Manhattan, NY / Chicago, IL
The American can company was established in 1901 located in Manhattan, NY as a container industry giant. American Can Co. began by merging with a large volume of competing container companies in various cities across the country. The main two locations were in major cities like Manhattan, NY, and Chicago, IL. The Manhattan office was the main headquarters of American Can Co.
The American Can Company was a manufacturer of tin cans for different applications and products for various companies and industries across the country. They controlled a large percentage of business in the United States in tin cans, containers, and packages. At one time American Can Company ranked 97th among United States corporations in the value of WWII military production contracts.
During the 1930’s it set itself apart as one of the largest beer can manufacturing companies in the world. They produced the first beer cans for the Krueger Brewing Company located in Newark, NJ in 1933. The first cans were sold in a tight test market in Richmond, VA, and were advertised as Krueger’s “Special” Beer. Fast forward to January 24th, 1935, the first beer cans were distributed nationwide; these cans were Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale.
Some of the first beer cans created by American Can were flat-top beer cans that required a “churchkey” opener to open and opening directions on the side of the can. This was a huge task as breweries would then have to convert their bottling lines to canning which the equipment needed was very expensive. American Can Co saw this issue and produced “cone top” beer cans that served as beer cans and could also be run on existing bottling lines of breweries with minimal change to their current equipment. Cone tops were a great alternative at the time and ran in production from 1936 – 1965. The cans produced at the time were cone top, j-spout, crowntainer, and flat top cans. American Can Company also introduced “Keglined” beer cans; these cans were lined on the inside with a vinyl material to help preserve the beer inside from taking on a metal taste from the metal of the can.
For a short time, American Can Company also produced tin advertising signs and keglined beer ball tap knobs for various breweries mainly on the east coast of the country. These signs were all stamped with the trademark “Amer Can Co. New York, Chicago”. Among the breweries that had Amer Can Co. signs made were breweries like Esslinger, Stegmaier, and Patrick Henry just to name a few. They also made beer ball tap knobs and cooler knobs marked with the Keg-lined brand name for breweries like Old Reading, Barbey’s Inc., Sunshine, Esslinger, Horlacher, Yuengling, Pabst, Jacksonville, Hamms, Badger, and Krueger just to name a few.
Below are a few examples of American Can Company Cans, Keg lined Tap Knobs, and Signs:
