Advertising Print, “How a Modern Brewery Operates,” 1948

This framed print is a cutaway drawing of what constituted a modern American brewery in 1948. The print was produced by the Armstrong Cork Company, which manufactured industrial insulation, and the United States Brewers Foundation. This colorful print served as an advertisement for both entities: Armstrong’s insulation products were used to control the critical functions of heating and cooling in the brewery, while the plant’s modern equipment and processes, illustrated with such technical precision, would have been a point of pride for members of the Brewers Foundation.

Beneath the image is an extensive explanation of the industrial brewing process, and the various ways Armstrong’s various insulation products were used to keep everything running smoothly. The text is also keyed to specific parts of the drawing so the viewer can follow the process easily. Fifteen points in the “careful, unhurried process” of brewing are pointed out on the drawing, from the storage bins containing the malt and cereal, to the tanks containing water for mixing, to the cooker that boiled the cereal to form the mash, through many more steps that ends with the beer in the bottling plant.

This framed print is part of a large collection of brewing material donated to the museum in 1967 by former brewmaster Walter Voigt, of Ruxton, Maryland, near Baltimore. Voigt’s collection consists of objects and archival materials reflecting the history of brewing in the mid-Atlantic region between 1870 and the beginnings of consolidation and large-scale, industrial production in the 1960s. His correspondence reveals an interest in preserving the history of brewing in America before brewmasters were “replaced by chemical engineers and highly trained chemists in modern laboratories.” Voigt’s papers are housed in the museum’s Archives Center, Collection #ACNMAH 1195, “Walter H. Voigt Brewing Industry Collection, 1935-1967.”