Cracker Jack, like other popcorn specialties, is definitely part of the corn story (and popcorn has an entire chapter to itself in Midwest Maize, including the origins of Cracker Jack). You may wonder what that has to do with a museum in Atlanta, Illinois, but check out this tiny little white building. This was, in fact, the original headquarters for the two brothers from Germany who invented Cracker Jack. The building was donated to the Atlanta Historical Preservation Council to replace the original scale house, which had long since vanished (though the site and the scale were uncovered during excavation, so it’s in the correct place).
And here is the documentation about the Cracker Jack Company of Chicago, posted inside the building, along with a photo of the building in its original location.
It’s astonishing to realize how modestly some big businesses started out.
