Schimpff`s Confectionery Museum

Schimpff’s
Confectionery Museum
Offering a history of candy as told by its
packaging and advertising
chimpff ’s Confectionery in Jeffersonville, Indiana, celebrated
120 years in business this summer
— a grand feat. Ten years ago, owners Jill and Warren Schimpff opened
a confectionery museum next door
to educate and delight the public
with advertising, containers and
equipment from bygone eras. The
museum is a free attraction and a
source of confectionery inspiration.
More than 20,000 people visit
Schimpff ’s Confectionery Museum
each year.
Within the 2,500 sq. ft. space, there
are hundreds of brass hard-candy dies,
dozens of hand-operated candy
machines, a number of salesman sample kits, thousands of candy tins, tubs
and boxes, as well as a wide variety of
advertising signs.
In the process of collecting for and
opening this museum, Warren and
Jill Schimpff have become not just
S
candymakers but candy historians.
They want to help tell the history
of American candy.
It is obvious that the Schimpffs
respect and cherish the industry as it
was. Containers are displayed on
every available surface, as are posters,
gilt mirrors, packaging, ad specialties, salesman’s sample kits and
equipment. The couple fights an
ongoing struggle against time, it
seems; each year much is sent to
scrap yards, burn piles or otherwise
lost when people aren’t aware of the
historic value of these pieces.
Large ledger books help them
keep track of all the items they own
and display, and their provenance.
Many of the companies represented
are no longer in business.
The couple started buying antique
candy machinery long before they
were aware of their future in the
business. While they lived in California, they acquired an old candy
stove, several kettles and various
drop roll candymaking equipment.
Most of their collection was
acquired in the 1980s and 1990s
from various sources, including
many candy companies getting rid of
equipment they no longer wanted.
The museum has antique
candymaking equipment and
thousands of pieces of candy
memorabilia on display.
The equipment quietly speaks of
a simpler time. Hard work and ingenuity. Techniques that involved
equal parts artistry and skill.
Machines that were solid and easily
adjusted. No computers needed.
Most didn’t even require electricity.
The advertising pieces harken
back to days when children played
happily on wood teeter-totters, smil-
1950s sales sample vials of Peerless Candy.
Donated by Kathleen
and Rita Picken, former owners of Peerless Candy.
The butter cream corn ad is paired with the bucket in the museum’s display.
“Cut rock” hard candy remains beautifully
intact in the sales kits from the 1920s.
The Manufacturing Confectioner • August 2011 39
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