C. F. Hathaway Company was a manufacturer of

shirts A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body (from the neck to the waist). Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for a broad variety of upper-body garments and undergarments. ...

for men and boys, located in

Waterville, Maine Waterville is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States, on the west bank of the Kennebec River. A college town, the city is home to Colby College, a New England Small College Athletic Conference, NESCAC college, and Thomas College. As ...

, United States. The company was in operation from 1853 to 2002.

History

The company was founded by Charles Foster Hathaway. Its early history is unclear. Though often described as starting in 1837, there is little evidence of this date. It is well-documented that in 1848 Hathaway built a shirt factory with Josiah Tillson in

Watertown, Massachusetts Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, part of Greater Boston. The population was 35,329 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Sq ...

, his share of which he sold to Tillson for $900 on March 31, 1853. On April 1, 1853, he wrote in his diary that he had agreed to form a partnership with his brother George to create a factory in Waterville to be incorporated as C. F. Hathaway and Co. On May 18, 1853, he purchased an acre of land on Appleton Street for $900 from Samuel Appleton, which was the site of the Hathaway Shirt Factory for more than one hundred years. On June 1, 1853, ground was broken for the shirt factory, and it was in full operation by the end of October. Employees worked 60 hours per week, from 7 A.M. to 6 P.M., six days a week, with an hour off at noon. It later made uniform shirts for Union soldiers during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. Hathaway is most famous for its "man with an eye patch" advertising campaign created by

Ogilvy & Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City a ...

in 1951. Inspired by a picture of public servant Lewis Douglas, who had lost an eye in a fishing accident, David Ogilvy recruited Baron George Wrangell, a Russian aristocrat with 20/20 vision, to appear in the ads. The campaign portrayed the "Hathaway man" as sophisticated and elegant, with a lifetime of interesting experiences. The campaign was selected by

Advertising Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in ...

as #22 on its list of the greatest ad campaigns of the 20th century. The "Hathaway man" reappeared in a 1993 sketch on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'', played by

Phil Hartman Philip Edward Hartman (; September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-American comedian, actor, screenwriter and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, and his family moved to the United States when he w ...

sans moustache. The Hathaway man works to get a discouraged hand model who lost part of a finger in a car accident back into modeling. C. F. Hathaway Company closed its Maine factory in 2002, making it the second to last major American shirt company to produce shirts in the United States. Only Gitman Bros in northeast Pennsylvania continued at that time.

References

External links

Example of "man with an eye patch" advertisement
Hathaway Company Hathaway Company Hathaway Company Hathaway Company Hathaway Company Waterville, Maine Hathaway Company Hathaway Company 1837 establishments in Maine Hathaway Company {{Fashion-company-stub

History

Further reading

References

External links