Purity Dairy Sewing Kit, "Topsy", c. 1954-57
P20090014000

"Topsy" was a chocolate milk product sold by Purity Dairy in Lethbridge, Alberta in the 1950s. Dairy owner Nettie Fabbi stated in 2010 that the sewing kits were a great way to advertise the product. "Women could keep [the kits] in their purses to mend things and they loved them because they were so handy."

It is presumed that the product's image is based on the Topsy character in the 1852 book Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. By the late 1950s, Purity replaced the "Topsy" chocolate milk brand with a new name and image - "Suzie", a white girl. The brand change was made, according to the Fabbi family, on account of the era's civil rights movement, making the use of the "Topsy" stereotype inappropriate and offensive.

Donated by Ken and Nettie Fabbi

Purity Dairy "Topsy" Chocolate Milk Ad, c. 1956 Courtesy of the Lethbridge Herald
Purity Dairy "Topsy" Chocolate Milk Ad, c. 1954 Courtesy of the Lethbridge Herald