Search Results

Creator:

Weston, Harold, 1894-1972  Search this

Names:

Adirondack Trail Improvement Society  Search this

Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA). Americans-in-Britain Outpost  Search this

Corcoran Gallery of Art  Search this

Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors  Search this

Food for Freedom, Inc.  Search this

Harvard Lampoon (Organization)  Search this

Harvard University -- Students  Search this

International Association of Art. United States Committee  Search this

Montross Gallery  Search this

National Council on the Arts and Government  Search this

National Endowment for the Arts  Search this

New York State Council on the Arts  Search this

Phillips Collection  Search this

Studio House (Phillips Memorial Gallery)  Search this

Carmichael, Leonard, 1898-1973  Search this

Dows, Olin, 1904-1981  Search this

Mumford, Lewis, 1895-1990  Search this

Phillips, Duncan, 1886-1966  Search this

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962  Search this

Rosenfeld, Paul, 1890-1946  Search this

Sizer, Theodore, 1892-1967  Search this

Weston, Faith  Search this

Extent:

24.3 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Christmas cards

Notes

Etchings

Speeches

Articles

Postcards

Poems

Woodcuts

Sketches

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Glass negatives

Lantern slides

Copper plates

Place:

Adirondack Mountain Reserve (N.Y.)

Date:

1894-1978

bulk 1912-1972

Summary:

The papers of modernist painter and activist Harold Weston (1894-1972) date from 1894 to 1978 and measure 24.3 linear feet. The papers focus on Weston's painting career and his involvement with humanitarian and artistic causes. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, personal business records, association and organization records, commission and project files, materials relating to Weston's book Freedom in the Wilds, writings, artwork, printed materials, two scrapbooks, and photographs.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of modernist painter and activist Harold Weston (1894-1972) date from 1894 to 1978 and measure 24.3 linear feet. The papers focus on Weston's painting career and his involvement with humanitarian and artistic causes. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, personal business records, association and organization records, commission and project files, materials relating to Weston's book Freedom in the Wilds, writings, artwork, printed materials, two scrapbooks, and photographs. The papers document his involvement with the Committee to Defend America, Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, Food for Freedom, the International Association of the Plastic Arts, National Countil on the Arts and Government, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Reconstruction Service Committee, and the YMCA in Baghdad.

Biographical materials include biographical sketches and resumes, including a short biography written by Faith Weston in 1969. There are records from his school years at Exeter Academy and Harvard University that include yearbooks, report cards, scholarship information, Harvard Lampoon materials, and a diploma from Harvard. Also found are materials relating to Faith Weston, membership cards, memorials information, passports and travel papers, and wedding wishes.

Correspondence from Harold Weston dates from his school years up until his death in 1972. In letters to his family, Weston discusses his education; his travel and activities in the Middle East during World War I; the Adirondacks; convalescense in France in the mid-1920s; his immediate family life; and exhibitions. Also found are holiday cards designed and printed by Weston. The majority of correspondence is with his father S. Burns Weston, mother Mary, sister Esther, brother Carl, Faith Weston and the Borton family, children Barbara, Bruce, and Haroldine, and others. Also found are letters between Weston and friend Theodore Sizer and Duncan Phillips of the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

Personal business and financial records relating to Weston's exhibitions include delivery receipts, agreements, hand-drawn gallery plans for exhibitions, lists of exhibitions, framing invoices, legal information, pricelists, records of sales, and lists of works of art. Galleries with which Weston held exhibitions, sold, or lent works of art include Boyer Galleries, Corcoran Gallery, the Gallery in Paoli, Montross Gallery, the Phillips Collection, and Studio House Galleries.

Records relating to Harold Weston's memberships and involvement with professional associations and service organizations are from the Adirondack Trail Improvement Society, the Committee to Defend America, Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, Food for Freedom, International Association of the Plastic Arts/International Arts Association, National Countil on the Arts and Government, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Reconstruction Service Committee, and the Young Men's Christian Association, Baghdad. The files include correspondence, financial records, meetings and membership information, notes, organizational history, photographs, printed materials, programs and activities records, speeches, and writings.

Files that document Weston's Building the United Nations and the Treasury Relief Project sponsored "Procurement Building Murals" are found within the Commissions and Project files series. The files include correspondence, financial information, legal documents, photographs of the works of art and research photos, and printed materials. Correspondence of note includes letters written by Lewis Mumford, Duncan Phillips, Eleanor Roosevelt on behalf of Weston's Building of the United Nations and letters from Leonard Carmichael, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Letters from Olin Dows of the Treasury Relief Art Project are within correspondence relating to the "Procurement Building Murals." Also found are preliminary sketches of the murals.

The Freedom in the Wilds series contains materials relating to the book which combined Weston's autobiography with a history of the Adirondack Mountain Reserve. Additional writings and notes are by Harold Weston and others, and include articles, poetry, notes, speech notes and speeches, and lists. Harold Weston's articles include "Persian Caravan Sketches" published in 1921 discussing his travels throughout the Middle East. Other articles are written by Duncan Phillips, Paul Rosenfeld, Barbara Weston, and Faith Weston. Also found are postcards annoted with notes by Harold Weston about his travels.

Artwork inlcudes sketches, etchings, copperplates, and woodcuts. There are copperplates entitled "Shroud" and of the series Building the United Nations for the Harvard Alumni bulletin in 1957; an untitled etching by Weston; sketches including those from Baghdad and watercolor sketches; a woodcut of the 1924 Weston holiday card; and scattered unsigned sketches probably not by Weston.

Printed materials include calendars with notations; clippings; exhibition catalogs and announcements for Weston's exhibitions dating from 1922-1976 and for others; gallery tags or labels for paintings shown in exhibitions; reproductions of illustrations for the Harvard Lampoon and full issues from 1911-1916; materials relating to the Harvard production of Henry IV, for which Weston designed the sets; reproductions of works of art by Weston and by others; school seals; and various art related publications.

There are two scrapbooks compiled by Faith Weston about her husband. The first contains materials relating to Weston's activity with the International Association of the Plastic Arts Conference of 1963, including a letter and photograph of President John F. Kennedy. The second scrapbook dates from 1977 and consists of general clippings relating to Weston's career, dating from 1917 to 1952 with additional materials added by Faith in 1977.

Photographs are of Weston, family members, exhibitions and installations, and works of art by Weston and others. There are also numerous photographs of Weston's travel through the Adirondacks, the Middle East, Europe, and India. Also found are glass plate negatives of works of art painted in France between 1926-1930; scattered glass plate negatives of Baghdad and the Middle East; glass plates belonging to S. Burns Weston of the Adirondacks, circa 1900; and approximately 100 lantern slides of the various Middle Eastern cities and ruins - probably used by Weston to illustrate his talks given in the 1920s.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 11 series. Glass plate negatives are housed separately and closed to researchers:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Information, 1896-1974 (Box 1, 38; 0.4 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1894-1975 (Box 1-3, 38; 2.5 linear feet)

Series 3: Personal Business and Financial records, 1912-1977 (Box 4; 0.4 linear feet)

Series 4: Associations and Organizations records, 1916-1972 (Box 4-10, 37-38; 6.5 linear feet)

Series 5: Commissions and Project files, 1935-1965 (Box 10-12, 38, OV 39; 1.4 linear feet)

Series 6: -- Freedom in the Wilds -- records, late 1960s-1976 (Box 12-13; 1.8 linear feet)

Series 7: Writings and Notes, 1912-1975 (Box 13-14; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 8: Artwork and Artifacts, circa 1917-1967 (Box 14, 21; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 9: Printed Material, circa 1900-1978 (Box 15-18, 38; 2.5 linear feet)

Series 10: Scrapbooks, circa 1963-1977 (Box 17-18; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 11: Photographs, circa 1900-1975 (Box 18-20, 22-36, 38; 4.8 linear feet)

Biographical Note:

Modernist painter and federal Treasury Relief Art Project artist Harold Weston (1894-1972) worked primarily in New York City and St. Huberts, New York in the Adirondacks. Weston was president of the U.S. Commission of the International Association of Art/Plastic Arts and the Federation of Modern Painters and Scultors. He was also chairman of the National Council on the Arts and Government and active with various political and humanitarian causes.

Harold Weston was born in 1894 in Merion, Pennsylvania into a privileged family. He attended school in Europe as a teenager, where he began to draw and sketch. In 1910, Harold contracted Polio which left him with a weak leg. After graduating from Exeter Academy, Harold entered Harvard University with the class of 1916 and was active in the Delta Upsilon Club and the Harvard Lampoon, for which he illustrated.

Despite his leg, Weston was determined to serve in some form during World War I. He traveled to Baghdad and volunteered with the YMCA. Here he started the Baghdad Art Club and organized exhibitions of soldier art. He remained in the Middle East until 1919 and served as the official painter for the British Army. The colors and the landscape of the region also inspired later works of art.

Upon returning to the United States, Weston built a one-room cabin in the Adirondack Mountains, where he lived and painted. He had his first one-man exhibtition at the Montross Gallery in 1922. In 1923, he married Faith Borton who moved with him to the Adirondacks. His wife inspired his series of "landscape nudes" which treated the body with different techniques that would typically be used in landscape painting. After suffering from a kidney infection in 1925, Weston and his wife moved to Ceres, France to recover. Weston continued to paint and started a family with Faith while in France. In 1930, the family moved back to the United States and lived in Greenwich Village, New York.

From 1936-1938, Harold Weston worked with the federal Treasury Relief Art Project and painted murals in the Procurement Building in Washington, D.C. The murals represent the growth of public buildings during the Great Depression. He took on a second major project to document the contruction of the United Nations in a series of six paintings. Later, the Smithsonian Instution received the paintings as gifts through an independent committee.

In addition to painting, Harold Weston devoted himself to public service by becoming involved in humanitarian causes, artist professional organizations, and federal government support of the arts. Weston served as president or chairman of three different organizations including the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, the International Association of Art/International Association of the Plastic Art, and the National Council on the Arts and Government. Before the start of World War II, Harold Weston was named the Chairman of Essex County Committee to Defend America, which argued for financial support of the allied forces in World War II. After the start of the war, he helped form the Food for Freedom movement which urged American aid for European and Asian refugees. Similarly, Weston served as Executive Secretary for the Reconstruction Service Committee which was established to assist the rebuilding of Europe.

Later in life, Weston wrote a book Freedom in the Wilds, which combined his own autobiography with a history of the Adirondack Mountain Reserve. Harold Weston died on April 10th, 1972 in New York City.

Separated Material:

The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel N69-76) including biographic notes, exhibition material, clippings, a presentation album, and commemorative stamps. Some, but not all, of these papers were included in later donations. Materials not donated remain with the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.

Syracuse University also holds circa 14 linear feet of Harold Weston's papers.

Provenance:

Harold Weston lent the Archives of American Art materials for microfilming in 1969. Faith Borton Weston, Harold Weston's widow, donated the papers in several increments between 1972-1980 and lent materials for microfilming in 1977.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment.

Rights:

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Topic:

Painting, Abstract -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Federal aid to the arts  Search this

Art and state  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

World War, 1914-1918  Search this

Genre/Form:

Christmas cards

Notes

Etchings

Speeches

Articles

Postcards

Poems

Woodcuts

Sketches

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Glass negatives

Lantern slides

Copper plates

Citation:

Harold Weston papers, 1894-1978. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.

Identifier:

AAA.westharo

See more items in:

Harold Weston papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw912c19da0-1e91-45ea-b15f-b3d423b2a075

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-westharo

Creator:

Powers, Hiram, 1805-1873  Search this

Names:

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848  Search this

Astor, William B. (William Backhouse), 1792-1875  Search this

Atlee, Samuel Yorke, b. 1808  Search this

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 1806-1861  Search this

Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878  Search this

Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell), 1782-1850  Search this

Crawford, Thomas, 1813 or 14-1857  Search this

Dix, John A. (John Adams), 1798-1879  Search this

Durand, Asher Brown, 1796-1886  Search this

Everett, Edward, 1794-1865  Search this

Fuller, Charles Francis  Search this

Gray, Henry Peters, 1819-1877  Search this

Greeley, Horace, 1811-1872  Search this

Healy, G.P.A. (George Peter Alexander), 1813-1894  Search this

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845  Search this

Kinney, E. Clementine  Search this

Kinney, William  Search this

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882  Search this

Marsh, George Perkins, 1801-1882  Search this

Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791-1872  Search this

Peabody, George, 1795-1869  Search this

Powers, Longworth, 1835-1904  Search this

Powers, Preston, 1842 or 1843-1904  Search this

Sartain, John, 1808-1897  Search this

Story, William Wetmore, 1819-1895  Search this

Taylor, Bayard, 1825-1878  Search this

Trollope, Francis  Search this

Webster, Daniel, 1782-1852  Search this

Extent:

12.4 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Scrapbooks

Photographs

Writings

Drawings

Poetry

Date:

1819-1953

bulk 1835-1883

Summary:

The papers of sculptor Hiram Powers measure 12.4 linear feet and date from 1819 to 1953, with the bulk of the material dating from 1835 to 1883. Over two-thirds of the collection consists of Powers' correspondence with business associates, purchasers of his artwork, and numerous friends in the United States and Florence, Italy. Of note is Powers' "Studio Memorandum," from 1841 to 1845, which contains dated notations of letters written, receipts and expenditures, business contacts, works in progress, commissions and price quotations for work, comments on problems encountered during studio work, and other notes. Additional papers include scattered biographical material, financial and legal records, printed materials, photographs of Powers, his family, artwork, as well as an extensive collection of carte de visite and cabinet card portraits of many notable figures. Also found is a small amount of artwork by Powers and others, a scrapbook, and two autograph and memorabilia albums.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of sculptor Hiram Powers measure 12.4 linear feet and date from 1819 to 1953, with the bulk of the material dating from 1835 to 1883. Over two-thirds of the collection consists of Powers' correspondence, which is particularly rich in documenting his artwork, methodology, and his interaction with business associates, purchasers of his artwork, and his numerous friends in the United States and Florence, Italy. Other papers include scattered biographical material, writings by Powers and others, financial and legal records, news clippings and printed items, photographs of Powers, his family, artwork, as well as an extensive collection of carte de visite and cabinet card portraits of many notable figures. Also found is a small amount of artwork by Powers and others, a scrapbook, and two autograph and memorabilia albums.

Biographical material consists of documents for honors conferred on Powers, price lists and inventories of his artwork, papers regarding his death, including a translation of his will, and ephemera, such as his studio cap.

The bulk of the collection consists of Powers' correspondence with family, friends, business associates, and others, documenting his career as an artist and his personal life after he and his family moved to Florence, Italy, in 1837. Almost all of the letters have typed unconfirmed transcriptions completed by volunteers at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Besides details of his studio work and business dealings, his letters often discuss his views on aesthetics, American politics, slavery and the Civil War, and Spiritualism. Notable correspondence is with William B. Astor, Edward Everett, Samuel York Atlee, William and E. Clementine Kinney, George P. Marsh, George Peabody, Presidents Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, William Cullen Bryant, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John C. Calhoun, Thomas Crawford, John A. Dix, Asher Durand, Charles Francis Fuller, Henry Peters Gray, Horace Greeley, George P. A. Healy, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Samuel F. B. Morse, W. W. Story, John Sartain, Frances Trollope, and Daniel Webster.

Writings by Powers include his "Studio Memorandum," a journal-type notebook he kept from 1841 to 1845, which contains dated notations of letters written, receipts and expenditures, business contacts, works in progress, commissions and price quotations for work, comments on problems encountered during studio work, and other notes. Additional writings include poetry and autobiographical essays and instructions for handling his sculptures. Writings by others include poetry, most of which was written in praise of Powers' artwork. Of note are handwritten transcripts of poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Bayard Taylor, and John Quincy Adams. Also found here are short writings about Powers and his artwork.

Scattered financial and legal records in this collection include patent documents for tools invented by Powers, legal agreements, account statements, and bills and receipts. Printed material consists of news clippings, two booklets, an art association brochure, and an exhibition catalog for works by Powers.

This collection contains photographs of Hiram Powers, his family, friends, notable public figures, and artwork. Many of the photographs were taken by his son, Longworth Powers, who had a private photography studio in Florence. Included are portraits of Powers and his family, as well as a collection of 267 carte de visite and cabinet card portraits of artists, performers, politicians, writers, scientists, and other public figures, many of whom were friends with the Powers family. Other photographs depict Woodstock, Vermont, the marble quarry at Carrara, Italy, and artwork by Hiram and Preston Powers. Also found here is a photograph album kept by Louisa Powers.

Artwork consists of three drawings by Hiram Powers, including a caricature of Miner Kellogg. Also found in this collection is a scrapbook containing news clippings regarding the American tour of the sculpture Greek Slave, an autograph album belonging to Louisa Powers, and an album containing pencil drawings by Preston Powers and dried flowers collected on travels.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into 8 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1841-1927 (Box 1, 15; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1819-1883 (Box 1-10; 9.0 linear feet)

Series 3: Writings, 1827-1887 (Box 10; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 4: Financial and Legal Records, circa 1840s-1892, 1915 (Box 10, OV 17; 8 folders)

Series 5: Printed Material, circa 1845-1953 (Box 10; 5 folders)

Series 6: Photographs, circa 1860s-1900, 1927, 1932, early 1950s (Box 10-13, 16, OV 17; 1.8 linear feet)

Series 7: Artwork, 1860, mid-1800s (Box 11; 4 folders)

Series 8: Scrapbooks and Albums, 1847-1876 (Box 14; 3 folders)

Biographical Note:

American sculptor Hiram Powers (1805-1873) was born in Woodstock, Vermont, and lived and worked briefly in Washington, D.C. and Boston, before settling permanently in Florence, Italy. Powers is known for portrait busts of prominent American politicians and his idealized neo-classical sculptures, most notably the Greek Slave.

The second youngest of nine children, Powers moved with his family to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1817. When he was 18 he began working in a factory that repaired watches and organs, and he later worked in the mechanical department of Dorfeuille's Western Museum. There, he developed his interest in sculpture and received a commission to create wax figures for a tableau of Dante's Inferno. In 1825 he studied with the Prussian sculptor Frederick Eckstein, who taught him how to model clay and make plaster casts. His early commissions for portrait busts caught the attention of Nicholas Longworth, who became his first patron and funded his travel to Washington, DC, in 1834. While in Washington, Powers completed portrait busts of several prominent politicians, including President Andrew Jackson. He also briefly worked on several commissions in Boston. In 1837, thanks to the patronage of Colonel John S. Preston, he and his family moved to Florence, Italy. He intended to live there for only a few years, but remained there for the rest of his life.

Powers set up a studio in Florence with several assistants, and continued to work on portrait bust commissions. He and his family were active members of the intellectual community of American and English émigrés, such as Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Horatio Greenough, the Trollope family, and many others. His studio was also a frequent stop on tourists' visits to Florence. In 1839 Powers began working on idealized sculptures in the Neo-classical style, based on history, mythology, and religion. Perhaps most famous of these are Greek Slave and Fisher Boy. Completed in 1845, Greek Slave was exhibited in London and toured the United States. The sculpture received wide attention from the press for its depiction of female nudity and its philosophical significance, and established Powers' international success as a sculptor.

During his career Powers received private and government commissions for portrait busts and ideal sculptures, and sold many replicas of his work. He also invented improved tools for use in his studio, which were patented in the United States, and he developed a special finishing process for marble from the Carrara quarry. He maintained friendships with many Americans through extensive correspondence, and openly expressed his views on the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. Powers' son Longworth had a photography and sculpture studio nearby, and his son Preston, also a sculptor, took over many of Hiram Powers' remaining projects at the time of his death in 1873.

Related Material:

Additional Hiram Powers papers are available at the Winterthur Museum.

Separated Materials:

The Archives of American Art also holds materials lent for microfilming. Reel D117 contains "The Sculpture of Hiram Powers," by Paul B. Metzler. Reels 815-818 includes a "Collection of Letters from Old Residents of Cincinnati to Hiram Powers," compiled by Clara Louise Dentler. Reels 1102-1103 are comprised of an unpublished manuscript entitled "White Marble: The Life and Letters of Hiram Powers, Sculptor," by Clara Louise Dentler. Lent materials were returned to the lenders and are not described in the collection container inventory.

Provenance:

The Hiram Powers papers were purchased by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1967 from Christina Seeber, great-granddaughter of Hiram Powers which was subsequenlty transferred to the Archives of American Art in 1984. The Cincinnati Historical Society and Ohio State University also lent the Archives omaterials for microfilming in 1974.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment.

Rights:

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Topic:

Sculptors -- Italy -- Florence  Search this

Genre/Form:

Scrapbooks

Photographs

Writings

Drawings

Poetry

Citation:

Hiram Powers papers, 1819-1953, bulk 1835-1883. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.

Identifier:

AAA.powehira

See more items in:

Hiram Powers papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw90ad32f84-2619-4144-9600-0e9de7d6372d

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-powehira

Creator:

Higgins, Michael, 1908-  Search this

Names:

American Craftsmen's Council  Search this

Institute of Design (Chicago, Ill.)  Search this

Midwest Designer-Craftsmen  Search this

Extent:

1.2 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Drawings

Scrapbooks

Date:

1949-1973

Summary:

The papers of Illinois glass artist Michael Higgins measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1949 to 1973. The collection documents Higgins's role in founding and furthering craft organizations in the Midwest through correspondence, professional files, exhibition records, transcripts, organizational files for several craft organizations including Midwest Designer-Craftsmen, and printed materials.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of Illinois glass artist Michael Higgins measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1949 to 1973. The collection documents Higgins's role in founding and furthering craft organizations in the mid-west.

Records include correspondence regarding exhibitions and craft organization activities. Professional files contain drawings, photographs of the exhibition Contemporary Living (1952), exhibition records, transcripts for panel talks, a Kenneth Bates show review typescript, and organizational files for the American Craftsmen's Council, Midwest Designer-Craftsmen, and a few other organizations. Also found are printed materials consisting of clippings and exhibition catalogs.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 3 series.

Series 1: Correspondence, 1951-1967 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 2: Professional Files, 1951-1969 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 3: Printed Materials, 1949-1973 (0.3 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)

Biographical / Historical:

Michael Higgins (1908-1999) was a glass artist in Riverside, Illinois.

Higgins was born in London, England and attended the London Central School of Arts and Crafts. He emigrated to the United States in 1939 becoming the head of Visual Design at the Chicago Institute of Design after World War II. There, he met his wife Frances Stewart, who was one of his students. They married in 1948 and opened their own glass studio outside of Chicago in Riverside.

In the early 1950s, Higgins became involved with a special crafts exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute and an eventual spin-off organization, the Midwest Designer-Craftsmen. The organization was interested in developing exhibitions, markets, and professional associations for craft professionals in the Midwest. Higgins was one of the main forces behind the organization and the body which followed it, the Illinois Craftsmen's Council.

Higgins died in Riverside in 1999.

Provenance:

The collection was donated in 1975 by Michael Higgins.

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.

Rights:

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Occupation:

Glass artists -- Illinois  Search this

Topic:

Decorative arts  Search this

Genre/Form:

Drawings

Scrapbooks

Citation:

Michael Higgins papers, 1949-1973. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.higgmich

See more items in:

Michael Higgins papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9a8f5ba26-7eef-41fc-a3bb-041c67afeaac

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-higgmich

Creator:

Underwood & Underwood  Search this

Publisher:

American Stereoscopic Co.  Search this

H. C. White Co.  Search this

Killela, J.J.  Search this

Underwood, Bert, 1862-1943  Search this

Underwood, Elmer, 1859-1947  Search this

Photographer:

Ponting, Herbert George, 1870-1935  Search this

Underwood, Bert, 1862-1943  Search this

Underwood, Elmer, 1859-1947  Search this

White, Clarence W.  Search this

Extent:

160 Cubic feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Stereographs

Photographs

Stereoscopic photographs

Lantern slides

Date:

1895-1921

Summary:

A collection of approximately 28,000 glass plate negatives showing views of a variety of subjects.

Scope and Contents:

The major part of the collection, series 1-4, contains nearly 28,000 glass plates, including original stereoscopic negatives, interpositives, and both negative and positive non-stereoscopic plates used to produce lantern slides and paper prints. The photographs were taken all over the world. The majority are from the Underwood & Underwood active files, but plates from other publishers are also included. Series 5 is a small collection of paper stereographs. Series 6 contains 4 Underwood & Underwood descriptive sales catalogs and 1 H. C. White & Co. catalog (numbers on the Underwood plates correspond to the numbers on catalog captions). Series 7 is apparatus--four stereoscopes.

The approximately 28,000 glass plates in this collection have not been completely inspected at this point due to handling problems associated with asbestos contamination of the collection. A preliminary survey, however, indicated that the selections of images cover the full range of subject matter encompassed by the "Underwood Travel System." The subject matter is most easily comprehended by consulting one of the Underwood sales catalogs which accompany the collection. The catalog captions are arranged geographically, for the most part, and generally represent an organized "tour" which could be purchased as a boxed set, complete with maps and guide book, although individual images could be purchased separately. The catalogs indicate that the Underwood files were continually updated, for extensive modifications in some of the sets can be seen from edition to edition, and actual inspection of published stereographs shows that alternate views with identical Underwood catalog numbers were substituted from time to time, and that new subjects (with new catalog numbers) were sometimes introduced into the sets and old subjects were retired. There are glass plate negatives as well as positives in this collection. The positive images were probably interpositives used for the production of duplicate negatives. Some of the original stereo negatives were cut apart and the images transposed; they were then bound with an additional glass support (in many cases the tape has deteriorated). Half stereo positives also appear in the collection: these probably were intended for use in lantern slide production. Frequently a drawer of plates contains several incarnations of a single image, including the original negative, a copy negative, an interpositive, and a positive lantern slide. In other cases a drawer may contain only a single mode, e.g., original negatives, while corresponding positives and/or lantern slides appear in separate drawers.

A small quantity of the Underwood & Underwood plates are not from the Travel System, but represent humorous and genre subjects which were cataloged and marketed separately. The work of several other publishers, usually without Underwood catalog numbers, is also represented, including H. C. White, American Stereoscopic Company, and J. J. Killela.

The arrangement of the collection seems to reflect a combination of permanent reference storage as well as active use files. The apparent anomalies or inconsistencies probably indicate the pulling of plates from permanent files into temporary work files, and the collection may consist of a combination of permanent storage and temporary working files. As the drawers do not appear to have been renumbered according to any easily discernible pattern, they have become intermixed and rearranged in storage. The contents of each drawer usually have been found in good order, however, and the plates were nearly always arranged numerically,usually with the low numbers at the rear of the drawer and the highest number at the front. As the plates have been rehoused, the reverse numerical order has been corrected. When all the plates have been rehoused and inventoried, consideration will be given to general collection rearrangement and renumbering of the containers, either strictly in numerical order or topically and/or geographically with a numerical sequence within each group.

The collection is in good condition for the most part, although conservation attention will be required. There is a certain amount of emulsion peeling or frilling at the edges of some plates, but this is a condition to which emulsions on glass frequently are prone. A few plates, bound in a sandwich arrangement between cover glass and acetate facing the emulsion, have suffered severe damage, peeling, and image losses through the apparent ferrotyping and sticking of emulsion to the plastic, probably under conditions of high humidity at some stage. There is surprisingly little glass breakage within the collection.

Most of the stereoscopic negatives and many of the positives are defaced with a double "XI' scratched into the emulsion of either the left or right side, as described above in the historical note. Of particular interest and presumed rarity are cards found interfiled with plates in many of the drawers. These cards, filed by Underwood (i.e., catalog) numbers, bear printing'or production dates and notes, along with the unique, chronological accession numbers which the company assigned to each plate, regardless of the "active" number which it might eventually receive. A check mark on a card usually refers to a plate actually in the collection and with which the card is found physically associated; additional accession numbers without check marks listed on the cards possibly refer to variant views which were discarded or may in fact be in the Keystone Mast Collection (pending further research). For ease of handling and in the interest of conservation, the cards have been separated from the plates within each drawer and are arranged as a group at the rear, but can still be located easily. Frequently when a plate and/or its original envelope does not bear both the "active" and accession numbers, the missing number can be located on one of these cards.

Photographers represented include Herbert G. Ponting and Clarence W. White. A photographer and/or publisher named J. J. Killela is also represented.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged in seven series. Series 1, 2, and 3 are each divided into negative and positive subseries. Plates are arranged numerically in groups based on geographical and subject content. Controlled at the series level in the finding aid and at the item level in a computer database.

Series 1, H. C. White glass plates

Series 2, American Stereoscpopic Co. glass plates

Series 3, Underwood & Underwood glass plates

Series 4, Broken glass plates

Series 5, Original company catalogs

Series 6, Paper stereographs

Series 7, stereoscopes (viewers)

Biographical / Historical:

Underwood & Underwood was established at Ottawa, Kansas, by the young brothers Elmer and Bert Underwood in 1882. They initially operated as distributors for eastern photographers' stereographs to new markets in the West. Their activities included door to door canvassing with views by Charles Bierstadt, J. F. Jarvis, and Littleton View Co.(1) Underwood & Underwood, Publishers, opened a branch office in Baltimore in 1887.(2)

Soon Underwood & Underwood and other large stereograph publishers began recruiting college students to work as salesmen during summer months (1890). Underwood and Underwood claimed that their organization alone sent out as many as 3,000 college students in one Summer [sic]. With the other ... big companies each employing more than 1,000, it is easy to understand how the countryside of the Nation literally swarmed with stereograph salesmen throughout the summer months! ... The competition between the salesmen themselves was likewise aggressive, with no holds barred. Many successful business and professional men of today relate with considerable pride that they got their start on their careers in this practical and very effective school of salesmanship.(3)

The company moved its main office from Ottawa, Kansas to New York City (1891),(4) and gradually began to publish its own stereographs. Bert Underwood finally took photography lessons from M. Abel in Mentone, France during the same year.(5) B. L. Singley, erstwhile salesman for the Underwood & Underwood and James M. Davis & Co. firms, in 1892 formed the Keystone View Company of Meadville, Pennsylvania, which was to become Underwood & Underwood's chief competitor and imitator.(6)

Underwood & Underwood entered the education market (1895) by producing packaged sets of 100 or more stereographs with descriptive texts.(7) From 1897 the firm employed full time staff photographers as well as free lancers. By 1901 the Underwoods were publishing 25,000 stereographs per day (i.e.,total number of cards). Increasing production levels led them to gain control of the Jarvis, Bierstadt, and William H. Rau photoprinting facilities in 1897 1898.(8)

The Keystone view Company created its own Educational Department in 1898. This division sustained the Keystone View Company past the period of the stereograph's popularity. In this year Underwood & Underwood reprinted Oliver Wendell Holmes's series on the stereograph and stereoscope which originally appeared in The Atlantic Monthly between 1859 and 1863. This eighty page booklet included testimonials from eminent scholars on the value of the stereograph in education. The company had been test marketing what itlater called "The Underwood Travel System." This consisted of a boxed set of stereo views of a country or region, a guide book describing the significance of the places shown, and a map showing their location and the viewpoints from which the stereographs were taken. Captions on the backs of the stereographs were sometimes printed in six languages.(9) As stereographs began to be used in schools as visual aids, the firm promoted its Travel System with endorsements from prominent educators, citing the usage of the system by various schools and universities.(10)

The H. C. White Company, which had manufactured stereoscopes for several decades, entered the stereo publication field in 1899.(11) Much of its production seemed to imitate Underwood & Underwood cards, including typography and the color of mount stock. Underwood & Underwood expanded into news photography by 1910 and gradually decreased its stereographic work. Few new stereo negatives were added to the file after 1912 except for a flurry of activity during the early war years, 1914 1916. The total number of Underwood & Underwood "titles" in stereo were from 30,000 to 40,000 (there might be a substantially larger number of actual negatives, since the files frequently were updated with newer views for old catalog numbers).(12)

Underwood & Underwood sold a portion of its negative file to the educational division of Keystone View Company in 1912,(13) and between 1921 1923 conveyed to this competitor their remaining stereo stock (presumably both cards and negatives) and rights.(14) In addition to its involvement as a news photographic agency, the company eventually opened portrait studios which flourished during the World war II years. A former Smithsonian employee, Vince Connolly, worked for Underwood & Underwood, which competed with Harris & Ewing in general portrait work during that period: he did portraiture and other photography, but says he was unaware of his employer's earlier stereo publishing activities.

Underwood & Underwood donated approximately 6000 negatives to the Section of Photography of the Division of Graphic Arts (1964). These photographs are primarily 4" x 5", captioned glass plate and film negatives. The subjects are news events and theatrical, sports, and political subjects of the early 20th century. In a letter to the Smithsonian of March 25, 1966 (in accession number 270586), Mrs. John M. Stratton described another collection of Underwood & Underwood photographs, stating that her husband had been a partner in Underwood & Underwood Illustrations and owned Underwood & Underwood News Photos. In November of the same year Mr. and Mrs. Stratton donated this collection of glass plates by Underwood & Underwood and other publishers to the Division of Photographic History (then the Section of Photography of the Division of Graphic Arts) . This material consists of both negative and positive stereographic plates, as well as non stereoscopic plates, chiefly copies made from the stereographs, with some catalogs, stereoscopes, and other material. The donor estimated 12,900 plates, but in 1983 the Smithsonian Institution inventory yielded a total of approximately 28,000 plates.

The Keystone View Company's stereoscopic production continued much later than Underwood & Underwood's. It was not until 1939 when declining interest in stereography led the firm to discontinue stereograph production and enter the field of visual optometrics. The stereoscopic negative collection, including material obtained from Underwood & Underwood and other firms, was placed in storage in concrete vaults. The Mast family of Davenport, Iowa, eventually purchased the collection in 1963, and in 1977 donated the collection to the University of California for its California Museum of Photography in Riverside. The University took physical possession of this vast collection in 1979.(15)

Many of the Underwood & Underwood plates donated by the Strattons (which were transferred to the Archives Center in 1983), in effect have been cancelled by having diagonal lines (double "X" marks) scratched into the emulsion of either the left or right image of each stereo pair (never both sides). These cancellation marks do not appear on the Underwood & Underwood plates in the Keystone Mast Collection in Riverside. This leads to several theories: (a) that these cancellations were in fact the reason that the Smithsonian plates were not purchased by Keystone in either 1912 or 1921, since Keystone clearly intended to use the Underwood material for stereograph production and the defaced plates would be of no value to them for this purpose; or (b), as stereo collector John Waldsmith suggests, that the cancellations were part of an agreement between Underwood & Underwood and Keystone: Keystone may have asked Underwood & Underwood to cancel one side of each stereoscopic plate not being sold to Keystone so that Underwood & Underwood would no longer be able to compete with Keystone in the stereo market. The defaced plates, as well as other material which Keystone did not purchase, apparently remained in Underwood custody and eventually were acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Stratton. The cancellation marks in the Smithsonian's collection are the subject of further conjecture. Edward Earle at Riverside feels that, since Underwood & Underwood sought to abandonded stereograph production much earlier than Keystone's departure from the field in order to enter the non stereoscopic lantern slide market, the cancellation may have served to indicate which side of each sterescopic pair should be converted to lantern slide production use; the existence of the 4" x 5" copy negatives and positives from stereographs in this collection seem to corroborate this. The Underwood & Underwood conversion from stereograph to lantern slide materials seems to coincide with the ascendance of lantern slide projection as visual aids in schools. The company apparently modified the type of photographic product which they published at least partially in recognition of this new educational trend.

NOTES

1. edward W. Earle, ed., Points of View: The Stereograph in America A Cultural @ Visual 'g . E!Ltory, Rochester, F.Y., Th Studies Workshop ress, 1979, p. 60; William Culp Darrah, The World of Stereographs, Gettysburg, Pa., 1979, p. 46.

2. Tbid., p. 62.

3. George E. Hamilton, Oliver Wendell Holmes, His Pioneer SLtuereoscope and Later Industry, New York, New )men Society, 1949, p. 17, quoted in Points of 1=e w:, 6 4 . P.

4. Points of View., p. 66.

5. Darrah, p. 47.

6. points of View, p. 66.

7. Ibid., p. 68.

8. Darrah, p. 47.

9. Points of View, p. 70.

10. Howard S. Becker, "Steteographs: Local, National, and International Art Worlds," in Points of View, p. 95. 11. points of View, p. 72.

12. Darrah, p. 48.

13. Darrah, p. 48, quoted in Points of View, P. 82.

14. Darrah, p. 48.

15. Chris J. Kenney, introduction to "Perspective and the Past: The Keystone Mast Collection," CMP Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1982.

Related Materials:

California Museum of Photography, University of California--Riverside, Riverside, California 92521.

Underwood & Underwood stereographs in this collection and the Smithsonian Underwood & Underwood Collection originally were components of the same company file.

Provenance:

Collection donated by June Stratton (Mrs. John M.) on December 19, 1966.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. The original glass plate is available for inspection if necessary in the Archives Center. A limited number of fragile glass negatives and positives in the collection can be viewed directly in the Archives Center by prior appointment. 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:

Traveling sales personnel  Search this

Travel photography -- 1890-1930  Search this

Genre/Form:

Stereographs -- 1890-1930

Photographs -- Interpositives -- Glass -- 1890-1930

Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Glass -- 1890-1930

Photographs -- 1900-1950

Stereoscopic photographs -- Glass -- 1890-1930

Lantern slides

Photographs -- 1890-1900

Citation:

Underwood &Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0143

See more items in:

Underwood & Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep86e358e26-e305-49a6-bf9b-f2d38d995ae0

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0143

Creator:

Orchard, William C.  Search this

Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation  Search this

Names:

San Carlos Apache Tribe  Search this

Extent:

27 Negatives (photographic) (black and white)

324 Photographic prints (black and white)

34 Lantern slides (color)

Culture:

White Mountain Apache  Search this

Diné (Navajo)  Search this

A:shiwi (Zuni)  Search this

San Carlos Apache  Search this

White Mountain Apache  Search this

Hopi Pueblo  Search this

Ute  Search this

Isleta Pueblo  Search this

Sac and Fox (Sauk & Fox)  Search this

Laguna Pueblo  Search this

Apatohsipipiikani (Northern Piegan)  Search this

Seminole  Search this

Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo)  Search this

Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl)  Search this

Maidu  Search this

Wixarika (Huichol)  Search this

Acoma Pueblo  Search this

Taos Pueblo  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Negatives (photographic)

Photographic prints

Lantern slides

Photographs

Black-and-white negatives

Place:

Colorado

San Juan Pueblo (N.M.)

New Mexico

Arizona

Date:

circa 1899-1937

bulk 1900-1902

Summary:

The majority of the images are individual and group portraits of Southwestern tribes, photographed between 1900-1902, including Laguna Pueblo, Hopi Pueblo, Zuni Pueblo, Taos Pueblo, San Juan Pueblo, White Mountain Apache, Ute, San Carlos Apache, and Navajo Indians.

Scope and Contents:

The Orchard collection consists overwhelmingly of informal single and group portraits made by Orchard in 1900 and 1902 of Diné (Navajo), Hopi Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, A:shiwi (Zuni), and White Mountain Apache men and women. Among these are photographs of Native children standing before agency schools. In addition, there are informal single and group portraits of Jemez Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, Ute, Uintah, San Carlos Apache, and Ohkey Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo) men and women; photographs of Walpi, Zuni, Toas, and Acoma villages; and a few landscape views made in the Rio Grande and Little Colorado River canyons. There are a few portraits of Mohawk men and Sac and Fox women. A few photographs date from 1926 and are of Seminole women performing household duties. There are also a few excavations photographs, including those taken of an 1918 excavation along Spuyten Duyvil Creek in New York. Orchard made the later photographs on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. Some of the negatives are glass plate negatives and others are copy negatives made of the photographs.

Arrangement:

Prints Arranged by print number (P01319, P01678-P01679, P02767-P03191, P03217-P03319, P03217-P03319, P04165, P08369-P08373, P12703-P12706, P28311)

Lantern slides Arranged by image number (L00353-L00354, L00356-L00363, L00367-L00369, L00371-L00376, L00379-L00384, L00386, L00388, L00390-L00392, L00397, L00401-L00402, L00404-L00406, L00408-L00409)

Negatives Arranged by negative number (N03368-N03373, N03762, N11617, N13457-N13460, N13481, N14935, N14939, N14941, N21574, N21600, N35151-N35158, N35162, N37725, N37879)

Biographical/Historical note:

Born in England in the early 1860s, William C. Orchard moved to the United States around 1885. Before working privately for George G. Heye, he briefly held a position at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. After the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation was established in 1916, Orchard became a museum preparator. In this position, he used his considerable artistic gifts to repair and restore specimens and to create models and dioramas for the Museum's exhibits. Orchard also published several books on porcupine-quill and beading techniques. He died in 1948.

Restrictions:

Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.

Rights:

Copyright: National Museum of the American Indian

Genre/Form:

Photographic prints

Lantern slides

Photographs

Black-and-white negatives

Citation:

William C. Orchard collection of photographs, lantern slides and negatives, circa 1899-1937, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).

Identifier:

NMAI.AC.001.020

Archival Repository:

National Museum of the American Indian

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sv4104b2c7f-6a17-462d-98fd-359703ba4c23

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmai-ac-001-020

Creator:

Calver, William L.  Search this

Extent:

129 Negatives (photographic) (black and white, 4.5 x 6.5 inches.)

22 Lantern slides (black and white, color.)

19 Albumen prints

129 Acetate negatives (Duplicates, black and white, 5 x 7 inches.)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Negatives (photographic)

Lantern slides

Albumen prints

Acetate negatives

Photographs

Black-and-white negatives

Place:

New Jersey

Inwood (New York, N.Y.)

New York (N.Y.)

Date:

1895-1936

Summary:

This collection contains 22 lantern slides in black and white and color, 129 black-and-white glass negatives and 19 albumen prints taken by William L. Calver between 1895-1936. The images primarily depict archaeological excavation sites in Inwood, New York City, and the broader New York City area. Also present are 129 duplicate acetate negatives.

Arrangement note:

Slides: organized in individual sleeves; arranged by image number.

Glass negatives: organized in individual sleeves; arranged by image number.

Acetate negatives: organized in individual sleeves; arranged by image number.

Prints: organized in folders; arranged by image number.

Biographical/Historical note:

William L. Calver was an engineer living in New York with a strong interest in preserving local history. As an amateur historian and archaeologist, he conducted excavations with Reginald Pelham Bolton to document Native and colonial sites. Along with Bolton, he was a member of the Field Exploration Committee of the New York Historical Society.

Restrictions:

Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.

Rights:

Restricted: cultural sensitivity and copyright. Please contact the archivist for further information.

Topic:

Indians of North America -- New York (State)  Search this

Excavations (Archaeology) -- New Jersey  Search this

Indians of North America -- New Jersey  Search this

Excavations (Archaeology) -- New York (State)  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Black-and-white negatives

Albumen prints

Lantern slides

Citation:

William L. Calver slides, negatives and prints, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (slide, negative or catalog number).

Identifier:

NMAI.AC.042

Archival Repository:

National Museum of the American Indian

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sv4b4310968-8a87-4f5c-b354-06b940a66aaf

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmai-ac-042

Photographer:

Wetherill, John  Search this

Extent:

42 Lantern slides

Culture:

Pueblo (Anasazi) (archaeological)  Search this

Diné (Navajo)  Search this

Ute  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Lantern slides

Place:

Cliff Palace (Mesa Verde, Colorado) -- Archeology

Colorado -- Antiquities

Date:

1892

Summary:

This collection contains glass lantern slides shot by rancher and explorer John Wetherill (1866-1944). The photographs depict Ancestral Puebloan sites in southwestern U.S., as well as photos of Diné (Navajo) and Ute men and women.

Scope and Contents:

This collection consists of 42 glass lantern slides that were shot by John Wetherill (1866-1944) circa 1892. The bulk of the photographs depict Ancestral Puebloan sites at Mesa Verde and Hovenweep in southwest Colorado. Wetherill may have been escorting the H. Jay Smith Exploring Company around the region as they collected objects for a Mesa Verde exhibit at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

The glass lantern slides depict cliff dwellings in a state of pre-archaeological preservation including the sites of Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House, Square Tower House, Kodak House, Sandal House, and Spring House at Mesa Verde; and Square Tower at Hovenweep. The photographs also depict Oraibi Hopi Village, Montezuma Castle, and Casa Grande Ruins sites in Arizona.

A few photographs depict Ute and Diné (Navajo) men and women. One photograph of note depicts an outdoor group portrait photographed at a Ute wedding in Mancos, Colorado. The individuals depicted include George Bowles (Harvard student), Mancos Jim (Ute) and his wife, Herbert L. Cowing (1877-1956), Elmer Coston, Benjamin Kite Wetherill (1832-1898), and Richard Wetherill (1858-1910).

Several photographs in this collection also depict objects such as pottery, yucca baskets, stone axes, manos, and metates alongside Ancestral Puebloan human remains. These photographs are restricted.

John Wetherill is listed as the photographer, however, his brother Richard Wetherill (1858-1910) may have shot some of the photographs as well. The lantern slides feature handwritten labels that describe the photographs and were probably written by a Museum of the American Indian employee. Additionally, "Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation, Broadway at 155th ST. N. Y. City" is printed on the back of the masking paper, which indicates that the lantern slides were most likely assembled by MAI staff.

Some lantern slides may be the reverse or mirror images of the actual scenes.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged in photo number order.

Biographical / Historical:

John Wetherill (1866-1944) was a cattle rancher, explorer, and amateur archaeologist in Colorado. Born in Kansas in 1866 to Benjamin Kite Wetherill and Marion Tompkins Wetherill, the family moved to Mancos in southwestern Colorado in 1879. In December 1888, Richard Wetherill (John's older brother) and Charles Mason (brother-in-law), were credited with having discovered Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House, and Square Tower House sites at Mesa Verde, although the cliff dwellings were already known to some Native Puebloan communities in the southwest at the time. Additionally, several non-Native explorers had visited other Ancestral Puebloan sites in the region prior to the Wetherills' discoveries including Mexican-Spanish missionaries Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante in 1776; prospector John Moss in 1873; and photographer William Henry Jackson for the Hayden U.S. Geological Survey in 1874.

After the discovery, Richard and his brothers John, Clayton, Winslow, and Benjamin continued exploring and found other Ancestral Puebloan sites in the region. In 1891, the Wetherill brothers worked with amateur Swedish archaeologist Gustaf Nordenskiöld excavating Cliff House. Nordenskiöld taught them the basics tenants of archaeological excavation and trained them to keep detailed provenance records and to label objects.

From 1888-1893, the Wetherills collected more objects from Mesa Verde and eventually sold many of their collections, including a large collection to the Colorado State Historical Society (History Colorado). By 1900 John Wetherill moved to New Mexico and then Utah with his wife Louise Wade Wetherill. John continued serving as a guide and trained archaeologists and anthropologists in the region. He died in 1944.

Agnes Cowing (1880-1965), the collector of the glass lantern slides, was a librarian in New York. She most likely obtained them from her brother Herbert L. Cowing (1877-1956) or her sister Julia R. Cowing (b. 1857) who were both friends of the Wetherill family and visited the Wetherill Ranch in Mancos, Colorado in the 1890s.

Related Materials:

History Colorado in Denver, Colo. holds a John and Richard Wetherill photographs collection (2000.129), a Richard Wetherill manuscripts collection (Mini-MSS #3035), and a large collection of objects collected by the Wetherills. The Smithsonian's National Anthropological Archives holds a collection of photographs collected by H. Jay Smith (NAA MS 2420).

Provenance:

Donated to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation by Agnes Cowing in 1934.

Restrictions:

Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).

Rights:

Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.

Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity

Topic:

Indians of North America -- Antiquities & archaeological sites -- Colorado  Search this

Indians of North America -- Colorado  Search this

cliff dwellings -- Colorado -- Mesa Verde National Park  Search this

Genre/Form:

Lantern slides

Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); John Wetherill lantern slides, Box and Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

NMAI.AC.106

See more items in:

John Wetherill lantern slides

Archival Repository:

National Museum of the American Indian

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sv4c6bd4b84-f45a-47d2-8ff7-bea7c091feb3

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmai-ac-106

Creator:

Deskey, Donald, 1894-  Search this

Names:

Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company  Search this

Centre de recherche en économie et statistique (Paris, France)  Search this

Charak Furniture Company  Search this

Cooper-Hewitt Design Archive  Search this

Deskey Associates, Inc.  Search this

Deskey-Vollmer, Inc.  Search this

Donald Deskey Associates, Inc.  Search this

Johnson & Johnson, Inc.  Search this

New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Procter & Gamble Company  Search this

Radio City Music Hall (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Widdicomb Furniture Company  Search this

Deskey, Donald, 1894-  Search this

Extent:

75 Cubic feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Proposals

Labels

Clippings

Renderings

Slides

Stationery

Letters patent

Financial records

Photographs

Drawings

Client lists

Correspondence

Organizational charts

Reviews

Patents

Lantern slides

Technical reports

Date:

1927-1989

Summary:

Project files containmagazine and newspaper clippings, reviews, correspondence, renderings, floor plans, perspective drawings, site plans, sketches, preliminary drawings, patents, stationery, labels, and technical reports. There is an extensive collection of photographs and slides of many of Deskey's packaging designs, interiors, furnishings, and exhibition installations. The files of Donald Deskey Associates include organizational charts, client files, proposals, and financial records. Some of Deskey's personal correspondence, speeches, articles, and family photographs are included. Materials cover the period from 1927-1975.

Arrangement note:

Arranged into six records groups: 1) architecture/interiors projects; 2)Donald Deskey Associates; 3) industrial design projects; 4) reference; 5) Donald Deskey's personal papers; and 6) photographs. A special collection of more than one thousand slides of Deskey's work are boxed separately.

Biographical/Historical note:

Industrial, interior, and packaging designer. Born Blue Earth, Minnesota, November 23, 1894. By 1943, he had established Donald Deskey Associates in New York. Along with Dreyfuss, Bel Geddes, and Loewy, Deskey was one of the great industrial design pioneers in the 1930s.

He is best known for his designs for the furnishings and interiors of Radio City Music Hall in 1932, and for his work for companies such as: Widdicomb Furniture Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan; W & J Sloane, New York; and Estey Manufacturing Company, Owosso, Michigan. Deskey is also known for his familiar packaging designs for Procter & Gamble products, such as Crest toothpaste, Prell shampoo, and Tide detergent.

Donald Deskey Associates also was responsible for lamppost #10, the streetlight still in use today in New York City. Materials from this archival collection were featured in Cooper-Hewitt's 1994 exhibition and accompanying book, "Packaging the New: Design and the American Consumer, 1925- 1975."

Location of Other Archival Materials Note:

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Drawings and Prints Department. Approximately 3,000 drawings for furniture and textile designs.

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Applied Arts Department. Two tables, handles, and a glass bottle and box designed by Deskey.

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Textiles Department. One textile designed by Deskey.

Other sources of archival information on Deskey include, the Procter & Gamble Archive, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Deskey Associates, New York City.

Provenance:

The Deskey collection was donated to the museum in three installments.

In 1975, Deskey deposited at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum,, hundreds of drawings, 3 four-drawer file cabinets of material, and several oversized packages comprising the bulk of his papers covering the period from 1927-1965. These items were officially donated to the museum in 1988.

In 1992, Deskey Associates of New York made an additional gift consisting of, approximately 1,000 35mm slides that documented projects from the 1960s through 1980s, and focused primarily on designs for packaging.

In 1994, Donald Deskey's nephew, Robert Deskey presented the Museum with, 120 postcards, letters, and family photographs.

Restrictions:

Unrestricted research use onsite by appointment. Permission of staff required to photograph materials.

Occupation:

Packaging designers -- United States  Search this

Interior designers -- United States  Search this

Industrial designers -- United States  Search this

Topic:

Packaging -- Design  Search this

Street lighting -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Buildings, Prefabricated -- United States  Search this

Plastics -- Design  Search this

Interior decoration -- United States -- 20th century  Search this

Design, Industrial -- United States  Search this

Furniture design -- United States  Search this

Art deco -- United States  Search this

Genre/Form:

Proposals

Labels

Clippings

Renderings

Slides

Stationery

Letters patent

Financial records

Photographs

Drawings

Client lists

Correspondence

Organizational charts

Reviews

Patents

Lantern slides

Technical reports

Identifier:

SIL-CH.1975-11-77

Archival Repository:

Smithsonian Libraries

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sc2dc69717a-7af5-4385-91a8-73b28e077a18

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-sil-ch-1975-11-77

Creator:

Meyer, Fred R.  Search this

Names:

Miller, Fred E., 1868-1936  Search this

Throssel, Richard, 1882-1933  Search this

Extent:

199 Lantern slides (black and white)

381 Negatives (photographic) (black and white)

6 Photographic prints

Culture:

Niitsitapii (Blackfoot/Blackfeet)  Search this

Niimíipuu (Nez Perce)  Search this

Pikuni Blackfeet (Piegan)  Search this

Numakiki (Mandan)  Search this

Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke)  Search this

Anishinaabe (Chippewa/Ojibwa)  Search this

Ute  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Lantern slides

Negatives (photographic)

Photographic prints

Black-and-white negatives

Place:

Juneau (Alaska)

Yosemite Valley (Calif.)

Date:

1890-1915

Scope and Contents:

The Meyer collection consists primarily of lantern slide and glass plates negatives made by Meyer among the Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke) and Pikuni (Piegan) in Montana on the Crow and Blackfeet Reservations, perhaps in1902 and in 1904. The Apsáalooke and Pikuni lantern slides and negatives are mostly informal, outdoor portraits of men and women in traditional clothing, but they also depict camps and ceremonials and even buffalo herds. In addition, there are depictions of Ute, Niitsitapii (Blackfoot/Blackfeet), Nimi'ipuu (Nez Perce), Numakiki (Mandan), and Ojibwa individuals. He made the Numakiki photographs on the Fort Berthold Rerservation in North Dakota. The collection also contains landscape views made in Yosemite Valley, California, and British Columbia and cityscapes of Juneau, Alaska. Although Meyer likely photographed the vast majority of the items in the collection, it is unlikely that he created all of them. For example, there are many studio portraits that an amateur such as Meyer lacked the studio space, equipment, and experience to make. In addition, there is at least one glass plate negative of a Fred Miller Crow Reservation photograph and several that appear to be by Cree photographer Richard Throssel, who also made photographs on the Crow Reservation. The five prints (one of these--assigned a print number--is in fact a newspaper clipping announcing the death of Ka-Be-Na-Gway-Wence or Meet-Ka-Be-Nah-Gway) are certainly not by Meyer. Of interest here is a photograph depicting Goyathlay (Geronimo) in later life wearing traditional Chiricahua Apache clothing, including his headdress. Most of the negatives are on glass but some of them are film copies of the glass negatives and lantern slides.

Arrangement note:

Lantern slides: organized in envelopes; arranged by image number

Negatives: organized in envelopes; arranged by negative number

Biographical/Historical note:

Relatively little is known about Fred R. Meyer (1874-1939), but from his photographic record it is clear that he was an amateur photographer who traveled extensively throughout the western United States, particularly in Montana and North Dakota possibly from 1890 to 1915. A handful of his Montana photographs were given to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center by Meyer's friend William P. Sargent. Meyer's notations on the versos of these prints are dated either 1902 or 1904. According to the Historical Center's records, Meyer was a surveyor but other sources indicate that he (also) worked as a butcher. It has also been suggested that he was associated in some way (perhaps as a clerk) with the Indian agencies that served the Apsáalooke, Pikuni, and Numakiki reservations. He apparently also photographed in Pine Ridge in 1907 and collected objects in Wyoming and Montana. On January 19, 1914, he gave a lantern slide lecture at the Rochester Historical Society entitled "Indian Life and Customs in the Great Northwest," and it appears that he was either originally from or eventually settled in Rochester. In addition, in 1913 he may have corresponded with Joseph Keppler. In the letter, he thanks Keppler for a book and a gun and states that he was pleased to give Keppler the medicine teeth, some of which he also planned to give to "Mr. Pepper" (George Pepper?).

Provenance:

Gift of Mrs. Fred R. (Hattie M.) Meyer.

Restrictions:

Access is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.

Rights:

Copyright: National Museum of the American Indian

Topic:

Crow Indians -- Montana -- Crow Indian Reservation -- Photographs  Search this

Piegan Indians -- Montana -- Great Blackfeet Reservation -- Photographs  Search this

Mandan Indians -- North Dakota -- Fort Berthold Indian Reservation -- Photographs  Search this

Genre/Form:

Black-and-white negatives

Lantern slides

Citation:

Fred R. Meyer collection of lantern slides, negatives, and photographic prints, 1890-1915, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide and catalog number).

Identifier:

NMAI.AC.032

Archival Repository:

National Museum of the American Indian

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sv4e97cf43d-67f5-4766-b1cf-0051c3e60a02

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmai-ac-032

Former owner:

Sardino, Robert C.  Search this

Extent:

2.1 Cubic feet (7 boxes)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Advertisements

Certificates

Lantern slides

Posters

Publicity photographs

Schedules

Motion picture stills

Date:

1914-1981, undated

Summary:

The collection consists of motion picture exhibition ephemera (lantern slides, publicity photographs, and paper) saved by Robert L. Sardino during his years working in motion picture theaters in Syracuse, New York.

Content Description:

The collection consists of archival materials saved by Robert L. Sardino during the years he was employed in motion picture theaters in Syracuse, New York. This collection also contains objects Sardino salvaged when the Paramount Theater in Syracuse, New York was demolished in 1967. He spent the bulk of his career at the Paramount Theater. Included are theater schedules; blank payroll documents; photographs of employees, theater interiors, and marquees, as well as publicity stills of actors and for motion pictures; certificates; motion picture advertising and press releases. There is a large number of glass lantern slides relating to a variety of topics such as current news events, sports, scenic views, and "coming attractions."

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into four series.

Series 1, Personal Papers and Ephemera, 1942-1981, undated

Series 2, Paramount and Schine Theaters (Syracuse, New York), 1947-1970, undated

Series 3, Motion Pictures, Publicity Stills, Advertisements, and Souvenir Programs 1942-1968, undated

Series 4, Lantern Slides, 1914-1915, undated

Subseries 4.1, American Press Association, undated

Subseries 4.2, Brenkert Light Projection Company (BLPC), undated

Subseries 4.3, Motion Picture Advertisments, 1914-1915, undated

Subseries 4.4, Maurice Workstel, Incorporated, undated

Subseries 4.5, Other, undated

Biographical / Historical:

Robert L. Sardino was born in New York state December 11, 1897, the son of John and Palma Sardino. Both of his parents were born in Italy, and Palma notes in the 1920 census that she had immigrated to the United States from Italy in 1881. His father died at an early age and by the 1920 census Palma was listed as being head of the household. Robert joined the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), local 376, on January 24, 1915. According to family oral history Robert began work at the age of fourteen, in the 1920 census he is noted as an "operator" in a "picture show." His brothers, Frank and Alphonsa, were both in the motion picture theater business. By 1930 Frank is noted as a "theater proprietor." Alphonsa is noted as a "picture theater" manager as early as 1920. For the greatest part of his life, Robert worked in and around Syracuse, New York. During his working life, he was employed by Paramount-Publix Corporation, later known as Paramount Pictures, Incorporated and also the Schine Corporation theater owners and developers. He worked in Syracuse at the Paramount Theater which was demolished in 1967. Family history maintains Robert worked until he was seventy-five years old.

Robert served in the military during World War I. On his registration card he is described as being of medium height and build, grey eyes, and black hair. He was then working as an auto mechanic in Old Forge, New York. In May 1928, Robert married Florence Owen, daughter of David and Charlotte Bostwick Owen. They had two children, Delores and Roberta. The marriage ended and in the 1940 census Robert was living with his daughters and was noted as being a projectionist in a movie theater. Later that year he married Irene Boniface Simiele, also a divorcee, with a young son, Joseph.

Robert died in Syracuse, New York on February 3, 1981.

Related Materials:

The Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life) holds these objects associated with this collection: Accession number 1984.0789 includes: Basket; Frame, Exit Sign; Screen, Cinerama; Speaker, Car, Drive-in Movie; Plate, End-Seat Aisle Camp Cover; Holder; Disc, Transcription.

Provenance:

Collection donated by Irene B. Sardino, widow of Robert L. Sardino, to the Division of Social and Cultural History, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, in 1984.

Restrictions:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection is open for research.

Topic:

Theaters  Search this

Motion pictures, American  Search this

advertising -- Motion pictures  Search this

Genre/Form:

Advertisements

Certificates

Lantern slides

Posters

Publicity photographs

Schedules

Motion picture stills

Citation:

Robert L. Sardino Movie Theater Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1471

See more items in:

Robert L. Sardino Movie Theater Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep82ef039d4-0cda-4915-ac63-058f02976bf5

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1471

Creator:

General Electric Company  Search this

Gotti, Mary Beth  Search this

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Information, Technology and Society  Search this

Extent:

5 Cubic feet (22 boxes)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Travel diaries

Advertisements

Diaries

Blotters (writing equipment)

Business records

Manuals

Lantern slides

Stock certificates

Stereographs

Scrapbooks

Photographs

Date:

circa 1890s-1969

Summary:

The collection documents the technology of lighting and various business aspects of the General Electric Lighting Division throughout the 20th century and consists of correspondence, bulletins, price lists, business record books, stock certificates, sales and advertising materials, scrapbooks, photographs, and lantern slides.

Scope and Contents:

The collection consists of approximately five cubic feet of correspondence, bulletins, price lists, business record books, stock certificates, sales and advertising materials, scrapbooks, photographs, and lantern slides. The collection documents the technology of lighting and various business aspects of the GE Lighting Division throughout the twentieth century.

Series 1, Historical Background Materials, 1910-1969, contains documentation on the history of the National Electric Lamp Company and the development of the incandescent lamp. The European Diary of 1928 is a narrative written by three General Electric employees—Samuel Doane, Chief Engineer, Joseph Kewley, Sales Manager, and George Osborn, Sales Manager. This narrative describes their business trip to Europe in the spring of 1928. It contains black-and-white photographs, menus, brochures, maps, postcards, and drawings detailing their travels in Paris, Nice, Milan, Venice, Berlin, Amsterdam, and England. The Record of Accomplishment, 1969, is a chronological listing (time line) of various events and/or accomplishments within General Electric.

Series 2, Executive Records, 1903-1955, consists of correspondence, annual reports, and technical standardization notices. The technical standardization notices were created by the Standardization Committee. This committee made decisions on how to facilitate and increase sales, improve quality, cheapen cost, and further the interests of the members of the Lamp Association. The reports cover a variety of subjects such as packing boxes, felt washers, high candle power lamps, and tabulating machines. Many of the reports contain black-and-white photographs. The Lamp Committee Reports seek to detail the demand for incandescent lamps and their improvements.

Series 3, House Organs, 1919-1959, contains documentation on in-house publications for General Electric. The Stimulator, 1919-1920, promoted "lighting profits and cemented friendliness, cooperation, progress, and quality." The Lamp Letter, 1947-1950, was published by the Lamp Department and dealt specifically with lamp-related issues. The Lamp Department Bulletin, 1947-1950, was produced for GE personnel and dealt with a variety of issues from sales to lamp types to licensing issues. The See Better—Work Better Bulletin, 1959, was published by the Lamp Division as a service to industrial and commercial lamp users.

Series 4, Sales and Advertising Materials, 1910-1955, includes price lists for lamps from both General Electric and other companies, manufacturers' schedules, data books, sales notebooks for sales representatives, and Edison Mazda Lamp advertising cards. The advertising cards are approximately 3" x 6" and are in color. They contain ad slogans such as "His Only Rival," "Satisfied Customer," Edison's Dream Comes True," "Have You Electricity?" and "I like Lots of Light."

Series 5, NELA School of Lighting Records, 1920-1930, documents the school, now known as the GE Lighting Institute, for training sales people and customers in the proper application of various lighting products. The records contain quarterly reports and general and lighting course descriptions.

Series 6, Business and Stock Records, 1890-1912, contains record and minute books and stock certificates from other lamp companies. The record books contain correspondence, resolutions, stockholder information, and committee reports.

Series 7, Scrapbooks and Photographs, 1890s-circa 1950, contains one scrapbook from 1923 with black and white photographs, clippings, correspondence, charts, telegrams, and booklets documenting General Electric's Nela Park location. The photo albums contain black and white photographs of staff, lamps, bulbs, tubing, tabulating, filaments, lead wires, stems, mounts, and lighting installations. The scrapbook and photo albums have indices.

Series 8, Lantern Slides, 1880-1950, consists of glass plates of Edison, images of people in the work place, and lighting equipment.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into eight series.

Series 1, Historical Background Materials, 1910-1969

Series 2, Executive Records, 1903-1955

Subseries 1.1, Correspondence, 1909-1922

Subseries 1.2, Annual Reports, 1949-1955

Subseries 1.3, Technical Reports, 1903-1935

Subseries 1.4, Standardization Committee, 1903-1908

Subseries 1.5, Lamp Committee, 1909-1935

Series 3, House Organs, 1919-1959

Series 4, Sales and Advertising Materials, 1914-1953

Subseries 4.1, Miniature Mazda Lamps, 1914-1935

Subseries 4.2, Large Mazda Lamps, 1914-1934

Subseries 4.3, Carbon Lamps, 1915-1922

Subseries 4.4, Miscellaneous, 1914-1953

Series 5, NELA School of Lighting, 1920-1930

Series 6, Business and Stock Records, 1890-1912

Subseries 1, Business Records, 1890-1912

Subseries 2, Stock Records & Certificates, 1890-1912

Series 7, Scrapbooks and Photographs, 1890s-circa 1950

Series 8, Lantern Slides, 1880-1950

Biographical / Historical:

Established in 1911, Nela Park (named for the National Electric Lamp Association) in Cleveland, Ohio, has through the present day served as both administrative headquarters and research laboratory for the development and sale of General Electric's (GE) lighting products. In the years following Thomas Edison's electric lamp invention (1879) many companies began to make and sell lighting devices. A merger of Edison Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric in 1892 created GE, which quickly grew to dominate the market. Westinghouse and several much smaller companies struggled to compete. These smaller lamp companies could not afford engineering and research facilities on a scale comparable with those of General Electric.

The National Electric Lamp Company was organized on May 3, 1901, by Franklin S. Terry (Sunbeam Incandescent Lamp Company), and Burton G. Tremaine, H. A. Tremaine and J. Robert Crouse (all from Fostoria Bulb and Bottle Company and Fostoria Incandescent Lamp Company). Terry suggested that the small companies band together to operate an engineering department, conduct lamp research and development, improve manufacturing methods, and build better lamp-making machinery. He further proposed to raise capital from and share patents with GE. This built upon an earlier organization, the Incandescent Lamp Manufacturers Association, organized by GE in 1896. The new National Electric Lamp Company was a holding company in which—unknown even to many of the smaller companies' executives—GE held a controlling (75%) interest. In 1911, GE's involvement with National became public during anti-trust proceedings. GE then purchased the outstanding stock and absorbed the smaller companies by converting them into divisional units.

Thomas Edison had, in 1882, moved his company's lamp manufacturing operation from the Menlo Park laboratory to a new facility in East Newark (Harrison), New Jersey. Named the Edison Lamp Works, this plant became the main administrative and sales facility for Edison Electric's and later GE's, lamp business. Research moved to Edison's new West Orange laboratory. In 1900, after the merger, GE established a research lab in Schenectady, New York. After forming National, Terry and B. G. Tremaine consolidated the administrative functions of that company in Cleveland and by 1910 were actively seeking space for a new office and laboratory campus. They selected a site along Euclid Avenue that was then on the outskirts of town. This became Nela Park (the "Company" had changed to "Association" in 1906). In addition to the National buildings, GE began moving its directly-owned lamp operations to Cleveland after the 1911 settlement. From 1925 through 1930 the various departments at Harrison moved to Nela Park, with the sales department being one of the last to move. GE's lighting research was carried out at both Nela Park and Schenectady.

A focal-point at Nela Park is the GE Lighting Institute, formerly known as the Nela School of Lighting. Organized by the Illuminating Engineering Section of the Engineering Department in 1921, the Lighting Institute continues to train sales people and customers in the use and proper application of various lighting products.

For additional information about Nela Park, General Electric and the National Electric Lamp Company see:

Arthur A. Bright, Jr., The Electric Lamp Industry, MacMillan, 1949.

Harold C. Passer, The Electrical Manufacturers, 1875-1900, Harvard University Press, 1953.

Leonard S. Reich, "Lighting the Path to Profit: GE's Control of the Electric Lamp Industry, 1892-1941," in Business History Review Vol. 66, pages 305-34.

Hollis L. Townsend, A History of Nela Park: 1911-1957, published by General Electric.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

William J. Hammer Collection (AC0069)

Separated Materials:

The Division of Work and Industry (Electricity-related collections) hold several artifacts. See accession numbers: 33,407; 43,120; 68,492; 232,822; 1997.0388 and 1998.0231.

Provenance:

The collection was donated to the Division of Information Technology and Society (now the Division of Work and Industry) by Mary Beth Gotti, Manager of the General Electric Lighting Institute on March 22, 2001.

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research use.

Researchers must handle unprotected photographs 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:

Electricity  Search this

Electric lighting  Search this

Genre/Form:

Travel diaries

Advertisements

Diaries -- 19th century

Blotters (writing equipment)

Business records

Diaries -- 20th century

Manuals

Lantern slides

Stock certificates

Stereographs

Scrapbooks

Photographs -- 19th century

Citation:

General Electric Nela Park Collection, dates, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0789

See more items in:

General Electric NELA Park Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep89d3df569-a94b-4a8d-9aca-799c03a1c72f

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0789

Collection Creator:

General Electric Company  Search this

Gotti, Mary Beth  Search this

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Information, Technology and Society  Search this

Container:

Box 15, Folder 1

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

The collection is open for research use.

Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

General Electric Nela Park Collection, dates, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

See more items in:

General Electric NELA Park Collection

General Electric NELA Park Collection / Series 6: Business and Stock Records / 6.2: Stock Records and Certificates

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep874ee0b30-a9f2-4018-9d91-64717d25a1ae

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0789-ref142

Collection Creator:

General Electric Company  Search this

Gotti, Mary Beth  Search this

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Information, Technology and Society  Search this

Container:

Box 15, Folder 1

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

The collection is open for research use.

Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

General Electric Nela Park Collection, dates, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

See more items in:

General Electric NELA Park Collection

General Electric NELA Park Collection / Series 6: Business and Stock Records / 6.2: Stock Records and Certificates

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep82cee0076-eff2-4b2e-a900-8d9631881274

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0789-ref156

Collection Creator:

General Electric Company  Search this

Gotti, Mary Beth  Search this

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Information, Technology and Society  Search this

Container:

Box 15, Folder 1

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

The collection is open for research use.

Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

General Electric Nela Park Collection, dates, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

See more items in:

General Electric NELA Park Collection

General Electric NELA Park Collection / Series 6: Business and Stock Records / 6.2: Stock Records and Certificates

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep81e23ca49-4b9e-47f9-85d2-7ae616178167

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0789-ref167

Creator:

Hills Bros. Coffee, Inc.  Search this

Extent:

65 Cubic feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Advertising cards

16mm motion picture film

Annual reports

Artwork

Beverage labels

Blueprints

Business ephemera

Bulletins

Business letters

Business records

Catalogs

Color photographs

Color negatives

Commercial art

Correspondence

Direct mail

Ephemera

Exhibit plans

Financial records

Genealogies

Home movies

Ledger drawings

Office files

Office memoranda

Packaging

Photographic prints

Photographs

Price lists

Proof sheets

Promotional literature

Receipts

Sales records

Scrapbooks

Sound recordings

Television programs

Window displays

Date:

1856-1989, undated

Summary:

Printed advertisements, scrapbooks, correspondence, marketing research, radio commercial scripts, photographs, proof sheets, reports, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, television commercial storyboards, blueprints, legal documents, and audiovisual materials primarily documenting the history, business practices, and advertising campaigns of the Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated. Collection also documents the professional and private lives of the Hills family; insight into the cultivation, production, and selling of coffee; and construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Scope and Contents:

The collection consists of printed advertisements, scrapbooks, correspondence, marketing research, radio commercial scripts, photographs, proof sheets, reports, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, television commercial storyboards, blueprints, legal documents, and audiovisual materials. These materials primarily document the history, business practices, and advertising campaigns of Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated. Correspondence, genealogies, and home movies reveal a more domestic and social Hills family while company records document business activities outside of the home. Company records also provide insight into the cultivation, production, and selling of coffee, and the company's technological responses to the changes in the coffee trade, and consumer consumption demands. Of interest is the company's participation in social and cultural events including the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915, and the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939. In addition, the collection includes the company's documentation of the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936. The collection is arranged into thirteen series.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into thirteen series.

Series 1, Hills Family Papers, 1856-1942, undated

Subseries 1.1, Austin Herbert Hills, Sr. Papers, 1856-1875, undated

Subseries 1.2, Austin Herbert Hills, Jr. Papers, 1875-1923

Subseries 1.3, Herbert Gray Hills Correspondence, 1923-1942

Series 2, Background Materials, 1896-1988, undated

Series 3, Coffee Reference Files, 1921-1980, undated

Subseries 3.1, Hills Bros. Coffee Company Literature, 1921-1976, undated

Subseries 3.2, Coffee Industry Literature, 1924-1980, undated

Series 4, Advertising Materials, circa 1890s-1987, undated

Subseries 4.1, Scrapbooks, 1906-1978, undated

Subseries 4.2, Historical Albums, 1911-1967

Subseries 4.3, Ephemera, 1890s-1987

Subseries 4.4, Portfolios, 1919-1985, undated

Subseries 4.5, Proof sheets, 1922-1968

Subseries 4.6, Advertising Forms, 1922-1971, undated

Subseries 4.7, Newspaper and Magazine Advertising, 1926-1971, undated

Subseries 4.8, Sampling Campaigns, 1928-1941

Subseries 4.9, General Files, 1923-1978, undated

Subseries 4.10, NW Ayer Advertising Agency, 1943, 1958

Subseries 4.11, Foote, Cone & Belding Advertising Agency, 1963-1968, undated

Series 5, Photographs, 1882-1973, undated

Subseries 5.1, Employees, 1882-1961, undated

Subseries 5.2, Division Offices, 1924-1931, undated

Subseries 5.3, Facilities and Vehicles, 1927-1973, undated

Subseries 5.4, Advertising, 1925-1959, undated

Subseries 5.5, Sales, circa 1921-1939, undated

Subseries 5.6, Packaging, 1884-1969, undated

Subseries 5.7, Grocery Store Displays, circa, 1901-1935

Subseries 5.8, Store Tests, 1938

Subseries 5.9, Window and Wall Displays, 1928, 1930, 1934

Subseries 5.10, Publicity, 1933-1936, undated

Subseries 5.11, Miscellaneous, 1898-1949, undated

Subseries 5.12, Coffee and Tea Industry, 1900s-1947,. undated

Series 6, Sales and Marketing Records, 1906-1989, undated

Subseries 6.1, Bulletins for Salesmen, 1912-1969

Subseries 6.2, Division Bulletins and General Letters, 1925-1927

Subseries 6.3, Correspondence, 1919-1989

Subseries 6.4, Conventions and Meetings, 1915-1971

Subseries 6.5, Salesmen Materials, 1906-1973, undated

Subseries 6.6, Reports and Studies, 1941-1978

Subseries 6.7, Marketing Research, 1956-1978, undated

Subseries 6.8, Pricing Information, 1949-1965

Series 7, Employee Records, 1934-1966

Series 8, Accounting and Financial Records, 1903-1960, undated

Series 9, Office Files, 1915-1970, undated

Subseries 9.1, General, 1915-1969, undated

Subseries 9.2, T. Carroll Wilson Correspondence, 1941-1970

Series 10, San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Materials, 1933-1986, undated

Subseries 10.1, Background Information, 1933-1986, undated

Subseries 10.2, Photographic Materials, 1933-1936, undated

Series 11, Golden Gate International Exposition Materials, 1915-1940, undated

Subseries 11.1, Coffee Theater, circa 1939

Subseries 11.2, Exposition Attendance, 1915-1940

Subseries 11.3, Correspondence, 1937-1940, undated

Subseries 11.4, Construction, 1937-1940, undated

Subseries 11.5, Blueprints, 1937-1939

Subseries 11.6, Behind the Cup, 1937-1940, undated

Subseries 11.7, Newspaper Cooperation, 1939

Subseries 11.8, Solicitations and Replies, 1938-1940

Subseries 11.9, Miscellaneous, 1938-1940

Series 12, World War II Materials, 1939-1949, undated

Subseries 12.1, Production and Quotas, 1942-1946

Subseries 12.2, Rationing, 1939-1946

Subseries 12.3, Containers and Closures, 1942-1949, undated

Subseries 12.4, Appeals, 1948

Subseries 12.5, Advertising Campaigns, 1942, undated

Subseries 12.6, Machinists' Strike Scrapbooks, 1945-1946

Series 13, Audio Visual Materials, 1930-1984, undated

Subseries 13.1, Moving Images, 1930-1966

Subseries 13.1.1, Television Commercials, 1951-1984

Subseries 13.1.2, Television Programs, 1951-1967

Subseries 13.1.3, Promotional Materials, 1939-1977

Subseries 13.1.4, Hills Bros. Activities, 1930-1962

Subseries 13.1.5, Miscellaneous Film and Video, 1938-1966

Subseries 13.2, Sound Recordings, 1934-1967, undated

Subseries 13.2.1, Radio Commercials, 1941-1967, undated

Subseries 13.2.2, Radio Programs and Other Broadcasts, 1934-1956, undated

Subseries 13.2.3, Cardboard Discs, 1941-1960; undated.

Biographical / Historical:

Reuben Hills, on one occasion, stated regarding his company's growth; ...success in business is fifty per cent judgment and fifty per cent propitious circumstances." The rise of Hills Bros. Coffee Incorporated from a retail dairy stall in San Francisco's old Bay City Public Market reflects the reality of Reuben's statement. Aided by brother Austin's three years of experience in the retail dairy business the early success of the brothers was in Reuben's own words both circumstance and hard work. When Reuben and Austin began to produce roasted coffee there were at least twenty-five other companies already engaged in some form of coffee production and distribution in San Francisco including, of course, the well-known Folger Company started by William Bovee (which began in San Francisco thirty years earlier). Most of these coffee businesses were started by family groups which contributed to the growth of San Francisco.

San Francisco in the nineteenth century was ripe for the importing and roasting of coffee. The foundation for commercial production of coffee dated back to the 1820s when English planters brought coffee to Costa Rica. By the early 1840s German and Belgian planters followed with coffee plantations in Guatemala and El Salvador, two of the several Central American countries where Hills Bros. would obtain its mild coffee beans. During the Gold Rush (1849) San Francisco rapidly expanded and grew. Coffee was imported and sold, after roasting, to restaurants and hotels. Yankee gold miners and others without equipment to roast and brew their own coffee, populated "coffee houses." In 1873 two brothers, Austin Herbert and Reuben Wilmarth Hills arrived in San Francisco from their home in Rockland, Maine with their father Austin who had come to California some years earlier. Five years later in 1878 A. H. and R. W. Hills established a retail stall to sell dairy products in the Bay City Market under the name of their new partnership "Hills Bros." Their small business expanded in less than four years with the acquisition of a retail coffee store titled Arabian Coffee & Spice Mills on Fourth Street in San Francisco. In two more years (1884) still larger quarters were occupied at Sacramento and Sansome Streets. Soon after this they disposed of their retail dairy business but continued as wholesale distributors of some dairy products including butter. Their coffee was labeled "Arabian Roast"' supported by the now famous trademark design of a man in turban and beard with a flowing yellow gown. This was created by a San Francisco artist named Briggs and since then (1897) has remained as the official trademark of Hills Bros. Coffee - a lasting symbol of coffee quality. Hills Bros. dairy division was eliminated in 1908 after company destruction by the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. By 1924 all miscellaneous products including tea, had been dropped by the company which from then on referred to itself as "coffee only."

Emphasis on the quality of the finished product has long been a major selling point in the history of Hills Bros. advertising and marketing. The company's desire to keep abreast of technological advances in coffee production is a legacy of Austin and Reuben Hills, and is reflected in the company records, in its advertising and its self-perception. It was probably 1898 when Austin Hills and Thomas Hodge, partners who managed the wholesale dairy product operations were looking for a suitable can for exporting butter that could not be manufactured in San Francisco at that time, decided to consult Norton Brothers, a progressive can manufacture company in Chicago. Whether Austin traveled to Chicago or arranged with his brother Reuben to stop off there in route to New York (where he frequently spent time at the New York Green Coffee Exchange) to present the problem to Norton Brothers, which brother made the actual contact with Norton Brothers is not important today, but the results of that visit were real. Norton Brothers had just received patents on a process for packing foods in vacuum and thought it might solve the butter problem. In short order arrangements were made for shipping cans and machinery from Chicago to San Francisco including agreement for exclusive use on the West Coast for a reasonable period. Thus, Hills Bros. butter became the first known food product to ever be packed in vacuum. Once this started Reuben Hills had the idea that what worked well with butter might also be used for coffee. Experimental vacuum-packing of coffee in butter cans supported the theory that taking the air out of coffee would keep the product fresh for indefinite periods. No time was lost in getting new cans and more machinery and in July 1900 Hills Bros. Coffee as "the original vacuum-pack" was placed on the market. With the advent of this technology Hills Bros. changed the product name from "Arabian Roast" to "Hills Bros. Highest Grade Java and Mocha Coffee" and continued with the new trademark that had been started in 1897. Vacuum-packing extended the shelf life and travel ability of the product, thus new markets, national and international, were opened.

A change in the coffee industry of America was on the way. Hills Bros. remained the pioneer of vacuum-packing for thirteen years until a similar process was adopted by M.J.B., another leading coffee company in San Francisco. Other packers on the West Coast soon followed, but it was not until after World War I that East Coast coffee producers turned to vacuum-packaging.

Production and advertising of coffee continued to change with new technology. In the late 1880s San Francisco coffee importers began to "cup test" coffee beans for quality but the majority still depended on sight and smell. Reuben Hills and a few other coffee personalities in San Francisco are credited with the cup test method of appraising coffee quality. In its new home office and plant opened in San Francisco in 1926, Hills Bros. adopted "controlled roasting" in which coffee was roasted a few pounds at a time, but continuously. Developed in 1923 under the direction of Leslie Hills and Lee Maede, company engineer, "controlled roasting" employed the use of instruments to control the temperature and speed of operations, resulting in perfect roasting control that could not be depended on from batch to batch by even the most experienced coffee roasting expert. In 1914 the partnership known as Hills Bros. was incorporated under the same name. In 1928 a sales organization was formed under the name of Hills Bros. Coffee, Incorporated, but within four to five years the parent company absorbed Hills Bros. Coffee, Incorporated and adopted its name. A second plant was built in Edgewater, New Jersey, completed in 1941 to meet the needs of the increasing growth of areas between Chicago and the East Coast.

During World War II Hills Bros. faced conservation rules restricting use of tin for coffee cans. A timely method of high-speed packing in glass jars by Owens Illinois Glass Company made it possible for Hills Bros. as well as other companies in the industry to continue vacuum-packing during this period. Price control and coffee rationing were other war time necessities to which the industry adjusted.

Hills Bros. Coffee, Incorporated passed out of family ownership in 1976 when the company was purchased by a Brazilian corporation named Copersucar. In 1983 a group of local investors in San Francisco brought ownership back to where it had started and sold the business in 1984 to Nestlé Holdings, Incorporated, (effective January 1, 1985) which handled the acquisition of several companies in the United States for Nestlé S. A. Vevey, Switzerland.

Historical note written by T., Carroll Wilson, company historian and archivist, 1993.

Related Materials:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

NW Ayer Advertising Agency Records, NMAH.AC0059

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, NMAH.AC0060

Underwood & Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection, NMAH.AC0143

General Merchandise Account Book, NMAH.AC0189

Duke Ellington, NMAH.AC0301

Product Cookbooks Collection, NMAH.AC0396

Charles W. Trigg Papers, NMAH.AC0411

Princeton University Posters Collection, NMAH.AC0433

Landor Design Collection, NMAH.AC0500

Industry on Parade Film Collection, NMAH.AC0507

Sandra and Gary Baden Collection of Celebrity Endorsements in Advertising, NMAH.AC0611

Fletcher and Horace Henderson Collection, NMAH.AC0797

Division of Cultural History Lantern Slides and Stereographs, NMAH.AC0945

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Records, NMAH.AC1086

Alice Weber Photograph Albums, NMAH.AC1144

Henry "Buddy" Graf and George Cahill Vaudeville and Burlesque Collections, NMAH.AC1484

Division of Cultural History, National Museum of American History

Artifacts include coffee packaging, Golden Gate International Exposition sampling cups and saucers, a bowling shirt, and coffee cans.

Provenance:

These records were donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History by Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but the negatives and audiovisual materials are 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:

Coffee  Search this

advertising -- 20th century  Search this

advertising -- 1930-1940 -- California  Search this

advertising -- 1980-1990  Search this

Advertising agencies -- 20th century  Search this

advertising -- 1940-1950  Search this

advertising -- 1970-1980  Search this

advertising -- 1980-1990  Search this

advertising -- Audio-visual materials  Search this

advertising -- Beverages -- 1930-1990  Search this

advertising -- Business ephemera  Search this

Advertising campaigns -- 20th century  Search this

Advertising executives  Search this

Advertising, Direct-mail  Search this

Agricultural crops -- Fields  Search this

Genre/Form:

Advertising cards -- 19th century.

16mm motion picture film

Annual reports

Artwork

Beverage labels

Blueprints -- 20th century

Business ephemera

Bulletins

Business letters

Business records -- 20th century

Business records -- 19th century

Catalogs -- 20th century

Color photographs

Color negatives

Commercial art

Correspondence

Correspondence -- 19th-20th century

Direct mail

Ephemera -- 19th century

Ephemera -- 20th century

Exhibit plans

Financial records -- 19th century

Financial records -- 20th century

Genealogies

Home movies

Ledger drawings

Office files

Office memoranda

Packaging -- 20th century

Photographic prints

Photographs -- 19th century

Photographs -- 20th century

Price lists

Proof sheets

Promotional literature

Receipts -- 20th century

Sales records

Scrapbooks -- 20th century

Sound recordings

Sound recordings -- Audiotapes -- Open reel

Television programs

Window displays

Citation:

Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated Records, 1856-1989, undated, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0395

See more items in:

Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8de2ab00c-0e83-43df-9a02-26cffe43e069

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0395

Creator:

Erie Railroad Company  Search this

Olevsky, Walter  Search this

Donor:

ConRail  Search this

Collector:

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:

57 Cubic feet (60 boxes, 97 map-folders)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Blueprints

Mechanical drawings

Tracings

Glass negatives

Photographs

Drawings

Date:

circa 1880-1980

Scope and Contents:

Collection consists of six hundred sixty-eight (668) glass negatives relating to the Erie Railroad. Subjects include stations, train cars, railroad employees, employees' recreational activities, ferries, construction, street scenes, and resort hotels; drawings of structures built by the various railroads which, at the time of the donation, constituted the Consolidated Rail Corporation. Included are linen tracings, blueprints, and mechanical copies; and two cubic feet of photoprints made from negatives in the Erie Railroad Collection.

Arrangement:

The collection is divided into seven series. Series 1: Photographs

Series 2: Glass Plate Negatives Series 3: Lists Series 4: Subject Files Series 5: Specifications for Bridges, Buildings and Terminals Series 6: Drawings Series 7: Bridge Notebooks

Biographical / Historical:

The Erie Railroad was founded in 1832 by large group of investors from the Southern Tier Counties of New York. Among these investors, businessman Eleazar Lord had been among the originators and later became the first president of the company. The railroad's construction took place from 1832 to 1851 with a seven-year pause between 1842 and 1849.

At the time of its completion, the Erie Railroad was the largest railway system in the United States, both in length, 446 miles, and in gauge, six feet. Thanks to its tracks span from New Jersey to Illinois and itsabove-average gauge, it could transport larger cargo.

Throughout its history the company underwent numerous bankruptcies and merged with several companies. The first merger was in 1960 with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad creating the Erie Lackawanna Railroad. The second was in 1976 when the once-again bankrupt company merged with five other lines to create Conrail.

Source

Allegany County Historical Society, Andover, New York

https://www.alleganyhistory.org/culture/transportation/railroads/erie-railroad/1060-the-erie-railroad (Last accessed on Decemeber 3, 2019)

Provenance:

Originally collected by the National Museum of American History's Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering's reference collection.

In 1978, 668 glass plate negatives documenting Erie railroad stations were purchaed from Walter Olevsky; in 1987 drawings of structures built by the various railroads which, at the time of the donation, constituted the Consolidated Rail Corporation were donated; and in 2007, two cubic feet of photoprints and nine cubic feet of archival records were transferred from the Division of Work and Industry to the Archives Center.

Restrictions:

Collection open for research 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:

Railroads -- Buildings and structures  Search this

Railroads -- Employees  Search this

Railroads -- Rolling-stock  Search this

Railroad tracksdrawings  Search this

Railroad stations -- United States  Search this

Railroads -- 20th century  Search this

Railroads -- 19th century  Search this

Genre/Form:

Blueprints

Mechanical drawings

Tracings

Glass negatives

Photographs -- 19th century

Photographs -- 20th century

Drawings

Citation:

Erie Railroad Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1082

See more items in:

Erie Railroad Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep867520079-bbe3-4fbe-9b75-cf3ba7872c37

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1082

Creator:

Baekeland, L. H. (Leo Hendrik), 1863-1944  Search this

Names:

Bakelite Corporation  Search this

Nepera Chemical Co.  Search this

Extent:

15 Cubic feet (49 boxes)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Professional papers

Clippings

Laboratory notes

Personal correspondence

Photographs

Notebooks

Diaries

Date:

1976

1863 - 1968

Summary:

The papers document Leo H. Baekeland, a Belgian born chemist who invented Velox photographic paper (1893) and Bakelite (1907), an inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile plastic. The papers include student notebooks; private laboratory notebooks and journals; commercial laboratory notes; diaries; patents; technical papers; biographies; newspaper clippings; maps; graphs; blueprints; account books; batch books; formula books; order books; photographs; and correspondence regarding Baekeland, 1887-1943.

Scope and Contents:

Baekeland documented his life prolifically through diaries, laboratory notebooks, photographs, and correspondence. These constitute the bulk of the collection. The Bakelite company history is also incompletely documented in this collection through Baekeland's correspondence, the commercial laboratory notebooks, and some company ledgers.

Arrangement:

Series 1: Reference Materials, 1863-1868 and undated

Subseries 1.1: Biographical, 1880-1965

Subseries 1.2:Company History, 1910-1961

Subseries 1.3: Related Interests, 1863-1968 and undated

Series 2: Published and Unpublished Writings (by Leo H. Baekeland), 1884-1945

Series 3: Correspondence, 1888-1963 Subseries 3.1: Personal Correspondence, 1916-1943

Subseries 3.2: Charitable Donations, 1916-1938

Subseries 3.3: Family Correspondence, 1888-1963

Subseries 3.4: Clubs and Associations, 1916-1943

Series 4: Diaries, 1907-1943

Series 5: Reading and Lecture Notes, 1878-1886

Series 6, Laboratory Notebooks, 1893-1915

Series 7: Commercial Laboratory Notebooks, 1910-1920

Series 8: Bakelite Company, 1887-1945

Series 9, Patents, 1894-1940

Series 10: Bakelite Corporation Ledgers, 1910-1924; 1935; 1939

Series 11: Photographs, 1889-1950 and undated

Subseries 11.1: Photographs, 1889-1950 and undated

Subseries 11.2: Film Negatives, 1900-1941 and undated

Subseries 11.3: Photoprints, 1894-1941

Subseries 11.4: Stereographs, 1888-1902 and undated

Subseries 11.5: Film and Glass Plate Negatives, 1899-1900 and undated

Series 12: Audio Materials, 1976

Biographical / Historical:

Leo Hendrik Baekeland was an industrial chemist famous for his invention of Bakelite, the first moldable synthetic polymer, and for his invention of Velox photographic paper. Baekeland's career as an inventor and innovator was punctuated by an urge to improve existing technologies and a willingness to experiment both meticulously and daringly. Born in Ghent, Belgium in 1863, Baekeland was a distinguished chemistry student and became a young professor at the University of Ghent. He had a long standing interest in photography and sought to further photographic technology with his expertise in chemistry. In 1887 he obtained his first patent for a dry plate which contained its own developer and could be developed in a tray of water. With the support of a business partner/faculty associate, Jules Guequier, he formed a company named Baekeland et Cie to produce the plate, but the venture failed due to lack of capital.

On August 8, 1889, he married Celine Swarts, daughter of his academic mentor Theodore Swarts, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Ghent. After his wedding he travelled to different countries using a traveling scholarship he had been awarded two years previously. His travels ended in the United States where he was offered a job researching chemical problems associated with manufacturing bromide papers and films with A. and H.T. Anthony and Company, a photographic supply producer. Leo and Celine Baekeland had three children: George, Nina and Jenny (1890-1895).

He left Anthony and Company in 1891 to be a consulting chemist. During that time he invented a photographic print paper using silver chloride which could be developed in artificial light instead of sunlight and thus offered more flexibility and consistency to photographers. In 1893, with financial support from Leonard Jacobi, a scrap metal dealer from San Francisco, he formed the Nepera Chemical Company in Yonkers, New York, to manufacture "gaslight" paper under the trade name Velox. The paper became quite popular and the company expanded its operations after its first three years. Finally, George Eastman bought the company for a reported $750,000 which afforded Baekeland the time to conduct his own research in a laboratory he set up on his estate, "Snug Rock," in Yonkers.

Baekeland worked on problems of electrolysis of salt and the production of synthetic resins. He was hired as a consultant to work with Clinton P. Townsend to perfect Townsend's patented electrolytic cell. Baekeland's work there contributed to the success of the Hooke Electrochemical Company which began in operations in Niagara Falls in 1905.

Simultaneously, in 1902 Baekeland began researching reactions of phenol and formaldehyde, and by 1907 was able to control the reactions and produce a moldable plastic (oxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride) which he named Bakelite. Although the process was not perfected for another couple of years, Baekeland applied for a patent for Bakelite right away. He announced his discovery to the scientific community in 1909, and in 1910 formed the General Bakelite Company. Bakelite was a thermosetting resin that, unlike Celluloid became permanently solid when heated. It was virtually impervious to heat, acids, or caustic substances. It could be molded into a wide variety of shapes and was an excellent electric insulator that came to replace hard rubber and amber for electrical and industrial applications. It was also suitable for a wide variety of consumer products such as billiard balls, jewelry, pot handles, telephones, toasters, electric plugs, and airplane instrument knobs. Two companies challenged Bakelite with significant competition, Condensite Corporation of America and Redmanol Chemical Products Company. Bakelite finally merged with these two companies in 1922 to become the Bakelite Corporation. Union Carbide finally bought the corporation in 1939.

Baekeland sustained his interest in photography by taking numerous photographs throughout his lifetime. He also devoted much of his spare time to professional societies and received various honorary degrees and awards such as the Perkin Medal. He had several hobbies such as boating, wine and beer making, and, exotic plants. He also traveled extensively throughout the world, which is documented in his diaries and photographs.

Baekeland spent his final years mostly in his Coconut Grove, Florida home where he became increasingly eccentric until his mind failed him and he was institutionalized. He died in 1943 at the age of eighty.

Scope and Content: Baekeland documented his life prolifically through diaries, laboratory notebooks, photographs, and correspondence. These constitute the bulk of the collection. The Bakelite company history is also incompletely documented in this collection through Baekeland's correspondence, the commercial laboratory notebooks, and some company ledgers.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

Albany Billiard Ball Company Records (AC0011)

Celluloid Corporation Records (AC0009)

J. Harry DuBois Collection on the History of Plastics (AC0008)

Materials at Other Organizations

The Hagley Museum and Library, Manuscripts and Archives Department in Delaware also several related collections including: the Directors of Industrial Research Records, 1929 -982; the Du Pont Viscoloid Company, Survey of the Plastics Field, 1932; The Society of the Plastics Industry, 1937-1987; the Roy J. Plunkett Collection, 1910-1994 (inventor of Teflon); and the Gordon M. Kline Collection, 1903.

Separated Materials:

The National Museum of American History, Division Medicine and Science has several artifacts associated with Baekeland including the original "Bakalizer" the apparatus in which Bakelite was first made. See accession numbers: 1977.0368; 1979.1179; 1981.0976; 1982.0034; 1983.0524; 1984.0138.

Provenance:

The bulk of the collection was donated to the National Museum of American History's Division of Physical Sciences in November, 1981, by Celine Karraker, Leo H. Baekeland's granddaughter.

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:

Phenolic resins  Search this

Travel -- Photographs  Search this

Chemists -- 1880-1970  Search this

Inventors -- 1880-1970  Search this

Plastics -- 1880-1970  Search this

Chemistry  Search this

Genre/Form:

Professional papers -- 1880-1970

Clippings -- 1880-1970

Laboratory notes

Personal correspondence -- 1880-1970

Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Glass -- 19th-20th century

Notebooks -- 1880-1970

Diaries -- 1880-1970

Photographs -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver gelatin -- 19th-20th century

Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Nitrate -- 19th-20th century

Citation:

Leo Baekeland Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0005

See more items in:

Leo H. Baekeland Papers

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep846e88df6-033d-4805-99e2-b308002a75f4

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0005

Names:

Aichi Clock and Electric Co Ltd.  Search this

Extent:

0.52 Cubic feet ((1 slim legal document box) (1 shoebox))

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Lantern slides

Date:

1942-1943

Scope and Contents:

This collection consists of 27 glass lantern slides focusing on these two Japanese bombers. These aircraft were possibly flown during the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. The slides show parts of these aircraft including wings, fuselages, and wheels.

Biographical / Historical:

The Aichi D3A1, Navy Type 99 carrier bomber, was first produced by Aichi Watch and Electrical Machinery Co. in 1939. Its appearance resembled that of its American counterpart, the Douglas SBD Dauntless. The Nakajima B5N, Navy Type 97 carrier attack torpedo bomber, was very similar to Douglas Devastator (TBD).

General:

NASMrev

Provenance:

Unknown.

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:

World War, 1939-1945  Search this

Aeronautics  Search this

Aeronautics, Military  Search this

Aichi D3A Val (Navy Type 99 Carrier Bomber)  Search this

Nakajima B5N Kate (Navy Type 97 Carrier Attack Bomber)  Search this

Genre/Form:

Lantern slides

Identifier:

NASM.XXXX.0598

Archival Repository:

National Air and Space Museum Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pg24e94d2c1-d1d5-410d-aa6f-5a9d726d7cb7

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nasm-xxxx-0598

Names:

Amundsen, Roald  Search this

Ellsworth, Lincoln, 1880-1951  Search this

Extent:

0.25 Cubic feet (1 box (23 glass lantern slides))

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Lantern slides

Place:

Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration

Date:

bulk 1925

Summary:

The collection consists of 23 hand-colored glass lantern slides of images taken during the 1925 Arctic expedition attempt by Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth to fly to the North Pole using a pair of Dornier Do J Wal (Whale) (Do 16) flying boats.

Scope and Contents:

The collection consists of 23 3.25 x 3.25 inch (8 x 8 cm) hand-colored glass lantern slides made by the Worm-Petersen studio (Oslo, Norway) of images taken during the Amundsen and Ellsworth 1925 Arctic expedition.

Biographical / Historical:

Roald Amundsen was an accomplished Norwegian explorer. American Lincoln Ellsworth was the son of a multimillionaire, with degrees from Columbia and Yale, trained as an aviator during World War I. Together, with four other men, they attempted to fly to the North Pole using a pair of Dornier Do J Wal (Whale) (Do 16) flying boats, simply named N24 and N25. Each aircraft had twin Rolls-Royce 365-hp water-cooled Eagle engines mounted on top of the wing structure, one facing forward, the other facing aft. The Dorniers were constructed with duralumin flat-bottomed fuselages and projecting sponsons to stabilize the craft in the water. The expedition left from King's Bay Svalbard (Spitsbergen) Norway on 21 May 1925. The N24 was piloted by Norwegian naval Lieutenant Leif Dietrichson, with Ellsworth and mechanic Osker Omdal. Amundsen was aboard the N25 with Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen as pilot and German mechanic Ludwig (also known as Karl) Feucht. After several hours of flight, the N24 engine temperature began to rise uncontrollably, and by 5:00 am on the 22nd Amundsen decided to land both planes to refill the tanks. They were still over 120 miles from the Pole and had drifted off course, 22 degrees west. It would take 25 days of surviving the Arctic climate before they could free the planes from the ice by creating a hard ice runway using only makeshift tools. On June 15, the six men took flight aboard the N25, leaving the crippled N24 behind. Almost 24 hours later they were able to land on the choppy waters of the Hinlopen Strait, where they flagged down and were able to board the Sjoliv, a Norwegian seal-hunting ship, for their final journey back to King's Bay. By June 25th the N25 was safely recovered and on July 5th Amundsen and Ellsworth with the rest of the crew flew the N-25 to Olso for a heroes' reception and audience with King Haakon of Norway.

Provenance:

P.W.K. Dietrichson, Gift, NASM.XXXX.0494

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

Scientific expeditions -- Arctic regions  Search this

North Pole -- Aerial Exploration  Search this

Dornier Do J Wal (Whale) (Do 16)  Search this

Genre/Form:

Lantern slides

Citation:

Amundsen and Ellsworth 1925 Arctic Expedition Glass Plates [Dietrichson], Acc. XXXX.0491, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

NASM.XXXX.0491

See more items in:

Amundsen and Ellsworth 1925 Arctic Expedition Glass Plates [Dietrichson]

Archival Repository:

National Air and Space Museum Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pg20a1cb23b-4588-4cbc-8a5d-9639dc66e21f

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nasm-xxxx-0491

Extent:

19.44 Cubic feet ((22 boxes))

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Scrapbooks

Menus

Glass plate negatives

Lantern slides

Advertisements

Cigarette cards

Date:

bulk 1910-1970

Scope and Contents:

This collection contains the following types of material: scrapbooks; photographs; stereographs; lantern slides; glass plate negatives; trading cards; booklets; aviation banquet menus; aviation-related advertisements; postcards; and various other types of aeronautical ephemera.

Biographical / Historical:

Melvyn Buchner was a collector of aeronautical ephemera.

Provenance:

Melvyn Buchner Estate, Gift, 1997

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

Genre/Form:

Scrapbooks

Menus

Glass plate negatives

Lantern slides

Advertisements

Cigarette cards

Citation:

Melvyn Buchner Aeronautical Ephemera Collection, Accession 1998-0005, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

NASM.1998.0005

Archival Repository:

National Air and Space Museum Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pg2f9b20d35-4ae1-4b23-a729-f540bd64f910

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nasm-1998-0005