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.

The second photo in the lot is an “In Step with N.R.A.” promotional shot from the same era showing H and H “Buy Now” signs, which dates it to the 1933–1935 National Recovery Administration window and pairs naturally with the employee-group photo shown above.

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.