An Artistic Man

My grandfather Eddie Ambrose, my dad Ed,
and my aunt, Marion Ambrose Benedict, in the baby stroller.

My grandfather, Edwin Ambrose, was a draftsman for many years so I knew he was a creative person; I just never knew he had an interest and talent for advertising. It appears he entered a Whirlpool washer slogan contest when he was living in Syracuse... and won! I found this clipping in their family scrapbook. Do you think the $20.00 scrawled on the ad was his reward for winning? Or maybe it was the cost of the washer? 

The 1900 Washer Company opened in 1899, and in 1920 it merged forces with another washing machine company to become the Nineteen Hundred Corporation. In the late 1920’s the company introduced its new line of washers called the Whirlpool. The 1900 Washer Company at 389 West Onondaga Street in Syracuse was the exclusive sales and service headquarters for this "new-day" washer. 

Other ads in newspapers at the time read like news articles, claiming the washer was "preferred by housewives" or "approved by Good Housekeeping Institute." Want to know another special feature with this "new" washing machine? It was equipped with a gasoline powered engine "which brings to the housewife in the country and the suburban districts the same relief from drudgery of wash day as comes to the housewife who has electric power to assist her in eliminating much of the unnecessary drudgery of the laundry work." The gas engine was 1/2 horse power and 4 cycle and the company promoted the fact that it could also be utilized for other purposes on the farm. Imagine that. A gift for the woman and the man in the family!