The beverage Coca-Cola was invented in 1886 by Dr. John Stith Pemberton (1833-1888), an Atlanta, Georgia pharmacist and druggist. Coca-Cola was first dispensed at the fountain in the Atlanta drug store, Jacobs' Pharmacy in 1886. Stock purchased by druggist Asa G. Candler (1851-1929) in 1886 grew and in 1892 the Coca-Cola Company was incorporated. In 1894 bottling of Coca-Cola began and shortly after two large-scale bottling plants were organized in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Atlanta. The Dixie Coca-Cola Bottling Company (later Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling Company) began bottling Coca-Cola in Atlanta in 1900. The Coca-Cola Company was sold to Atlanta businessman, Ernest Woodruff (1863-1944) in 1919. In 1923 his son, Robert W. Woodruff (1889-1985), was elected company president and helped develop Coca-Cola into a worldwide corporation.

Clifford “Cliff” Allen Shillinglaw (1914-1979) was born in Blairsburg, Iowa, to Gibson Andrew Shillinglaw (1879-1943) and Carrie Lucinda Manion Shillinglaw (1885-1940). He earned his Bachelor of Science degree, Master of Science degree, and Ph.D. from Iowa State College. In 1941, Shillinglaw married Winifred Moore (1915-1957) and had two daughters, Anne and Ellen Cox. Also in 1941, he joined the Coca Cola Company as a chemist, working at the Mexico City plant. Shillinglaw served in a research role during World War II and worked in several roles with the Coca Cola Company. In 1958 he became vice-president of the Technical Division and married Frances Marx (1916-2009). In 1971, Shillinglaw was elected senior vice-president and joined the staff of board chairman J. Paul Austin in 1974. Shillinglaw began collecting cookbooks in the early 1970s to document the culinary history of southern cuisine. In 1979 the Coca-Cola Company donated over 500 antique cookbooks, collected by Dr. Clifford A. Shillinglaw, to the Atlanta Historical Society.