Drake Bakeries

[Industrial Mixing Equipment Inside Drake Bakeries Building], circa 1940, v1987.7.6; Drake Bakeries photographs, v1987.007; Brooklyn Historical Society.

The photo of the week depicts an interior view of Drake Bakeries factory at 77 Clinton Avenue on the border of the Clinton Hill and Fort Greene neighborhoods of Brooklyn around 1940. A man is pictured pouring ingredients into an industrial mixing container.

Drake’s Cakes was a brand of snack cakes founded in Brooklyn by Newman E. Drake in 1888. Around 1900, the company became Drake Bakeries, Inc. and has produced some well-known products including Ring Dings, Yodels, Devil Dogs, and coffee cake, all of which are available today. Over the years, the brand has been sold to various corporations. Today, the brand, now known as Drake’s, is owned by Hostess Brands.

This photograph comes from the Drake Bakeries photographs collection comprised of 61 black-and-white photographic prints documenting Drake Bakeries, Inc. from 1917 to 1949. The majority of the photographs include interior and exterior views of the factory, along with some images depicting workers on the job. To view more photographs from this collection, check out this gallery.

This photograph, along with several other photographs and artifacts documenting Brooklyn businesses, is now on display at BHS Pierrepont in the new exhibition, The Business of Brooklyn: an Exhibition on the Occasion of the 100^th Anniversary of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. The exhibition explores the past 100 years of business in the borough. We hope to see you there!

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our Brooklyn Visual Heritage website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m. library@brooklynhistory.org