Abstract
The C. Vern Olmstead Professional Papers (1940-1975) contain materials related to Olmstead’s work as a prominent meat industry executive. The collection pertains to the preparation, cutting, storage, marketing, and distribution of meats including beef, pork, and poultry. Materials include reports, correspondence, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographic prints and slides, and publications regarding topics relevant to the handling and sale of meat in the United States and Canada.
Finding Aid PDF
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Scope and Contents Note
The C. Vern Olmstead Professional Papers (1940-1975) contain materials related to Olmstead’s work as a prominent meat industry executive. The collection materials pertains to the preparation, cutting, storage, marketing, and distribution of meats including beef, pork, and poultry, and materials include reports, correspondence, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographic prints and slides, conference presentations, and publications regarding topics relevant to the handling and sale of meat in the United States and Canada. Also included are detailed descriptions and photographic instructions for different meat cuts, their sales and marketing statistics, and newly developed food storage techniques such as canning and freeze-drying.
Access Note
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Materials are arranged into three series:
Series I. C. Vern Olmstead presentation papers, 1940-1966;
Series II. Armour & Company organizational records, 1943-1975;
Series III. Reports and publications on meat handling and marketing, 1945-1975.
Biographical / Historical Note
Clifford La Vern Olmstead was born on August 15, 1912 in Marshalltown, Iowa. He graduated from Grant High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1930 and married Irma Margaret Perkins on November 17, 1932. Olmstead began working in the meat industry in the mid-1930s and operated a retail meat market and hotel supply company. He later worked as a consultant and held positions at various companies including the National Live Stock and Meat Board in Chicago, Illinois (1939-1946); Vaunclair Purveyors, Ltd. in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1965); Wilson and Company, Inc. in Chicago (1965-1968); Consolidated Meat International, Ltd. in Tulsa, Oklahoma (1970s); and most prominently at Armour Food Service Company in Chicago (1946-1965) where he became President and General Manager. Olmstead’s work included marketing and selling different cuts of meat at large volumes, as well as innovating and understanding new methods of cutting and storing meats, and his contracts ranged from the military to school cafeteria clients.
Olmstead also published and presented on a variety of topics related to the meat industry, primarily related to the cutting, cooking, serving, pricing, selling, storing, and marketing of meat products to individuals and organizations. He worked with the Office of the Quartermaster General prior to World War II to plan frozen food distribution to troops, and during the war he worked for the both the United States Army and Navy to oversee all stages of meat distribution and helped develop a new cutting technique for meat preparation aboard naval ships. Olmstead also taught at military stations and later toured the country as an educator for the National Restaurant Association.
C. Vern Olmstead died on March 17, 1976.
Source:
C. Vern Olmstead's resume, C. Vern Olmstead Professional Papers, 1940-1975. MS-00008. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
Preferred Citation
C. Vern Olmstead Professional Papers, 1940-1975. MS-00008. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 1982 by Irma M. Olmstead; accession number 1981-130.
Processing Note
In 2019, as part of an archival backlog elimination project, Jimmy Chang and Billy Marino rehoused and arranged the materials, wrote the finding aid, and entered the data into ArchivesSpace.
Administrative Information
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Storage Location
Some materials are stored in the Lied Automated Storage and Retrieval Unit (LASR). Advanced notice may be required to access these materials.