The origins of ice cream in the New World can be traced back to a letter written in 1744 by a guest of Maryland Governor William Bladen. Fast forward to January 1922, and Christian Nelson, a schoolteacher in Onawa, Iowa, successfully secured a patent for the Eskimo Pie, gaining widespread recognition in trade magazines. This innovative ice cream bar, coated in sweet chocolate, was celebrated as a highly anticipated creation.
The progression from a chocolate-covered ice cream bar to one on a stick followed a natural course. In 1893, an eighteen-year-old Harry B. Burt established a candy store in downtown Youngstown, Ohio. While managing his ice cream store, Burt devised a chocolate coating recipe that complemented ice cream. During the initial taste test conducted by his daughter Ruth, concerns were raised about its messiness.
In 1920, Burt took a significant step by inserting a stick into the chocolate-covered ice cream bar, resulting in the creation of the Good Humor Bar. He marketed it as "the new clean convenient way to eat ice cream" and applied for patents on January 30, 1922. Despite facing initial rejection due to similarities with the Eskimo Pie, Burt personally demonstrated the distinctions in Washington, leading to the granting of a patent on October 9, 1923.
After the inception of the Good Humor bar, Burt outfitted twelve street vending trucks with freezers and bells to promote and sell his creation. The opening of Burt's West Federal Street store on April 3, 1922, marked the initiation of neighborhood distribution through twelve refrigerator trucks. The utilization of vending trucks, complete with freezers and bells, played a pivotal role in popularizing and selling the Good Humor ice cream bars.
History of ice cream on stick
