Excelsior (disambiguation)
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Excelsior can refer to any of the following:
- Excelsior! comics and games shop, open from 2012 to 2018 in Hoover
- Excelsior Bakery, opened 1886
- Excelsior Brass Band, active in 1880s
- Excelsior Cafe in the Graves Building from 1907 to 1915, and later on 19th Street North in 1916
- Excelsior Fire Brick, marketed by the Alabama Clay Products Co. in the 1920s
- Excelsior Laundry or Excelsior Steam Laundry, opened 1880s
- Excelsior Mining Company, acquired by Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company in 1892
The word "excelsior" is a Latin comparative adjective meaning "higher" It was adopted as the motto of the State of New York in 1778 and popularized as the title of a poem by Henry Longfellow in 1841. It was a trade name for wood shavings used as packing material in the 1860s, and became popular for a variety of businesses in the United States in the 1880s. The exclamation was used by Marvel Comics publisher Stan Lee as a sign-off for his regular columns beginning in the 1960s.