1934 Hoffmann-Hayman Employees at the “Fragrant…” Billboard

A sepia press photograph of the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. office, salesforce, and plant employees — roughly thirty people in three rows — arranged in front of the company’s “Fragrant…” billboard. The billboard carries an illustration of an H and H Blend Coffee tin on the left, a large rose bud in the middle, and the H and H Coffee oval logo over “HOFFMANN-HAYMAN CO. EST. 1899” on the right, all anchored on the familiar “WE ROAST IT — OTHERS PRAISE IT” footer. A grease-pencil annotation in the lower-left of the print reads:

Office, Salesforce and Plant Employees Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. San Antonio, Tex. Sept. 14, 1934

The billboard itself pins down the 1899 founding date, two generations before the 1932 factory on the east side of San Antonio documented elsewhere in the collection. The Instagram caption attributes the print to Jas. W. Zintgraff, San Antonio’s prolific mid-century commercial photographer — the same Zintgraff studio whose archive is documented in the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures Zintgraff-collection visit from 2019.

A separate research lead says S. P. Stevens (Stanford P. Stevens) may have started by painting H and H Coffee billboards; two surviving samples of his art are here for visual comparison:

The second photo in the lot is an “In Step with N.R.A.” promotional shot from the same era, shown below. Roughly thirty employees are assembled on the factory’s front steps under a facade painted “HOFFMANN HAYMAN COFFEE CO.” Two pairs of flanking signs make the message plain: NRA eagle emblems and a hand-lettered “‘We are Satisfied’ — Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co.” placard on the building, and bright circular “BUY NOW — H-H BRAND QUALITY PRODUCTS” display cards at the bottom of the steps. A dark-painted “IN STEP WITH N.R.A.” caption runs across the foreground, and an H and H Coffee delivery truck is just visible on the right. The National Recovery Administration ran from 1933 to 1935, which dates this photo to the same two-year window as the 1934 group shot.

The reverse of that print carries the photographer’s studio stamp — the same Zintgraff attribution noted in the Instagram caption:

Jas. W. Zintgraff. 131 Isabel · Kenwood 6, San Antonio, Texas

Instagram 2018-07-17: Office, Salesforce, and Plant Employees — Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co., San Antonio, Texas, Sept 14, 1934. Group photo by Jas. W. Zintgraff. Also shows “In Step with N.R.A.” photo with H&H Buy Now signs.