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In today's market, a box of Whitman's chocolates is sold every 1.5 seconds. But over 160 years ago it was a different story for its developer who was just starting out on the 3rd and Market Street waterfront in 1842, Whitman's shop was Philadelphia's very first confectionery and fruit shop, begun by the 19-year old Quaker who started out competing with the finest of the French candy makers of the time. With sailors and their families as his loyal customers, in exchange the sailors would bring him back imports such as cocoa, fruit and nuts for his candy shop which was growing leaps and bounds.

It wasn't until 12 years later in 1854 that Whitman packaged his first trademarked confectionery candy box known as "Choice Mixed Sugar Plums". The creative candy-maker had designed the popular pink tin box filled with sugarplums, designed with beautiful rosebuds and curlicues on top. Stephen F. Whitman's first box of candy held an oval sweetmeat that was called "Sugar Plums", made from boiled sugar and flavorings dating back to 1668. The name sugarplum originated came the size and shape of plums picked from plum bushes, a sweet that would become popular from the 17th to 19th centuries.

As time went on, the Whitman Sampler box of candy developed its own unique stitching design, originating from the company's president, Walter P. Sharp. Inspired by his grandmother's framed fabric which featured many stitching samples, Sharp developed this idea into the stitchery design for the Whitman's Sampler box cover with embossed faux stitching with a combination of needlework-esque flowers and birds that we recognize today.

As we look back, it should be no surprise that a Quaker by the name of Stephen F. Whitman had begun a successful candy business in the 19th century, having its basis in cocoa and chocolate. His business had begun during a time when the invention of the Dutch cocoa press in 1828 was credited in bringing chocolate to the mass people. Additionally, during this time the Society of Friends (the Quakers) had been alienated from many of the mainstream professions due to their radical beliefs.

Because of this, the most precious commodity of the Quakers was cocoa and chocolate---a Quaker choice that was based on the thought that hot cocoa was better than alcohol for drinking. As chocolate became popular, it allowed many of the larger Quaker families to begin businesses in chocolate candy and drinks, such as John Cadbury in 1831. Because of this---In addition to Whitman---other early chocolate manufacturing companies of the time were the Terrys, Frys, Rowntrees, Hershey and Nestle.