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.
Collection Citation:
N. Joseph Woodland Papers, 1943-2012, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
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.
Collection Citation:
N. Joseph Woodland Papers, 1943-2012, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection of personal notebooks of civil engineers.
Scope and Contents note:
Mainly personal notebooks of engineers, although one is a listing of products of a manufacturer of gears and another is a compilation of shop orders for various products of a manufacturer. They generally contain technical descriptions, drawings, specifications, and financial data.
Provenance:
Immediate source of acquisition unknown.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 1
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
circa 1835-1840
Scope and Contents:
Notes, drawings, data on railroad installations and operations, and waterworks
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
Collection Citation:
Engineering Notebook Collection, 1835-1930, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Woodruff & Beach Iron Works, Commerce Street, Hartford, Connecticut
Collection Creator:
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 1
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1867
Scope and Contents:
List of gears and other patterns belonging to W & B Iron Works (includes technical descriptions of gears.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
Collection Citation:
Engineering Notebook Collection, 1835-1930, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Frank P. Sheldon, Mill Engineer and Architect, Providence, Rhode Island
Collection Creator:
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 1
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
circa 1870-1875
Scope and Contents:
Technical cost and financial data on textile mill equipment and installations.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
Collection Citation:
Engineering Notebook Collection, 1835-1930, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 2
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
circa 1874-1882
Scope and Contents:
Maintenance of way expenses, repair costs, other railroad costs, number of cars hauled.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
Collection Citation:
Engineering Notebook Collection, 1835-1930, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 2
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
circa 1883-1884
Scope and Contents:
Survey notes and data for piers, docks, and streets.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
Collection Citation:
Engineering Notebook Collection, 1835-1930, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 5
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
circa 1888-1890
Scope and Contents:
Technical notes and data on steam engines and other machinery.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
Collection Citation:
Engineering Notebook Collection, 1835-1930, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Alfred O. Blaisdell, 268 Clermont Ave., Brooklyn, New York
Collection Creator:
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 3
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
circa 1899-1912
Scope and Contents:
Technical notes and drawings on various marine engineering problems; also notes on electricity, early aviation (Wright Brothers), telescopes, and religion.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
Collection Citation:
Engineering Notebook Collection, 1835-1930, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
William J. Richardson, Carrier Corporation Service Department, Syracuse, New York
Collection Creator:
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Container:
Box 1, Folder 4
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1930
Scope and Contents:
Individual reports of inspections of large commercial refrigeration installations.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
Collection Citation:
Engineering Notebook Collection, 1835-1930, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1867-1930
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
Collection Citation:
Engineering Notebook Collection, 1835-1930, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Extent:
1 Item (Ink on paper., 7.6" x 4.7")
Container:
Box 1, Folder 1
Type:
Archival materials
Notebooks
Date:
1867
Scope and Contents:
List of gears and other patterns.
Local Numbers:
AC0225-0000001 (AC Scan No.)
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Extent:
1 Item (Ink on paper., 7.3" x 4.5")
Container:
Box 1, Folder 3
Type:
Archival materials
Notebooks
Date:
1899 - 1912
Scope and Contents:
Technical notes and drawings.
Local Numbers:
AC0225-0000002 (AC Scan No.)
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Extent:
1 Item (Ink on paper., 6.5" x 4.2")
Container:
Box 1, Folder 1
Type:
Archival materials
Notebooks
Date:
1870 - 1880
Local Numbers:
AC0225-0000004 (AC Scan No.)
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Extent:
1 Item (Ink on paper., 10.5" x 8.0")
Type:
Archival materials
Notebooks
Date:
1870 - 1880
Arrangement:
In box 1, folder 4, page 81
Local Numbers:
AC0225-0000005 (AC Scan No.)
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Engineering and Industry Search this
Extent:
1 Item (Ink on paper., 9.4" x 7.5")
Container:
Box 1, Folder 5
Type:
Archival materials
Notebooks
Date:
December 1889
Scope and Contents:
Diagrams and figures for locomotive boiler parts.
Local Numbers:
AC0225-0000006 (AC Scan No.)
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
The papers document the professional career of mechanical engineer, Charles Richardson Pratt. The papers include correspondence, patents, patent application materials, agreements, photographs, publications, and blueprints for many of Pratt's inventions, especially his work on elevators.
Scope and Contents:
These papers contain personal materials of Charles R. Pratt; letterpress copybooks; engineering notebooks; diaries; material relating to the development of the heavy-duty, high-rise electric elevator; material concerning elevator cable equalizers and safety devices, Morton-Jacobsen and other lathe chucks, lathe drives and the Pratt Driver, the hydraulic transmission of power in trucks, and ship steering gear; and studies reports, drawings, photographs, catalogs, and trade literature concerning mechanical engineering.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into eight series.
Series 1: Personal Materials, 1875-1935
Series 2: Diaries, 1894, 1928-1931
Series 3: Correspondence, 1872-1920
Series 4: Notebooks, 1880, 1889, 1900
Series 5: Inventions, 1860-1927
Series 6: Photographs, 1890-1902
Series 7: Publications, 1895-1929
Series 8: Drawings, 1878-1929
Biographical / Historical:
Charles Richardson Pratt (1860-1935), was born in Massachusetts to John C. and Mary Anne Richardson. He graduated from the Hopkins School of Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1879. Pratt worked at Whittier Machine Company of Boston (1882-1890) where he designed and built the first electric elevator in 1888. The elevator was installed in the Tremont House, Boston. Pratt also worked as an agent and later as a consulting engineer for the Otis Elevator Company, the inventors of the hydraulic elevator.
Pratt was best known for his development of the first electrically powered elevator. In 1892, inventor Frank Sprague (1857-1934) founded the Sprague Electric Elevator Company, and with Charles R. Pratt developed the Sprague-Pratt Electric Elevator. They demonstrated that electrically powered elevators were capable of competing with hydraulic elevators. Pratt held several engineering positions and worked for the Marine Engine Company of Newark, New Jersey (1902-1905) developing elevator systems; consulting engineer to the Universal Speed Control Company of New York City (1906-1919); consultant to the American Engineering Company of Philadelphia (1912); mechanical superintendent at the Crocker Wheel Company of Ampere, New Jersey (1919); engineer for the E. Horton and Sons Company of Connecticut (1920-1923); the General Tractors Corporation (1924-1927); and was associated with the Watson Elevator Company of New York City (1928-1930). Pratt patented many of his ideas, earning over thirty-five patents related mostly to elevators,
Pratt was a member of the Masons, the Sons of the American Revolution, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the MIT Club of New Jersey, and the Motor Club of London. He married Mary Byron Ladd and they had two children, Gertrude Ladd Pratt and Donald Richardson Pratt.
Provenance:
This collection was purchased from Charles R. Pratt's daughter, Gertrude Pratt Vance, in 1973.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
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.
The collection is open for research use. Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives.
Collection 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. Copyright held by the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Citation:
Ralph H. Baer Papers, 1943-2015, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
