4.56 Cubic feet (consisting of 10 boxes, 1 folder, 1 oversize folder, 1 map case folder.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Ephemera
Printed ephemera
Sales letters
Business cards
Trade catalogs
Trade literature
Sales catalogs
Sales records
Manufacturers' catalogs
Publications
Receipts
Commercial catalogs
Surveying instruments
Trade cards
Catalogs
Manuals
Invoices
Business ephemera
Advertisements
Mail order catalogs
Advertising cards
Advertising
Advertising mail
Business records
Print advertising
Business letters
Correspondence
Letterheads
Periodicals
Advertising fliers
Catalogues
Printed material
Date:
circa 1800-1965
bulk 1830-1930
Summary:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Instruments 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:
The Instrument category covers devices and tools used in arts and sciences, including but not limited to architecture, biology, medicine, geography, physics, chemistry and related laboratory investigation, navigation, in industry with machinery, astronomy, and a variety of optics including reading glasses. An emphasis on engineering and survey work is evident in the volume of Drawing and Surveying catalogues present.
Materials include a small sampling of business records, particular invoices and receipts, with also some advertisement, correspondence, financials, import/export documents. The bulk of material is comprised of product catalogues, many with detailed descriptions, specifications, and illustrations, plus pricing information. A number of catalogues are in German. A small portion of the catalogues are not instruments per se, but are accompaniments used with instruments. For example, specimen slides for microscopes. A few company publications are present as well. Several guides on the use of or history of some apparatus are present, as are a few stand-alone illustrations, though most catalogues are heavily illustrated.
No extensive runs or complete records exist for any single company, brand, and no particular depth is present for any singular subtopic though some publications may provide general and historical overviews of a person, company, or facet of industry. Separate folders were used for a few companies which have a small bulk of material. Companies of note: Bausch & Lomb, Sperry Corporation and Wheelco Instrument Company.
With the industries and trades represented in this category, there is overlap with Hardware, Tools, and Mensuration.
Arrangement:
Instruments is arranged in two subseries. Researchers are advised to look both under the company name and under the category of catalogue of products it produces.
Business Records and Marketing Material
Genre
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:
Instruments 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 Subject Categories: Instruments, 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).
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Medical History Search this
Extent:
3 Cubic feet (9 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Correspondence
Drawings
Patents
Blueprints
Advertisements
Date:
1936-1970
Summary:
Blueprints, drawings, patent applications, patents, product photographs, correspondence, bills and receipts, advertising, and published articles related to the Kerns' products. The bulk of the material, 1949-1958, is from George Kern's files. It primarily relates to the development and marketing of the Dentagraph and high speed dental drills before the formation of the Fairfax Manufacturing Company in 1957.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes blueprints and drawings, patent applications, patents, product photographs, correspondence, bills and receipts, advertising, and published articles related to the Kern's products. The bulk of the material, dating from 1949 to 1958, is from George Kern's files. It primarily relates to the development and marketing of the Dentagraph and high speed dental drills before the formation of the Fairfax Manufacturing Company in 1957. Most of the FMC material document's Kern's role as a stockholder.
However, a large portion of the blueprints and drawings were created by his son or other FMC employees. Several of the patents are George Kern, Jr.'s, and there are copies of other people's patents that relate to the Kerns' patents or inventing activities. The collection has been arranged in chronological order within five series.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into five series.
Series 1: Personal Papers, 1952-1959
Series 2: Product Files, 1945-1968
Series 3: Marketing Records, 1936-1962
Series 4: Client Files, 1949-1958
Series 5: Competitor Files, 1957
Biographical / Historical:
George Robert Kern was born in 1894 and died in 1962. He was an Arlington, Va., area cabinet maker and machinist who went on to invent several pieces of dental equipment that helped revolutionize the field of dentistry in the early 1950s he was joined in these endeavors by his son, George Kern, Jr.
The elder George Kern began working with dental equipment according to his promotional material because of his own experience with poor fitting dentures. As a machinist accustomed to tight tolerances, he knew it must be possible to make dentures fit better. The result of his work was the Dentagraph and his first patent, granted in 1950. In 1948 a company, Kern
laboratory, was incorporated to manufacture the Dentagraph and license the "Dentagraph Tech nic." He also sold dental laboratory benches and dental molding materials under the name Kern Laboratory Equipment Company. Kern's Dentagraph was used by the National Standards Laboratory to test denture materials and the laboratory further improved the device. Apparently Kern received the rights to produce and market this improved tool.
In the early 1950s he began working on high speed dental drills. He developed both a water turbine drill and an air turbine drill. The water turbine drill was manufactured by Bowen Company of Maryland under the trademarked name Turbo Jet. In 1957 the company acquired the rights to this tool and its trademark.
Kern and his son improved on the water turbine drill, and in 1957 formed Fairfax Manufacturing Company (FMC) to produce an air turbine drill and the improved water turbine drill. The senior Kern was a participating stockliolder, receiving stock in return for rights to his inventions. George Kern, Jr., L. W. Hazleton (President of Hazleton Laboratories, a biological
(research and development company), and R. G. Henninger (General Manager of Hazleton Laboratories) were the company officers. The stockholders included dentists who also tested the companies new products. Densco, Inc., a Colorado dental equipment company, marketed Kern's products from around 1954, and in 1957 the company began to market Fairfax Manufacturing Company's products.
George R. Kern, Jr., was born in 1919. He left public school in the tenth but took courses in industrial electricity and industrial engineering. He worked for worked the National Bureau of Standards for two years building and installing laboratory equipment. In 1951 he began working at Hazelton Laboratories as Superintendent of Maintenance. He patented several pieces of
Dental equipment and specialized parts for dental equipment. He died in 1987.
Related Materials:
The Division of Medicine and Science has several examples of the Kerns' dental equipment, including a Dentagraph and a number of hand pieces.
Provenance:
Collection donated by John Kern, 1992, December 22.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Usage or copyright restrictions in effect. Contact the repository for details.
