Commercial Soup

The first known commercial soup manufacturer was James H. W. Huckins of Boston, who began canning soup about 1858. He first advertised his canned tomato soup in 1876. As Huckins’s soups became extremely successful, other canners entered the field.

Huckins began advertising his soup nationally during the 1880s. In these advertisements Huckins proclaimed that his soups were rich and well seasoned and that they “always maintained their excellence.” All the consumer needed to do was to heat the contents and serve. The soups were sold in two-quart cans and wholesaled for $3.25 per case of two dozen. Huckins engaged in a variety of promotional gimmicks. He gave away free samples of soup, for instance, charging only for the cost of mailing.