J.L. Hudson's Memorabilia

A lady who attended one of my J.L. Hudson's presentations recently contacted me saying she found some Hudson's memorabilia in her parent's belongings, and wanted to give them to me.  

We met at TranquiliTea [a lovely tea shop]  in Plymouth, MI last week. Below is a photo of Marilyn holding the folder containing the memorabilia.

There were two issues of The Minuteman from 1929.  Since I had never heard of The Minuteman before I contacted Hudson's historian, Mike Hauser.  I wondered if it was the forerunner to the Hudsonian magazine [an in-house publication for employees].  Mike said the Hudsonian began around 1919, and he felt The Minuteman must have augmented that publication for special occasions since it mentioned their 48th Anniversary Sale several times. Mike, who did extensive Hudson's research for his book Hudson's Detroit's Legendary Department Store [Images of America], said he had never heard of The Minuteman before either.  What a wonderful piece of Hudson's history!

Of particular interest to me was the last page of the publication which gives statistics for the Mezzanine Tea Room, Employees' Cafeteria, Basement Store Restaurant, and 13th Floor Dining Rooms.  It will definitely be useful for the cookbook project.  

Thanks for your generosity, Marilyn, and for allowing me to be the recipient of the memorabilia.

I couldn't go to TranquiliTea without making some purchases, and will share them in my next post.