Heinz Pickle Pin - The First Century

The First Century

After the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Heinz continued distributing its pickle pins at events and by other means. Atlantic City's Iron Pier, opened in 1896, would in 1898 be purchased by Heinz and renamed Heinz Pier. The pier was a popular tourist attraction, featuring a museum, food samples, and free pickle pins. Heinz gave out pickle pins on the pier for nearly half a century and still do to this day at the nearby Atlantic City Historical Museum. Another venue where the Heinz pickle pins famously appeared was the 1939 New York World's Fair, where Heinz had an enormous exhibit building called the Heinz Dome. In 1982, at the World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee, Heinz once again gave out free pickle pins, but this time with a twist: the pins were distributed by a huge motorized ketchup bottle which moved freely around the fairgrounds. Visitors to Pittsburgh could acquire a pickle pin by taking the Heinz factory tour. Today, Heinz distributes the pins mostly one-by-one, by mail, for free to people who write in to their corporate address to request one. According to Heinz, they distribute just under a million pickle pins a year.