The Hagley Imprints Department recently acquired Automat-Restaurants, a trade catalog from the Sielaff Company of Berlin, Germany published circa 1902.Image: Exterior of Automat Restaurant in Berlin, Germany (from Automat-Restaurants, Hagley Museum and Library)
The Sielaff Company began producing coin-operated vending machines in the 1880s, and they shrewdly promoted the concept of an Automat-restaurant at various international exhibitions in Europe beginning in 1896. This novel food service experience quickly caught on, with restaurants opening across Germany and in Belgium, France, England, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland. The Horn and Hardart Company opened their first famous Automat-restaurant in Philadelphia in 1902, and they purchased the equipment to do so from Sielaff.
Image: Interior of Horn & Hardart, an Automat in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (from Automat-Restaurants, Hagley Museum and Library)To find out more about Hagley's extensive historical research collection, visit our website at www.hagley.org/library.
Related resources online:
Image of a New York Automat at the Online Archive of California
Images of Automats in the New York Public Library Digital Gallery
Read an article about Automat proprietor Horn & Hardart from Nation's Restaurant News
Website for The Automat: The History, Recipes and Allure of Horn & Hardart's Masterpiece by Lorraine B. Diehl and Marianne Hardart
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