Search Results

Landscape architect:

Moody, Duke  Search this

Architect:

Pellet, Tom  Search this

Provenance:

Memphis Garden Club  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Place:

Robinwood (Memphis, Tennessee)

United States of America -- Tennesee -- Shelby County -- Memphis

Scope and Contents:

The folder includes worksheets, site plans, and additional information.

General:

This garden was initially located on 250 acres. It was primarily comprised of a farm with various outbuildings to house different farm animals including milk cows, Hereford and Angus bulls, horses, pigs, turkeys, chickens, sheep and goats. The barn and the house was designed by Everett Woods. The barn, overlooking a lake, included stalls and a large two story open area for farm equipment. According to the daughter of the owner, American singer Rufus Thomas played in the hay loft where parties were frequently held. A pool, fed by well water, was built into the side of a hill. During the summers it was drained and filled each week. Garden features included woodland walks, bermsn, ristas, lawns, bulb gardens and wooded paths.

Persons associated with the property include: Duke Moody (landscape architect, probably 1950s-70s); Tom Pellet (landscape architect, 1990s); Everett Woods (architect, 1930).

Related Materials:

Robinwood related holdings consist of 1 folder (6 35 mm. slides (photographs))

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Gardens -- Tennessee -- Memphis  Search this

Farms  Search this

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, File TN074

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Tennessee

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb68a5f20a8-6615-4d8e-8368-68f2d1ff4a0b

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref10903

Creator:

Brown, Bernis B., 1888-1960  Search this

Former owner:

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering  Search this

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Work and Industry  Search this

Extent:

8.5 Cubic feet (17 boxes, 1 map folder)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Books

Catalogs

Clippings

Correspondence

Magazines (periodicals)

Manuscripts

Newsletters

Notebooks

Patents

Photographs

Date:

1852-1972

Scope and Contents note:

The collection documents the history of farm machinery in America, especially steam-powered machines, with an emphasis on tractors. The collections includes Brown's correspondence with individuals and institutions regarding his research and his collection, writings, research notes, newspaper and magizine clippings, photographs, periodicals, and trade literature. Many of Brown's writings appeared in the Iron-Men Album. Also included is a history Brown compiled on early American farm power titled, Pictorial History of Early American Farm Power, 1953.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into seven series.

Personal Materials, 1945-1952

Correspondence, 1912-1960 Photographs, 1896-1958 Writings, 1915-1958 Research Notes, 1857-1958 Newspaper and Magazine Clippings, 1898-1972 Periodicals, 1946-1960 Trade Literature, 1852-1960

Biographical/Historical note:

Bernis Bertram Brown (1888-1960) was born in Gillians, Missouri. Brown worked for the Austin-Western Road Machinery Company and was a dealer, salesmen, and repairman of farm equipment, especially steam powered engines. Brown was a regular contributor to the Iron-Men Album Magazine with articles about valves, reverse gears and various steam and gas engines.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

Carterpillar Tractor Company Photograph Collection, NMAH.AC.0146

John K. Parlett Collection of Agricultural Ephemera, NMAH.AC.1225

Provenance:

Collected for the National Museum of American History, Division of Civil and Mechanical Engineering.

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.

Topic:

Agricultural machinery  Search this

Farm equipment  Search this

Steam-engines  Search this

Tractors  Search this

Genre/Form:

Books

Catalogs

Clippings

Correspondence -- 20th century

Magazines (periodicals) -- 20th century

Manuscripts -- 20th century

Newsletters -- 20th century

Notebooks

Patents

Photographs -- 20th century

Citation:

Bernis B. Brown Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1047

See more items in:

Bernis B. Brown Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep833694762-4434-4153-ad01-d6b730ad299e

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1047

Creator:

Page Tractor Company  Search this

Collector:

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Work and Industry  Search this

Names:

Pioneer Manufacturing Company  Search this

Extent:

1 Cubic foot (4 boxes, 1 map folder )

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Blueprints

Correspondence

Drawings

Invoices

Manuals

Trade catalogs

Date:

1917-1982

Scope and Contents:

Papers documenting Page Tractor Company and its parent company, Pioneer Manufacturing. The papers include customer inquiries and the responses to them, drawings and blueprints, invoices, trade literature, parts catalogs and price lists, and instruction manuals.

Arrangement:

Collection is arranged into one series.

Biographical / Historical:

Wisconsin-based tractor company. They also made snowmobiles, snow blowers and snow plows.

Provenance:

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.

Topic:

Agricultural machinery  Search this

Farm equipment  Search this

Tractors  Search this

Genre/Form:

Blueprints

Correspondence -- 20th century

Drawings

Invoices

Manuals

Trade catalogs

Citation:

Page Tractor Company Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1005

See more items in:

Page Tractor Company Papers

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep865f29845-5acc-48d2-ac27-4c929864af21

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1005

Creator:

James Leffel and Company  Search this

Collector:

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of History of Technology  Search this

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering  Search this

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Work and Industry  Search this

Extent:

20 Cubic feet (42 boxes)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Blueprints

Business records

Charts

Clippings

Correspondence

Drawings

Order books

Patents

Photographs

Specifications

Trade catalogs

Glass plate negatives

Place:

Springfield (Ohio)

Date:

circa 1848-1976

Summary:

Collection documents James Leffel and Company of Springfield, Ohio, manufacturer of turbines, water wheels and engines.

Scope and Contents:

The records contain business and legal records; correspondence; patents and patent files; specifications; charts; blueprints; mechanical drawings and original catalog art; photographs and negatives; catalogs, and clippings documenting James Leffel and Company.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into eight series.

Series 1: Correspondence, 1974-1978

Series 2: Patent Materials, 1848-1931

Series 3: Testing Data, 1913-1966, bulk 1920s

Series 4: Catalogs, 1870-1946

Series 5: Catalog Artwork, 1919-1959

Series 6: Trade Literature, 1890s-1976

Series 7: Photographs, 1908-1929

Series 7: Writings and Journal Articles, 1881-1854

Series 8: Glass Plate Negatives, 1890s-1950s, undated

Biographical:

James Leffel was born in 1806 in Botetourt County, Virginia to John and Catherine Leffel. The family moved to Ohio, settling near Springfield. where John Leffel established saw and grist mills. Leffel grew up surrounded by mills and and developed a strong interest in water wheels. Leffel trained as a millwright acquiring skills in metal work to make sickles, knives, and other small iron implements. In the late 1830s, Leffel established his first foundry and machine shop near Springfield, Ohio, quickly expanding and taking on two partners, William A. John and T.Y. Ferrell and adding mill gearing and stoves to their line of products. By 1845, Leffel ended his business relationship with John and Ferrell and formed a partnership with William Blackeney, a machinist who helped him support the foundry and its work. In 1846, Andrew Richards joined Leffel to build a cotton mill and machine shop. Leffel envisioned the utilization of water power in Springfield. Ohio, with the establishment of mills along a race--a dug channel leading from a creek or river to the mill--that would eventually bring trade. With the help of Samuel and James Barnett, gristmill operators, Leffel was able to "cut a race" and erect a Water Power and Flouring Mill. Leffel was especially interested in water wheel development and would receive patent US34,150 for a water wheel (1862) which later reissued as RE1791 and RE1792 in 1864.

Leffel also patented cooking stoves (US6775) in 1849 which became known as the "Buckeye," "Double Oven" and "Red Cook Stove" that were successful and earned him a strong reputation. In 1852, Leffel broke with Richards, and Nathaniel Cook, a machinist, joined Leffel and Blackeney. With his 1862 patent for a water wheel, Leffel focused his attention on demonstrating the water wheel and speaking about its productive uses. Numerous test runs of the water wheel convinced Leffel that he could sell the wheel to mills and factory operators. Leffel marketed the wheel as the "American Double Turbine" an efficient, cheap turbine for the mass market (Layton page 86 ). In 1863, Leffel and Blackeney formed a new firm, along with Perry Betchel and Leander Mudge to create a foundry designed solely for the production of the wheel. Leffel later joined forces with John Foos, a mill operator and James S. Goode, a lawyer, to form the James Leffel and Company. Leffel sold his water wheel to flour mills, woolen goods manufacturers, paper mills and farm equipment manufacturers. The company became one of the leading manufacturers of waterwheels and turbines and today continues to operate under the name of James Leffel and Company as part of Canyon Hydro which acquired the company in 2019.

Leffel died in 1866.

Source

Becker, Carl M. "James Leffel: Double Turbiner Water Wheel Inventor, Ohio History, Volume 75, No. 4, Autumn 1966, pages 200-211.

Layton, Edwin. "Scientific Technology, 1845-1900: The Hydraulic Turbine and the Origins of American Industrial Research," Technology and Culture, January 1979, Vol. 20, No. 1, pages 64-89.

Related Materials:

Materials at the Smithsonian

Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Trade Literature Collection

Pelton Water Wheel Collection, NMAH.AC.1093

Lombard Governor Company Records, NMAH.AC.1091

Niagara Falls Power Company Photographs, NMAH.AC.0949

J. & W. Jolly Company Records, NMAH.AC.1009

Uriah Boyden Papers, NMAH.AC.0982

William R. Hutton Papers, NMAH.AC.0987

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Series: Waterworks

Materials at Other Organizations

Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

James Leffel & Company Records, 1867-1971

The James Leffel and Company Records consist of ledgers, journals, order books, inventories, cash and day books, payroll files, correspondence, photographs, publications, and scrapbooks of a late 19th and early 20th century Springfield, Ohio manufacturer of turbines, water wheels and engines.

Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio

James Leffel and Company Records, 1845-1890

Records of water-wheel company of Springfield, Ohio including a letter press book, notebook of hydraulic tables, and patents for water wheels and cooking stoves.

Provenance:

Collected for the National Museum of American History.

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.

Topic:

Hydraulic turbines  Search this

Steam-boilers  Search this

Stokers, Mechanical  Search this

Steam-engines  Search this

Valves  Search this

Water-wheels  Search this

Turbines  Search this

Genre/Form:

Blueprints

Business records

Charts

Clippings

Correspondence

Drawings

Order books

Patents

Photographs -- 19th century

Specifications

Trade catalogs

Glass plate negatives

Citation:

James Leffel and Company Records, 1867-1957, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0960

See more items in:

James Leffel and Company Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8b36140e4-0b0b-4f5c-8c2e-f3cfb0a2abf0

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0960

Creator:

Ayer (N W) Incorporated.  Search this

Names:

American Telephone and Telegraph Company -- Advertisements  Search this

Cunningham & Walsh.  Search this

Hixson & Jorgenson  Search this

United Air Lines, Inc. -- Advertisements  Search this

Ayer, Francis Wayland  Search this

De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986  Search this

Extent:

270 Cubic feet (1463 boxes, 33 map-folders, 7 films)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Business records

Interviews

Oral history

Print advertising

Proof sheets

Proofs (printed matter)

Scrapbooks

Trade literature

Tear sheets

Advertisements

Date:

1817-1851

1869-2006

Summary:

Collection consists of records documenting one of the oldest advertising agencies created in Philadelphia. The company then moves to New York and expanses to international markets. During its history NW Ayer & Sons acquires a number of other advertising agencies and is eventually purchased. The largest portion of the collection is print advertisements but also includes radio and television. NW Ayer is known for some of the slogans created for major American companies.

Scope and Contents:

The collection consists primarily of proof sheets of advertisements created by NW Ayer & Son, Incorporated for their clients. These materials are in series one through thirteen and consist primarily of print advertisements. There are also billboards, radio and television commercials. The advertisements range from consumer to corporate and industrial products. The majority of the advertisements were created for Ayer's New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and international offices. Printed advertisements created by Cunningham & Walsh, Hixson & Jorgensen and Newell-Emmett are also included among these materials. Researchers who are interested in records created by Ayer in the course of operating an advertising agency will find these materials in Series fourteen-nineteen.

Series fourteen consists of advertisements created by NW Ayer & Son to promote their services to potential clients.

Series fifteen are scrapbooks of some of the earliest advertisements created by the company. Series sixteen are publications. Some of the publications were created by Ayer while others were about Ayer or the advertising industry in general. Provides good background materials and puts the company in perspective. Series eighteen are the legal records. Materials relating to employees including photographs, oral histories etc. are found in series nineteen.

Series twenty is one of the smallest amounts of materials and includes information relating to the history of NW Ayer & Son.

The container lists for series one-thirteen are part of a database and are searchable. The list has been printed for the convenience of the researcher and is included in this finding aid. Series fourteen-twenty container lists are also a part of the finding aid but are not in a searchable format.

Series 1, Scrapbooks of Client Advertisements, circa 1870-1920, is arranged into three boxes by chronological date. There are two bound scrapbooks and one box of folders containing loose scrapbook pages. NW Ayer & Son compiled an assortment of their earliest ads and placed them into scrapbooks. Besides the earliest advertisements, the scrapbooks contain requests to run advertisements, reading notices and listings of papers Ayer advertised in. The early advertisements themselves range from medical remedies to jewelry to machines to clothing to education and more. Most of the advertisements in the bound scrapbooks are dated.

Series 2, Proofsheets, circa 1870-1930, NW Ayer was fond of creating scrapbooks containing proofsheets. The series contains proofsheets created between 1892 and 1930, organized into 526 boxes. For convenience of storage, access and arrangement, the scrapbooks were disassembled and the pages placed in original order in flat archival storage boxes. The proofsheets are arranged by book number rather than client name. Usually the boxes contain a listing of the clients and sometimes the dates of the advertisements to be found within the box.

Series 3, Proofsheets, circa 1920-1975, is organized into 532 oversize boxes, and contain proofsheets and tearsheets created between 1920 and 1972. Within this series, materials are arranged alphabetically by company name (occasionally subdivided by brand or product), and thereunder chronologically by date of production. Many major, national advertisers are represented, including American Telephone & Telegraph, Armour Company, Canada Dry, Cannon Mills, Carrier Corporation, Domino Sugar, Caterpillar tractor company, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Goodyear, Hills Bros. Coffee, Ladies Home Journal, National Dairy, Plymouth (Chrysler Corporation), Steinway, TV Guide, United Airlines and the United States Army. Also contained in this series are three scrapbooks of client advertisements including Canada Dry, Ford Motor, and Victor Talking Machine.

Series 4, 2001 Addendum, circa 1976-2001, is organized into ninety three oversized boxes,one folder and contains proofsheets for select Ayer clients, created between 1975 and 2001. Within this series, materials are arranged alphabetically by client name and there under chronologically by date of production. Major national advertisers represented include American Telephone & Telegraph, Avon, the United States Army, DeBeers Consolidated Diamond Mines, Dupont, TV Guide, Sealtest, Kraft Foods, Gillette, General Motors, Cannon Mills.

Series 5, Billboards, circa 1952-1956, consists of mounted and un-mounted original art/mock-ups. Twenty-two pieces of original art created as mock-ups for Texaco billboards.

Series 6, Film and Video Commercials, 1967-1970,

Series 7, Radio and Television Materials, 1933-1993, undated, is arranged into eight boxes and includes radio scripts, television scripts, and story boards for commercials.

Subseries 7.1, Scripts and storyboards for Radio and Television Commercials, dates Scripts for radio and television commercials includes title, date, length of commercial, advertising agency, client information

NW Ayer's radio and television materials mainly focus on the American Telegraph and Telephone account. Some of Ayer's materials relate to Bell Telephone Hours.

Storyboards are used in television and film to assist the director in working with crew to tell the story. To show the viewer through the use of figures, visual effects and camera angles. When directors first start thinking about their storyboard they create a story in their mind. They think of all the camera angles, visual effects and how the figures will interact in their mind. They try to create an extraordinary story in their head to attract the viewer (YOU) In order for the storyboard to be entirely effective it can't be a passive document. When done properly, a storyboard serves as a central design, meeting the needs of many team members including graphics artists, video personnel and programmers.

Another function of a storyboard is to help the team communicate during the training development process. This communication is very important in working with a large team as in the movie King, produced in 1996. Figures help the director explain to the crew how they are going to record the film and how to present it to the audience. Sometimes the director wants special effects to be added to the film, but his budget might not be that big so the director will have to change the story to fit their budget.

The Visual Effects are an important part in the storyboards it adds a special touch of creativity to your film. Camera angles are an important expects in your film because the camera angles determine where the viewing audience will look. If you want your audience to look at a certain object you must turn their attention to it by focusing on that object and maybe you might try blocking something out. Then you will have your audience's attention and you may do whatever else you have to, it could be scaring them are just surprising them or whatever you do.

Also included is talent information and log sheets relating to the storage of the commercials.

Bell Telephone Hour Program, 1942-[19??], The Bell Telephone Hour, also known as The Telephone Hour, was a five minute musical program which began April 29, 1940 on National Broadcasting Company Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television from 1959 to 1968.

Earlier shows featured James Melton and Francia White as soloists. Producer Wallace Magill restructured the format on April 27, 1942 into the "Great Artists Series" of concert and opera performers, beginning with Jascha Heifetz. Records indicate that the list of talents on the program included Marian Anderson, Helen Traubel, Oscar Levant, Lily Pons, Nelson Eddy, Bing Crosby, Margaret Daum, Benny Goodman, José Iturbi, Gladys Swarthout and .The series returned to radio in 1968-1969 as Bell Telephone Hour Encores, also known as Encores from the Bell Telephone Hour, featuring highlights and interviews from the original series.

National Broadcasting television specials sponsored by the Bell System, 1957-1987includes information relating to Science series, Bell system Theshold Series, Bell telephone hour and commercial and public sponsored programs

Series 8, Chicago Office Print Advertisements, 1954-1989, is arranged alphabetically by the name of the client in ninety boxes and six oversize folders. Clients include Illinois Bell Telephone (1955-1989), Microswitch (1969-1989), Teletype (1975-1984), John Deere (1974-1989) and Caterpillar (1966-1972) are particularly well represented. Other clients of interest include Dr. Scholl's shoes (circa 1968-1972), the Girl Scouts (1976-1980), Sunbeam Personal Products Company (1973-1981), Bell and Howell (1974-1983) and Alberto Culver shampoos (1967-1971), Honeywell, Incorporated, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Associations, Kraft, Incorporated, Sears, Roebuck and Company, and YMCA.

Series 9, Los Angeles Office Materials, 1950s-1987, include printed advertisements created by this office and information relating to the employees.

Subseries 9.1, Print Advertisements, 1977-1987, printed advertisements arranged in one box alphabetically by client. There is a sparse sampling of clients from this particular Ayer branch office. The majority of the advertisements contained within this series are from Pizza Hut (1986-1987). Also included are Computer Automation (1977-1978), State of the Art, Incorporated (1982) and Toshiba (1986).

Subseries 9.2, Personnel Files, 1950s-1970s, includes cards of employees who worked in the Los Angeles office. Information on the cards includes name, address, telephone number, birthday, date hired, departure date and why (retired, terminated, resigned, etc) and position. Not all cards have all information. There is also a photograph of the employees on the cards.

Series 10, Foreign Print Advertisements, 1977-1991, undated, NW Ayer maintained partnerships with international companies such as Sloanas Ayer in Argentina, Connaghan & May Paton Ayer in Australia, Moussault Ayer in Belgium, NW Ayer, LTD. in Canada, GMC Ayer in France, Co-Partner Ayer in Germany, Wong Lam Wang in Hong Kong, MacHarman Ayer in New Zealand, Grupo de Diseno Ayer in Spain, Nedeby Ayer in Sweden, and Ayer Barker in United Kingdom. This group of material is a small sampling of advertisements created from these International offices. It is arranged alphabetically by client. There are quite a few automobile advertisements (i.e. Audi, Fiat, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen). In addition there are numerous advertisements for various personal items from MacLean's toothpaste to Quick athletic shoes to Labello lip balm, etc. Most of the advertisements have the creator's name printed on the advertisements.

Series 11, Cunningham & Walsh, Incorporated Materials, 1915-1987, undated contains 98 boxes 11 folders materials from the New York advertising agency acquired by NW Ayer in the 1960s. The company began with Newel-Emmett, an agency of nine men which broke up in 1949. Two of the men Fred Walsh and Jack Cunningham formed this agency in bearing their names in 1950. The agency created "let your fingers for the walking campaign for American Telephone & Telegraph, Mother Nature for Chiffon, and Mrs. Olson for Folgers's coffee and let the good times roll for Kawasaki motorcycle. In 1986, NW Ayer Incorporated purchased Cunningham & Walsh Incorporated.

Subseries 11.1, Print Advertisements, 1915-1987, are contained in ninety eight boxes of primarily print advertisements arranged alphabetically by client name. Clients that are particularly well represented are Graybar (electrical implements, circa1926-1937), Johns-Manulle (circa1915-1971), Smith and Corono typewriters (circa 1934-1960), Sunshine Biscuit Company (circa 1925-1961), Texaco Company (circa 1936-1961), Western Electric (circa 1920- 1971) and Yellow Pages (circa 1936-1971). Cunningham and Walsh also represented several travel and tourism industry clients, including Cook Travel Services (circa 1951-1962), Italian Line (circa 1953-1961), Narragansett and Croft (circa 1956-1960) and Northwest Airlines (circa 1946-1955). There are photographs of Texaco advertisements dating from 1913-1962. There is also a scrapbook of advertisements from the Western Electric Company dating from 1920-1922.

Subseries 11.2, Radio and Television Advertisements, 1963-1967, consist of materials created for Western Electric. Materials are arranged in chronological order.

Subseries 11.3, Company Related Materials, 1962-1986, undated include client lists, information relating to NW Ayer purchase and annual report 1962.

Series 12, Hixson & Jorgensen Materials, 1953-1971, a Los Angeles advertising company, merged with Ayer in 1969. This series is housed in one box. Within the box are four scrapbooks and folders with a hodgepodge of materials relating to advertising. Of most interest are the scrapbooks. Two scrapbooks deal with Hixson and Jorgensen's self promotion ad campaign "the right appeal gets action" (1953-1957). The other two scrapbooks contain news clippings about the company and its activities (1959-1971).

Series 13, Newell-Emmet, 1942-1957, founded in 1919 and governed in the 1940s by a partnership of nine men. The partnership broke up in 1949 when the men went their separate ways. The materials consist of print advertisements for one of client, Permutit Company, a water conditioning company. The materials are arranged in one box in chronological order.

Series 14, House Print Advertisements, 1870-1991, 16 boxes consists of advertisements or self-promotion advertisements to campaign for new clients. The series is arranged chronologically by date into fifteen boxes. Within the series are two scrapbooks containing self promotion ads from 1888-1919 and 1892-1895. Numerous house ads relate to Ayer's "Human Contact" campaign. In addition to the self promotion ads, Ayer ran advertisements expounding about particular concepts or themes for example, one month the concept would "understand" while another month would be "teamwork" and yet another would be on "imagination". Some of the self promotion ads target specific groups like Philadelphia businessmen. Other advertisements incorporate the fine arts.

Series 15, Scrapbooks, 1872-1959, relates to company events, records and news clippings about Ayer's history. The six boxes are arranged by chronological date. Two of the boxes focus solely on the death of founder F.W. Ayer (1923). Another box houses a scrapbook that showcases Ayer's annual Typography Exhibition (1931-1959). One box contains a scrapbook that specifically deals with correspondences relating to Ayer's advertising. Yet another box's contents are folders of loose pages from scrapbooks that have newspaper clippings, order forms, correspondences and other company records. In one box, a bound scrapbook houses a variety of materials relating to Ayer and advertising (i.e. newspaper clippings, competitor's advertisements, NW Ayer's advertisements, correspondences for advertisements, clippings regarding the "theory of advertising."

Series 16, Publications, 1849-2006, are housed in thirty four boxes and are arranged into three main categories.

Subseries 16.1, House Publications, 1876-1994, covers diverse topics; some proscriptive works about the Ayer method in advertising, some commemorating people, anniversaries or events in the life of the agency. Materials consist of scattered issues of the employee newsletter The Next Step 1920-1921. The materials are arranged in chronological order by date of publication. Ayer in the News, The Show Windows of an Advertising Agency, 1915, book form of advertisements published on the cover of Printer's Ink, highlighting Ayer's relations with advertisers. The Story of the States, 1916, Reprint in book form of a series of articles published in Printer's Ink for the purpose of adding some pertinent fact, progressive thought and prophetic vision to the Nationalism of Advertising highlights major businesses, manufacturer, natural resources and other qualities or attractions of each state. The Book of the Golden Celebration, 1919, includes welcome address and closing remarks by founder F. Wayland Ayer, The Next Step, 1920 employee newsletter with photographs, employee profiles, in-house jokes, etc., Advertising Advertising: A Series of Fifty-two Advertisements scheduled one time a week. Twenty-seven, thirty and forty inches, a day of the week optional with publisher, 1924

Subseries 16.2, Publications about NW Ayer, 1949-2006, includes a book first published in 1939. Includes articles, documenting events and is arranged chronologically by date of publication.

Subseries 16.3, General Publications about Advertising, 1922-1974, are arranged chronologically by date of publication and relate primarily to the history of advertising.

Subseries 16.4, Publications about Other Subjects, 1948-1964, include four books about the tobacco industry primarily the history of the American Tobacco Company and Lorillard Company from the Cunningham and Walsh library.

Series 17, Business Records, circa 1885-1990s

Subseries 17.1, Contracts, 1885-1908, undated, are arranged alphabetically and span from 1885-1908. The majority of the contracts are with newspaper and magazine publishers from around the country.

Subseries 17.2, General client information, 1911-1999, undated, including active and cancelled lists with dates, client gains, historical client list, (should move this to series 20) Ayer Plan User Guide Strategic Planning for Human Contact, undated

Subseries 17.3, Individual Client Account Information, 1950s-1990s, undated, contain information used by Ayer to create advertisements for some of its clients. American Telephone &Telegraph Corporate Case History, American Telephone &Telegraph Corporate advertisement memo, commissioned artists for DeBeers advertisements, DeBeers information relating to the creative process and photography credits, a case history for DeBeers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., The Diamond Engagement Ring, Managing Communication at all levels, DuPont publications, JC Penny Marketing Communication Plan Recommendation, Leaf, Incorporated, Saturn presentation, and USAREC oral presentation.

Subseries 17.4, Potential Clients, 1993, includes grouping has a questionnaire sent to Ayer by a potential client. Questionnaire response for Prudential Securities, 1993 Prudential Securities advertising account review, 1993.

Subseries 17.5, Financial Records, 1929-1938, includes balance sheet, 1929 May 1 Balance sheet and adjustments Consolidated statement of assets and liabilities, Expenses 191936-37 Business review and expenses, 1937 and 1938 Business review and expenses comparative statement, 1937 and 1938.

Series 18, Legal Records, circa 1911-1982, Ayer's legal records are arranged by twelve subject groupings within four boxes. The twelve groupings are advertising service agreements (circa 1918-1982), bylaws, copyright claims, correspondences, international correspondences, dissolution of trusts, stock information, agreements between partners, incorporation materials, reduction of capital, property information and miscellaneous materials. The bulk of the materials are the advertising service agreements. These agreements are between Ayer and their clients and state the services Ayer will offer and at what cost. The bylaws are Ayer's company bylaws from 1969 and 1972. The copyright claims are certificates stating Ayer's ownership over certain published materials (i.e. "Policy", Media Equalizer Model, and Don Newman's Washington Square Experiment). The correspondences relate to either the voting trust and receipts for agreement or the New York Corporation. The international correspondences are from either Ayer's Canadian office or London office. The dissolutions of trusts contains materials about the dividend trust of Wilfred F. Fry, the investment trust of Winfred W. Fry, the voting trust, and the New York corporation. The stock information has stock certificates and capital stock information. The agreements between partners (1911-1916) specify the terms between F.W. Ayer and his partners. The incorporation materials (circa 1929-1977) deal with Ayer advertising agency becoming incorporated in the state of Delaware. The reduction of capital grouping is a notification that shares of stock have been retired. The property information grouping contains property deeds and insurance policy (circa 1921-1939), a property appraisal (1934), and a bill of sale (1948). The miscellaneous grouping contains a house memo regarding a set of board meeting minutes and a registry of foreign companies in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1929-1954).

Subseries 18.1, Advertising Service Agreements, 1918-1982

Subseries 18.2, Bylaw Materials, 1969-1972

Subseries 18.3, Copyright Claims, 1962-1969

Subseries 18.4, Correspondence, 1928-1933

Subseries 18.5, International Office Correspondence, 1947-1948

Subseries 18.6, Dissolution of Trusts, 1934-1937

Subseries 18.7, Stock Information, 1934-1974

Subseries 18.8, Agreements between Partners, 1911-1916

Subseries 18.9, Incorporation Materials, 1929-1977

Subseries 18.10, Certificates of Reduction of Capital, 1937; 1975

Subseries 18.11, Property Information, 1921-1948

Subseries 18.12, Miscellaneous Materials, 1929-1977

Series 19, Personnel Records, circa 1889-2001, are arranged into eight groupings within eight boxes. The groupings are employee card files, photographs, Ayer alumni, biographies, speeches, recollections, oral histories, and miscellaneous. Typed manuscript of book A Copy Writer Speaks by George Cecil, NW Ayer, Incorporated copy head 1920s-1950s

Subseries 19.1, Employee card files, circa 1892-1915; 1929-1963, consists of index cards with the name, age, job title, date and wage increases, date of hire/fire, as well as remarks about the employee's service and/or reasons for seeking or leaving the job. Materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the employee within three boxes.

Subseries 19.2, Photographs, circa 1924-1984, undated, are housed in two boxes. The photographs grouped together by subjects i.e. personnel, company events, Ayer buildings, and miscellaneous. This grouping primarily consists of personnel photographs. Includes a glass plate negative dated 1924 of NW Ayer.

Subseries 19.3, Ayer Alumni, circa 1989-98, include employees who have left Ayer. There is a listing of Ayer "graduates" and their current job. Emeritus, Ayer's alumni newsletter 1989-1996, makes up the majority of materials in this grouping. The newsletter keeps the alumni up to date with the happenings of Ayer and what has become of former Ayer employees. Emeritus is a quarterly newsletter devoted to the activities, thoughts and feelings of Ayer alumni a body of people who consists of retirees and former employees.

Subseries 19.4, Biographical Information, circa 1889-1994, undated, prominent members of Ayer's operations had biographical sketches completed of them. This was true for the bio sketches of Robert Ervin, Louis T. Hagopian, and George A. Rink. There is a substantial file on Dorothy Dignam ("Mis Dig"), a leading woman in the advertising world from the 1930s to the 1950s. Also of interest is a video ("The Siano Man") compiled by Ayer employees to commemorate Jerry Siano's retirement from Ayer in 1994. The series is arranged alphabetically by last name.

Subseries 19.5, Speeches, circa 1919-1931; 1975, contains speeches made by Wilfred W. Fry and Neal W. O'Connor. Wilfred W. Fry had various speaking engagements connected with Ayer. Contained in this group is a sampling of his speeches from 1919 to 1931. Neal O'Connor's speech "Advertising: Who Says It's a Young People's Business" was given at the Central Region Convention for the American Association of Advertising Agencies in Chicago on November 6, 1975. The speeches are arranged alphabetically by the speaker's last name.

Subseries 19.6, Recollections, 1954-1984, undated, are arranged alphabetically by last name. These are recollections from Ayer employees about the company and its advertisements. Some recollections are specifically about certain types of advertisements, like farm equipment while others reflect on F. W. Ayer and the company.

Subseries 19.7, Oral History Interview Transcripts, 1983-1985; 1989-1991, include interviews with key NW Ayer personnel, conducted by Ayer alumnae Howard Davis, Brad Lynch and Don Sholl (Vice President creative) for the Oral History Program. The materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee.

Subseries 19.8, Oral History Interview Audio Tapes, 1985-1990, include interviews on audiotape the materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee.

Subseries 19.9, Internal Communications, 1993-1999, includes information sent to employees relating to retirements, management changes, awards won by the company, promotions, potential new accounts, free items, grand opening of Ayer Café, donation events, sponsorship programs, holiday schedules, discounts for employees from clients, Ayer joins MacManus Group.

Subseries 19.10, General Materials, 1940; 1970, includes agency directory entry including a list of the employees, 1970s, annual banquet program for the Curfew Club May 22, 1940 a group formed by the Philadelphia employee in 1938. It sponsored numerous sports, social and educational activities. Groups were formed in public speaking, music appreciation and a series of talks on Monday evenings title the modern woman. The front page was a series of talks for general interest. A list of officers, 1991, Twenty five year club membership, 1973 December 1, List of NW Ayer graduates, 1970, List of Officers, 1991 May 31, Obituary for Leo Lionni, 1999 October 17, List of photographers of advertisements, 2001

Series 20, Background and History Information, 1817-1999, undated includes a chronology, 1817-1990, quick reference timeline, 1848-1923, loose pages from a scrapbook containing examples of correspondence, envelopes, advertisements dating from 1875-1878; slogans coined by NW Ayer & Sons, Incorporated, 1899-1990, history of management, 1909-1923, articles and photographs about the building and art galleries, 1926-1976, publications about the Philadelphia building, 1929, pamphlet relating to memories of NW Ayer & Sons, Incorporated, 1930s-1950s, television history, 1940-1948, Article about the history of the company, 1950 January, pocket guide, 1982, AdWeek reports about standings for advertising agencies, information relating to Human Contact which is NW Ayer's Information relating to Human Contact, undated which is their philosophy on advertising.

Series 21, Materials Created by other Advertising Agencies, 1945-1978, undated, consists of print advertisements collected by Ayer from other major advertising companies. The companies include Doyle Dane Bernback, Incorporated, Leo Burnett Company, Grey Advertising Agency, D'Arcy Ad Agency, Scali, McCabe, Sloves, Incorporated and Erwin Wasey Company. The materials are arranged in alphabetical order by client and include products from Ralston Purina and Van Camp (Chicken of the Sea), Kellogg, American Export Lines and No Nonsense Fashions.

Series 22, 2010 Addendum of Print Advertisements, circa 1879s-1999, undated, includes material given to the Archives Center in 2010. It is organized into seventy one oversized boxes and contains proofsheets of print advertisements for select Ayer clients. These are arranged alphabetically by client name and include substantial quantities of materials from American Telephone &Telegraph (1945-1996), Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (1967-1987), Carrier (1971-1981), Citibank (1973-1991), DeBeers (1940s-1960s and1990s), Electric Companies Advertising Program [ECAP] (1942-1970s), General Motors (1989-1998), J.C. Penney (1983-1986), Newsweek (1966-1975), and Proctor and Gamble (1980s-1890s). There are also numerous other clients represented by smaller quantities of materials.

Subseries 22.1, Print Advertisements, 1930-1990, undated

Subseries 22.2, Print Advertisements on Glass Plate Negatives, 1879-1881, undated, include Cannon towels, Cheny Brothers silks, Cornish & Company organs and pianos, Enterprise Manufacturing Company, 1879 sad iron, an ad from Harper's Weekly 1881 for ladies clothing, Ostermoor & Company mattresses, Pear's soap, Porter's cough balsam, Steinway pianos.

Series 23, Microfilm of Print Advertisements, circa 1908-1985, consists of three boxes of printed advertisements for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Some of the same advertisements might also be found in series two, three and four.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into twenty-three series.

Series 1: Scrapbooks of Client Print Advertisements, circa 1870-1920

Series 2: Proofsheets, circa 1870-1930

Series 3: Proofsheets, circa 1920-1975

Series 4: 2001 Addendum, circa 1976-2001

Series 5: Billboards, circa 1952-1956

Series 6: Audiovisual Materials

Series 7: Radio and Television Materials, 1933-1993, undated

Series 8: Chicago Office Print Advertisements, 1954-1989

Series 9: Los Angeles Office Materials, 1950s-1987

Subseries 9.1: Printed Advertisements, 1977-1987

Subseries 9.2: Personnel Files, 1950s-1970s

Series 10: Foreign Print Advertisements, 1977-1991, undated

Series 11: Cunningham & Walsh Incorporated Materials, 1915-1987, undated

Subseries 11.1: Printed Advertisements, 1915-1987

Subseries 11.2: Radio and Television Advertisements, 1963-1967

Subseries 11.3: Company Related Materials, 1962-1986, undated

Series 12: Hixson & Jorgensen Materials, 1953-1971, undated

Series 13: Newell-Emmet, 1942-1957

Series 14: House Print Advertisements, 1870-1991

Series 15: Scrapbooks, 1872-1959

Series 16: Publications, 1849-2006

Subseries 16.1: House Publications, 1876-1994

Subseries 16.2: Publications about NW Ayer, 1949-1995

Subseries 16.3: General Publications about Advertising, 1922-2006

Subseries 16.4: Publications about other Subjects, 1948-1964

Series 17, Business Records, circa 1885-1990s

Subseries 17.1: Contracts, 1885-1908, undated

Subseries 17.2: General Client Information, 1911-1999, undated

Subseries 17.3: Individual Client Account Information, 1950s-1990s, undated

Subseries 17.4: Potential Clients, 1993

Subseries 17.5: Financial Records, 1929-1938

Series 18: Legal Records, circa 1911-1984

Subseries 18.1: Advertising Service Agreements, 1918-1982

Subseries 18.2: Bylaw Materials, 1969-1972

Subseries 18.3, Copyright Claims, 1962-1969

Subseries 18.4: Correspondence, 1928-1933

Subseries 18.5: International Office Correspondence, 1947-1948

Subseries 18.6: Dissolution of Trusts, 1934-1937

Subseries 18.7: Stock Information, 1934-1974

Subseries 18.8: Agreements between Partners, 1911-1916

Subseries 18.9: Incorporation Materials, 1929-1977

Subseries 18.10: Certificates of Reduction of Capital, 1937; 1975

Subseries 18.11: Property Information

Subseries 18.12: Miscellaneous Materials, 1929-1977

Series 19: Employee Materials, circa 1889-2001

Subseries 19.1: Employee Card files, circa 1892-1915; 1929-1963

Subseries 19.2: Photographs, circa 1924-1984, undated

Subseries 19.3: Alumni Publications, circa 1989-1998

Subseries 19.4: Biographical Information, circa 1889-1994

Subseries 19.5: Speeches, circa 1919-1931; 1975

Subseries 19.6: Recollections, 1954-1984, undated

Subseries 19.7: Oral History Interview Transcripts, 1983-1985; 1989-1991

Subseries 19.8: Oral History Audiotapes, 1985-1990

Subseries 19.9: Internal Communications, 1993-1999

Subseries 19.1: General Materials, 1940-2001

Series 20: History and Background Information about the Company, 1817-1999, undated

Series 21: Materials Created by other Advertising Agencies, 1945-1978, undated

Series 22: 2010 Addendum of Print Advertisements, circa 1879s-1990s, undated

Subseries 22.1: Print Advertisements, 1930-1990, undated

Subseries 22.2: Print Advertisements on Glass Plate Negatives, 1879-1881, undated

Series 23: Microfilm of Print Advertisements, circa 1908-1985

Biographical / Historical:

Founded in Philadelphia in 1869, NW Ayer & Son is one of the oldest and largest advertising agencies in America. For most of its history, it was the undisputed leader and innovator in the field of advertising. In 1876, NW Ayer & Son pioneered the "open contract", a revolutionary change in the method of billing for advertising which became the industry standard for the next hundred years. NW Ayer pioneered the use of fine art in advertising and established the industry's first art department. It was the first agency to use a full-time copywriter and the first to institute a copy department. The agency relocated to New York City in 1974. During its long history, the agency's clients included many "blue-chip" clients, including American Telephone & Telegraph, DeBeers Consolidated Diamond Mines, Ford Motor Company, Nabisco, R. J. Reynolds and United Airlines. However, in later years, the Ayer's inherent conservatism left the agency vulnerable to the creative revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, the advertising industry restructuring of the 1980s and the economic recession of the early 1990s. The agency was bought out by a Korean investor in 1993. In 1996, NW Ayer merged with another struggling top twenty United States advertising agency, Darcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, under the umbrella of the McManus Group. Ayer continues to operate as a separate, full-service agency.

Through a series of buyouts and mergers, Ayer traces its lineage to the first advertising agency founded in the United States, a Philadelphia agency begun by Volney Palmer in 1841. Palmer began his career in advertising as a newspaper agent, acting as middleman between newspaper publishers and advertisers across the country. By 1849, Palmer had founded his own newspaper, V. B. Palmer's Register and Spirit of the Press, and had developed a complete system of advertising which included securing advertising space and placing ads in scores of commercial, political, religious, scientific and agricultural journals across the country. Palmer went one step further than the "space jobbers" of the day when he began offering "advertisements carefully drawn for those who have not the time to prepare an original copy." Always an enthusiastic promoter of advertising as an incentive to trade and American economic growth, Palmer promised advertisers that "every dollar paid for advertising in country newspapers will pay back twenty-fold" and encouraged skeptical consumers that "he who wishes to buy cheap should buy of those who advertise." When Palmer died in 1863, the agency was bought by his bookkeeper, John Joy, who joined with another Philadelphia advertising agency to form Joy, Coe & Sharpe. That agency was bought out again in 1868 and renamed Coe, Wetherill & Company. In 1877, Coe, Wetherill and Company was bought out by the newly formed NW Ayer & Son.

Francis Wayland Ayer was an ambitious young schoolteacher with an entrepreneurial streak. Having worked for a year soliciting advertisements on a commission basis for the publisher of the National Baptist weekly, Francis Ayer saw the potential to turn a profit as an advertising agent. In 1869, Ayer persuaded his father, Nathan Wheeler Ayer, to join him in business, and with an initial investment of only $250.00, NW Ayer & Son was born. Notwithstanding a smallpox epidemic in Philadelphia in 1871 and the general economic depression of the early 1870s, the agency flourished. The senior Ayer died in 1873, leaving his interest in the agency to his wife, but Francis W. Ayer bought her out, consolidating his interest in the company's management. In 1877, with Coe, Wetherill & Company (the successor to Palmer's 1841 agency) on the verge of bankruptcy and heavily indebted to Ayer for advertising it had placed in Ayer publications, Ayer assumed ownership of that agency. Thus did NW Ayer lay claim to being the oldest advertising agency in the country.

Both Nathan Wheeler and Francis Wayland Ayer began their careers as schoolteachers, and one of their legacies was a commitment to the cause of education: correspondence schools and institutions of higher learning were historically well-represented among Ayer clients. Just after World War I, the agency was heralded as "co-founder of more schools than any citizen of this country" for its conspicuous efforts to advertise private schools. Well into the 1960s, an "Education Department" at Ayer prepared advertisements for over three hundred private schools, camps and colleges, representing almost half the regional and national advertising done for such institutions. In fact, to its clients Ayer presented advertising itself as being akin to a system of education. In 1886, Ayer began promoting the virtues of the Ayer way advertising with the slogan, "Keeping Everlastingly at It Brings Success."

The agency's goals were simple: "to make advertising pay the advertiser, to spend the advertiser's money as though it were our own, to develop, magnify and dignify advertising as a business." Initially, Ayer's fortunes were tied to newspapers, and the agency began to make a name for itself as compiler and publisher of a widely used American Newspaper Annual. During the first years, Ayer's singular goal was "to get business, place it [in newspapers] and get money for it"; after several years as an independent space broker, however, Francis Ayer resolved "not to be an order taker any longer." This decision led NW Ayer and Son to a change in its mode of conducting business which would revolutionize the advertising industry: in 1876, Ayer pioneered the "open contract" with Diggee & Conard, Philadelphia raised growers and agricultural suppliers. Prior to the open contract, NW Ayer & Sons and most agencies operated as "space-jobbers," independent wholesalers of advertising space, in which the opportunities for graft and corrupt practices were virtually unlimited. In contrast, the open contract, wherein the advertiser paid a fixed commission based on the volume of advertising placed, aligned the advertising agent firmly on the side of the advertiser and gave advertisers access to the actual rates charged by newspapers and religious journals. The open contract with a fixed commission has been hailed by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker as one of the "three great landmarks in advertising history." (The other two were Lasker's own development of "reason-why" advertising copy and J. Walter Thompson's pioneering of sex appeal in an advertisement for Woodbury's soap.) Although the transition to the open contract did not happen overnight, by 1884, nearly three-quarters of Ayer's advertising billings were on an open contract basis. Since Ayer was, by the 1890s, the largest agency in America, the switch to direct payment by advertisers had a significant impact on the advertising industry, as other agencies were forced to respond to Ayer's higher standard. Just as important, the open contract helped to establish N W Ayer's long-standing reputation for "clean ethics and fair dealing" -- a reputation the agency has guarded jealously for over a century. The open contract also helped to establish Ayer as a full service advertising agency and to regularize the production of advertising in-house. From that point forward, Ayer routinely offered advice and service beyond the mere placement of advertisements. Ayer set another milestone for the industry in 1888, when Jarvis Wood was hired as the industry's first full-time copywriter. Wood was joined by a second full time copywriter four years later, and the Copy Department was formally established in 1900. The industry's first Art Department grew out of the Copy Department when Ayer hired its first commercial artist to assist with copy preparation in 1898; twelve years later Ayer became the first agency to offer the services of a full time art director, whose sole responsibility was the design and illustration of ads.

Ayer's leadership in the use of fine art in advertising has roots in this period, but achieved its highest expression under the guidance of legendary art director Charles Coiner. Coiner joined Ayer in 1924, after graduating from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Despite early resistance from some clients, Coiner was adamant that "the use of outstanding palette and original art forms bring a greater return in readership, in impact and prestige for the advertiser." To this end, Coiner marshaled the talents of notable painters, illustrators and photographers, including N.C. Wyeth and Rockwell Kent (Steinway), Georgia O'Keefe (Dole), Leo Lionni (DuPont), Edward Steichen (Steinway, Cannon Mills), Charles Sheeler (Ford), and Irving Penn (DeBeers). Coiner believed that there was a practical side to the use of fine art in advertising, and his success (and Ayer's) lay in the marriage of research and copywriting with fine art, an arrangement Coiner termed "art for business sake." Coiner's efforts won both awards and attention for a series completed in the 1950s for the Container Corporation of America. Titled "Great Ideas of Western Man" the campaign featured abstract and modern paintings and sculpture by leading U.S. and foreign artists, linked with Western philosophical writings in an early example of advertising designed primarily to bolster corporate image. In 1994, Charles Coiner was posthumously named to the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Fame, the first full time art director ever chosen for that honor.

Coiner and fellow art director Paul Darrow also created legendary advertising with the "A Diamond Is Forever" campaign for DeBeers; ads featured the work of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and other modernist painters. The "A Diamond is Forever" tagline was written in 1949 by Frances Gerety, a woman copywriter at Ayer from 1943 to 1970. In 1999, Ad Age magazine cited "A Diamond is Forever" as the most memorable advertising slogan of the twentieth century.

Coiner also earned respect for his volunteer government service during World War II; he designed the armbands for civil defense volunteers and logos for the National Recovery Administration and Community Chest. As a founding member of the Advertising Council in 1945, Ayer has had a long-standing commitment to public service advertising. In the mid-1980s, Ayer became a leading force in the Reagan-era "War on Drugs". Lou Hagopian, Ayer's sixth CEO, brokered the establishment of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a media coalition which generated as much as a million dollars a day in donated advertising space and time to prevent the use and abuse of illegal drugs. Famous names appear among NW Ayer's clientele from the very earliest days of the agency. Retailer John Wanamaker, Jay Cooke and Company, and Montgomery Ward's mail-order business were among the first Ayer clients. The agency has represented at least twenty automobile manufacturers, including Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Plymouth, and Rolls-Royce. Other major, long-term clients through the years have included American Telephone & Telegraph, Canada Dry, Cannon Mills, Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Kellogg's, R. J. Reynolds, Steinway and Sons, United Airlines, and the United States Army. By the time of Ayer's hundredth anniversary in 1969, some of these companies had been Ayer clients for decades if not generations, and the longevity of those relationships was for many years a source of Ayer's strength.

But the advertising industry began to change in the late 1960s and 1970s, due in part to a "creative revolution." Small advertising agencies won attention with provocative copywriting and art direction that more closely resembled art than advertising. Advances in market research allowed clients to more narrowly tailor their advertising messages to distinct groups of consumers, and this led to a rise in targeted marketing which could more readily be doled out to specialized small agencies than to larger, established firms like NW Ayer & Son. The civil rights and anti-war movements also contributed to increasing public skepticism with the values of corporate America, and by extension, with some national advertising campaigns. Older, more conservative firms like Ayer were hard pressed to meet these new challenges.

About 1970, in an effort to meet these challenges and to establish a foothold on the West Coast, Ayer bought out two smaller agencies--Hixson & Jorgenson (Los Angeles) and Frederick E. Baker (Seattle). The agency relocated from Philadelphia to New York City in 1974 in an attempt both to consolidate operations (Ayer had operated a New York office since the 1920s) and to be closer to the historic center of the advertising industry. Riding the wave of mergers that characterized the advertising industry in the late 1980s and 1990s, Ayer continued to grow through the acquisition of Cunningham & Walsh in 1986 and Rink Wells in 19xx.

During this transitional period, Ayer received widespread acclaim for its work for the United States Army, which included the widely recognized slogan "Be All You Can Be". Ayer first acquired the Army recruitment account in 1967 and with help from its direct marketing arm, the agency was widely credited with helping the Army reach its recruitment goals despite an unpopular war and plummeting enlistments after the elimination of the draft in 1973. Ayer held the account for two decades, from the Vietnam War through the Cold War, but lost the account in 1986 amid government charges that an Ayer employee assigned to the account accepted kickbacks from a New York film production house. Despite Ayer's position as the country's 18th largest agency (with billings of $880 million in 1985), the loss of the agency's second largest account hit hard.

NW Ayer made up for the loss of the $100 million dollar a year Army account and made headlines for being on the winning end of the largest account switch in advertising history to date, when fast food giant Burger King moved its $200 million dollar advertising account from arch-rival J. Walter Thompson in 1987. Burger King must have had drive-thru service in mind, however, and Ayer made headlines again when it lost the account just eighteen months later in another record-breaking account switch. Another devastating blow to the agency was the loss of its lead position on the American Telegraph and Telephone account. Ayer pioneered telecommunications advertising in 1908, when the agency was selected to craft advertising for the Bell System's universal telephone service. Despite valiant efforts to keep an account the agency had held for most of the twentieth century, and for which they had written such memorable corporate slogans as American Telephone &Telegraph "The Voice with a Smile" and "Reach Out and Touch Someone", the agency lost the account in 1996.

After a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the late 1980s, the economic recession of the early 1990s hit Madison Avenue hard, and Ayer was particularly vulnerable. Despite the agency's long history and roster of "blue-chip" clients, Ayer was not known for cutting-edge creative work. Moreover, though the agency had offices overseas, Ayer had never built a strong multinational presence, and many of the smaller international offices were sold during the financial turmoil of the 1980s. This left a real void in the new climate of global marketplace consolidation. By about 1990, earnings were declining (although Ayer was still among the top twenty United States agencies in billings), and the agency was suffering from client defections, high management turnover, expensive real estate commitments and deferred executive compensation deals, all fallout of the high-flying 1980s. This was the atmosphere in 1993, when W.Y. Choi, a Korean investor who had already assembled a media and marketing empire in his homeland, began looking for an American partner to form an international advertising network. Jerry Siano, the former creative director who had recently been named Ayer's seventh CEO, was in no position to refuse Choi's offer of $35 million to buy the now floundering agency. The infusion of cash was no magic bullet, however. Choi took a wait-and-see approach, allowing his partner Richard Humphreys to make key decisions about Ayer's future, including the purging of senior executives and the installation of two new CEOs in as many years.

The agency's downward trend continued with the loss of another longtime client, the DeBeers diamond cartel in 1995. Adweek reported that Ayer's billings fell from $892 million in 1990 to less than $850 million in 1995. Several top executives defected abruptly, and the agency failed to attract major new accounts. Ayer was facing the loss not merely of revenue and personnel, but the loss of much of the respect it once commanded. Ayer remained among the twenty largest U.S. agencies, but an aura of uncertainty hung over the agency like a cloud. A new CEO was appointed, and Mary Lou Quinlan became the agency's first woman CEO in 1995. A year later, Ayer and another struggling top twenty agency, D'arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, combined as part of the McManus Group of companies. In 1998, the McManus Group had worldwide billings of more than $6.5 billion.

Under the McManus Group, Ayer was able to expand its international operations and begin to rebuild a stronger global presence. Several important new clients were won in 1997 and 1998, including Avon, General Motors, Kitchenaid, several Procter & Gamble brands and, most notably, Continental Airlines worldwide accounts. Born in the nineteenth century, Ayer may be one of a very few advertising agencies to successfully weather the economic and cultural transitions of both the twentieth and twentieth first centuries. Ayer was eventually acquired by the Publicis Groupe based in Paris, France which closed down the N.W. Ayer offices in 2002.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (AC0060)

Hills Bros. Coffee Incorporated Records (AC0395)

Provenance:

The collection was donated by N W Ayer ABH International, April 15, 1975 and by Ayer & Partners, October 30, 1996.

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research use.

Physical Access: Researchers must use microfilm copy. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.

Technical Access: Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire; listening to audio discs requires special arrangement. Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.

Rights:

Publication and production quality duplication is restricted due to complex copyright, publicity rights, and right to privacy issues. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

Advertising agencies  Search this

advertising  Search this

Genre/Form:

Business records -- 1840-2000

Interviews -- 1980-2000

Oral history -- 1980-1990

Print advertising

Proof sheets

Proofs (printed matter)

Scrapbooks -- 1840-1990

Trade literature

Tear sheets

Advertisements

Citation:

NW Ayer & Sons, incorporated Advertising Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0059

See more items in:

N W Ayer Advertising Agency Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8920ed035-d211-4a58-9047-b31fa79464bd

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0059

Former owner:

Polk, Harrison  Search this

McCord, Mary  Search this

Creator:

Fisk, Charlotte  Search this

Provenance:

Des Moines Founders Garden Club  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Digital images

Place:

Raven Haven (Des Moines, Iowa)

United States of America -- Iowa -- Polk County -- Des Moines

Scope and Contents:

9 digital images, 30 photographic prints (2016-2017) and 1 file folder.

General:

A six-foot stucco wall across the front of this property is a remnant of its history as part of a large estate and orchard, now less than one-half acre with a one-story brick house and garden house. Behind the wall is a fairly formal front garden with spring blooming cherry and crab apple trees among the varying textures and shades of green shrubbery and ground covers. A few of the artifacts in the front garden include a chimney pot, a pair of brass finials, and a pair of tall, lank sculptures of women named East and West. A salvaged iron gate and brick walkway mark the entrance from the driveway. A pair of columns painted pink introduce the highly individualistic back garden assemblage of repurposed salvage, posts with mementoes for each family member, bottle trees, angel statues, a metal spider web suspended in a tree, a thicket and children's corner and sculptures created by the artist/owner. There is a sunny perennial bed in front of the deck planted with phlox, monarda, roses and coneflowers. Other perennials include lilies, rudbeckia, meadow daisy, achillea, plumbago and clematis, with red a favored color. A prairie tribute features miscanthus grass and a collage of rusty farm equipment mounted on the back fence. Several varieties of pine were planted for privacy by the owners circa 1975. The lower limbs of the trees have dropped since then, creating a small woodlands path. An outdoor room for cool evenings is furnished with benches and other furniture, candelabra, and bottle trees. Irregular fieldstone paths and cobblestone lead around the back garden including an "All Things Sculptural" path edged with hydrangeas, yew, Japanese maples and iris.

Persons associated with the garden include: Harrison Polk (former owner, 1900-1948); Dr. Charlotte Fisk and Miss Mary McCord (former owners, 1948-1975). Designers Elizabeth Murray (garden designer, 2006) and Douglas Hoerr (landscape architect, 2012) provided advice on the design.

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Gardens -- Iowa -- Des Moines  Search this

Genre/Form:

Digital images

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, File IA027

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Iowa

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb6774bb8ff-3fdb-4b5d-a54f-ebc23f081ac2

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref31679

Variant company name:

Dearborn, MI  Search this

Company Name:

Ford Motor Co.  Search this

Related companies:

Continental Div. ; Lincoln Motor Co. ; Lincoln Motor Car Div. ; Fordson Div. ; Mercury Div. ; Lincoln-Mercury Div. ; Henry Ford & Son, Inc. ; C.E. Johansson, Inc. ; Dearborn Village ; Ford Tractor Operations (Troy, MI) ; Ford Motor Co. Ltd. (Dagenham, Essex, United Kingdom) ; Upholstery Leather Group, Inc. (New York, NY)  Search this

Notes content:

Ten envelopes OVERSIZE ; Organized by divisions and subject categories

Includes:

Trade catalog, price lists, manual, photographs and histories

Black and white images

Color images

Physical description:

1089 pieces; 46 boxes

Language:

English

Type of material:

Trade catalogs

Trade literature

Place:

Detroit, Michigan, United States

Date range:

1900s-2000s

Topic (Romaine term):

Agricultural tools and machinery  Search this

Automobiles and automotive equipment (including trucks and buses)  Search this

Aviation (aircraft; balloons; etc.)  Search this

Boats and ships (including marine hardware and supplies)  Search this

Farm equipment and supplies (including dairy and poultry equipment)  Search this

Iron and steel products (castings; sheet steel; steel wire; wire rope; pig iron and structural steel products )  Search this

Luggage; travel; travel services and traveling accessories (including trunks; briefcases; and other traveling accessories)  Search this

Measuring; calculating and testing devices  Search this

Recreation  Search this

Topic:

Aeronautics  Search this

Agricultural implements  Search this

Agricultural machinery  Search this

Airplanes  Search this

Airships  Search this

Amusements  Search this

Automobiles  Search this

Balloons  Search this

Boats and boating  Search this

Briefcases  Search this

Calculators  Search this

Dairying  Search this

Farm equipment  Search this

Hobbies  Search this

Iron industry and trade  Search this

Luggage  Search this

Marine machinery  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Motor vehicles  Search this

Recreation industry  Search this

Ships  Search this

Steel industry and trade  Search this

Travel  Search this

Weighing instruments  Search this

Record ID:

SILNMAHTL_16108

Location:

Trade Literature at the American History Museum Library

Collection:

Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collections

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILNMAHTL_16108

Creator:

Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969  Search this

Extent:

3.25 Cubic feet (consisting of 7 boxes, 1 folder, 2 oversize folders, 2 map case folders.)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sales letters

Ephemera

Trade literature

Trade catalogs

Illustrations

Legal documents

Publications

Printed ephemera

Printed material

Trade cards

Commercial catalogs

Business records

Manufacturers' catalogs

Sales catalogs

Advertising

Advertising cards

Advertising fliers

Advertising mail

Print advertising

Business cards

Advertisements

Letterheads

Invoices

Printed materials

Receipts

Photographs

Mail order catalogs

Business letters

Instructional materials

Commercial correspondence

Catalogs

Correspondence

Sales records

Catalogues

Business ephemera

Date:

1818-1919

bulk 1840-1910

Summary:

A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Accounting and Bookkeeping 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:

Contains materials relating to the manufacture and sale of wheeled and ski-based vehicles, primarily horse drawn, but in some cases human powered such as wagons, carriages, buggies, sleds, and sleighs used for transportation of goods and person. Includes information about a variety of wagon types runners, cutters, coaches, trucks, surreys, and phartons. Accessories include harnesses, reins, metal wheels, axles, spokes, tops, aprons, ornaments. There is one example of a baby carriage.

Businesses include general merchants, specialty dealers, service, parts and accessories, and repair.

Materials represent a sampling of daily transactions such as receipts and invoices for purchases. Marketing materials consists of price lists, ads, and brochures. There are several illustrated catalogues which provide good coverage on product lines. The images files provide good visual content of wagons used for work and leisure.

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.

Arrangement:

Wagons is arranged in three subseries.

Business Records and Marketing Material

Genre

Subject

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:

Wagons 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.

Topic:

Farm equipment  Search this

Trade associations  Search this

Patents  Search this

Carriages and carts  Search this

Periodicals  Search this

Carriages and carts -- Design  Search this

Carriages  Search this

Licenses  Search this

Carriage and wagon making -- 1880-1910 -- Maryland  Search this

Horse-drawn vehicles  Search this

Wagon manufacturing  Search this

Carriage and wagon making  Search this

Wagon wheels  Search this

Carriage industry  Search this

Wheels  Search this

Road vehicles  Search this

Wagons  Search this

Consumer goods -- Catalogs  Search this

Sleds  Search this

Sleds (animal-powered)  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sales letters

Ephemera

Trade literature

Trade catalogs

Illustrations

Legal documents

Publications -- Business

Printed ephemera

Printed material

Trade cards

Commercial catalogs

Business records

Manufacturers' catalogs

Sales catalogs

Advertising

Advertising cards

Advertising fliers

Advertising mail

Print advertising

Business cards

Advertisements

Letterheads

Publications

Invoices

Printed materials

Receipts

Photographs

Mail order catalogs

Business letters

Instructional materials

Commercial correspondence

Catalogs

Correspondence

Sales records

Catalogues

Business ephemera

Citation:

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Wagons, 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).

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Wagons

See more items in:

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Wagons

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep88ff07bd3-ee72-4889-a05b-e5942065e168

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0060-s01-01-wagons

Designer:

Henry Dreyfuss , American, 1904–1972  Search this

Medium:

Color, B&W Photograph, Drawings, Printed Material, 35mm Transparency

Type:

archive

Archive folder

Object Name:

Archive folder

Date:

1955, 1961-1977

Credit Line:

Henry Dreyfuss Archive, gift of Various Donors

Accession Number:

Dreyfuss Industrial Design Client Work Folder 036

Restrictions & Rights:

Usage conditions apply

See more items in:

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Collection

Archives Department

Data Source:

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kq4edf9c8fc-5e8c-4dfb-96d1-35793ef0490b

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:chndm_Dreyfuss_Industrial_Design_Client_Work__Folder_036

Designer:

Henry Dreyfuss , American, 1904–1972  Search this

Medium:

B&W Printed Material

Type:

archive

Archive folder

Object Name:

Archive folder

Date:

1967, 1970-1971

Credit Line:

Henry Dreyfuss Archive, gift of Various Donors

Accession Number:

Dreyfuss Symbol Sourcebook Working Papers Folder 226

Restrictions & Rights:

Usage conditions apply

See more items in:

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Collection

Archives Department

Data Source:

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kq410ec6d83-b788-4f6e-ae1b-3a31d04bb0fe

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:chndm_Dreyfuss_Symbol_Sourcebook_Working_Papers_Folder_226

Creator:

Duncan, James T.  Search this

Duncan, Paul  Search this

Names:

McMillen, Clark  Search this

Extent:

0.5 Cubic feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Motion pictures (visual works)

Date:

1937-1941

Summary:

One film documenting use of farm tools and machinery of the late 19th early 20th century.

Scope and Contents:

Filmed entirely on location at the W. Clark McMillen Farm in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the Paul Duncan Film Collection documents three types of now obsolete farming practices using draft horses and manual labor: making hay (1937), threshing wheat (1939), and cradling & flailing (1941). The film is 8mm, black and white and color. Edge codes date from 1926, 1932, and 1934-35.

Arrangement:

Collection arranged into one series.

Biographical / Historical:

Between 1937 and 1941, amateur film maker, Paul Jasper Duncan (1899-1986), documented non-mechanized farming practices in the eastern Pennsylvania region where he had grown up. Duncan was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania on March 21, 1899. He was the son of Raymond and Nellie Thayer Duncan. Duncan's maternal grandfather, Charles F. Thayer (1848-1933), lived in nearby Atlantic next to the W. Clark McMillen farm. In 1901, Myrna K. Thayer, one of Duncan's maternal aunts, married W. Clark McMillen. Clark McMillen was a full-time farmer. About 1918, Raymond Duncan and his family moved to Atlantic and lived in the Thayer home next door to the McMillen farm. During his youth, Duncan worked on the McMillen farm when labor was needed and when he needed to earn some money but he never had any interest in becoming a farmer. Duncan graduated from Meadville High School in 1919.

Duncan attended Pennsylvania State University for a year studying mechanical engineering. He returned to Meadville taking a job as a teacher for manual training (shop, woodworking, etc.). He married Alice Driver but within a month she died of "milk fever". Duncan returned to Penn State completing one more year toward a degree before moving to Chicago in the fall of 1922. He married Gertrude Glover in 1924 and in the fall of 1938 they moved to Des Plaines, Illinois. They had two children: Margaret (b. 1929) and James (b. 1932). Duncan worked as a mechanical design engineer for the Universal Oil Company and the Ludlow Typograph Company.

In 1937, Duncan purchased an 8mm movie camera. He had an interest in still photography and this interest extended to motion pictures. During summer family trips to Atlantic in 1937, 1939 and 1941 Duncan documented three farming practices on the McMillen farm: making hay (1937), threshing wheat (1941), and cradling and flailing (1941). During this time the farm was being worked by McMillen and his son-in-law Roy Ferrin (d. 1945). With the exception of cradling and flailing, the farm work was not staged and coincided with the Duncan family visits to Atlantic. At the time that Duncan filmed cradling and flailing the wheat had been cut, so McMillen is seen cutting and binding sheaves of oats instead. In addition to McMillen, Ferrin and Duncan's nephew Neil Duncan are seen in the films.

After retiring from the Ludlow Typographic Company in 1968, Duncan and his wife moved to Dos Cabezas, Cochise County, Arizona. He died in 1986.

Abbreviations:

OF = Original Film

RV = Reference Video

MV = Master Video

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

The Robinson and Via Family Papers, 1845-2000 (AC0475)

The William C. Kost Farm Records, 1939-1989 (AC0481)

Provenance:

Donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian by James T. Duncan, son of Paul J. Duncan, in November 2002.

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.

Topic:

Agriculture -- Pennsylvania  Search this

Draft horses  Search this

Agricultural machinery  Search this

Farmers  Search this

Farm equipment  Search this

Harvesting -- Pennsylvania  Search this

Genre/Form:

Motion pictures (visual works) -- 1930-1950

Citation:

Paul Duncan Film Collection, 1937-1941, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0827

See more items in:

Paul Duncan Film Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8aa1f83ba-2edd-434a-b88b-be2b9ab0cfb9

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0827

Creator:

Frater, Fred  Search this

Extent:

0.15 Cubic feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Place:

Intercourse (Pa.)

Pennsylvania

Date:

circa 1947-1950

Scope and Contents:

The twenty-eight photographs and corresponding negatives in this collection were taken by photographer Fred S. Frater in Intercourse, Pennsylvania sometime between 1947 and 1950. They document a day-long auction of furniture, farm equipment and household goods that took place during the winter or early spring season. They depict an outdoor setting and, while some Amish women are shown, the photographs feature primarily Amish men and boys.

The negatives are in a two frame strip of 120, black and white film stock.

The photographs measure 5"x5" and were developed on Fugicolor Crystal Archive Paper. Although taken around 1947, the photographs in this collection were not developed until March 14, 2008.

Arrangement:

The Collection is arranged into two series.

Series 1, Negatives,

Series 2, Photographs

Biographical / Historical:

Fred S. Frater studied photography at the Clarence H. White School of Photography and worked as a photographer at Lukens Steel Mill for nearly 40 years. He was drafted during World War II serving as a glider trooper and military photographer between 1943 and 1946. His photographs are in the collections of The Hagley Museum and Library, The Library of Congress, George Eastman House Museum and The United States Holocaust Museum. Frater resides in Exton, Pennsylvania.

Provenance:

Collection donated by Fred S. Frater in 2009.

Restrictions:

Unrestricted research access on site by appointment. Unprotected photographs must be handled with gloves.

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.

Topic:

Amish -- Pennsylvania -- Lancaster County  Search this

Auctions  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Acetate film -- 1940-1950

Photographs -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver gelatin -- 1940-1950

Citation:

Fred Frater Photographs of the Amish, circa. 1947-1950, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1147

See more items in:

Fred Frater Photographs of the Amish

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep82b31bcf3-2f3f-4e9b-b146-a2cfdc74a155

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1147

Variant company name:

Est. 1802  Search this

Company Name:

E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. (Inc.)  Search this

Related companies:

Arlington Co. ; Electrochemicals Div. (or Dept.) ; Chlorine Products Div. ; Rubber Chemicals Div. ; R. & H. Chemicals Dept. ; Ceramic Products Div. ; Minerals Separation Div. ; Amonia Dept. ; Grasseli Chemicals Dept. ; Electroplating Div. ; Elastomers Div. ; Elastomer Chemicals Dept. ; Photo Products Dept. ; Defender Div. ; Du Pont Fibersilk Co.; Du Pont Film Mfg. Corp. ; Film Dept. - Sales Div., Industrial Sales Div., Building Materials Sales Div. ; Organic Chemicals Dept. (Div.) ; Fine Chemicals Div. ; Du Pont Viscoloid Co., Inc. ; Fabrikoid Div. ; Fabrics & Finishes Dept. ; Finishes Div. ; Organic Chemicals Dept. ; Dyestuffs Div. (Dept.) ; "Freon" Products Div. ; Semesan Section ; E. I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Co. ; DuPont Cellophane Co., Inc. ; "Cel-O-Seal" Div. ; Du Pont Co. PERMASEP Products, FASLOC sales, TYPAR Sales ; Du Pont Everdur Co. ; Patterson Screen Div. ; Acids and Heavy Chemicals Div. ; Petroleum Chemicals Div. ; Rayon Div. ; Industrial Products Div. ; Pigments Dept. ; Pyralin Dept. ; Agricultural Div. ; Plastics Dept. ; Polychemicals Dept. ; Biotechnology Systems Div. ; NEN Research Products ; Du Pont Radiopharmaceuticals ; Biomedical Products Dept. ; Explosives Dept. ; Agricultural Extension Section ; Military Sales Div. ; Qualicon ; Du Pont Style News Service (New York, NY)  Search this

Notes content:

OVERSIZE. Metal degreasing with chlorinated solvents ; sodium hydride descaling process ; "Cadalyte" cadmium plating salts ; "Zin-O-Lyte" zinc plating salts ; peroxide bleaching systems ; molten salt baths for heat treatment and case hardening of steel ; "Perclene" and "Ovalclene" dry cleaning fluid / detergent ; formaldehyde fungicide, germicide, and deodorant for the farm and home ; "Neoprene" chloroprene rubber. Minerals separation process for cleaning coal and concentrating minerals ; polyvinyl alcohol ; methyl chloride, a refrigerant ; glassware decoration ; gold and silver plating with precious metal cyanides. "Propionates" mold and rope inhibitors for bread ; "Uramon" ammonia liquors ; copperized wood preserver ; japenese beetle repellent ; electrotinning, the sodium stannate-sodium acetate process ; "Cadalyte," the complete salt for cadmium plating ; electroplating. "Hytrel" polyester elastomer ; urethane foam ; "Hypalon" synthetic rubber ; elastomers. Mylar polyester film ; Kapton polyimide film ; Tedlar PVF film ; professional motion picture films ; Cronaflex ; Mylar ; Tedlar. Dyes ; aromatics ; synthetics for perfumes. Lucite, Pyralin, Arlton boudoir accessories. "Ventube" mine ventilation ; apron cloth. Sealants ; industrial fabrics ; "Corfam" poromeric material and reinforced substrate. "Duco" and "Dulux" color finishes ; paint for cars ; dyes for paper. Freon solvents ; "Semesan" seed disinfectants, turf fungicides ; road construction and maintenance ; cellophane ; merchandise packaging ; PERMASEP products ; FASLOC resin anchored bolt systems ; TYPAR textile material for the construction industry ; "EVERDUR" metal ; lactic acid in leather tanning ; rayon ; moisture analyzers ; photometric analyzers ; paint ; "Pyralin" toiletware ; plastics ; Lucite. Sorvall centrifuges ; protein biochemistry products ; NEN nucleotides ; molecular biology products ; chromotography products ; magnetic products (incl. videotape) ; "Corfam" poromeric material for shoemaking ; The Story of... Neoprene, Farm Chemicals, Safety, Duco Finishes, Cellophane, Research, "Coal, Air and Water" ; explosives for farmers, quarry blasting, blasting ditches, field clearing, seismic prospectors ; blasting accessories ; munitions ; blasting rivets ; trapshooting supplies ; etc. "Leonard A. Yerkes: Fibersilk to Fiber 'A'". Genetic fingerprinting ; pathogen detection. Mass Spectrometer ; Data System. "The Super Show/97 Official Show Directory and Sports Product Guide" (February 1997) ; "Du Pont Rayon Reaches New Peak in Fashion Fabrics" (Fall 1937) with fabric samples

Includes:

Trade catalog, price lists, manual, samples and histories

Black and white images

Color images

Types of samples:

Mylar ; Ventube ; apron cloth ; paint samples ; paper dye colors ; cellophane ; TYPAR ; DUCO tinting colors ; Rayon fabric samples

Physical description:

699 pieces; 28 boxes

Language:

English

Type of material:

Trade catalogs

Trade literature

Place:

Wilmington, Delaware, United States

Date:

1900s

Topic (Romaine term):

Agricultural tools and machinery  Search this

Biotechnology and biochemical equipment and supplies  Search this

Brass; bronze and specialty metals  Search this

Chemicals and chemical products  Search this

Cleaning tools and supplies  Search this

Construction and earth-moving machinery  Search this

Cosmetics  Search this

Explosives and fireworks  Search this

Farm equipment and supplies (including dairy and poultry equipment)  Search this

Foods and beverage products and processing equipment (including brewing; distilleries; beer; wine; etc.)  Search this

Furniture and furnishings  Search this

Garden and lawn equipment and supplies  Search this

Industrial equipment or mechanical machinery (including supplies and components)  Search this

Iron and steel products (castings; sheet steel; steel wire; wire rope; pig iron and structural steel products )  Search this

Laboratories and laboratory supplies and equipment  Search this

Medical and surgical instruments and supplies  Search this

Military equipment and supplies (including uniforms)  Search this

Mills and milling supplies  Search this

Mining machinery; equipment and supplies  Search this

Packaging materials and shipping  Search this

Paint; varnishes; adhesives; coatings; etc.  Search this

Photographic equipment and supplies  Search this

Refrigeration and ice-making equipment  Search this

Road building machinery and equipment  Search this

Scientific and optical instruments  Search this

Shoe and Footware Machinery  Search this

Sporting goods  Search this

Textiles and textile machinery  Search this

Topic:

"Laboratories -- Furniture, equipment, etc."  Search this

Adhesives  Search this

Agricultural implements  Search this

Agricultural machinery  Search this

Armed Forces -- Equipment  Search this

Beverage industry  Search this

Biochemical engineering  Search this

Biotechnology  Search this

Brass  Search this

Bronze  Search this

Cameras  Search this

Chemicals  Search this

Cleaning compounds  Search this

Cleaning machinery and appliances  Search this

Construction equipment  Search this

Cosmetics  Search this

Dairying  Search this

Distilleries  Search this

Earthmoving machinery  Search this

Explosives industry  Search this

Farm equipment  Search this

Fireworks  Search this

Food industry and trade  Search this

Footwear industry  Search this

Furniture industry and trade  Search this

Garden ornaments and furniture  Search this

Record ID:

SILNMAHTL_13778

Location:

Trade Literature at the American History Museum Library

Collection:

Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collections

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILNMAHTL_13778

Landscape designer:

Dougherty, Jim  Search this

O'Connell, Billy  Search this

Owner:

Dougherty, Jim  Search this

Contractor:

O'Connell, Billy  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Place:

Dougherty Garden (Carmel, California)

United States of America -- California -- Monterey County -- Carmel-by-the-Sea

Scope and Contents:

The folder includes worksheets.

General:

Situated in the Carmel Valley, this site was developed from four acres of former strawberry fields into an attractive, colorful garden. Highlights include four large raised beds created from 300 tons of Carmel stone, a productive orchard, a barn, a broad expanse of lawn, many antique birdhouses, and examples of early California farm equipment used as garden ornaments.

Persons associated with the garden include: Jim Dougherty (landscape designer and owner, 1989 to date) and Billy O'Connell (landscape designer and contractor, 1989 to date).

Related Materials:

Dougherty Garden related holdings consist of 1 folder (8 35 mm. slides)

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Gardens -- California -- Carmel  Search this

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, File CA320

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / California

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb663f6fce1-cdda-4e88-a6a8-df20de34bce9

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref24179

Donor:

Nelson, Scott  Search this

Creator:

Bobcat Company  Search this

Extent:

24 Film reels

56 Cubic feet (128 boxes, 8 oversized folders)

10 Electronic discs (CD)

5 Electronic discs (DVD)

14 Videocassettes (BetacamSP)

38 Videocassettes (U-matic)

9 Videocassettes (VHS)

1 Videocassettes (Digital Betacam)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Film reels

Electronic discs (cd)

Electronic discs (dvd)

Videocassettes (betacamsp)

Videocassettes (u-matic)

Videocassettes (vhs)

Videocassettes (digital betacam)

Dvds

Compact discs

Christmas cards

Awards

Advertisements

Posters

Stickers

Tickets

Videocassettes

Photographs

Placemats

Invitations

Newsletters

Greeting cards

Place:

West Fargo (North Dakota)

Gwinner (North Dakota)

Date:

1940s-2009

Summary:

The Bobcat Company Records document a post-war invention process and American manufacturing system through the case study of a dynamic machine, the Bobcat skid-steer loader. The records focus primarily on Bobcat's products, marketing, and advertising through product literature, photographs, advertisements, posters, newsletters, and audiovisual materials.

Scope and Contents:

The records are divided into ten series which document a post-war invention process and American manufacturing system, through the case study of a dynamic machine, the Bobcat skid-steer loader. The records focus primarily on Bobcat's products, marketing, and advertising through product literature, photographs, advertisements, posters, newsletters, and audiovisual materials.

Series 1, Historical Background, 1965-2007 and undated, is divided into nine subseries: Subseries 1, Company Histories, 1965-1996 and undated; Subseries 2, Organizational Materials, 1970s-2003 and undated; Subseries 3, Factories/Plants, 1965-1996; Subseries 4, Union Materials, 1971, 2005-2007; Subseries 5, Kaizen Materials, 2003-2004 and undated; Subseries 6, Company Christmas Cards, 1965-1974 and undated; Subseries 7, Company Picnics, 1966-1979; Subseries 8, Awards, 1969-1988; and Subseries 9, Subject Files, 1963-1985.

Subseries 1, Company Histories, 1965-1998 and undated, consists of published and unpublished accounts of the early history of Melroe Manufacturing and its corporate evolution. Of note is the undated A Modern Guide to North Dakota. This guidebook is intended for "foreign" visitors (anyone from Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia or outside the city limits of Gwinner, North Dakota) and provides historical background as well as information on the many diverse and interesting aspects of North Dakota.

Subseries 2, Organizational Materials, 1970s-2003 and undated, consists of mission statements, codes of conduct, a corporate directory, organizational charts, and letterhead. The organizational chart, while marketing and sales specific, does provide an overview of the company's administrative functions.

Subseries 3, Factories/Plants, 1965-1996, includes information about each plant.Factories represented include Belcourt, Bismarck, Cooperstown, and Gwinner, North Dakota; and Fort Benton, Montana. The materials document each plant and consist of a range of formats from articles and clippings to birthday cards, highway maps, fact sheets, field trip schedules, histories of the plant, service awards, product literature, guides, press releases, and employee information.

The Belcourt Plant was home to Melroe Manufacturing's welding division. Dedicated in 1975 at the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation (Chippewa Tribe), this plant was established to relieve the Bismarck Plant of a heavy workload in welding requirements. The plant closed in the 1980s.

The Fort Benton Plant manufactured thirty-two different models of chisel plows under Clark Equipment Company's Melroe Division for Ag Products. The Fort Benton Plant closed in 1982.

The Bismarck Plant served as Melroe Manufacturing's headquarters for the three Ag Product Plants: Bismarck, Benton, and Cooperstown. Opened in 1973, the Bismarck Plant made grain drills, the windrow pick-up combine attachment, the automatic reset plow and plow packers, and crop sprayer (the Spra-Coupe). The Bismarck Plant closed in 2009.

The Cooperstown Plant also manufactured Ag products such as grain augers, swathers, field sprayers, machinery trailers, raw crop harvesters, grain drill packers, steel buildings, and aluminum grain boxes. The best known products produced at this plant were the steel teeth for making hay stacks and the automatic reset moldboard plow. The plant also fabricated parts and components for the Bobcat skid-steer loader. Of note in the Cooperstown Plant materials are a black-and-white advertisement and programmatic brochures for Clark Equipment Company's 1975 International Teenage Exchange Program. Five teenagers from "Clark North America" were selected to live with Clark families in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, or Germany. The Cooperstown Plant closed in 1977.

The Gwinner Plant remains open today and is the main manufacturing facility for Bobcat of North America. The Gwinner folder contains a high school paper title "Melroe" by Craig Allen Knudson, undated, and remarks given at a Dealer Advisory Council Meeting by Jim Strande about the "B Series" from the Engineering Department.

Subseries 4, Union Materials, 1971, 2005-2007, includes information about the United Steel Workers Local 560, the union that is currently in place at the Bobcat Company. Employees formally voted to unionize on April 2, 1970, under the Allied Industrial Workers (A.I.W.). In the early 1990s, the A.I.W. was becoming too small and could no longer provide the best financial backing or representation to Melroe employees, and therefore the employees decided to merge with the United Paperworkers International Union (U.P.I.U.). In 2005, the U.P.I.U. decided to merge with the delegates of the United Steel Workers of America and form the United Steelworkers (U.S.W.). Today, the Bobcat Company is represented by the U.S.W. in District 11 which includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. The materials in this subseries consist of United Steel Workers Local 560 handbooks and agreements as well as authorized announcements from the local union members and Bobcat management that were posted for employees to read. These announcements/fliers were placed in authorized areas at the factory in Gwinner. There is one grievance record from 1971 detailing the request that certain jobs be posted so personnel can bid for the position.

Subseries 5, Kaizen Materials, 2003-2004 and undated, contains materials related to the Kaizen process, which is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life. When applied to the workplace, Kaizen activities continually improve all functions of a business, from manufacturing to management and from the chief operating officer to the assembly line workers. These materials include An Introduction to the Bobcat Production System ( BPS), undated, and a booklet that provides a road map to all Bobcat employees in utilizing "lean" concepts versus traditional mass production manufacturing. The BPS is intended to redesign production systems, machinery and labor to be as efficient as possible. Other documents include copies of power point slides and materials from a Kaizen workshop.

Subseries 6, Company Christmas Cards, 1965-1974 and undated, includes Christmas cards sent by the Bobcat Company as well as "mock-ups" of cards created by Flint Communications. The Bobcat Company purchased merchandise from companies that specialized in promotional and specialty gifts. Additonal information from those companies is included in this subseries.

Subseries 7, Company Picnics, 1966-1979, contains information about the company's annual family picnic or "family feast" at Lisbon Park in Lisbon, North Dakota. The picnics typically included a program (musical entertainment), games for children, prizes, and a softball game. The documentation includes fliers announcing the picnic, tickets, and receipts and memos detailing the prizes available and the associated costs. Prizes included, but were not limited to, portable televisions, drills, binoculars, cookware, cameras, bicycles, camping equipment, vacuums, and clocks.

Subseries 8, Awards, 1969-1988, contains information about awards given to the Bobcat Company from external organizations as well as individual awards given by the company to its employees. The Export "E" Award is bestowed by the United States Department of Commerce. Awarded for success in boosting sales of American products abroad, Melroe Manufacturing won this honor in 1969 for its increased sales of farm implements and industrial equipment to Canadian and European markets. Material about the 'E" Award includes newspaper clippings and articles, presentation remarks, and photographs. The United States Senate Productivity Award is administered through the United States Senate Commerce Committee. Each United States senator is allowed to select one winner every year. The program was established to encourage competiveness in American industry and ensure its survival in the international marketplace through increased productivity. In 1984, Senator Mark Andrews (R) announced that the Melroe Division of Clark Equipment Company was a recipient of the Productivity Award. The file contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, black-and-white photographs of the presentation, a tour of the factory in Gwinner, North Dakota, and the medal itself. There are other files about awards that recognize employees: Employee Recognition Service Awards, Patents Awards Recognition Dinner, and the 1000 Club. These materials contain lists of awardees, award programs, invitations, and napkins.

Subseries 9, Subject Files, 1963-1985, captures a varity of documentation associated with the company's corporate structure such as testimonials from owners and users of Bobcat skid-steer loaders, the first invoice for the Bobcat skid-steer loader (1963), the celebration of the 100,000th Bobcat skid-steer loader being produced and the "Melroe Mission to Japan." In 1985, a cross-sectional group of Melroe employees were selected to tour Japanese manufacturing plants and examine new concepts in both manufacturing and engineering. The lessons learned from this valuable trip were implemented at Bobcat and ultimately manifested themselves in the Kaizen materials. See Series 1, Subseries 4. The report, Bobcat Reports: The Melroe Mission to Japan contains employee observations about the trip, insights into similarities and difference between Japanese plants and Melroe plants; life style differences; and what it meant individually to the employee.

Series 2, Clark Equipment Company, 1965-1994, contains documentation about the Clark Equipment Company, one of the largest producers of material handling equipment. There are three subseries: Subseries 1, Company Histories, 1965-1978, (not inclusive); Subseries 2, Annual Reports, 1974-1994 (not inclusive); and Subseries 3, Employee Information, undated. The histories consist of typescript documents that were used for various presentations as well as a printed history, "Growing Up with Clark," Clark Magazine, spring 1978, by Steve Lokker. The employee information contains an employee handbook titled "Your Circle of Security" detailing total compensation of pay, benefits, and career opportunities at Clark, and a Guide to Maintaining Non-Union Status and Combating Union Organizational Attempts, undated. The annual reports, 1974-1994, also include information about quarterly report and annual meeting summaries.

Series 3, Newsletters, 1965-2009, consists of published newsletters for both internal and external distribution. Arranged alphabetically by title, the newsletters represent a variety of Bobcat Company news items aimed at specific audiences such as current employees, former employees (alumni), dealers, prospective customers, and the industry. For example, Bobcat Briefs, a monthly publication, contains information for and about Melroe Manufacturing Company employees. The Summit (Bobcat Sales Masters) a monthly newsletter designed for salesmen at varying levels, allowed them to stay up-to-date on their progress in the Sales Masters Program. It was created to recognize the achievements of retail salesmen. Additional newsletters targeted at salesmen/dealers include the Bobcat's Pajamas, Feller Buncher Toppers, Melroe Scoop, Winners Circle, Territory Tales and Worksaver. Worksaver is published four times a year and sent directly to a dealer's mailing list of customers and prospects. Worksaver is part of the Bobcat Company's co-op advertising program, with the single most important feature being the ability to target the Bobcat sales message. Newsletters aimed at employees include Bobcat Briefs, Bobcat Messages, Melroe Pick-up, Clark Pick-up, Melroe and Messages. The only newsletter not represented in this series is the Spra-Coupe Reporter. See series 8 for this newsletter.

Series 4, Photographs, Negatives, Slides and Transparencies, 1960-2003 and undated, contains photographs, negatives, slides, and transparencies. The materials are arranged in alphabetical order following the original filing scheme created by the Bobcat Company. The only exception to this order is "Products" which are filed numerically by model number. For example, the B300 (Loader Backhoe), 2005, is filed before the 310 (Skid Steer Loader), 1977. Each model is identified parenthetically. The bulk of the materials consists of photographs, both black-and-white and color prints documenting the company's activities. They were created and assembled by Ernie Feland, the company's photographer for 37 years.

The images document almost every aspect of the company and its culture. Included are: products, employees, company picnics and outings, factory activities, trade shows, and dealerships. Well documented are the various company outings and activities that involved dealers and vendors. Elaborate theme-based activities were created for the dealers/vendors which were the highlight of the year. The company fostered a "family friendly" atmosphere and this is evident in the images. Many of the photographs documenting company products show the product in use in various industries and with various attachments. For example, there are photographs of skid-steer loaders removing snow, moving fertilizer, drilling holes, and hauling dirt.

Series 5, Dealer Materials, 1964-2003, documents the valuable connection between the customer, dealer, and the company. Dealers are an important part of the Bobcat success story. This series is further divided into eight subseries: Subseries 1, Dealer Advisory Council Meetings, 1967-1996; Subseries 2, Sales Meetings, 1964-1999; Subseries 3, District Manager Meetings, 1971-1990; Subseries 4, Conferences, 1973, 1974,1993; and Subseries 5, Specific Dealers, 1978, 1979, 2003; Subseries 6, Dealer Advertising and Sales Promotion Kits, 1967-1996; Subseries 7, Co-op Advertising Materials for Dealers, 1979-1982; and Subseries 8, Subject Files, 1965-2003.

Subseries 1, Dealer Advisory Council Meetings, 1967-1996, documents Dealer Advisory Council (DAC) activities and meetings. The first DAC was held in 1965 at the Ash Forks Camp on Lake of the Woods, Canada. Dealers competed in a sales contest prior to the meeting to determine which twelve of them would attend. Over the years the roster of dealers attending grew, and those chosen to serve on the council had an outstanding sales record. The company sought these dealers' advice on all aspects of Bobcat marketing, engineering and manufacturing, and both dealers and company management were encouraged to share their ideas and experiences. It is through a strong dealership system that the company sells its products and many times, it was a solid demonstration that sold the product. Dealers frequently were invited to the Bobcat Boot Camp in Lisbon, North Dakota, where they spent one week training on various Bobcat Company products as well as competitors' products.

To this day, dealers meet annually in different locations throughout the United States with particular emphasis on North Dakota, Minnesota, Idaho, Wisconsin, and parts of Canada. The meetings were well planned and followed a structure with receptions, orientations, dinners, plant tours, presentations, group discussions, and award presentations.

These records provide insight into the relationship between the company and its dealers with dealer distributor materials such as the dealer kits. The photographs in Series 4 document this aspect of the company well. Among one of the boot camp's first trainers was none other than inventor Cyril Keller.

The materials are arranged chronologically by meeting date and contain correspondence, agendas, memos, lists of dealers (in some instances with profiles), certificates (recognizing outstanding sales achievement), invitations, licenses for fishing, invoices for airline tickets, presentation scripts, photographs (the majority document fishing and hunting trips), and brochures. Many of the meetings also had programs for "ladies" since many of the dealer's wives accompanied them.

Subseries 2, Sales Meetings, 1964-1999, documents the annual gathering of all Bobcat dealers. Unlike the DAC Meetings, the annual sales meetings were larger in scale and had more programmatic functions. Meetings were held in a variety of locations throughout the United States, and almost all of the meetings were held either in January or February. The meetings are arranged chronologically and contain the location of the meeting if known. There is unevenness to the type and amount of documentation for each meeting. Many files include agendas, memos, correspondence, name tags, meeting programs, banquet programs, and presentation remarks. Some meetings contained more unusual materials. The 1974 Kona, Hawaii Meeting had a "Clark Money Tree Mid-Term Quiz" designed for dealers and dealer salesmen as a means of testing their knowledge of the Clark Retail Finance programs. The quiz was graded, and if the individual passed, a doctor of finance was issued along with a cash prize. Additionally, an audio disc from the 1974 Kona, Hawaii Meeting, Swing and Sway The Bobcat Way with Bobcat- The One and Only and Cattin Around was intended for use by dealers for a wide variety of promotional and selling situations: background music for radio and TV commercials, local fairs, exhibits, and conventions.

Subseries 3, District Manager Meetings, 1971-1990, consists of documentation for district managers' meetings which dealt with the "how" of demonstrating, advertising, financing, and servicing and the "why" of compact size, maneuverability, all-wheel drive, visibility, time, and labor for Bobcat products. These meetings appear to have been held in conjunction with the annual sales meeting.

Subseries 4, Conferences, 1973, 1974, 1993, includes speeches, photographs, agendas, invoices, memos, programs, and notes. The bulk of the materials consists of Clark Executive Conference materials from 1973.

Subseries 5, Specific Dealers, 1978, 1979, 2003, contains files for specific Bobcat dealers in the United States. The files are arranged alphabetically by dealership name and include advertisements, announcements, correspondence, and other branded materials with the Bobcat logo.

Subseries 6, Dealer Advertising and Sales Promotion Kits, 1967-1996, consists of folders filled with a memo or letter to the dealer, dealer lists, newsletters, logo types, line drawings, price lists, brochures, product information sheets, specifications, and posters designed to assist dealers in promoting a certain product, campaign, or sale. Reg Stansfield served as the dealer development manager (regional, European and worldwide) from 1978 to 1988. It's clear that the company was interested in measuring performance, seeking room for improvement, and knowing about problems. Stansfield had a great interest in training and in helping salesmen avoid making unnecessary mistakes. He created "Sales Success Strategy" cards with sales tips which were included in the dealer promotion kits. These tips were part of the "Melroe Success Formula," which was to promote, demonstrate, sell, and support. Arranged chronologically, these kits provide valuable information on what the company was sending its dealers and the accompanying instructions. The kits also provide a comprehensive overview of the types of industries using Bobcat products, such as colleges, cemeteries, landscapers, stockyards, rendering, and the poultry industry.

Subseries 7, Co-op Advertising Materials for Dealers, 1979-1982, includes materials that were assembled into binders and were distributed to dealers as a way to assist them in promoting and advertising Bobcat products. The binders were organized into categories: direct mail, newspaper, radio, television, Yellow Pages, specialties, signs and displays, and fairs and shows.

Subseries 8, Subject Files, 1965-2003, are arranged alphabetically by topic. These files include topics such as dealer financial profiles, golf tournaments, review guidelines, motivational concepts, sales specialist's guides, website programs, and Y2K compliancy. The dealer-initiated materials include examples of specific materials developed by dealers for promoting Bobcat products and sales. For example, the J.S. Equipment Company of Sacramento, California, developed a Bobcat Bulletin and the K.C. Bobcat of Kansas City, Missouri, developed a mailer card touting their Bobcat Center with equipment and accessories. Proper use of the Bobcat brand name adds value, helps develop customer loyalty and presents a consistent identity. Spelled out in a brochure of Brand Identity and Standards for Bobcat Dealers are the four trade name categories used by dealers: "Bobcat of (location);" "Bobcat (Name);" "(Name) Bobcat;" and "An Independent Trade Name." Additionally, it details unacceptable uses of the Bobcat trademark logo and the associated color standards.

The Melroe Annual Sands Hill One Invitational Engolfment (MASHIE) files chronicle the establishment of an annual golf tournament designed for the company (Melroe) and its dealers to get to know each other better and have fun while doing it. The golf tournament included visits to the factory and offices as well as an awards dinner.

The motivational concepts file contains a variety of notes and lists detailing motivational concepts for dealers. There is an untitled poem about Christmas, Santa, and a Bobcat as well as a 1977 planning session document from Flint Advertising. The Y2K compliancy materials consist of memos, correspondence, spreadsheets, and questionnaires for dealers about their computer compliancy for the year 2000.

Series 6, Marketing and Promotional Materials, 1954-2007, are divided into ten subseries: Subseries 1, Correspondence of Ferd Froeschle, 1974-1976, 1990; Subseries 2, Budget/Finances, 1961-2000 (not inclusive); Subseries 3, Advertisements, 1964-2001; Subseries 4, Artwork/Storyboards, undated; Subseries 5, Advertising Proof Books, 1954-1993; Subseries 6, Surveys/Profiles, 1977, 1979, 1990-1991; Subseries 7, Promotional Ideas/Retail Sales, 1970s-2007; Subseries 8, Sales Campaigns and Programs, 1972-2001; Subseries 9, Contests, 1965-1999, undated; and Subseries 10, Posters, 1977-2005, undated.

Almost all of the promotional pieces were created by Flint Communications of Fargo, North Dakota, under the direction of the Bobcat Advertising/Marketing Department. Flint was established in 1946, by Harold Flint. Today, Flint consists of a network of six companies, known as the Flint Group, serving a diverse list of businesses, industries, government entities, and not-for-profit clients. The Flint Group includes Flint Communications, Fargo, North Dakota; HatlingFlint, St. Cloud, Minnesota; SimmonsFlint, Grand Forks, North Dakota; WestmorelandFlint, Duluth, Minnesota; AadlandFlint, Anchorage, Alaska; and Flint Interactive, an online services firm with staff in multiple locations. In some instances the marketing and promotional pieces have a Knight Printing Company tag affixed to them. This tag provided critical information to both Flint and the Bobcat Company for reordering purposes and dating. For example KN-500-397-#650152-F translated means Knight Printing Company-quantity 500-March 1997-Bobcat Company job number, and the F equals Flint.

The marketing and promotional materials were intended for dealers in the Bobcat dealership network. Many of these pieces were distributed through targeted promotional programs which were designed to maintain regular contact with all existing users, to foster rental customers, and generate new inquiries. The promotional pieces consisted of giveaways, sponsorships, machine displays on dealership frontage, special displays at shopping centers, casual machine displays at stockyards and auctions, presentations and lectures to associations and colleges, group demonstrations, and highway billboards. The promotional methods included permanent advertisements, building and truck designs, ads in newspapers, local television and radio spots, envelope stuffers and stickers for correspondence, fairs, shows, and customer service schools, open houses at dealerships, handouts for salesmen and mechanics, and special telephone canvassing campaigns. These methods maximized the "Worksaver" Program.

Basic markets for the Bobcat include agriculture, agri-business (feed, fertilizer, grain elevators, meat packing), construction (excavating, landscaping, paving, utility, sewer, roofing, concrete, sand and gravel, snow removal, asphalt, and brick), industry (foundries, glass, steel mills, chemicals, coal and coke, lumber, papers, smelters and refiners, castings), forestry, rental yards, and miscellaneous (garbage, rubbish removal, waste paper, nurseries).

Subseries 1, Correspondence of Ferd Froeschle, 1974-1976, 1990, contains correspondence of Ferd Froeschle, the advertising manager and public relations director at Melroe Manufacturing from 1964 to 1981.

Subseries 2, Budget/Finances, 1961-2000 (not inclusive), includes budgets, price lists, advertising schedules (with proposed ad expenditures). There are monthly budget spreadsheets with actuals, budget, and variation for media, production, printing, film and photo, travel, conventions, co-op advertising, sales aids, and miscellaneous.

Subseries 3, Advertisements, 1964-2001, documents advertisements (both color and black and white), color proofs (used to evaluate the ads' final appearance), some examples of the four-color process-a printing process that combines different amounts of the four colors red, yellow, blue and black, copies and/or originals torn from trade and industry magazines. The advertisements are arranged chronologically and then alphabetically by language. There is some clip art with Bobcat Company logos and an advertising manual for the international market. The manual was intended to help dealers prepare their own advertising.

Subseries 4, Artwork/Storyboards, undated, include artwork-the visual components of many advertisements-with and without typeset text for a variety of Bobcat Company products. Many are black and color ink on tracing paper or a transparency such as a photographic image on clear plastic. Also included is documentation on the development of the Bobcat Company logo and storyboards for the Bobcat of Futureville with plans on how to set-up/lay out a Bobcat dealership.

Subseries 5, Advertising Proof Books, 1954-1993, consists of advertisements that were placed in newspapers or various industrial, construction, and farming publications. The proofs are arranged chronologically and then alphabetically by product or the industry in which the product was used; for example, agriculture, contruction, forestry, industry, and rental. In some instances, the alphabetical heading is further refined such as construction (regional) versus construction (national). This distinction was drawn to distinguish the type of advertisement and where it would appear. Advertisements appeared in publications such as The Dakota Farmer, Montana Farmer- Stockman, The Farmer, Canadian Machinery and Metalworking, and Heavy Construction News.

Subseries 6, Surveys/Profiles for Skid-Steer Loaders, 1977, 1979, 1990-1991, contains survey and summaries from research services that conducted interviews and analysis for the company on the use of skid-steer loaders. The testimonials contained within this section are from employees at Central Bi-Products, (a meat processing facility) in Long Prairie, Minnesota.

Subseries 7, Promotional Ideas/Retail Sales, 1972-2001, include pamphlets, brochures, point-of-purchase ads, stickers, calendars, and greeting cards (Christmas, birthday, and Thanksgiving).

Subseries 9, Contests, 1965-1999 and undated, contains documentation illuminating the company's many and varied contests. Held company-wide and worldwide, the contests were intended for dealers to promote the sale of new products. Incentives included cash, prizes, or attachments for various Bobcat skid-steer loaders. The Let's Do It! contest and campaign of 1972-1973, was a competiton for all employees to think more about their productivity efforts. Employees competed quarterly for corporate awards which were given to divisons and plants with the best nine month performance. Employees were judged on return on investment, inventory control, sales volume, and forecasting while the plants were judged on productivity improvement and inventory control.

Subseries 10, Posters, 1977-2005 and undated, consists of posters created by the company for dealers to use in conjunction with various campaigns, programs, and contests.

Series 7, Product Information, 1967-2008, contains brochures, specification sheets, and catalogs detailing the various products offered for sale by the Bobcat Company. Melroe product history file consists of histories of Melroe Ag products, memorable dates in the Melroe company history and speeches about Melroe Manufacturing.

Series 8, Melroe Ag Products/Spra-Coupe Materials, 1972-1998, is divided into two subseries: Subseries 1, Melroe Ag Products Division, 1973-1983 and Subseries 2, Spra-Coupe, 1972-1998, undated. Melroe Ag Products was a division of Melroe Manufacturing which specialized in farm equipment. The products included reset plows, multi-weeders, rock pickers, chisel plows, grain drills, harroweeders, windrow pick-ups and the Spra-Coupe. The Spra-Coupe materials consist primarily of advertisements, product information, and promotional materials. The Spra-Coupe was first built in 1963 by John D. Kirschmann and brought to market in 1965. In the spring of 1972, Melroe Manufacturing acquired the Spra-Coupe, which was designed to apply chemicals using a self-propelled sprayer. The Spra-Coupe was sold primarily to custom operators and was used to replace the airplane as a means of applying liquid spray.

Series 9, Press Related Materials, 1969-2005, is arranged chronologically and divided into four subseries: Subseries 1, Press Clippings, 1969-2005; Subseries 2, Scrapbook of clippings, 1977-1978; Subseries 3, Press Releases, 1972-1999, undated; Subseries 4, Press Conferences, 1978, 1989, 1994; and Subseries 4, Articles, 1967, 1979, 1993. The press releases were used by the company as "organizational announcements" and were released internally to announce promotions, new positions, scholarship recipients, and service awards. In some instances there are black-and-white photographs found in this series as well as "special" releases from 1972-1974 containing correspondence with television stations and industry specific publications such as the Montana Farmer- Stockman and Fertilizer Solutions.

Series 10, Audiovisual Materials, 1963-2007, is divided into seven subseries: Subseries 1, Corporate documentation, circa 1960s-2007, undated; Subseries 2, Promotional, 1967-2007, undated; Subseries 3, Sales, 1963-2003, undated; Subseries 4, Safety/training, circa 1970s-1983, undated; Subseries 5, Commercials, 2004, undated; Subseries 6, Spra-Coupe, 1988-1993, undated; and Subseries 7, Supplemental documentation, 1974-1975, 1983, undated.

Of note are the commercial films made by William Snyder. Snyder was born and raised in North Dakota, and after working in Hollywood, California, for Technicolor he returned to Fargo to form Bill Snyder Films, Inc. Most of Snyder's output was 16 mm film format in color and black-and-white for industrial programs produced by corporate entities and non-profit groups. Snyder supplemented this work by producing television commercials and commercial movies for industry, including Melroe Manufacturing. Melroe hired Snyder in the early 1960s to make a "short" demonstrating the company's skid-steer loader. Eventually more movies were made: The Story of the Bobcat Kid, Bobcat a Go- Go, and Farm Boy at Heart. The movies provide an insight into the marketing strategy of a small company looking for a new and creative marketing effort called the "info-mercial." Aired on local television in the five-state area (Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming) and using Melroe employees, these movies boosted sales for the company.

Subseries 1, Corporate documentation, circa 1960s-2007 and undated, contains footage of corporate events (primarily National Dealer Meetings), the manufacturing process in the two North Dakota factories, employees at work, and other company-related moving images.

Subseries 2, Promotional, 1967-2007 and undated, consists of films that promote various models of Bobcats and attachments to consumers and dealers. Many films highlight the features, capabilities, and different uses of specific models and associated attachments. CD-ROMs were probably given to potential customers based on their interest in Bobcat products or could have been used in dealerships for customers to access the same information.

Subseries 3, Sales, 1963-2003 and undated, documents the material shown to salesmen and dealers of Bobcats for sales purposes. Methods for improving sales, techniques for selling against competitors' machines, and detailed information about Bobcats' capabilities and features are highlighted to educate salesmen on the products. Numerous motivational and instructional videos were made with Reg Stansfield, Regional Sales Manager, offering strategies to improve sales and increase productivity. Some films in this subseries may have been shown to customers.

Subseries 4, Safety/training, circa 1970s-1983 and undated, documents education of the safe operation of Bobcat machines.

Subseries 5, Commercials, 2004 and undated, contains tapes of thirty second television commercials promoting Bobcat skid-steer loaders.

Subseries 6, Spra-Coupe, 1988-1993 and undated, consists of material relating to the Melroe Spra-Coupe and its electrostatic spraying process. Customer testimonials, descriptions of the use of the machine, and the features and capabilities of the Spra-Coupe are included.

Subseries 7, Supplemental documentation, 1974-1975, 1983, and undated, consists of brochures, scripts, and descriptions for some of the audio visual materials.

Arrangement:

Collection is arranged into ten series.

Series 1, Historical Background, 1965-2007

Subseries 1.1, Company Histories, 1965-1998 and undated

Subseries 1.2, Organizational Materials, 1970s-2007 and undated

Subseries 1.3, Factories/Plants, 1965-1996; 2007

Subseries 1.4, Union Materials, 1971, 2005-2007

Subseries 1.5, Kaizen Materials, 2003-2004 and undated

Subseries 1.6, Company Christmas Cards, 1965-1974 and undated

Subseries 1.7, Company Picnics, 1966-1979

Subseries 1.8, Awards, 1969-1988

Subseries 1.9, Subject Files, 1963-1985

Series 2, Clark Equipment Company, 1965-1994 and undated

Subseries 2.1, Company Histories, 1965-1978

Subseries 2.2, Annual Reports, 1974-1994

Subseries 2.3, Employee Information and undated

Series 3, Newsletters, 1965-2009 and undated

Subseries 3.1, Bobcat Alumni Newsletter, 1984 fall; 1987 spring

Subseries 3.2, Bobcat Brief, 1985-1993

Subseries 3.3, Bob Cat's Pajamas, 1965-2008

Subseries 3.4, Bobcat Messages, 2000

Subseries 3.5, Bobcat System, 1993

Subseries 3.6, Clark Pickup, 1975-1976

Subseries 3.7, Feller Buncher Toppers, 1984-1985

Subseries 3.8, Melroe Farm Reporter, 1973-1977

Subseries 3.9, Melroe Messages, 1987-1996, 1999

Subseries 3.10, Melroe Pickup, 1969-1975

Subseries 3.11, Melroe Scoop, 1970

Subseries 3.12, Newsloader, 1979-1982 and undated

Subseries 3.13, Scoop, 1991

Subseries 3.14, The Summit, 1990-1992

Subseries 3.15, Territory Tales, 1974-2002

Subseries 3.16, The Winner's Circle, 1983-1989

Subseries 3.17, Worksaver, 1977-2008

Series 4, Photographs, Negatives, Slides, and Transparencies, 1960-2003 and undated

Subseries 4.1, Alphabetical, 1960-2003 and undated

Subseries 4.2, Miscellaneous, 1963-1986 and undated

Series 5, Dealer Materials, 1964-2003

Subseries 5.1, Dealer Advisory Council Meetings, 1967-1996

Subseries 5.2, Sales Meetings, 1964-1999

Subseries 5.3, District Managers Meetings, 1971-1990

Subseries 5.4, Conferences, 1973, 1974, 1993

Subseries 5.5, Specific Dealers, 1978, 1979, 2003

Subseries 5.6, Dealer Advertising and Sales Promotion Kits, 1967-1996

Subseries 5.7, Co-op Advertising Materials for Dealers, 1979-1982

Subseries 5.8, Subject Files, 1965-2003

Series 6, Marketing and Advertising Materials, 1954-2007

Subseries 6.1, Correspondence of Ferd Froeschle, 1974-1976, 1990

Subseries 6.2, Budget/Finances, 1961-2000 (not inclusive)

Subseries 6.3, Advertisements, 1964-2001

Subseries 6.4, Artwork/Storyboards, undated

Subseries 6.5, Advertising Proof Books, 1954-1993

Subseries 6.6, Surveys/Profiles, 1977, 1979, 1990-1991

Subseries 6.7, Promotional Ideas/Retail Sales, 1970s-2007

Subseries 6.8, Sales Campaigns and Programs, 1972-2001

Subseries 6.9, Contests, 1965-1999, undated

Subseries 6.10, Posters, 1977-2005, undated

Series 7, Product Information, 1967-2008

Series 8, Melroe Ag Division/Spra-Coupe Materials, 1972-1998

Subseries 8.1, Melroe Ag Products Division, 1973-1983

Subseries 8.2, Spra-Coupe, 1972-1998, undated

Series 9, Press Related Materials, 1969-2005

Subseries 9.1, Press Clippings, 1969-2005

Subseries 9.2, Scrapbook of clippings, 1977-1978

Subseries 9.3, Press Releases, 1972-1999, undated

Subseries 9.4, Press Conferences, 1978, 1989, 1994

Subseries 9.5, Articles, 1967, 1979, 1993

Series 10, Audiovisual Materials, circa 1960s-2007, undated

Subseries 10.1, Corporate documentation, circa 1960s-2007 and undated

Subseries 10.2, Promotional, 1967-2007 and undated

Subseries 10.3, Sales, 1963-2003 and undated

Subseries 10.4, Safety/Training, circa 1970s-1983 and undated

Subseries 10.5, Commercials, 2004 and undated

Subseries 10.6, Spra-Coupe, 1988-1993 and undated

Subseries 10.7, Supplemental documentation, 1974-1975 and undated

Biographical / Historical:

The Bobcat Company Records document the evolution of the Bobcat skid-steer loader from a simple agricultural machine into a versatile and widely recognized tool. The Company's loaders, mini track loaders, and product attachments improved productivity in many industries such as shipping, landscaping, and construction. In 1958, approximately 20 loaders were built, and by the 1960s, the total number of units was in the few thousands. In the 1970s, 10,000 loaders were being manufactured a year. Today, Bobcat produces approximately 40,000 loaders a year and celebrated its 750,000th loader in 2008. Other companies, such as Caterpillar, Case, John Deere and New Holland all make loaders, but Bobcat dominates the market and its name is synonymous with the compact construction equipment industry. The records focus primarily on Bobcat's products, marketing, and advertising through product literature, photographs, advertisements, posters, newsletters, and audiovisual materials. The Bobcat Company is a story of individuals, simple ingenuity, independence, and innovation and improvement. The Kellers' problem of removing turkey manure from a barn was solved with a can-do, make-do ethos of the farm which spawned a global industry. The early roots of the Bobcat machine lie in the farming heritage of central Minnesota and the North Dakota plains with two blacksmith brothers, Louis (b. 1923-) and Cyril (b. 1922-) Keller. Out of farming necessity to make manual labor easier, a story of technology grew into a world-wide industry that would become known as the compact equipment industry and would be identified with the name Bobcat. In the fall of 1947, Louis Keller formed Keller Manufacturing (sometimes known as Keller Welding) in Rothsay, Minnesota, which provided a wide range of general repair services to customers, especially blacksmithing and welding services. In 1953, Cyril Keller joined his brother Louis as an equal partner in the business. The small family business noted that they "weld anything except a broken heart." In the summer of 1956, Eddie Velo, a local turkey farmer, approached the Kellers with the problem of cleaning manure out of his turkey barns after the turkeys had been taken to slaughter. Standard loader tractors could not be utilized because of their limited maneuverability, and they were too heavy to operate on the second story of a barn. Velo needed a tractor that could maneuver around the posts in his barn, move backwards and forward, and make sharp turns. The Kellers developed a drive system that was designed to provide the maneuverability required by Velo. A bucket was placed in the front, and a motor in the back. A third castor wheel was added to permit sharp turning. They employed a pulley-and-chain system to switch back and forth. They found that this system was too dangerous, and they abandoned it for a clutch system. The result was a system for "transmitting power from a power unit to propulsion wheels, drive shafts and the like, and in particular to a transmission system for self-propelled vehicles having independently rotatable propulsion or drive wheels."0F[1] A completed loader was delivered to Velo in fall 1957, but the Kellers continued to refine and test it. They manufactured six additional models on speculation and ultimately sold them to area poultry farms. To address the instability issues of having three wheels, they added a counter weight at the back. Additionally, they introduced attachments for the loader-snow blade, sweeper, a bucket, and a manure fork. The Kellers sought to mass-produce their loader. After pursuing various avenues, their uncle, Anton Christianson, a dealer with Melroe Manufacturing Company of Gwinner, North Dakota, introduced them to Melroe Manufacturing. Melroe Manufacturing Company was founded in 1947 by Edward Gideon "E.G." Melroe (d. 1955), a pioneer in agricultural technology. The Kellers were invited to bring their loader to the Melroe booth at the 1958 Minnesota State Fair, to determine the amount of interest in the loader. The interest was so great that Melroe decided to manufacture the loader. After the State Fair, an agreement was reached-Melroe would have exclusive manufacturing rights on a royalty basis. The Kellers would be employed by Melroe to further develop the loader. Access to the Melroe facilities allowed the Kellers' work to progress and be widely marketed. In the fall of 1958, Louis and Cyril Keller moved to Gwinner, North Dakota, to begin work. Louis worked on the manufacturing floor from 1958 to 1967 developing the loader, and Cyril worked from 1958 to 1980 as a salesman promoting and selling Melroe products and training dealers. Development of the first Melroe loader prototype (M60) began in November 1958 and was completed in early 1959. The prototype utilized the Keller patented drive design, which was used on various Melroe and later Bobcat models until 1982. The name "Bobcat" originated in 1962 with Lynn Bickett, of Gould, Brown and Bickett, a marketing agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Allegedly, Bickett found the word "bobcat" in the dictionary, and noted that it was a North American mammal that is "tough, quick, and agile." These traits perfectly described the Melroe loader to them, and the Bobcat slogan, "Tough, quick, and agile," was born. Officially designated the Bobcat Company in 2000, the company previously operated under the names: Melroe Manufacturing (1958-1969); Clark Equipment Company (1969-1995); and was also known as Ingersoll-Rand Company (1995-2007). In 1969, Clark Equipment Company of Buchanan, Michigan, acquired Melroe Manufacturing and pushed the Bobcat loader to even greater sales. Clark was a leader in forklifts, but adding the Bobcat product line expanded Clark's range and marketing potential. In 1995, Clark was acquired by Ingersoll-Rand (IR), a leading manufacturer of construction equipment and industrial machinery. IR wanted a strong brand name and the top market share that accompanied it, and Bobcat was just the thing. The IR Company provided Bobcat with a platform to focus on product innovation (front end attachments) and it encouraged global manufacturing and development. The Bobcat Company was acquired by Doosan Infracore International of South Korea in October 2007.

2 Louis Keller. Transmission system. US Patent 3,151,503, filed Dec. 1, 1958, and issued Oct. 6, 1964.

Related Materials:

These records complement many of the Archives Center's agricultural holdings such as the William C. Kost Farm Records (documenting a 20th century family-owned farm in Illinois); the Robinson-Via Family Papers (documenting daily farm life in Prince George's County, Maryland); the Everett Bickley Collection (documenting agricultural technology of bean sorting) and the Southern Agriculture Oral History Project Records (documenting the disappearing farm). These papers also complement the Archives Center's holdings of industrial equipment such as Caterpillar, Page Tractors, and B.B. Brown (documenting tractor engines). Construction related papers include the Clyde Learned Papers (documenting a highway engineer); Lloyd F. Rader Papers (documenting civil engineering); the Leon Struck Photo Album (documenting road building) and many of our collections of civil engineering materials.

Separated Materials:

The Division of Work and Industry holds one magnetic lifter, Accession 2007.0196.01-.02

Provenance:

This collection was donated by Scott Nelson, President of the Bobcat Company of North America on June 23, 2008.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire. Do not use original materials when available on reference video, DVD, or audio tapes. 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. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions. The Archives Center does not own rights to these photographs. All requests for permission to use these photographs for non-museum purposes must be addressed directly to the Bobcat Company. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies.

Topic:

Construction industry  Search this

Construction equipment  Search this

Genre/Form:

DVDs

Compact discs

Christmas cards

Awards

Advertisements -- 20th century

Posters -- 20th century

Stickers

Tickets

Videocassettes

Photographs -- 20th century

Placemats

Invitations

Newsletters -- 20th century

Greeting cards

Citation:

Bobcat Company Records, 1940s-2009, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Sponsor:

Processing of this collection was made possible, in part, by a gift from the Bobcat Company of North America.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1129

See more items in:

Bobcat Company Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8a2f6ef8d-f1c0-4127-be32-76de9e143114

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1129

Collection Donor:

Nelson, Scott  Search this

Collection Creator:

Bobcat Company  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Scope and Contents note:

¾ inch U-Matic, 11 minutes

Describes the history of Melroe through the story of Edward Gideon Melroe and his development of farm equipment. The company's acquisition of the Keller's loader, including footage of the first two models, and the company's later absorption by Clark Equipment are also addressed.

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire. Do not use original materials when available on reference video, DVD, or audio tapes. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions. The Archives Center does not own rights to these photographs. All requests for permission to use these photographs for non-museum purposes must be addressed directly to the Bobcat Company. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies.

Collection Citation:

Bobcat Company Records, 1940s-2009, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Sponsor:

Processing of this collection was made possible, in part, by a gift from the Bobcat Company of North America.

See more items in:

Bobcat Company Records

Bobcat Company Records / Series 10: Audiovisual Materials / 10.1: Corporate documentation

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8ab1f2310-ff03-4184-aad6-5702ad5806a0

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-1129-ref1819

Collection Producer:

Lodge, Arthur  Search this

Arthur Lodge Productions.  Search this

Collection Creator:

National Association of Manufacturers  Search this

Extent:

1 Motion picture film

Container:

Reel AC0507-OF0321

Type:

Archival materials

Moving Images

Motion picture films

Date:

1956 December 8

Scope and Contents:

Texas Experienced pilots learn new procedures in pilot school; adult education. American Flyers, Inc., Fort Worth, TX.

Utah Brightening and dimming of lights used for stages and studios; theater . Ariel Davis, Salt Lake City, UT.

Wisconsin Manufacturing aluminum kitchen supplies; housewares. Aluminum Specialty Co., Manitowac, WI.

Pennsylvania Tractors designed for comfort with heating and air-conditioning. Protective cab with radio. Cockshutt Farm Equipment Co., Bucks County, PA.

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but the films are stored off-site. Special arrangements must be made directly with the Archives Center staff to view episodes for which no reference copy exists. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

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 will be charged for reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Industry on Parade Film Collection, 1950-1959, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

See more items in:

Industry on Parade Film Collection

Industry on Parade Film Collection / Series 1: Motion Picture Films

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8d0cf1304-4ac7-4ed2-98b9-0f88f7e9723e

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0507-ref617

Collection Producer:

Lodge, Arthur  Search this

Arthur Lodge Productions.  Search this

Collection Creator:

National Association of Manufacturers  Search this

Extent:

1 Motion picture film

Container:

Reel AC0507-OF0428

Type:

Archival materials

Moving Images

Motion picture films

Date:

1958 December 27

Scope and Contents:

Living with Our Climate Industry eliminating discomforts and inconveniences caused by climate. Air conditioning in houses, schools, offices, and factories. Textile manufacturers increase warmth of winter clothes and coolness of summer clothes. Removing odors using a vaporized counteraction agents rather than masking. Sewage disposal plants use neutralizers. Tractors have air-conditioning and radios. Researching ways to produce snow and rain by seeding clouds. Filmed at: The Kroger Co., Cincinnati, OH; The Trane Co., LaCrosse, WI; Airkem, Inc., New York, NY; Cockshutt Farm Equipment, Inc., Brantford, Ontario, Canada; and Jen-Cel-Lite Corp., Seattle, WA.

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but the films are stored off-site. Special arrangements must be made directly with the Archives Center staff to view episodes for which no reference copy exists. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

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 will be charged for reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Industry on Parade Film Collection, 1950-1959, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

See more items in:

Industry on Parade Film Collection

Industry on Parade Film Collection / Series 1: Motion Picture Films

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep827710432-16f0-403f-acc5-a1abb330b5c9

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0507-ref767

Collection Producer:

Lodge, Arthur  Search this

Arthur Lodge Productions.  Search this

Collection Creator:

National Association of Manufacturers  Search this

Extent:

1 Motion picture film

Container:

Reel AC0507-OF0042

Type:

Archival materials

Moving Images

Motion picture films

Date:

1951 July 18

Scope and Contents:

Moving a City to the Sea! A port city; shipping. Houston, TX.

Agriculture Mobilizes! Clover and alfalfa harvesters. New Idea Farm Equip. Co., Coldwater, OH.

Building Boots! Manufacturing rubber boots. U.S. Rubber Co., Naugatuck, CT.

Fences from the Forest! Cutting cedar posts for fences. Thunder Bay, MI.

New Job for the Copter! Transportation by helicopter. New England Helicopter Co., Hillsgrove, RI.

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but the films are stored off-site. Special arrangements must be made directly with the Archives Center staff to view episodes for which no reference copy exists. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

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 will be charged for reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Industry on Parade Film Collection, 1950-1959, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

See more items in:

Industry on Parade Film Collection

Industry on Parade Film Collection / Series 1: Motion Picture Films

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8e241b4c5-2749-41a9-a04c-8419220f18df

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0507-ref87

Creator:

Dizon-Fitzsimmons, Edith Albaladejo, 1922-  Search this

Extent:

0.24 Cubic feet (1 flat box)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Scrapbooks

Date:

1965-1967

Summary:

Edith Albaladejo Dizon Fitzsimmons (1922--2014) was a music teacher, writer, and pilot in the Philippines and later Australia. This collection consists of a scrapbook created by Edith Albaladejo Dizon Fitzsimmons that documents both her life and career, but also civil aviation in the Philippines more generally.

Scope and Contents:

This collection consists of a scrapbook created by Edith Albaladejo Dizon Fitzsimmons that documents both her life and career, but also civil aviation in the Philippines more generally. The spiral bound scrapbook, which covers the approximate time period of 1965--1967 and is extensively captioned by Dizon, includes a map of airports and airfields in the Philippines; lists of commercial and government owned aircraft; a brief history of the Philippine Airmen's Organization; information on the Philippine Air Transport Service (PATS) and the Philippines Civil Aeronautics Administration; and articles written by Dizon on aviation topics including difficulties facing female pilots, different women's motivations for flying, and air traffic control. There are many photographs of Dizon, including several of her in or posed with aircraft, and of additional interest is information and photographs of other female pilots in the Philippines including Virginia Flores Rivera; Benita Yu; Lolita Butac; Felicia Natividad; Susan Ruiz; Rosario Spirig; Herminigilda Argones; as well as a British pilot operating from Sabah, Borneo, Mary Skitch. The scrapbook also contains news clippings and correspondence. A portion of the scrapbook documents the record-setting round-the-world (Manila-to-Manila) flight by Robert and Joan Wallick flying in their Beech Baron C55 Philippine Baron in June 1966.

Arrangement:

Collection is in original order.

Biographical / Historical:

Edith Albaladejo Dizon Fitzsimmons (1922--2014) was a music teacher, writer, and pilot in the Philippines and later Australia. Dizon began flying in 1959, receiving instruction at the Philippine Air Transport Service (PATS) in Manila. Dizon received private pilot license no. 1202. In addition to being an active pilot, Dizon was also an organist for several churches as well as a music teacher, served for a time as a public relations officer for the Philippines Civil Aeronautics Administration, and was a free-lance writer who published numerous articles about her experiences as a pilot and the difficulties facing women pilots in general, as well as general aviation-related articles. These endeavors helped Dizon support her six children after the death of her first husband, D. Paulo Dizon. In 1967, Edith Dizon joined the Ninety-Nines and the Philippine Airmen's Organization (of which she was a member) provided funding for her to be able to attend the Ninety-Nines convention in the United States that year. Also in 1967, Dizon was the only female pilot on a goodwill flight to Sabah, Borneo that was sponsored by the Philippine Airmen's Organization. Dizon also held a record in the Philippines for high altitude flight in a light aircraft, having reached 13,120 feet without the use of oxygen. In 1970, Dizon emigrated with her children to Australia where she worked as the public relations officer for the Mission of St James and St John in Melbourne before marrying her second husband Ray Fitzsimmons and moving to Shepparton, Victoria in 1973. Together they were responsible for the creation of Philippines House at the International Village there. In the 1990s, Dizon traveled to the United States to complete a master's degree in music therapy and enrolled in a doctoral program in women's studies at La Trobe University upon her return to Australia in 1995. Dizon also continued to teach music, perform as an organist, and lecture. Dizon celebrated her 70th, 80th, and 85th birthdays with parachute jumps. In 1998, Dizon published a book of essays on her philosophy of life entitled, The Sky's the Limit. Dizon founded the Goulburn Valley Organ Club, the Filipino-Australian Friends Association, and the Goulburn Valley Multicultural Youth Singing Bell Choir, and was the recipient of numerous honors and awards including the Pamana Ng Pilipino Presidential Award for Filipino Individuals Overseas (2000), the Centenary Medal to commemorate the Federation of Australia (2001), and the Victoria Senior Australian of the Year award (2002). Dizon was also selected to be portrayed on postage stamps as part of the Australia Post's "Face of Australia" series in 2000 and was the subject of a documentary produced in 2002 by Central Philippine University.

Provenance:

Edith A. Dizon, Gift, Date Unknown, NASM.XXXX.0281

Restrictions:

No restrictions on access

Rights:

Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.

Topic:

Aeronautics  Search this

Women air pilots  Search this

Genre/Form:

Scrapbooks

Citation:

Philippine Civil Aviation Scrapbook [Edith Dizon], NASM.XXXX.0281, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

NASM.XXXX.0281

Archival Repository:

National Air and Space Museum Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pg28ae5b081-c262-48a8-9d89-24dfac49a718

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nasm-xxxx-0281