The Red Barrel

I was recently invited to join a facebook group devoted to collectors of the Red Barrel, one of our internal publications focused on the fountain trade.  We have a complete run of the publication and I frequently use it for research, but I was not aware how much interest there was about the publication among the collecting community. 

One of the questions I was asked was about the origin of the magazine.  It is interesting because the first volume published in January, 1924 actually has VOL III, Issue 1 in the masthead.  How was that first magazine part of the third volume?  This was due to the fact they honored an earlier in-house publication called the Friendly Hand which was published from 1921 to 1923.  Our first in-house publication was called The Coca-Cola News and began publication in 1896. 

Another interesting note for collectors is that two versions of the magazine were actually produced.  A special "Serviceman's" edition was also published.  This version contained more specific information on how to advertise and merchandise the Coca-Cola at the fountain.  The earliest of these special editions we have in our collection is from October, 1925.

If you are a fan of the publication, make sure to check out the facebook group to see if you can buy or trade any issues.  You can download and read the October 1925 Serviceman's Edition Red Barrel clicking on the following link. Download RB1925-Oct