A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Metals forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists primarily of materials related to the smelting, alloying, manufacturing, distribution, and sale of metals and metal products. Processed metal products covered by the collection include machine tools, dies, and factory equipment; railroad and aircraft parts; metal ceilings and other architectural components, such as columns and grille work; and other items, such as safes and strongboxes. Also covered are brokerage and other firms which operate in the metals market. Types of metals mentioned in the collection include iron, steel, nickel, copper, bronze, gold, tin, lead, and aluminum, as well as various alloys. The collection's materials consist mainly of trade literature, such as catalogs and brochures, as well as correspondence, business cards, customs documents, invoices, order forms, patents, scientific papers and reports, market notices, and industry newsletters. The date span for the collection is 1819-1966, though there is only one item which is older than 1850, and few later than 1950; the bulk of the collection covers the years c1870-c1930. Most firms and other organizations represented in the collection are located in American industrial areas east of the Mississippi, especially New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. A few items are of foreign origin or from other regions of the United States.
Materials in the Archives Center:
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
Forms Part Of:
Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
Series 1: Business Ephemera
Series 2: Other Collection Divisions
Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers
Series 4: Photographic Reference Material
Provenance:
Metals is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
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.
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).