Big Chief Tablet Miniature

Name/Title

Big Chief Tablet Miniature

Entry/Object ID

AM2008.7.2

Scope and Content

Red notebook - Big Chief Tablet - Commemorative Miniature of original Big Chief Tablet - Mead Corp. - Head of Indian Chief. c. 1980's. www.wikipedia.com 'The tablet was originated by William Albrecht (1879-1945), whose family had a stationery business in Quincy, Illinois. In 1906 he opened the Western Tablet Company in St. Joseph, Missouri, and it became the world's largest paper tablet producer. Albrecht's home on Frederick Boulevard in St. Joseph is now the Albrecht-Kemper Art Museum. Western Tablet trademarked the Big Chief in 1947. Western Tablet expanded in the 1920s and moved its headquarters to Dayton, Ohio but most of the manufacturing components remained in St. Joseph. In 1964 the company was renamed "Westab." Usage of the Big Chief peaked in the 1960s when another Westab invention—the spiral notebook—began to claim bigger market share. In 1966, the Mead Corporation acquired the Western Tablet. Mead subsequently sold the Big Chief line to Springfield Tablet of Springfield, Missouri. In January 2001, Everett Pad and Paper of Everett, Washington, purchased the inventory from Springfield. They closed their plant, after 80 years operations, and Big Chief tablet production was halted. The plant in St. Joseph where the tablets were produced was closed in 2004 when Mead left the city."

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Tablet

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Other Documents

Nomenclature Class

Documentary Objects

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Search Terms

Big Chief Tablet, Mead Corporation, Westab, Western Tablet & Stationery Company

Condition

Overall Condition

Good