By Jalen Todd and Tiah Edmunson-Morton
Title: Olympia Brewing Company Library Collection, 1937-2007
Predominant Dates: 1955-1995
ID: MSS OBCL
Primary Creator: Olympia Brewing Company
Extent: 20.0 cubic feet. More info below.
Arrangement: The Olympia Brewing Company Library Collection has one series, Publications: 1937-2007, and titles are arranged chonologically.
Date Acquired: 00/00/2017
Languages of Materials: Danish [dan], German [ger], English [eng]
The Olympia Brewing Company Library Collection contains the publications collected by the Olympia Brewing Company. It includes magazines, journals, and laboratory communications.
Notable items in this collection are annotations on many journals from brewery staff, English editions of the magazine Brauwelt, a 35-year run of the Wallerstein Laboratory Communication starting with the first issue from 1937 and ending in 1972, and a run of Danish language journals called the Brygmestern: The Scandinavian Brewers’ Review. The collection includes the American Brewer magazine (1957-1958, 1962-1988), the MBAA Technical Quarterly (1964-2003), Brewers Digest (1961-1998), Beverage World (1975-1983), Wallerstein Laboratory Communications (1937-1972), Journal of the Institute of Brewing (1948-1984), Journal of the ASBC (1975-1997), American Society of Brewing Chemists: Proceedings (1940-1974), The Institute of Brewing: Proceedings of annual conventions in Australia and New Zealand Section (1970-1994), Brygmestern (1972-1978), Brewers Almanac (1955-1982), Modern Brewery Age (1968-1995, 2006), American Breweriana (1990-1994), Beer Cans and Brewery Collectables (1994-1998), Beer Can Collectors News Report (1981-1993), Brauwelt (1985-1996), BDI (1972-1983).
Also included are single issues of several different magazines dating from 1942 to 1992, with the bulk dating from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Some additional materials were added to the collections by Full Sail staff after they aquired the collection in 2003.
Leopold Schmidt founded the Olympia Brewing Company in 1896 under the name of the Capital Brewing Company. Schmidt chose the base of the Tumwater Falls as the location for his brewer due to the purity of the artesian wells in the area. This water became an integral part of the brewing company’s advertisements.
The first beer brewed there in 1896—called the Olympia Pale Export—went on the market on October 1st. In 1902, Capital Brewing changed its name to Olympia Brewing Company, and in 1905, a new brew house was constructed to replace to original wooden one. The Olympia Brewing Company fostered a close-knit employee culture, and the beer was sold at higher than normal price in order to pay the employees well.
Olympia continued to make and sell beer until Washington passed Prohibition laws in 1916. The brewery tried to stay in business by switching production to fruit juice and jams, but the sugar shortage of WWI ended those hopes and it closed. However, when Prohibition laws were lifted in 1934, rather than undertake costly renovations on the Old Brew house the Schmidt family constructed a new brew house. This new operation ran until 2003 when it closed for good after a series of buy-outs: G. Heileman in 1983, Pabst Brewing Company in 1999, and finally MillerCoors.
More Extent Information: 82 boxes
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.
Acquisition Note: This collection was donated in 2017 by the Full Sail Brewing in Hood River. The library materials were acquired by Full Sail Brewing when the Olympia Brewing Company closed in 2003.
Related Materials:
The Brewing and Fermentation Collection consists of materials collected by the OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center pertaining to the history, growth, and culture of the Pacific Northwest brewing industry. A large component of the collection are the periodicals, which complements the Olympia Brewing Company Library Collection.
Additional materials related to Oregon State University research and manuscript collections are described on the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives library research guide. More information pertaining to the history of hop growing and brewing in Oregon can be found on the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives website.
Olympia Brewing Company
Brewing--Periodicals.
Brewing.
Hops and Brewing
Olympia Brewing Company