Frederick Dennett, founder of the Wisconsin Chair Company, had been manufacturing phonograph cabinets for Edison for several years when he decided to get into the record business himself.

Puritan's releases reflected the output of Paramount's New York facility, issuing mainstream dance records and popular songs.

The four-colour vertical-cut label features tan and blue overprinting on a light grey background with an inset image of a pilgrim woman listening to her phonograph at fireside; the words "Vertical Cut" appear in red type.

With the advent of laterals, the image of the pilgrim woman was kept, but surrounded by fancy lacework in a label printed in varying degrees of gold and black.

BD&M pressings, however, employ their own unique label design of gold and white on black, with an inset profile of the Puritan of legend in a broad-brimmed hat.

A large part of Puritan's release schedule was also carried on more common labels such as Plaza Music's Banner Records or scarcer imprints such as Broadway and Triangle.

However, nothing on Puritan enters into the high dollar value accorded to the country and blues releases on Paramount proper, though certain items, such by Lucille Hegamin, King Oliver, Ford Dabney, W. C. Handy and some early Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington titles, are not negligible in that regard.

In 1972, record collector Dave Samuelson licensed the name for an independent label devoted to American roots and bluegrass music.