Boston Athenæum

September 24, 2015 at the Boston Athenæum. When Samuel Stillman Pierce (1807-1880) opened his store, S.S. Pierce, in 1831 at the corner of Tremont and Court Streets in downtown Boston, he vowed "I may not make money, but I shall make a reputation." Pierce was known as the purveyor of fancy goods and potent libations to Victorian Bostonians. He catered to the carriage trade and created a company that would involve four generations of the Pierce Family in its successful operations. With its own coat of arms adorning a distinctive red label on canned goods, and the largest line of privately packed fancy foods in the world, S.S. Pierce sold its delicacies not only through eight New England stores of its own but also through distributors across the United States and by worldwide mail order. Boston Athenæum members John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. were considered celebrity customers at S.S. Pierce.