St. Joseph Gazette editor Chris L. Rutt of St. Joseph, Missouri and his friend Charles G. Underwood bought a flour mill in 1888. Rutt and Underwood’s Pearl Milling Company faced a glutted flour market, so they sold their excess flour as a ready-made pancake mix in white paper sacks with a trade name (which Arthur F. Marquette dubbed the “last ready-mix”. Rutt reportedly saw a minstrel show featuring the “Old Jemima” song in the fall of 1889 presented by blackface performers identified by Marquette as “Baker & Farrell”.[3] However, Doris Witt was unable to confirm Marquette’s account. Witt suggests that Rutt might have witnessed a performance by the vaudeville performer Pete F. Baker, who played a character described in newspapers of that era as “Aunt Jemima”. If this is correct, the original inspiration for the Aunt Jemima character was a white male in blackface, whom some have described as a German immigrant.[4] Click for high-res photo

St. Joseph Gazette editor Chris L. Rutt of St. Joseph, Missouri and his friend Charles G. Underwood bought a flour mill in 1888. Rutt and Underwood’s Pearl Milling Company faced a glutted flour market, so they sold their excess flour as a ready-made pancake mix in white paper sacks with a trade name (which Arthur F. Marquette dubbed the “last ready-mix”.

Rutt reportedly saw a minstrel show featuring the “Old Jemima” song in the fall of 1889 presented by blackface performers identified by Marquette as “Baker & Farrell”.[3] However, Doris Witt was unable to confirm Marquette’s account. Witt suggests that Rutt might have witnessed a performance by the vaudeville performer Pete F. Baker, who played a character described in newspapers of that era as “Aunt Jemima”. If this is correct, the original inspiration for the Aunt Jemima character was a white male in blackface, whom some have described as a German immigrant.[4]

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