{"product_id":"vintage-lay-broom-label-no-426-joseph-lay-company-portland-indiana","title":"Vintage Lay Broom Label 🧹 No. 426, Joseph Lay Company, Portland Indiana","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f40UFxT9jCw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat Swept the Farmhouse Floors of Old Portland, Indiana? 🧹\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere's something quietly wonderful about a piece of paper that was never meant to survive. A broom label wasn't built for the parlor wall or the family scrapbook — it was wrapped around a handle and sent out the factory door to do its one small job: tell a farmwife or a shopkeeper exactly what she was buying. Most of them got soaked, scuffed, and swept away right along with the dust they were sold to clean up. This one never got the chance. It sat, unused, in a stack of factory stock from The Joseph Lay Company of Portland, Indiana — and nearly a century later, it's still bright, still crisp, still telling its story exactly as the pressman left it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is \u003cstrong\u003eThe Lay Broom No. 426 label\u003c\/strong\u003e, manufactured by The Joseph Lay Company of Portland, Indiana — a company that told its customers right on the label that it was \"established in 1876.\" The design is bold, graphic, and unmistakably of its era: diagonal red-and-black racing stripes cut across a deep blue field, with the word \"LAY\" stacked in oversized white block letters trimmed in a light blue drop shadow that gives the whole thing a real sense of dimension and motion. A flowing white script \"The\" crowns the top, and an equally graceful \"Broom\" curls beneath in matching script — the kind of confident, hand-lettered contrast between block and cursive type that defined commercial advertising art in the early-to-mid twentieth century. A yellow vertical panel runs down the left edge with \"NO. 426\" stamped in bold black — the style number for this particular broom in the Lay line. Along the bottom, a red banner spells out the manufacturer, the founding claim, and the town: THE JOSEPH LAY COMPANY, ESTABLISHED IN 1876, PORTLAND, INDIANA. The whole label measures roughly 3.5 by 5 inches, printed by color lithography with the kind of layered, multi-pass registration that gave these old commercial labels their punch — bold enough to catch a shopkeeper's eye from across a general store. This example is \u003cstrong\u003enew old stock (NOS)\u003c\/strong\u003e — never applied to a broom, pulled straight from unused factory inventory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏭 The Broom Business — America's Forgotten Everyday Industry\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt's easy to forget that the humble broom was once a genuine American manufacturing sector, complete with trade journals, patent wars, and regional rivalries. According to industry records, there were 303 broom factories operating across the country in 1849. That number swelled as broom corn — a tall, fibrous variety of sorghum grown specifically for bristle-making — became a staple crop across the Midwest, and by 1919 the trade had ballooned to 1,034 factories nationwide. It was a genuine boom industry, born out of pure necessity: every household, every store, every schoolhouse needed a broom, and needed a new one every year or two. The Joseph Lay Company rode that entire arc — founded in the industry's early growth years and still running strong through its peak — before the trade began contracting in the face of changing housekeeping habits and manufacturing consolidation, dropping to roughly 320 factories by 1939. A broom label like this one is a small paper witness to that whole rise-and-fall story of an industry most people never think about today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏘️ Portland, Indiana — Jay County's Industrial Heart\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePortland sits as the county seat of Jay County, a stretch of northeast Indiana carved out of Delaware and Randolph Counties back in 1835, tucked right up near the Ohio border. Like a lot of small Midwestern county seats in the era of horse-drawn wagons and then early motor freight, Portland built its economy on solid, unglamorous manufacturing — the kind of goods that every farm and every home actually needed. The Joseph Lay Company was one of the town's notable early industrial concerns, and it wasn't a fly-by-night operation — it was still advertising in national trade press as late as February 1938, when the \"Lay\" brand ran ads in the *Oil Mill Gazetteer*, a publication tied to the broom corn trade itself. That's the kind of detail that tells you this wasn't a backyard operation — it was a real regional manufacturer with a name recognized well beyond Jay County's borders.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e👨‍👩‍👦 The Lay Family — Patent Holders and \"Originators of the Metal Case Broom\"\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCompany letterhead from the era proudly billed the firm as \"Originators of the Metal Case Broom\" — and the patent record backs that boast up. Founder Joseph Lay was granted a broom-related patent in 1883, and his son, Samuel C. Lay, followed with his own patent in 1900 — a real father-and-son innovation story stretched across a generation, with the company's name attached to actual U.S. patent filings rather than just marketing copy. Historical references to \"the Lay brothers\" running the broom works suggest the operation stayed a genuine family affair across multiple generations, the kind of multi-generational small manufacturer that once anchored towns like Portland from the inside out. The Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis holds a substantial manuscript collection titled \"The Joseph Lay Company Records, 1843–1925\" — a serious archival footprint for what could have easily been a forgotten small-town brand, and proof that this company's story was considered worth preserving long before collectors started hunting down its labels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧹 The Kitchenette — A Brand That Outlived Its Own Maker\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHere's the part of the story that collectors love to pass along: in 1936, the Joseph Lay Company introduced a broom it called the \"Kitchenette\" — a lighter, more compact broom aimed squarely at the modern housewife, and the company moved quickly to patent the name as a trademark. A 1937 Curt Teich linen advertising postcard survives promoting \"The Kitchenette — a new creation in brooms, Mfg. by Joseph Lay Co., Portland, Indiana,\" a lovely period artifact in its own right. But the real twist is what happened next: as the Joseph Lay Company itself faded after the Second World War, the Kitchenette name didn't die with it. In 1948, Kenny Quinn of Quinn Broom Works acquired the rights to the Kitchenette trademark and kept manufacturing it. And when Quinn Broom Works eventually wound down, the Kitchenette survived yet again — Newton Broom \u0026amp; Brush Co. purchased the trademark and, remarkably, still manufactures a lightweight, 100% broom corn Kitchenette broom today. A brand born on the floor of a small Portland, Indiana factory has now outlived its original maker not once, but twice — a genuinely rare thing in American manufacturing history, and a detail that gives this label a living thread straight into the present day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📜 Why These Labels Still Turn Up — and Why They Matter\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCollectors in the paper ephemera and advertising-art world know the Lay Broom No. 426 label by name — identical examples have circulated in the trade for years, some even surfacing in bulk lots of unused stock, which tells its own story: when the Lay company's operations wound down, stacks of printed labels that never made it onto a finished broom simply survived in factory inventory rather than being destroyed. That's almost certainly how a piece like this one, crisp and never applied, has made its way down to us intact. It's a small, accidental gift from a shuttered factory floor to today's collectors of American advertising art — proof that sometimes the things built to be thrown away are exactly the things that last.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Display Ideas\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🖼️ Float-mounted in a small shadow box to let the diagonal stripe design and drop-shadow lettering really pop under glass\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🧹 Paired with a vintage corn-broom head or handle for a genuine \"before and after\" advertising vignette\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e📚 Slipped into an archival sleeve inside a themed collection of early Indiana or Midwestern advertising ephemera\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🏠 Grouped with other small-town American manufacturer labels for a kitchen or laundry-room gallery wall\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🎨 Displayed on its own as a standalone piece of American Art Deco commercial graphic design\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🗂️ Kept flat in a collector's portfolio alongside other Jay County or Portland, Indiana ephemera\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎁 Who Collects These\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis label finds its way into the hands of several kinds of collectors: advertising and ephemera enthusiasts drawn to bold early graphic design; Indiana and Midwestern regional history collectors building out a picture of small-town industry; broom, brush, and housewares collectors tracking manufacturer marks and trademark lineage; and folks with a personal or family tie to Jay County or Portland who love finding tangible pieces of their hometown's industrial past. It's also a favorite of collectors who specialize in \"brands that survived\" — pieces connected to a name or product line, like the Kitchenette, that quietly outlasted the company that first dreamed it up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003chr\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ FAQ\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eIs this label new old stock, and what condition is it in?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYes — this is genuine new old stock (NOS), pulled from unused factory inventory and never applied to an actual broom. It's an excellent example of early twentieth-century American commercial lithography and advertising art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat does \"No. 426\" mean on the label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt refers to the specific style or model number of broom within The Joseph Lay Company's product line — companies of this era typically ran numbered lines of brooms distinguished by size, bristle style, or handle type, each with its own dedicated label design.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHow old is this label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Joseph Lay Company advertised itself as established in 1876, and operated well into the 1930s and 1940s before its Kitchenette trademark changed hands in 1948 — so this label dates from within that broad company operating window. No manufacture date is printed or stamped on the piece itself, so we describe its era honestly as spanning the early-to-mid twentieth century rather than naming a single year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eIs the Joseph Lay Company still in business?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe company itself appears to have wound down sometime after the late 1940s, but remarkably, its most famous product — the Kitchenette broom — is still manufactured today by Newton Broom \u0026amp; Brush Co., after passing through Quinn Broom Works along the way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat size is the label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt measures approximately 3.5 by 5 inches, a typical size for broom labels of this era meant to wrap around a handle or wooden brace.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhere was it made?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePortland, Indiana — the seat of Jay County, in the northeast part of the state near the Ohio border, and the longtime home of The Joseph Lay Company.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWas this actually used on a broom?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo — this particular label is unused new old stock, never affixed to a finished broom, which is part of what makes it such a clean example of the original printed artwork.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-broom-label-no-830c-all-corn-penna-dutch-broom-makers-hamburg-pa-nos-ephemera\"\u003eVintage Broom Label 🧹 No. 830C All Corn, Penna. 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