Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour (now Pearl Milling Company Pancake Mix)
Today we recognize the problematic nature of the mascot, but in 1893, Aunt Jemima was crucial to introducing the world to packaged pancake mix. The mascot of the Pearl Milling Company named the mix after a character in a vaudeville show, and the character carried over when the company was sold to the R.T. Davis Milling Company.
They hired Nancy Green, herself born into slavery in 1817, to portray Aunt Jemima. She was a sensation, being warm and personable with a natural ability to able to engage a crowd. The booth was so popular it required police controls to manage the people lined up to visit the booth. After the fair, the company had 50,000 orders for their pancake flour, and Green was given a lifetime contract to portray the mascot on promotional tours around the country.
