The collection documents the activities of the United Shoe Machinery Corporation of Beverly, Massachusetts, manufacturers of shoe machinery equipment. The collection consists of engineering records, legal records, research and development records, employee/personnel records, correspondence, company catalogs, product literature, advertising materials, photographs, and moving images.
Scope and Contents:
This collection is among the largest and most complete bodies of business records in the holdings of the Archives Center. The records document in considerable detail the firm's engineering department and research and development efforts in shoe making machinery and in related technical areas, especially during World War II and as it attempted to diversify its activities after the war. There is detailed information, much of it on microfilm, about the leasing of United Shoe Machinery (USM) machines. The records also provide insight into the USM's culture of corporate paternalism, including its athletic and relief associations and its industrial school. The collection is rich in visual materials depicting both the machines made by the firm and the employees and the facilities.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into seventeen series.
Series 1: Historical and Background Materials, 1901-1985
Series 2: Executive Records, 1927-1987
Subseries 2.1: United Shoe Machinery, 1927-1975
Subseries 2.2: Emhart Corporation, 1976-1987
Series 3: Correspondence, 1890, 1901-1915
Series 4: Wilson Palmer Files, 1925-1952
Series 5: Research and Development Department Records, 1914-1980
Subseries 5.1: Background, 1947-1974
Subseries 5.2: Financial Information, 1947-1975
Subseries 5.3: Reports, 1962-1973
Subseries 5.4: Facilities, 1947-1975
Subseries 5.5: Personnel, 1942-1979
Subseries 5.6: Labor, 1961-1970
Subseries 5.7: Subject Files, 1943-1977
Subseries 5.8: Project Files, 1914-1968
Subseries 5.9: New Development (ND) Project Files, 1924-1970
Subseries 14.6: Quarter Century Club News, 1977-1987
Subseries 14.7: H.E. Smith & Company Catalogs, 1898-1930
Series 15: Product Literature, 1952-1979
Series 16: Advertising and Marketing Materials, 1902-1981
Series 17: Photographs, 1907-1960s
Subseries 17.1: Employees, 1907-1981
Subseries 17.2: Equipment/Products, 1961-1972
Subseries 17.3: Factories/Buildings, 1920s-1960s
Subseries 17.4: Trade Shows, 1954, 1968-1973
Subseries 17.5: Miscellaneous, undated
Subseries 17.6: Postcards, 1906-1938
Subseries 17.7: Prints from Glass Plate Negatives, undated
Subseries 17.8: Albums, 1915-1950s
Subseries 17.9: Film Negatives, 1956-1958
Subseries 17.10: Glass Plate Negatives, 1915-1923
Series 18: Audio-Visual Materials, 1934-1972
Biographical / Historical:
The United Shoe Machinery Company was formed in 1899 by the consolidation of the most important shoe machinery firms in the industry: Goodyear Shoe Machinery Company; Consolidated McKay Lasting Machine Company; and McKay Shoe Machinery Company. By this merger, conflicting patents were eliminated and patents supplementing each other were brought under United control to permit their prompt combination in a single machine or process. To ensure efficiency, the new company also continued the practice previously followed by its constituent firms of renting machinery that it manufactured instead of selling it. The authorized capital of the new company was twenty five million dollars. After the 1899 merger, United grew quite rapidly. In 1903, it began construction of a new factory in Beverly, Massachusetts about thirty-five miles from Boston. At its peak, this company employed 9,000 workers and produced eighty-five percent of all shoemaking machines in the United States. By 1910, it had an eighty percent share of the shoe machinery market with assets reaching forty million dollars, and it had acquired control of branch companies in foreign countries.
In 1911, the first of three civil anti-trust suits was brought against United by the United States government. It charged that the 1899 merger had restrained trade and violated the Sherman Act. The Massachusetts District Court ruled that the 1899 merger was not an attempt to restrain trade, only an attempt to promote efficiency. The court also said that the five companies that were merged to form United were not competitive with each other. The government appealed to the Supreme Court, which only affirmed the District Court's verdict.
In 1917, the United Shoe Machinery Corporation, incorporated in 1905, absorbed the United Shoe Machinery Company. The United Shoe Machinery Corporation had its headquarters in Boston and its main manufacturing plant in Beverly, Massachusetts.
The second government suit was brought against United Shoe in 1915. The government claimed that United Shoe's leasing system restricted the shoe manufacturer to exclusive use of United Shoe's products and that it was a violation of the newly enacted Clayton Act. The Massachusetts District Court ruled in favor of the government. The Supreme Court, hearing United Shoe's appeal case, only affirmed the District Court's ruling. In 1923, United modified its leasing policy.
The last government suit against United was filed in 1947 and charged United with monopolizing the trade, manufacture, and distribution of shoe machinery from 1923 to 1947. During this period, United had bought all shares, assets, and patents of twenty one companies that dealt in the shoe machinery manufacture. The court ruled that United had clearly violated the Sherman Act, and United was forced to modify its leasing policies and restrict its purchases of other shoe machinery businesses and its acquisition of patents. In 1968, the United Shoe Machinery Corporation changed its name to USM Corporation. In 1976, United Shoe Machinery Company merged with Emhart Industries and produced the modern-day Emhart Corporation.
In 1989, in order to resist a two billion dollar takeover attempt by a New York investment group (which included oil heir Gordon P. Getty), Emhart merged with Black & Decker Corporation. The merged company operates from Black & Decker's headquarters in Towson, Maryland. The company headquarters in Farmington, Connecticut, were closed in June 1989.
Related Materials:
Materials at Other Organizations
Lynn Historical Society & Museum, Lynn, Massachusetts
Small volumes and pamphlets of shoe and shoe-related industry businesses in Lynn, Massachusetts, including miscellaneous articles and histories on the shoe industry in Lynn, manuals, catalogs, broadsides, patents, handbooks, patterns, price lists, brochures, and legal materials. Businesses represented include Beaudry Machine Company, Beckman Machine Company, Bresnahan Shoe Machinery Company, George W. Emerson & Company, Hamel Shoe Machinery Company, Gregory & Read Co., David Knox & Sons Machinery Company, Krippendorf Kalculator Company (manufacturers of a mechanical device to compute pattern values), Peerless Machinery Company, Quarmby & Hilliker, Machine Builders, Swain, Fuller Manufacturing Company, W.J. Young Machinery Company, and George J. Kelly, Inc. (maker of shoe polish).
United Shoe Machinery Company Records, 1915-1974
Materials assembled by Edward F. McCarthy, director of USM research, including notebooks, diagrams, manuals, brochures, catalogs, code sheets, flow charts, price lists, handbooks, lectures, directories, lexicons, catalogs of other firms, personal notebooks on shoe construction (1927-1931), factory visits to other shoe companies, and production of leading manufacturers (1939-1960), and floor directory of the plant; ledgers listing machines shipped and returned from the Lynn and Puerto Rico plants (nine volumes, 1935-1974); and machine development materials, including patents, chiefly those of Edward Quinn.
Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) Salem, Massachusetts
An accession in 1987 of institutional archives, includes publications, photographs, advertisements, lectures, scrapbook of shoes made for United Shoe Machinery Corporation of Beverly, Massachusetts, shoes from which are in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum (87020).
The United Shoe and Machinery Company Collection contains a large quantity of the company's patents, most of which pertain to the production and manufacture of shoes. Additionally there are patents for golf balls, nail guns, and magnetic closures. The majority of the remaining materials are Quarter Century Club documents ranging from financial and membership records, to pictures and other ephemera. The remainder of the collection consists of miscellaneous objects including sample knives and knife parts from the Booth Brothers Company.
University of Connecticut, Dodd Center
Emhart Corporation Records, undated, 1883-1989
Emhart Corporation was a multinational company located in Farmington, Connecticut. Prior to its 1989 merger with Black & Decker, Emhart operated in over one hundred countries with a worldwide work force of 30,000 employees. Emhart's products included machines for the manufacture of glass bottles and shoes; filling, sealing and packaging machinery; security systems; electronics; chemical products; metal fasteners; rubber processing equipment; and consumer and do-it-yourself products. Brand name products included True Temper® hardware and sporting goods, and Price Pfister® plumbing fixtures. Emhart's domestic roots went back to the American Hardware Company, founded in New Britain, Connecticut, in 1902.
Beverly Public Schools (Beverly, Massachusetts)
Beverly Public Schools/Beverly trade school records, 1909-1995
Materials relating to the establishment and operation of the Beverly trade schools, including trustee minutes, annual reports, curriculum journals, correspondence, photographs, programs and ephemera, and calendars.
Cornell University, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
[United Shoe Machinery Company, of New Jersey, et al. court proceedings], 1911-1917
United Shoe buildings and properties
The Cummings Properties now owns and leases "the Shoe."
Separated Materials:
Materials at National Museum of American History
The Division of Work and Industry holds artifacts related to the United Shoe Machinery Corporation. Some artifacts include a drafting table (1989.0259.349), tool chest (1989.0259.348), and molds for shoes, shoe heels, shoe welts, threads, needles, awls, and show wax.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by United Shoe Machinery Corporation, through Kevin Cochrane on November 20, 1987.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives. Special arrangements required to view materials in cold storage and audio visual materials. Using cold room materials requires a three hour waiting period, reference copies do not exist for audio visual materials. Arrangements must be made with the Archives Center staff two weeks prior to a scheduled research visit. Contact the Archives Center at 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection consists of approximately 13,500 images (original photographs, copy prints, and film and glass plate negatives) for freight, passenger, private, and street and rapid transit cars manufactured by the Pullman Palace Car Company. The collection contains primarily early railroad Americana, including interior and exterior views of private and business cars as well as passenger and street cars. The collection is an important part of the historical record of the railroad car-building industry as well as the history of architecture and interior design.
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists of approximately 13,500 images (original photographs, copy prints, and film and glass plate negatives) for freight, passenger, private, and street and rapid transit cars manufactured by the Pullman Palace Car Company. The collection contains primarily interior and exterior views of private and business cars as well as passenger and street cars. The collection is an important part of the historical record of the railroad car-building industry as well as the history of architecture and interior design. Historians, designers, railroad enthusiasts, model railroad hobbyists, scholars, and others will find this collection useful.
The glass plate negatives in this collection were produced using the wet collodion process, which was introduced to the United States in 1855 and used into the 1880s. The plates were coated with chemicals, sensitized, exposed and developed, all while the plate was wet. Later, Pullman photographers used the dry collodion process. This process involved using glass plates with a photographic emulsion of silver halides suspended in gelatin. This process had shorter exposure times.
George Pullman assembled a variety of photographers to document his company's work. The photography was primarily used as a record of work, especially for the Operating Department and Manufacturing Department at Pullman, as well as for prospective corporate customers.
Before establishing an in-plant photographic department in 1888, Pullman relied on local photographers. Some of the photographers included John Jex Bardwell, Wylie Dennison, Henry R. Koopman, J. W. Taylor, Thomas S. Johnson, Wylie Dennison, John P. Van Vorst, Clayton Ford Smith, Joseph McAllister, Melvin C. Horn, Ernie Stutkus, and Donald J. O'Barski. Many of the photographers signed the glass plates using their initials. For example, John P. Van Vorst signed his J.P.V.V.
Photography of Pullman activities began in the Detroit Shops (property of the Detroit Car & Manufacturing Co. which was purchased by Pullman in 1873 and operated as the Detroit Shops of Pullman) in the 1870s and expanded to include photographing the town of Pullman, steel car construction, shop accidents, workers, panoramic views, and in some instances, for company publications. In-plant photography was started with Wylie Dennison in 1888. Dennison was the first full-time Pullman photographer, and he created the Pullman Photographic Department. Dennison instituted the practice of recording each photograph, noting the negative number, description of the car, the type of view (typically one interior view and one exterior view) and lot number. All of Dennison's photography was done outside in the daylight.
The negative numbers assigned to the glass plates were identified with a "lot" number. The lot number identified the production order, and in later years, the plan number was added, designating the layout of the car. Photographing one car out of each new lot was the intital practice, but over-time, the Photographic Department began taking six or more views of the interior and exterior as well as end views.
Lot numbers include:
Lots 1 - 500 (Pullman Car Works - Chicago)
Lots 1 - 500 (Detroit Car Works)
Lots 500 plus (can be freight and passenger mixed)
Lots 1000 to 4999 (Pullman passenger equipment)
Lots 5000 to 5999 (Pullman freight equipment)
Lots 5000 + Haskell and Barker (Pullman overlap)
Lots 6000 to 7000+ (Pullman and P-S passenger)
Lots 8000 to 9999 (Pullman freight equipment)
Lots 10000+ (Pullman freight equipment)
Series 1, Original prints, circa 1880-1949, are arranged numerically by Pullman numbers. The original prints begin with number 7343 and end with number 33091. The photographs document Pullman cars, including freight, passenger, private, and street railway/rapid transit. Many of the images depict interior views of the cars, and there are some views of porters and passengers. There is some documentation of the workmen constructing the cars. The prints are primarily 8" by 10" black-and-white and were originally bound into books and backed on linen. The prints were unbound at some time. Many of the original prints bear an embossed stamp "Built by Pullman Car and Manufacturing Corporation Chicago." Some photographs are sepia-tone and there are no negatives for these prints.
Series 2, Copy prints, 1885-1955, consists of prints made from the glass plate negatives by the Smithsonian photographic services office. The copy prints were originally stored in loose binders but were re-housed into folders and arranged numerically according to the original Pullman Company number. The number is typically found in the lower right corner of the image. The copy prints are black-and-white and are either 5" x 7" or 8" x 10".
Series 3, Film negatives, 1917-1955, consists of film negatives (4" x 5" and 8" x 10") that are arranged numerically by Pullman numbers. In some instances, information on the enclosure includes the type of car (e.g. sleeper, freight), the name of the car if applicable, name of railroad company, geographical information, and date(s). In some instances, "repro," or "broken glass" are recorded. For negatives that did not conform to the Pullman numbering system, the container list provides additional information. For example, Haskell and Barker Car Company (Haskell and Barker merged with the Pullman Company in 1922) machine shop views, or Pullman cars in St. Paul, Minnesota are recorded in the collection inventory listing.
Series 4, Glass plate negatives, [circa 1882-1948], is divided into two subseries, Subseries 1, 6" x 8" negatives and Subseries 2, 8" x 10" negatives. The series consists of approximately 13,500 glass plate negatives arranged by Pullman Company negative number. The negatives document primarily Pullman cars, including freight, passenger, private and street railway/rapid transit. Many of the images depict interior and exterior views of the cars and some views of porters and passengers. The interior views include details such as seating, window treatments, lighting fixtures, bathroom fixtures, wood paneling, marquetry work, fabrics, floor treatments, and other furnishings. There is some documentation of the construction of the cars by workmen in the factory.
The negative numbers and lot numbers are etched on the glass plates. Overall the series is in good condition, although there are some broken plates which have been separated. The negatives are not inclusive and some plates are missing, or there are two copies. If plates are missing or additional copies exist, this is noted in the collection inventory. In some instances, plates are labeled 3937 and then 3937-A. This numbering distinguished two different views/angles of the same car.
Many of the envelope enclosures contain the negative number, sometimes preceed by the letter "P" (e.g. P9597), lot number (L4700), and in some instances, text describing the negative. Text typically includes the type of car (sleeper, freight), the name of the car if applicable, name of railroad company, geographical information, and date(s). If a copy print was created from the negative plate, the enclosure is stamped "printed." However, this practice was not consistent. Plates that were not printed are occasionally noted, but not with any consistency.
The 6" by 8" glass plates numbered 82-4130 to 82-4167, represent numbers assigned by the Office of Photographic Services, Smithsonian Institution. Previously labeled "Pullman" on the enclosures, the plates primarily document engines and passenger cars for the New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad, 1870-1890 and undated. The plates do not have Pullman negative numbers etched in the lower left or right corners and it is unclear if these plates belong to this collection.
Series 5, Indices, 1990 and undated include bound, typescript indices to the Pullman negatives. Created by the National Museum of American History, Division of Transportation (now known as the Division of Work and Industry), the indices include listings by railroad, private cars, freight cars, street cars and rapid transit, and Pullman negatives. The indices provide the name of the railroad/railway (e.g. Chicago & Alton), type of car (e.g. coal car or box car), number, lot, remarks (e.g. baggage area), year, type of view (e.g. exterior or interior) and frame number (for the laser disc).
One index is a supplemental guide listing sepia tone prints for which no negative exists in our collection. The indices for the negative listings on laser discs one and two are available. However, the actual lasers discs are missing.
References
Horn, Don. "The Pullman Photographers," Railroad Heritage, No. 7, 2003, pp. 5-13.
Arnold, Rus. "This Negative File was a Sleeper." Technical Photography. May 1970, pp. 21-XX.
Pullman State Historic Site, http://www.pullman-museum.org/theCompany/timeline.html (last accessed April 18, 2011)
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into five series.
Series 1, Original prints, 1904-1949
Series 2, Copy prints, 1885-1955
Series 3, Film negatives, undated
Series 4, Glass plate negatives, circa 1882-1948
Series 5, Indices, 1990 and undated
Biographical / Historical:
Recognizing a market for luxurious rail travel, George M. Pullman, who had earlier
experimented with sleeping car construction and was wealthy from the provisioning and transporting of Colorado miners in the early 1860s, incorporated the Pullman's Palace Car Company in 1867. By the 1870s his operations were already national and included the operation of sleeping cars under contract with the nation's railroads, the manufacture of cars at the Detroit Works, and the creation of subsidiary firms serving Great Britain and Europe. In the three decades before the turn of the century, the prosperous company grew enormously and included a much heralded model company town adjacent to the new car works at Pullman, Illinois. Acclaim turned to condemnation following the nationwide strike that originated at the Pullman Car Works in 1894. Pullman died in 1897, two years before his company absorbed its last major competitor, the Wagner Palace Car Company, which had been financed by the Vanderbilts.
The Pullman's Palace Car Company entered the twentieth century with a new name, the
Pullman Company, and a new president, Robert Todd Lincoln. An extremely profitable
virtual monopoly, the Pullman Company began replacing its wood cars with safer all steel bodied models (heavyweights) in its newly segregated manufacturing department and at the same time (1906) came under the regulation of the Interstate Commerce Commission. From 1918 to 1920, the United States Railroad Administration, citing the war emergency, assumed control of the operating arm of the firm, renamed the Pullman Car Lines for the duration of federal control.
The Pullman Company reached its peak during the 1920s, manufacturing new heavyweight
cars at a rapid pace. Seeking to expand its freight car production, Pullman merged with the Haskell and Barker Car Company in 1922. Edward F. Carry and his Haskell and Barker associates assumed the presidency and other executive positions in the enlarged Pullman Company. More reorganization took place in 1924, when the Pullman Company Manufacturing Department became a distinct firm, the Pullman Car and Manufacturing Corporation, and in 1927, when a parent or holding company, Pullman Incorporated, was created to oversee the two subsidiary firms. In 1929, following Carry's death, President David A. Crawford engineered the merger of the Pullman Car and Manufacturing Corporation with the Standard Steel Car Company, forming the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company.
During the first three decades of the twentieth century Pullman sought to impede the
unionization of its workers by offering new benefits, including a pension plan in 1914, a death benefit plan in 1922, and a plan of group insurance in 1929. F. L. Simmons' Industrial Relations Department, created in 1920, also directed the formation of company-sponsored occupationally-based unions under the plan of employee representation. A. Philip Randolph's Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and other unions would not successfully organize company workers until the New Deal Railway Labor Act of 1934 forbade corporate interference in union matters.
The Depression marked the end of Pullman prosperity. Both the number of car orders and sleeping car passengers declined precipitously. The firm laid off car plant and service workers, reduced fares, and introduced such innovations as the single occupancy section in an effort to fill its cars. During this decade the firm built fewer new cars, but it added air conditioning to its existing heavyweights and remodeled many into compartment sleepers.
In 1940, just as orders for lightweight cars were increasing and sleeping car traffic was growing, the United States Department of Justice filed an anti-trust complaint against Pullman Incorporated in the U. S. District Court at Philadelphia (Civil Action No. 994). The government sought to separate the company's sleeping car operations from its manufacturing activities. In 1944 the court concurred, ordering Pullman Incorporated to divest itself of either the Pullman Company (operating) or the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company (manufacturing). After three years of negotiations, the Pullman Company was sold to a consortium of fifty-seven railroads for around forty million dollars. Carroll R. Harding was named president of this new Pullman Company. The new Pullman Company started out optimistically in 1947 with good passenger traffic figures, but the years following brought steady and marked decline. Regularly scheduled lines were cancelled; all shops except St. Louis and Chicago were closed; employees were furloughed, and major railroad owners such as the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad totally or partially withdrew from service. On January 1, 1969, at the age of 102, the Pullman Company ceased operation, though it maintained a small central office staff to wind up affairs and handle an equal pay-for-equal-work lawsuit (Denver Case) that continued in the courts until 1981.
John H. White (1933-), historian and curator, collected the Pullman photographs in 1969. White was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated with a bachelors of arts in history from Miami University Ohio in 1958. Shortly after receiving his degree, He joined the staff of the Smithsonian Institution as Assistant Curator of the Division of Transportation, Department of Science and Technology, Museum of History and Technology. White later became Associate Curator of the Division, 1961-1966, Curator, 1967-1985, and Senior Historian, 1986-1989. White specialized in land transportation, particularly the history of railroads.
White worked closely with Arthur Detmers Dubin (1923-) to acquire the Pullman photographs for the museum. Dubin was an avid train enthusiast and collector, and he frequently used the Pullman "archives" for his own research on railroads. Dubin was born in Chicago, Illinois and began his architectural education at the University of Michigan in 1941 but his education was interrupted by World War II, and he served with distinction in the United States Army until 1946. After completing his studies in 1949, Dubin joined his father's and uncle's architectural firm, Dubin and Dubin, as a second--eneration architect. The leadership of the firm soon passed to Arthur and his brother, Martin David, and in 1965 they were joined by John Black and in 1966 by John Moutoussamy. Arthur's life--ong interest in trains and transportation and their implications for architecture is evident in transit stations commissions and service on transportation--elated advisory boards (Dubin was a member of the Illinois Railroad Commission), as well as in his writings and personal collections.
In July, 1966, Dubin contacted then Vice President of Public Relations at Pullman-Standard E. Preston Calvert about the history and future of the photographic negative plates. Dubin appealed to Calvert to preserve these materials. Dubin and White were also in contact by correspondence and in June, 1967, White contacted Calvert also, stating that the Chicago Historical Society or Illinois State Historical Society should be offered the plates as a first option. Failing a local Illinois repository accepting the materials, White indicated that the Smithsonian would accept the negatives.
During the spring of 1968, White, working with Dubin and Nora Wilson, editor of the company's publications, coordinated a visit by White to Chicago to examine the photographic negatives at the Pullman Car Works factory in south Chicago. In April 1968, White examined the vast collection of glass plate negatives (approximately 20,000). From April, 1968 to August, 1969, Pullman-Standard and the Smithsonian negotiated acquisition details, including shipping and related costs. In August, 1969, White returned to complete the task of sorting the glass plates, discarding broken plates, and weeding repetitive views. He selected approximately 13,500 glass plates. Views of Pullman towns were donated to the Chicago Historical Society. Dubin appraised the photographic plates and film negatives, presumably on behalf of Pullman-Standard, and estimated the plates to be worth between $54,000 and $67,500 dollars.
References
Historical note courtesy Martha T. Briggs and Cynthia H. Peters, Guide to Pullman Company Archives, The Newberry Library, Chicago, 1995.
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Area Architects Oral History Project
http://www.artic.edu/aic/resources/resource/734?search_id=1 (last accessed on February 23, 2011)
John H. White papers, 1959-1989, Record Unit 007384, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, D.C.
Telephone conversation of Alison Oswald, archivist, with John H. White, April 14, 2011.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
Pullman Palace Car Company Materials, 1867-1979 (AC0181)
John H. White, Jr. Railroad Reference Collection, 1880s-1990 (AC0523)
Materials in Other Organizations
•Art Institute of Chicago
•Bombardier Corporation
•California State Railroad Museum
•Chicago History Museum
•Arthur Dubin Collection at Lake Forest College
•Illinois Railway Museum
•Indiana University Northwest's Calumet Regional Archives
Pullman-Standard Railroad Car Manufacturing Company Personnel Records—Personnel Record Series CRA 314
This index of employee names was created from the original personnel cards housed at Indiana University Northwest's Calumet Regional Archives from the Indiana locations. Although the records are not complete from the Michigan City plant for the entire period from 1912 to the 1970's, there may be information that will assist researchers with finding key details of a family member. The Hammond Pullman plant was merged with the Haskell Barker Company of Michigan City in 1922.
•Newberry Library, Chicago
The Pullman Company archives at the Newberry Library consists of 2,500 cubic feet of records from the Pullman Company and Pullman heirs. The collection is comprised of business archives of the Pullman Palace Car Company from 1867 and includes records of the entire firm up to the 1924 split into operating (sleeping car operation, service, and repair) and manufacturing companies. From 1924 to 1981 the records chronicle the activities of the operating company only.
•Pennsylvania State Archives
•Pullman State Historic Site
•Pullman Technology (Harvey, Illinois)
•Smithsonian Institution Archives
•South Suburban Genealogical & Historical Society (South Holland, Illinois)
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Pullman-Standard Company, through Nora Wilson, editor of employee publications for the Department of Public Relations and Advertising, on October 8, 1969.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Approximately 86,000 photographic negatives (Series 1) and twenty-three drawers of file cards (Series 2) comprise the collection. Most of the pictures are studio portraits.
Series 1: Photonegatives
The majority of the negatives are glass plates, 5 x 7 inches. Approximately 10% of the total number of images are on film, also 5 x 7 inches, and all the film material which has been inspected thus far is on safety base: rapid deterioration of some of the film indicates that it is unstable cellulose acetate or diacetate. Nearly all of the negatives are portraits. Many of the female subjects ear furs or expensive gowns and dresses, and most of the men seem well-dressed. The majority of the portraits inspected have been heavily retouched with pencil, as apparently was Hill's custom, and the standard procedure followed by most commercial portrait studios. There are some large portraits, especially wedding photographs, which are in extremely poor condition due to the acetate deformation and deterioration.
Several hundred 8"x 10" glass negatives are not studio portraits. Many are informal outdoor portraits, landscapes and scenic views. Some seem to depict vacation outings and camping trips.
These photographs (approximately 86,000, according to the inventory conducted in the early 1980s) are currently stored off-site (building 18, Silver Hill Facility), and are not yet accessible due to the fact that parts of the collection are contaminated with asbestos insulation fibers; after preliminary cleaning, asbestos levels remaining were still considered hazardous. The collection must be included within the over-all Silver Hill asbestos abatement program. However, a small representative sample of glass and film negatives (1 box) has been cleaned and shelved in the Archives Center.
Series 2: Card Files
The collection is accompanied by twenty-three drawers of cards which form a partial working catalog. These cards are business records, recording the names of subjects and dates of sittings, along with prices charged, and the photographer or studio's catalog number. These numbers are on the negative jackets and match the card numbers. The cataloguing system incorporates at least in part a chronological arrangement which parallels the numerical sequence.
Celebrity subjects in the collection include Eleanor Roosevelt, Hedda Hopper, Fred Astaire, Ziegfield girls such as Billie Burke, and other public and entertainment figures. However, the celebrity portraits represent only a small percentage of the photographs. Indeed, an extensive list of prominent subjects supposedly to be found in the collection was supplied by Ray Martin before the acquisition, but most of these names have not appeared in either the card files or the collection itself, to the limited extent that the material could be inspected during inventory. Of course, there are chronological gaps in the cards.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into two series.
Series 1: Photonegatives
Series 2: Card Files
Card files arranged alphabetically by client name; each file devoted to a single year, half-year, or, in one instance, consecutive series of years. Photonegatives arranged numerically within drawers.
Biographical / Historical:
Ira Lawrence Hill opened a photographic studio in New York City about 1905, and died in 1938 or 1939. His birthdate has not yet been located. Hill was considered the "Cecil Beaton of his time" in New York, for he photographed the wealthy and socially prominent in his studio, but also received requests from all over the country to document society events "on location". He photographed many film and theatrical celebrities, portraits with helping to launch her career. She wrote: "Aside from his own enthusiasm, the above [referring to the Hill photograph] was the only evidence which C. B. Cochran submitted to Sir Gerald du Maurier when suggesting I be imported for a role in 'The Dancers' in London. Since my first transatlantic flight marked the turning point in my career, my personal thanks go to photographer Ira Hill who posed and reproduced me. I've faced many a camera since, both still and moving, but not one of their images served me so well as Ira's. Photographers can flatter you and they can foul you up. When submitting to news cameramen I often came out looking like the second witch in 'Macbeth.'"
Ray Martin, donor of the collection to the Museum, noted that her personally photographed the wedding of Sen. Claiborne Pell while working for Hill. Hill eventually married five debutantes in succession, according to Martin. His work frequently was published in Vanity Fair, Town and Country and other magazines, and he did his best work from 1920 on.
The Hill studio was located at 677 Fifth Avenue, near 53rd Street, according to a letter from 1946 on "Ira L. Hill's Studio" stationary. It is not known whether the studio was always in that location.
Ray Martin worked for Hill from 1936 to 1938. After Hill's death Martin purchased the studio and operated it until about 1960. Photographs in the collection which are dated after 1939 presumably were made by Mr. Martin or under his supervision. The early Hill and Martin photographs were placed in storage for several years after Martin closed the studio, and he subsequently donated them to the Division of Photographic History of the Museum of History and Technology in the 1960s. The Division finally accessioned the collection in 1981 (accession number 1981.0463).
Although some sources give Hill's date of death as 1938, an article in the New York Times, November 21, 1939, describes the arrest of "Society Photographer" Ira L. Hill after a fight at the home of his ex-wife.
Related Materials:
Materials at Other Organizations
National Portrait Gallery has a portrait of Margaret Sanger by Ira Hill.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Ray Martin, 1970.
Restrictions:
The majority of the collection is inaccessible and is stored off-site. Special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Leader of the Club Prudhom orchestra and brother of Cab Calloway.
Subseries Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives. Special arrangements required to view negatives due to cold storage. Using negatives requires a three hour waiting period. Contact the Archives Center at 202-633-3270.
Subseries Rights:
When the Museum purchased the collection from the Estate of Robert S. Scurlock, it obtained all rights, including copyright. The earliest photographs in the collection are in the public domain because their term of copyright has expired. The Archives Center will control copyright and the use of the collection for reproduction purposes, which will be handled in accordance with its standard reproduction policy guidelines. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Photographs -- 1900-1950 -- Black-and-white negatives -- Nitrate film
Subseries Citation:
Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The collection was acquired with assistance from the Eugene Meyer Foundation. Elihu and Susan Rose and the Save America's Treasures program, provided funds to stabilize, organize, store, and create digital surrogates of some of the negatives. Processing and encoding funded by a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.
Southern Coal and Coke Company (Boothton, Alabama) Search this
Woodward Iron Company (Woodward, Alabama) Search this
Former owner:
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Extractive Industries Search this
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Work and Industry Search this
Extent:
1 Cubic foot (3 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Negatives
Photographs
Date:
1920s
Summary:
Collection consists of photographs and negatives that depict aspects of social life mining company towns in Alabama during the 1920s.
Scope and Contents note:
Photographs depict social aspects of company town life by documenting primarily exterior views of buildings, such as miner's homes, company stores, dance halls, schools, churches and movie theaters. The interior views include doctor's offices, first aid stations, company stores, dairies and butcher shops. The typed descriptions define which structures intended for use by Black or White people. There are no photographs documenting mines or mining equipment.
Arrangement:
Collectio is arranged into three series.
Series 1: Volume 1, Alabama Mining Institute Photograph Album, 1920s
Series 2: Volume 2, Alabama Mining Institute Photograph Album, 1920s
Series 3: Negatives, 1984
Biographical/Historical note:
The Alabama Mining Institute is a consortium of underground and surface mining operators, dating back to the 1920s.
Provenance:
Originally collected for the Division of Extractive Industries. Immediate source of acquisition unknown.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Kaslov, Steve, ca. 1888-1949 (King of the Red Bandanna Romany Gypsies ) Search this
Extent:
4.3 Cubic feet (15 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Journals
Dissertations
Scrapbooks
Manuscripts
Place:
West Virginia -- 1930-1950
New Jersey -- 1930-1950
Maspeth (Queens, Long Island, N.Y.) -- 1930-1950
New York (N.Y.) -- photographs -- 1930-1950
Date:
circa 1920-1975
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 4.3 cubic feet of manuscript, print, and photographic materials created or collected by Carl de Wendler-Funaro (1898-1985) in pursuit of his interest in Gypsy life and culture. (Carlos de Wendler-Funaro used several forms of his name; he wrote mostly as Carl de Wendler-Funaro.) The -collection was brought to the attention of the Division of Community Life, National Museum of American History, by Matt T. Salo and donated to the Smithsonian by Dr. de Wendler-Funarol's widow, Cornelia de Funaro, in May 1985, through Richard E. Ahlborn, Curator.
The number and breadth of the photographic materials, especially, the accompanying documentation and their representation of many Gypsy groups in a single time period, make this collection an important resource for research.
Print and Manuscript Materials
The print and manuscript materials in the collection are organized-into six series: (1) materials for which Carl de Wendler-Funaro is author, co-author or editor; (2) materials about de Wendler-Funaro; (3) correspondence; (4) journals, books, or extracts from them, by various authors; (5) newspaper and magazine articles; (6) photomechanical images from newspapers, magazines, and books.
The manuscript materials include drafts of portions of planned books, reading notes, and Gypsy language notes and transcriptions. De Wendler-Funaro seems to have planned two books. One was to have been a book of his photographs, with accompanying essays describing his encounters with Gypsies, the other a work on Gypsies, especially those in the United States. The major element of the second book was to have been the history of the Rom in this country as told by Steve Kaslov. The second work was to have included the manuscripts, 'The Last Caravan,' on Romnichels in the United States; 'Romanian Gypsies in Maspeth Village,' on the Ludar; 'Hungarian Gypsies,' orx these musicians in the United States; and some folk tale materials. Several outlines for the two books are in the collection.
The draft materials written with Steve Kaslov include an account of the Gypsy leader Chaiko Jura. The account, which seems to approach legend at some points, describes his immigration to the United States, adventures in this country, and death. Also among the draft materials, and intended to follow in the proposed book, is what may be termed an official biography of Steve Kaslov (c. 1888-1949). Apparently tentatively entitled "The Ways of my People,' the manuscript recounts a few incidents, told at length, in the experiences of Kaslov's family and social network from about 1900 to about 1938.
De Wendler-Funaro's notes suggest that the Kaslov biography was dictated to an unnamed lawyer in the early 1930s and given to de Wendler-Funaro in 1934. Kaslov dictated the story of Chaiko to de Wendler-Funaro. (Perhaps this is the source of a statement in the New York Sun, June 20, 1941, that Kaslov had written two books.)
The okaslov manuscripts' are written mostly in a variety of American English common among American Rom. Parts of the biographical section are written in the first person, others in the third. Cultural material includes descriptions of weddings, funerary ritual, business transactions, conflicts and conflict resolution. As factual sources the manuscripts are unreliable: dates, for example, are only very approximate; birth places for Steve Kaslov and his family are incorrect.
Evidence in the manuscripts indicates that de Wendler-Funaro hoped, through 1976, to publish these texts in some form. Apparently Kaslov made a first attempt to publish in 1940, when he sent a draft to Eleanor Roosevelt. Mrs. Roosevelt sent the manuscript on to George Bye, a literary agent, who returned it in 1941 as unpublishable, calling it a Oterribly disorganized manuscript .... [Kaslov] is now working with a doctor (de Wendler-Funarol who claims to be an author but the results are very unhappy' (Correspondence in FDR Library).
Correspondence in the collection (series 3) includes letters to and from de Wendler-Funaro; drafts of letters by Steve Kaslov, soliciting aid for Gypsy education; and correspondence between the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros, Mexico, and the U.S. Department of State. According to Mrs. de Funaro, Carl de Wendler-Funaro destroyed his other correspondence before his death.
Many of the books, journals, articles, and extracts in the collection (series 4)- are materials upon which de Wendler-Funarol's dissertation is based. They include typed transcriptions of published articles as well as printed matter; dates of the materials range from 1554 to 1979.
The collection includes about 2,000 photoprints, including multiple copies, and 2,000 negatives. These materials are organized into eleven series: (7) photographs by de Wendler-Funaro: Gypsies in the United States; (8)photographs by de Wendler-Funaro: Gypsies outside the United States; (9) heirloom photographs'; (10) photographs by other creators; (11) photographs ;rom commercial agencies; (12) photographs of non-Gypsies; (13) photocopies, of numbered photos, in numerical order; (14) negatives; (15) contact sheets made from negatives from by the Smithsonian Office of Printing and Photographic Services, 1986; (16) scrapbook sheets; (17) slides made from negatives and prints by the Smithsonian Office of Printing and Photographic. services, 1986.
The original photographs by Carlos de Wendlet-Funaro span the,period 1922 to 1966, but the majority were taken from about 1932 to about 1942. More than half the photographs are of the Rom group of Gypsies in the United States, and most of these were taken in New York City from about 1938 to about 1942. Other original photos by de Wendler-Funaro are of other Gypsy groups in the United States -- Ludar, Romnichels, 'Black Dutch,w and Hungarian musicians -- as well as of Gypsies in Mexico, Holland, Germany, Austria, France, England, and Hungary. Photographs by other creators include copies of portraits collected from Gypsy families, photos by other photographers, and commercial news photographs collected by de Wendler-Funaro.
De Wendler-Funaro seems to have used the photographs to gain access to Gypsy families and communities (many photos show Gypsies examining albums and sets of pictures). Some photographs were published in his 1937 article, and in two articles by Victor Weybright (1938a, 1938b). De Wendler-Funaro apparently also used lantern slides made from these photographs in lectures on the subject of Gypsies; a handbill advertising his availability on the lecture circuit is part of the collection.
Manuscript drafts for book outlines, introductions, and accompanying essays show that de Wendler-Funaro long nurtured hopes of publishing a popular tool-, 'Incorporating his photographs. To this end he numbered and captioned more than a hundred of these; a partial list of captions is part of the manuscript files. For the most part, the captions are not very helpful in understanding Gypsy cultures. Photocopies of these pictures with captions, in numerical order, are in box 8. With some exceptions, most of the photographs can be used to study costume, personal ornament, and kinesics; these will not be listed separately as subjects in the inventory. The photos of the Rom in New York City show several types of traditional costume, contemporary modish dress, and a wide range of variations on both. Taken together with the "heirloom photos' collected from the same group, they show change and variety in men's and women's dress.
In the photographs of individuals and groups one may compare, for example, sitting positions of women with relation to costume and use (or non-use) of chairs.
Most of the photographs of Rom taken in New York City show Gypsies relaxing on stoops or in the street during the summer, a common pastime in their neighborhoods. They contain little culturally specific information other than that discussed above.
Information on housing is most clearly represented in photographs of camps, in which the type of tent and, to some extent, the relationships of tents, are visible. All the tents shown appear to be commercially made. Since it was the practice to raise the tent walls in good weather, many photos also show tent interiors, with wooden platform floors used on non-grassy sites (Rom) or linoleum as a ground cloth (Romnichel). The use of featherbeds; either alone (Rom) or with bedsteads (Romnichel) is documented.
There are few photographs showing the use of interior space in urban storefront or apartment dwellings (Rom). The photographs taken in the Maspeth, Long Island, 'Gypsy village' show exteriors of the shacks built@by the Ludar.
Of cooking and heating equipment, the cast-iron or sheet-metal stoves of the Romnichels are most evident. The Rom are shown using a variety of equipment, the traditional trivet (Mexico), the Coleman-type camp stove (U.S), and the pot-bellied coal stove (New York City).
Photographs of autos and trucks, auto-drawn luggage trailers (Romnichels in the North), and horse-drawn wagons (by the horse and mule trading Romnichels in the South) reveal something of the transport of people and goods.
A few photographs show subjects at work, but most work pictures are static demonstrations or mere associations with productive enterprise. There are demonstrations of coppersmithing and fender repair work (Rom), and manufacture of rustic furniture (Romnichels), as well as posed demonstrations of palm-reading. Romnichels in the South are shown posing with horses and mules. The business that appears most frequently is fortune-telling, through photographs of roadside business tents (Romnichel); amusement, fair, and resort-area tents and stands (Rom); and canvas facades, banners and signs carrying the fortune-teller's message.
Ritual life is poorly represented in the photographs. There are some photos of a funeral procession, and one interior shot of a funeral; two photos of a saint's-day feast; one of a memorial feast; and one set taken in preparation for Christmas festivities. Curiously, there are no photographs of Rom weddings. The dearth of pictures of rituals and celebrations, which form so important a part of Rom life, may be due to difficulties with interior lighting.
Because of internal and other inconsistencies, exact dating of the photographs is often difficult. Discrepancies of as much as ten year occur in some of the dates in de Wendler-Funaro's notes.
Arrangement:
Collection is arranged into seventeen series.
Biographical / Historical:
According to information supplied by Mrs. de Funaro, Carl de Wendler-Funaro was born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 12, 1898. After attending Boys' High School and Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, he attended the University of Illinois and Cornell University, receiving a bachelor's degree in entolomology from Cornell in 1923. Subsequently he taught foreign languages at New York University, the McBurney School of the YMCA in New York City, Newark Academy and Wagner College. He began graduate work in the late 1930s, and in 1958 earned a doctorate from Columbia University with a dissertation on 'The Gitano in Spanish Literature' (a copy is in the collection, Box 1, folders 2 and 3). De Wendler-Funaro retired from teaching in 1963; he died in Tucson, Arizona on February 15, 1985.
Carl de Wendler-Funaro was an avid amateur collector of insects, especially Coleoptera, as well as shells, minerals, stamps and coins; his insect collections were donated to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
De Wendler-Funaro's interest in Gypsies, according to his manuscripts, began in childhood. The manuscripts and one published article indicate that this interest continued to be personal, rather than professional,,,,apd @hat,,he, did not pursue his contacts with Gypsies systematically. (it was, not, 'until' the late 1940s that anthropologists began systematic studies of GYPSY.@ cultures.) It appears that de Wendler-Funaro sought out Gypsies in fairgrounds, amusement parks and urban storefronts, collecting specimens of language and taking photographs. Irving Brown's letter to de Wendler-Funaro (1929), and de Wendler-Funarol's article in Leisure (1937) refer to his visits to amusement parks. Some of his Romnichel (English Gypsy) subjects recall him as the man who drove along the roads, stopping to take pictures wherever he saw a tent. About 1938 de Wendler-Funaro became involved with a Committee on Gypsy Problems of the Welfare Council, a social service agency of New York City. This involvement may have been an outgrowth of his association with Steve Kaslov, styled by some a Gypsy king. De Wendler-Funaro seems to have served as Kaslov's amanuensis.
Gypsies in the United States:
Several groups, all known to outsiders as "Gypsies," live today in the United Sates. In their native languages, each of the groups refers to itself by a specific name, but all translate their self-designations as 'Gypsy' when speaking English. Each had its own cultural, linguistic, and historical tradition before coming to this country, and each maintains social distance from the others. An overview of these groups and their interethnic relations is presented in "Gypsy Ethnicity: Implications of Native Categories and Interaction for Ethnic Classification," by Matt T. Salo.
Rom
The Rom arrived in the United States from Serbia, Russia and Austria-Hungary beginning in the 1880s, part of the larger wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Primary immigration ' ended, for the most part, in 1914, with the beginning of the First World War and subsequent tightening of immigration restrictions (Salo and Salo 1986). Many people in this group specialized in coppersmith work, mainly the repair and retinning of industrial equipment used in bakeries, laundries, confectionaries, and other businesses. The Rom, too, developed the fortune-telling business in urban areas.
Two subgroups of the Rom, the Kalderash ('coppersmiths') and, Machwaya natives of machva,' a county in Serbia) appear in the photographs iiv, this collection. De Wendler-Funaro identified some, but not all, Kalderash as, 'Russian Gypsies.' Another group he identified as "Russian Gypsies' seem, to,, be the Rusniakuria ('Ruthenians'), who in New York are known as musicians and singers.
Ludar
The Ludar, or "Romanian Gypsies,' also immigrated to the United States during the great immigration from southern and eastern Europe between 1880 and 1914. Most of the Ludar came from northwestern Bosnia. Upon their arrival in the United States they specialized as animal trainers and show people, and indeed passenger manifests show bears and monkeys as a major part of their baggage. Most of de Wendler-Funarols photographs of this group were taken in Maspeth, a section of the borough of Queens in New York City, where the Ludar created a village of home-made shacks that existed from about 1925 to 1939, when it was razed. A similar settlement stood in the Chicago suburbs during the same period. One of de Wendler-Funarols manuscripts, "Romanian Gypsies at Maspeth Village,' (box 1, folder 9), and a letter from Ammiee Ellis, a social worker (box 2, folder 2), refer to this settlement.
Romnichels
The Romnichels, or English Gypsies, began to come to the United States from England in 1850. Their arrival coincided with an increase in the demand for draft horses in agriculture and then in urbanization, and many Romnichels worked as horse-traders. After the rapid decline in the horse trade following the First World War, most Romnichels relied on previously secondary enterprises, 'basket-making,* including the manufacture and sale of rustic furniture, and fortune-telling. Horse and mule trading continued to some extent in southern states where poverty and terrain slowed the adoption of tractor power (Salo and Salo 1982).
Photoprints in box 6, folders 2 through 10, correspond with de Wendler-Funarols trip described in his manuscript 'In Search of the Last Caravan' (box 1, folder 10). Discrepancies between this manuscript and the photos should be noted. De Wendler-Funarols notes date this trip variously between 1931 and 1945. I have dated it about 1940. Although one man appears as a frequent subject in the largest set of photos (box 6, folders 22 and 23), in the manuscript, de Funaro mentions having missed meeting him.
'Black Dutch'
Gypsies from Germany, whom de Wendler-Funaro refers to 'as Chikkeners (Pennsylvania German, from the German Zigeuner), sometimes refer to themselves as wblack Dutch.w They are few in number and claim to have largely assimilated to Romnichel culture. They are represented in de Wendler-Punarols photographs by a few portraits of one old man and briefly referred to in the manuscript mIn Search of the Last Caravan.*
Hungarian Gypsies
The Hungarian musicians also came to this country with the eastern European immigration. In the U.S. they continued as musicians to the Hungarian and Slovak immigrant settlements.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Mrs. Cornelia de Funaro, June 26, 1985.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Photographs by de Wendler-Funaro are available for reproduction. Fees for commercial use. Permission to reproduce photographs by Alexander Alland must be granted by the photographer's estate; other photographs may have copyright restrictions.
Topic:
Funeral rites and ceremonies -- manuscripts -- Gypsies Search this
African Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Place:
Hill District (Pittsburgh, Pa.) -- 1940-1950
Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- 1940-1950
Date:
Circa 1944
Scope and Contents:
Part of HIll District, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Building Exteriors, Street Scenes, Outdoor Views series.
Local Numbers:
AC0270-0000052 (AC scan)
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use by appointment. Photographs must be handled with gloves unless protected by sleeves.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Scurlock, George H. (Hardison), 1919-2005 Search this
Extent:
1 Item
Container:
Box 42
Culture:
African Americans -- Washington (D.C.) Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Retouching
Date:
[undated]
Scope and Contents:
Job Number: 1844[?]
Subject wears jewelled headdress, apparently for operatic role of Lakme (Leo Delibes, composer). Face retouched. Negative captioned, no maker edge imprint found. Possibly a nitrate negative.
Biographical / Historical:
Degree in music from Howard University; married vocal instructor Prof. Roy W. Tibbs. Continued study in Europe, made professional operatic debut in Nice, France, 1925. Stage name formed from combination of single and married names, Washington concert debut, 1933. Helped found the Negro National Opera Company.
General:
Framed print of this image is number 35 of "Corcoran" prints.
Exhibitions Note:
"Corcoran" print exhibited in "The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise," NMAAHC Gallery, NMAH, January 30 - November 15, 2009; image reproduced in exhibit's companion book.
Subseries Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives. Special arrangements required to view negatives due to cold storage. Using negatives requires a three hour waiting period. Contact the Archives Center at 202-633-3270.
Subseries Rights:
When the Museum purchased the collection from the Estate of Robert S. Scurlock, it obtained all rights, including copyright. The earliest photographs in the collection are in the public domain because their term of copyright has expired. The Archives Center will control copyright and the use of the collection for reproduction purposes, which will be handled in accordance with its standard reproduction policy guidelines. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Photographs -- 1900-1950 -- Black-and-white negatives -- Nitrate film
Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Acetate film
Retouching -- Pencil
Subseries Citation:
Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The collection was acquired with assistance from the Eugene Meyer Foundation. Elihu and Susan Rose and the Save America's Treasures program, provided funds to stabilize, organize, store, and create digital surrogates of some of the negatives. Processing and encoding funded by a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.
