas for the lids followed. They included a “nature series” of animals, movie stars, sports figures and World War II scenes. This use of these lids ended in 1954 when blank lids began to appear.
Other food-related products included paper plates, begun in the 1950s. Insulated hot beverage cups started in the 1960s, and, more recently, take-out containers that display food items.
At your local grocer’s
In 1935 the Individual Drinking Cup Company merged with the Vortex Company of Chicago. The Dixie-Vortex Company then became the Dixie Cup Company in 1943. More recently, Koch Industries acquired the Dixie Cup Company from Georgia-Pacific in 2005.
Edward T. Howe, Ph.D. is Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Siena University near Albany, N.Y.
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