Advert for Murray Lamb cereal

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

51539

Title

An advert for Murray Lamb cereal, health food and seed merchant. showing address information.

Description

An advert for Murray Lamb cereal, health food and seed merchant. showing address information. The label reads, 'Murray Lamb. Cereal, health food and seed merchant. 56 Granton Road. Edinburgh. Health food, diabetic foods. Try our famed oatmeal (finest Midlothian) & self-raising flour'. The label includes the printers' information too.

Location

Museums Collection Centre

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums and Galleries

This advert was made to promote Murray Lamb, a cereal, health food and seed merchant based in Edinburgh during the 1930s and 40s. Murray Lamb had two premises, one at 109 Ferry Road and the other at 56 Granton Road. The company described itself as a ‘Victual Dealer’, meaning a grocer who sells meal and other cereals.

The advertisement promotes the sale of health and diabetic foods. This reflects the relatively new idea, in the 1930s, of the importance of a nutritionally balanced diet. Various reports at the time concluded that working class families were surviving on diets that were rich in cheap carbohydrates and that eating habits had not changed significantly since the 19th century. As a result, the importance of a diet rich in vitamins was promoted to counter poor health.

During the 1940s several newspaper advertisements were taken out in the Scotsman by Murray Lamb to advertise ‘Karswood Poultry Spice’ a chicken feed that boldly claimed to boost the number of eggs produced by hens. This reflected the interest in keeping hens during the war effort at a time when the government encouraged people to produce their own food to improve diets and supplies.

The advertisement was printed by Smith and Ritchie, a printing business established at 71 Albert Street, Leith in 1853. The business primarily printed for food packaging.

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Related subjects

Business > Advertising > Advertisements

Business > Service industry > Shops

Places > Edinburgh areas > Granton

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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