Not Oreo, Not Mrs. Fields — America's First Commercially Produced Cookie Dates To 1871

When it comes to cookies, a few brands really dominate the U.S. market. But long before Oreos, Chips Ahoy!, and Mrs. Fields became household names, one sweet, animal-shaped snack was already being commercially produced in America. Animal crackers have been a lunchbox staple for well over a century, but not everyone knows their history dates back to 1871, making them among the earliest commercially produced cookies in the country.

A few companies sell animal-shaped biscuits today, but the Nabisco version, Barnum's Animals, is by far the most iconic. However, the company has only been making the cookies since 1902. America's first animal crackers can actually be traced back even further to David E. Stauffer, who started the Stauffer Biscuit Company in York, Pennsylvania, in 1871. After buying a local bakery, Stauffer began producing a range of water crackers, biscuits, and pretzels. After experimenting with the recipe, he reportedly developed a sweeter cracker that resembled a cookie but contained considerably less sugar than the treats we think of today.

Shortening was a key ingredient, and a specially shaped cutter was also utilized. The exact inspiration for the animal shapes isn't entirely clear. Some believe the inspiration came from German Springerle cookies; others point to a similar English snack. Either way, by the turn of the century, America's first commercially produced cookie was born — decades before Oreo, Mrs. Fields, and Chips Ahoy! became household names.

When Nabisco started producing animal crackers in 1902, everything changed. In an effort to capitalize on the popularity of circuses at the time, the company named its version after the showman P.T. Barnum and featured colorful circus animals on the box. The original packaging also had string attached so that it could be used as a Christmas ornament — and people went wild, so to speak. Stauffer's Animal Crackers were soon forgotten about, and Barnum's became the go-to.

At the same time, other packaged cookies began flooding the market as technological advancements made mass production more accessible. Fig Newtons hit shelves in 1892, the first Oreos went on sale in New Jersey in 1912, and Pepperidge Farm started selling its iconic Belgian biscuits in the 1950s. Another key moment came with the popularization of the chocolate chip cookie in the late 1930s and the creation of Chips Ahoy! in 1963. A few years later, in 1977, Debbie Fields opened her first cookie shop in California, which expanded the market to include soft-baked cookies.

Everyone has their opinion on the absolute best cookie brand, but Oreos, another Nabisco product, remain the best-selling cookies in the world today. In 2011, they broke a Guinness World Record after reaching 500 billion sales, and they can be found in over 100 countries. However, animal crackers are still bouncing around, showing that even as things advance, there is an appetite for the classics.