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For Immediate Release •
April 3, 2009
Staff Contact: Erik Mason, Longmont Museum, 303-651-8969
View the most recent Press Releases.
April 3, 2009 - On April 18, the Longmont Museum opens an exhibit that explores the life of John H. Empson, one of the most colorful and innovative industrialists of northern Colorado. The exhibition, John H. Empson: Longmont’s Robber Baron, runs through July 26, 2009. It looks at the growth of Empson’s vegetable canning empire, his sharp business practices, and his skill as a collector of Japanese art.
A candy maker from Ohio, John H. Empson came to Colorado for his health and saw an opportunity in the emerging field of vegetable canning. He built his first cannery in Longmont in 1889. Advertising for young women, who were paid less than men, to work in the factory, and steadily expanding his factory, he soon was canning more than 2 million cans of peas, beans, corn, asparagus, and pumpkin every year. His canning operations expanded to Greeley and Loveland, and after his retirement in 1920 the company merged with Kuner to form Kuner-Empson, a brand still familiar to many in northern Colorado. The exhibition includes large-scale historic photographs of the cannery in operation and authentic cans and bottles from the Empson cannery.
Empson’s marketing genius showed with his promotion of a new product, currant jelly. He had a four-foot-diameter kettle plated with silver and used it to make what he called “Silver Kettle Jelly,” which received publicity in scores of newspapers and was sold as far away as Egypt. The silver kettle, once thought lost, has survived more than 100 years of use and travel, and it will be the centerpiece of the exhibition.
Like many of the great “robber barons” – Rockefeller, Morgan and Vanderbilt – John H. Empson used the wealth he accumulated in part to create an art collection. Empson collected Japanese art primarily, including Satsuma ceramics, cloisonné metalwork, lacquer ware and ivory carving. His taste was outstanding, and his collection includes works by Japanese artists such as Yabu Meizan and Namikawa Yoshiyuke.
John H. Empson died in 1926 of a stroke. What he built lives on in the form of The Cannery, now transformed into an apartment building, a remarkable art collection, and a legacy of development in northern Colorado.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
"John H. Empson" lecture
Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 7 p.m.
Lee Scamehorn, Professor emeritus of History at CU-Boulder and author of a forthcoming book on the canning industry in Colorado, talks about separating myths from reality and explores how John H. Empson built a vegetable canning empire headquartered in Longmont. Lecture admission is $5, and members of the Friends of the Museum are admitted free.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Longmont Museum & Cultural Center is located at 400 Quail Road in Longmont, Colorado. It is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, Wednesday evenings until 8 p.m., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays, and closed Mondays. Admission is free. For more information, contact the Museum at 303 651-8374, or visit their website, www.ci.longmont.co.us/museum.
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