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This photograph was provided to Farwell Brown by the J. R. Watkins Company when he was looking for an illustration of the Watkins wagons and the delivery men who used to ply their wares on the streets of Ames and other Iowa communities (and, indeed, elsewhere in the country). The J. R. Watkins Medical Company sold nutritional supplements, spices, food flavorings, perfumes, and sundries door-to-door. J. R. Watkins founded the company in Plainview, Minnesota, in 1868. It was one of America's first retail companies whose representatives sold directly to consumers. In 1885, Watkins moved the company to Winona, Minnesota; and in 1895, the company entered the gourmet food market with its introduction of vanilla extract, black pepper, and cinnnamon. Farwell Brown remembers with pleasure the vanilla his mother purchased from the Watkins man. The Watkins Company still operates, and in 1999 had around 45,000 sales associates in the U.S. and Canada. Products are now available online from the company's website.