The Tillie Lewis Collection contains biographical materials, including clippings and typescript essays on Tillie Lewis and her business activities; as well as advertising copy, product labels and photographs of Tillie Lewis Foods facilities and products.

Named National Business Woman of the Year (1951), Tillie Lewis (1904-1977) achieved, during her lifetime, a stature unequaled by any other woman in the world food industry. Born Myrtle Ehrlich, she grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where she early married a wholesale grocer, and became involved in the wholesale food production and marketing business. Her first husband had marketed imported pomodoro tomatoes and she was struck by their special, tangy flavor. Following the break-up of their marriage, Tillie Ehrlich began to investigate the possibilities of growing the pomodoro in America. She managed to arrange a trip to Italy (1934), in the course of which she met Florindo del Gaizo, the part-owner of a Naples cannery. Del Gaizo showed her the various aspects of the pomodoro industry and gave her ten thousand dollars to use as a beginning fund for the acquisition of appropriate lands and the establishment of a cannery. He later sent seed and used machinery and together they formed the Flotill Foods Corporation. Tillie Ehrlich selected Stockton (Calif.) as the site for the Flotill cannery, which was completed in 1935. The following year Flotill went into full production. Florindo del Gaizo died in 1937 and Ehrlich persuaded the Bank of Stockton to lend her $100,000 to buy Del Gaizo's interest. By December 1937 she had paid back the bank loan and was the sole owner and manager of Flotill Foods. Over the next decade Ehrlich branched out into other canned foods and acquired other canneries and a can manufacturing plant. During the Korean War Flotill was the largest supplier of Army C-Rations in the nation. With sales nearing $20 million (1952), Tillie, now married to labor leader, Meyer Lewis, established Tasti-Diet Foods, and became one of the earliest marketers of artificially sweetened fruits and soft drinks. As a direct result of her personal involvement with the marketing and advertising of this highly successful line of products, Mrs. Lewis changed the name of her company to Tillie Lewis Foods and began selling shares on the American Stock Exchange (1961). Later, she expanded company facilities still further, adding the Anderson Split Pea Soup line (1962) and, ultimately, merging with Ogden Foods of New York (1966). By 1971 Tillie Lewis Foods had sales of over $90 million per year.

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