Is the guy on the Quaker Oats box John Penn?
Dear Straight Dope: In regards to SDSTAFF Veg’s answer about the Quaker Oats guy. Isn’t it John Penn that is pictured on all Quaker Oat products? I think so! — HawkStu4 SDSTAFF Veg replies: Sorry, Hawk, that isn’t John Penn. At least that’s what the company that owns the trademark says, and why would they lie? According to the folks at Quaker Oats, the Quaker Man was registered as a trademark on September 4, 1877 — the first U.S. trademark registered for a breakfast cereal. “The name was chosen when Quaker Mill partner Henry Seymour found an encyclopedia article on Quakers and decided that the qualities described — integrity, honesty, purity — provided an appropriate identity for his company’s oat product.” Today you don’t come across a lot of impure, dishonest oats, but consumers in the late nineteenth century couldn’t take such things for granted. To emphasize the purity angle, the original Quaker Man carried a scroll with the word “pure” on it. In 1901, the Quaker Oats company was f
