CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE – Municipal Art Society – Photo taken of this photo under Lincoln Center in parking lot.
Pearline Soap
Baptista Search Uncovers Vintage Gems
Above are images Robert Baptista (colorantshistory.org) found while commenting on some of my Pearline Soap postings. Pearline Soap ad: Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Baptista’s invaluable comments on this blog are worth being their own postings. Hey Robert- let me just make you a co-editor already! Below are his comments.
James Pyle made soap at 350 Washington St. in Manhattan in the 1860s. The product was sold in grocery stores as Pyle’s O.K. Soap. He later moved the factory to 414 Washington St. and sold Pearline Soap in one-pound packages at 15 cents per package. It was a coarse white powder formulated with sodium carbonate for washing clothes. A colorful vintage ad can be seen at the link:
A fascinating period photo is at the Library of Congress which depicts a little girl sitting on opened crates of Pearline washing compound, crying. She apparently mistook the small boxes for Crackerjacks!
The Pearline Soap factory is being converted to condominiums with a cool $5 million starting price. Photos, a map, and more old Pearline ads
