The records of Safko International, Inc., document an assistive computer technology company created by Lon S. Safko to produce and sell the environmental control systems he invented for the physically disabled, specifically quadriplegics. Through the use of a computer and alternative input devices, the physically disabled were able to overcome physical barriers which inhibited them from attaining an autonomous lifestyle.
Scope and Contents:
Spanning 1984 to 1998, the Safko International, Inc. Records are divided into seven series and consist of approximately 12.6 cubic feet. Collectively these series document the routine affairs of Safko International, Inc., a company created for the production and distribution of the assistive technology inventions of Lon S. Safko from its formation in 1986 to its dissolution in 1995. During the lifespan of this company there was a growing awareness of and sensitivity towards disability issues within American society. Two significant events associated with this change in American society, were the American with Disabilities Act, 1993, and Christopher Reeve's riding accident in 1995, documented within this collection. In addition to documenting the intersection of American society with the assistive technology field, this collection documents how one man's vision of society and that of his company, in conjunction with perseverance and sacrifices, can transform the lives of individuals such as Franklin Halwood and Liz Jimenez. Lastly, this collection documents the evolution of assistive technology devices to provide for the specific needs of the physically and cognitively disabled.
Executive Records, 1986-1998, is approximately 3.6 cubic feet of documents, the majority of which are correspondence and reports. Other documents include: business cards, faxes, form letters, printed emails, brochures, check stubs, invoices, photocopied newspaper and magazine clippings, blank applications, memoranda, license agreements, scrap paper notes, promotional materials, private placement memoranda, annual reports of other corporations, resumes, receipts, deposit slips, meeting notes, directories, press releases, stock listings, maps, non-disclosure covenants, organizational charts, airline ticket stubs, by-laws, stock certificates, and stock warrants. This series is subdivided into eight subseries, each documenting the operational affairs of Safko International, Inc.
Files within the first subseries, Corporate history and formation, provide background information on the incorporation of Safko International, Inc. and its reformation as Synosure, Inc. in 1996. Other files contain documents listing employees and their positions, biographical sketches, facts about the company and products produced, corporate structuring, and Safko International, Inc.'s by-laws. Files found within the second subseries, Administration, contain operational records, the majority of which deal with the company's relationship with its employees. The third subseries, Correspondence, also deals with operational issues, such as recycling and preparing for conferences. Note that correspondence is found throughout the collection, not just in this subseries. Safko filed most correspondence by names and topics, but correspondence found within this subseries was labeled general correspondence and arranged by year. The next subseries, Business plans, are of drafts and final copies of reports that were revised every two years providing information about officers, legal and financial advisors, descriptions of the SenSei system and its market potential, its business and marketing strategies, foreign business relations, cash flow, distribution, sales history, restructuring strategy, its reseller status of other computer products, and pilot projects. The fifth subseries, Minutes, is comprehensive in coverage except for the period between 1990 and 1992. The most information about company decisions and discussions made at these meetings can be found in the minutes spanning 1992 to 1995.
The next two subseries, Board of Directors and Personnel, are not comprehensive in coverage and contain very few documents. Also, files for some of the employees and Board of Directors are not found within these subseries. Employee files include: Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer (Safko), SenSei Program Director (Martindale), Marketing Assistant (Montgomery), Computer programmer (Hirota), Chief Executive Officer and President after Safko resigned (Schembs), Vice President of Sales and Marketing (Zinn), Vice President of Sales and Marketing (Bowman), and Director of Sales (Owen). Within the two files about Safko is correspondence of a personal nature, his biographical sketch, and curriculum vitae. The final subseries, Business relationships, contains files about individuals and companies whose relationship to Safko International, Inc. was unclear or who had a relationship with the company that covered many areas of business. For instance, although Westinghouse Investment Management Company invested in other businesses, it had a "non-financial" interest in Safko International, Inc. Another example is the Apple Corporation, which provided technical support for Apple Computers that Safko International, Inc. resold, but it also marketed Safko's SenSei System in its Aisle 17 publication.
Financial Records 1987-1998, is approximately 1.3 cubic feet of documents, the majority of which are spreadsheets and reports about the company's financial status and correspondence with companies and individuals about investment opportunities. Other documents include: form letters, faxes, financial charts, resumes, memoranda, confidential summary memoranda, executive summaries, photocopied checks, photocopied newspaper clippings, handwritten notes, financial spreadsheets, stock warrants, agendas, private offering memoranda, confidential summary memoranda, drafts and final copies of financial statements, deposit slips, and business cards. This series is subdivided into four subseries, each documenting the fiscal difficulties that Safko International, Inc. encountered and its strategy for overcoming these difficulties.
The first subseries, Bookkeeping, includes records of liabilities, assets, expenses, inventories, payroll, stock transaction history, plans for preventing bankruptcy, and auditing procedures. The other three subseries deal specifically with the pursuit of Safko International, Inc. for financial assistance. The distinction between the third and fourth subseries is significant. The third subseries, Investors, documents individuals and companies that invested in Safko International, Inc. through loans or purchases of stock. The fourth subseries, includes files of individuals and companies from whom Safko requested financial assistance, but either rejected Safko's plea outright or never responded. It may be that some of these files are of companies and individuals that did in fact invest in Safko International, Inc., but there is no documentation within the files themselves to identify these individuals and companies as investors.
Legal Records, 1986-1997, is approximately 1.5 cubic feet of documents, the bulk of which is correspondence. Other documents in this series include: reports, licenses, payment vouchers, receipts, court summons, memoranda, photocopied newspaper clippings and magazine articles, newsletters, business proposals, faxes, promotional flyers for other products, brochures, meeting minutes, agreements, business cards, thirteen 5.25" computer diskettes, fourteen 3.5" computer disks, and phone messages. This series is divided into five subseries, each documenting the attempts of Safko International, Inc. to protect itself and its product.
The first subseries, Poor mans' patents, are packets of certified mail that Lon S. Safko sent to himself from 1986 to 1994 to provide proof of his status as the inventor of SoftVoice and other assistive technology devices. The second subseries, Legal documents, provide background information about the SenSei trademark and copyright application process. It also includes proof for the status of Safko International, Inc. as a legitimate and registered company having been granted the authority to conduct business. The third subseries, Legal representation and counsel, are files of documents created in the course of business between Safko International, Inc. and its various legal representatives pertaining to specific issues including: advice about copyrights and compliance with the American with Disabilities Act, capitalization, liability insurance program, loan and stock agreements, personal service agreements, pledge agreements, a prospective business venture with the Saudi Amoudi Group, articles of incorporation, and dissolutions. Most of the issues discussed within this subseries are administrative or financial.
The fourth subseries, Disputes, deals with legal battles that do not appear to have reached litigation. Documentation can be found about the contractual relationship with the Austin McDaniel Corporation and its subsequent dissolution, a challenge to the intellectual property copyright to "SenSei," Safko International, Inc.'s payment in arrears to other businesses, and the attempt of a board member to seek financial compensation from the company. The final subseries, Research file, is background research into the legal ramifications of the American with Disabilities Act, possible copyright infringements by other companies, copyright status of companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Motorola and their relationship to Safko International, Inc., information on how to deal with software licenses, and incoming and outgoing correspondence with software creators asking for their permission to incorporate their inventions as a part of the SenSei system.
Research Development, and Production Records, 1984-1996, is approximately one cubic foot of documents. It includes: correspondence, promotional materials, catalogs, drawings, photocopied newspaper clippings and magazine articles, manuals, circuit board diagrams, receipts, newsletter, brochures, six 3.5" computer disks, seventeen 5.25" computer floppy diskettes, invoices, faxes, business cards, agreements, photographs, fact sheets, and labels. This series is divided into five subseries, each documenting the revisions and adaptations of SoftVoice and the SenSei System for marketability purposes.
The first subseries, SoftVoice, consists of seventeen 5.25" computer floppy diskettes and some documents. The only documents found within this subseries are in two files, the majority of which are in the SoftVoice telephone file. In contrast, the second subseries, SenSei, consists mostly of documents and only one 3.5" computer disk. Among this subseries are files providing information on other complimentary products that Safko resold as a part of the SenSei System, instructions for installers and users of the system, adaptations of the system to meet particular needs, and information on suppliers, unit costs and suggested retail prices. As a part of the third subseries are five 3.5" computer disks. The strength of this subseries is its documentation of the Siptroller. The fourth subseries, Proprietary relationships, documents the pursuit of and/or actual relationship between Safko International, Inc. and other companies involved in selling, manufacturing, and/or distributing assistive technology devices. Depending on the individual needs of the client, Safko International, Inc. offered and sometimes sold these hardware devices and software programs as a part of the SenSei System. Ways in which the system was or could have been adapted through proprietary relationships include: establishing fire alarm and medical alert systems, programming languages, graphics, European modifications, word prediction software, iconic keyboards, and alternative input devices. The final subseries, Research concerning product development, is like the aforementioned subseries, but there is no documentation to prove that the companies contained within this subseries ever had a proprietary relationship with Safko International, Inc. In fact, within this subseries are files about companies that competed with Safko International, Inc. in the field of voice recognition and imitation. A third aspect of this subseries is that it contains research on technologies, like virtual reality, which were ways in which the SenSei system could be enhanced. This subseries contains documentation of Safko International, Inc.'s involvement in pilot studies to assess how assistive technology devices and systems like SenSei can make a difference in the work field.
Marketing, Publicity, and Sales Records, 1986-1996, is approximately 3.1 cubic feet of documents, including: correspondence, faxes, memoranda, drafts and final copies of agreements, reports, press releases, advertisements, fact sheets, agendas, photocopied newspaper clippings and magazine articles, transcripts, photographs, award applications, diagrams, annual reports, business cards, presentation outlines, notes, delivery slips, invoices, inventory lists, and diagrams. This series is divided into twelve subseries, each documenting an important part Safko International, Inc's. efforts to sell and create public awareness of their products. Also documented is that Safko International, Inc's. marketing to hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and consultants, nursing homes, insurance companies, government agencies, and individuals through mailings, advertisements, telephone calls, and personal relationships.
The first subseries, Product and company information, contains documents that are similar to those in the first subseries of Executive Records. The main difference is that these files are not the master copies. Also, very few files of this subseries actually focus on company history; the majority are documents created to assist individuals, other businesses, and company employees in providing background information about the product, finding funding to purchase a system, and understanding how the SenSei System works. The second subseries, Sales records, provides information on sales transactions. Some of the delivery slips and invoices within this subseries are also located in client files. The third subseries, Marketing agencies and agents, documents the relationship Safko International, Inc. had with public relations agencies. Of all the subseries, this is the one with the majority of information. It reveals the techniques the company and its public relations agents used in trying to initiate contact with other individuals and companies. For instance, there is detailed information about the construction of promotional materials along with timelines and progress reports assessing the work of the marketing agents in meeting the needs of Safko International, Inc. The fourth subseries, Promotional materials, contain documents whose purpose was to sell the Sensei system and other assistive technology inventions created by Lon S. Safko. Unlike the first subseries, Product and company information, the purpose of these documents was to persuade prospective customers. The fifth subseries, Advertisements and publicity, records publicity garnered through magazines, newspapers, video, television, and radio. The sixth subseries, Awards, documents publicity of a different sort. It documents the recognition Lon S. Safko and his inventions received for benefiting society. Within this subseries, one of the files documents the creation of a museum display at the Arizona Science Center. In addition to creating public awareness of the SenSei System, this series documents the training of sales representatives, sales transactions, and distribution.
The seventh subseries, Sales representatives' materials consist of documents used to assist in training the representatives. The eighth subseries, Sales representatives, is of files organized according to the name of the representative. Besides invoices for sales transactions, these files also contain agreements outlining responsibilities, a listing of who to go to for answers to legal questions, information on conventions, and definitions of pertinent medical terms necessary for a sales representative to know. Note that not all files are comprehensive or provide the same kinds of information. The ninth subseries, Conferences and demonstrations, are of presentations given by Safko International, Inc. to inform others about their products and to build relationships with other companies. Representatives of Safko International, Inc. attended to learn from other companies. One such conference was an Innovative Thinking Conference, in which the attendees were involved in brainstorming new marketing ideas.
The tenth subseries, Distribution, documents the expansion of the SenSei System into domestic and foreign markets. Included is background information about various companies and markets, agreements made with other companies, and the process for buying back equipment that distributors were unable to sell. The eleventh subseries, Prospective clients and business contacts, are files for which there is no definitive relationship built with Safko International, Inc. Within these files are letters to prospective clients asking to give them a demonstration, or letters of appreciation for a demonstration given, but no evidence of a follow-up.
Some of the files are of contacts initiated with marketing agencies or distributors that do not appear to have developed into an actual relationship. The last subseries, clients, is composed mostly of invoices and correspondence pertaining to the purchase or lease of SenSei Systems by school districts, individuals, churches, hospitals, and rehabilitation facilities. Information about: who the product was shipped to, the cost, representatives or distribution companies responsible for the sale, notes of adaptations to the system for individual needs, assessments by consultants, brief history of some of the individuals who purchased the systems, installation notes, and problems they encountered are found here. Like other files found elsewhere, this subseries is not comprehensive. Many files only include the invoices, but others include more information.
Photographs and Scrapbooks, 1987-1995, is approximately 0.9 cubic feet. Contained are: photographs, negatives, pins, thank you notes, photocopied newspaper clippings, agendas, programs, calendars, memoranda, correspondence, mailers, exhibitor ribbons, stickers, and newsletters. This series is divided into two subseries, each documenting the routine affairs of Safko International, Inc. and the individuals involved.
The first subseries, Photographs and negatives, is mostly promotional photographs of the products or individuals using the products. The second subseries, Scrapbooks, are mostly photographs, but includes other types of documents, and some artifacts. Most photographs found in the scrapbooks are not found elsewhere, but there is some overlap with the first subseries. Photographs in this subseries document board meetings, employees at work, assembling the mass mailings, wall hangings, inside and outside of Safko International, Inc.'s offices, Austin McDaniel Corporation offices, attorney's offices, meetings with TeleNova and InfoLogics, an investment reception, products Safko International, Inc. sold, system modifications, computer screens, the packaged product, setup for taking promotional photographs, setup for presentations, demonstration in a hospital setting, conferences, television interviews, Franklin Halwood, and unidentified individuals. In both subseries, very few of the photographs are captioned.
The seventh series, Audiovisual Materials, 1986-1996, is approximately one cubic foot of materials, encompassing twenty-nine 1⁄2" VHS tapes and four standard audio cassette tapes. Accordingly this series is divided into two subseries, Audio cassettes and Audio visual tapes, both documenting the marketing of the SenSei System. Additionally the second subseries also documents presentations given by Safko International, Inc. representatives and instruction manuals showing how to use the SoftVoice and SenSei systems.
Arrangement:
This collection is divided into seven series.
Series 1: Executive Records, 1986-1998
Subseries 1.1: Corporate history and formation, 1986-1997
Subseries 1.2: Administration, 1988-1996
Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1988-1995
Subseries 1.4: Business plans, 1989-1996
Subseries 1.5: Minutes, 1987-1997
Subseries 1.6: Board of Directors, 1988-1992
Subseries 1.7: Personnel, 1988-1998
Subseries 1.8: Business relationships, 1986-1998
Sub-subseries 1.8.1: Apple Corporation, 1986-1996
Sub-subseries 1.8.2: Consultants, 1989-1994
Sub-subseries 1.8.3: Professional contacts, 1987-1995
Sub-subseries 1.8.4: National, 1987-1996
Sub-subseries 1.8.5: International, 1988-1998
Series 2: Financial Records, 1986-1998
Subseries 2.1: Bookkeeping, 1986-1996
Subseries 2.2: Bookkeeping, 1988-1996
Subseries 2.3: Investors, 1987-1998
Subseries 2.4: Investors, 1987-1998
Series 3: Legal Records, 1986-1997
Subseries 3.1: Poor man's patents, 1986-1994
Subseries 3.2: Legal documents, 1987-1994
Subseries 3.3: Legal representation and counsel, 1988-1995
Subseries 3.4: Disputes, 1987-1997
Subseries 3.5: Research file, 1986-1995
Series 4: Research, Development and Production Records, 1984-1996
Subseries 59: Conferences and demonstrations, 1987-1995
Subseries 5.10: Distribution, 1986-1996
Subseries 5.11: Prospective clients and business contacts, 1987-1996
Subseries 5.12: Clients, 1986-1996
Series 6: Photographs and Scrapbooks, 1987-1995
Subseries 6.1: Photographs and negatives, 1987-1995
Sub-subseries 6.1.1: Administration, circa 1988-1995
Sub-subseries 6.1.2: Promotional, 1987-1995
Sub-subseries 6.1.3: Demonstrations and trade shows, 1988-1995
Sub-subseries 6.1.4: SoftVoice and SenSei System, 1988-1995
Subseries 6.2: Scrapbooks, 1986-1994
Series 7: Audiovisual Materials, 1986-1996
Subseries 7.1: Audio cassettes, 1991-1994
Subseries 7.2: Audio visual tapes, 1986-1996
Biographical / Historical:
Founded by Lon S. Safko in 1987, Safko International, Inc. was formed in response to the encouragement Safko received from demonstrating SoftVoice, his environmental control system. At first, Safko was merely fulfilling a promise to help a quadriplegic, Herb Smith, regain control of his environment. As Safko encountered the many difficulties of adapting existing voice recognition software to communicate with hardware devices, such as lamps, he understood that the only way to fulfill his promise was to invent his own system. Shortly after his first demonstration, on March 3, 1986, he was so inspired at the success of his invention that he decided to continue his work. In October of that year, Safko was contacted to install a system for Leon Mutch, a man who had lost his will to live after being paralyzed from an automobile accident. After installing the system, Safko heard nothing for a few weeks. Then after being telephoned to retrieve the system, he was surprised to find that Mutch had in fact regained some arm mobility, and more importantly, Mutch had regained the hope that he had lost. Less than six months later, on March 6, 1987, Safko International, Inc. was formally incorporated in Kennewick, Washington, to develop, produce, market, sell, and distribute Safko's inventions, primarily SoftVoice and its successor, the SenSei System.
Although Safko International, Inc. was officially incorporated in 1987, the company did not fully develop until its relocation to Chandler, Arizona, in 1989. During 1987 and 1988, Lon Safko continued to work in the computer retail business and as Senior Systems Engineer for the United States Department of Energy, under Westinghouse Electric Company, to produce an Artificial Intelligence computer system. From August to November, 1987, Lon Safko was repeatedly contacted by Debra Purcel, a physical therapist who wanted to purchase the system for one of her patients, a sixteen year old girl with a spinal tumor whose last request was to communicate her thoughts and feelings to others who were suffering from similar circumstances. Safko was reluctant to sell her the system because the girl was using a respirator and therefore would be unable to speak clearly enough for a computer to recognize her voice. Eventually, Safko realized the solution was to modify his system through the use of alternative input devices. He created HeadMouse, an input device modified from an existing model. He named the modified system SoftVoice II. In August, 1987, Safko's environmental control system was renamed the SenSei System. After modifying the system to provide for the needs of the young girl and its successful demonstration, Safko decided to give the system free of charge to her. Unfortunately when he returned to surprise her, he was too late. Her life support systems had been unplugged two days before.
Shortly thereafter, in March of 1988, Safko returned to Safko International, Inc. with a greater determination to reach those individuals trapped by circumstances beyond their control. Also in 1988, Safko International, Inc. was given office space in which to continue research and development of Safko's assistive computer technology systems through the assistance of Westinghouse Electric Company. As of 1988 Safko was President and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Stan Colson was Vice President and on the Product Development team, Bruce Jorgenson was the Secretary and Treasurer in charge of the Finance and Administration division, Bob Hennig was on the Product Development team, and Keith Fischer served as Director of Engineering. The Marketing and Sales division was composed of Roger McDowell and Melanie Strege.
During 1988, Safko International, Inc. began clinical testing at hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. In addition, the company signed a contract with Boyd Fricke of the Austin McDaniel Corporation granting an exclusive international sales and marketing rights to Safko International, Inc.'s products in exchange for financial assistance. Later, Austin McDaniel Corporation attempted to coerce Safko International, Inc. through financial pressure to give up product rights. In 1990 Safko regained sales and marketing rights of the SenSei System. In May of 1988 there was also an attempt to merge with Datex Inc, but the merger did not succeed.
On June 15, 1989, the company officially moved the corporate headquarters, along with the engineering and manufacturing division, to Chandler, Arizona. Also in 1989 the company signed Value Added Reseller agreements with computer companies such as Apple Computer, Inc. and Computerland/ DataPhaz of Phoenix, Arizona.
In the following year, Safko International, Inc. expanded from domestic to international markets. The company built relationships with TeleNova AB, a subsidiary of the Swedish Telecom Group of the Swedish government and InfoLogics, an artificial intelligence computer division. Through the marketing and distribution efforts of TeleNova and its president Tommy Naslund, Safko International, Inc. was able to install SenSei systems in Sweden. In 1990 Lon Safko traveled to Sweden to help InfoLogics translate the SenSei computer system software into Swedish.
In 1991 Safko International, Inc. acquired contracts to construct interfaces which correspond with hospital beds. In particular, the Borg Warner Electronic Hospital Bed interface was created on the behalf of the Veterans Administration Hospital and the Smith and Davis Electronic Hospital Bed interface on the behalf of the Rusk Institute. Additionally, the Environmental PAL was developed in 1991. In regards to corporate structuring Richard L. Bourke became Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and John B. Zinn was Vice President of Marketing.
On February 24, 1992, Safko International, Inc. became an official Arizona corporation. Also during this year, the portable Safko Server and Power Now System were created.
In May 1993, Allen J. Emsley became Secretary and Treasurer of the company and then became Chief Financial Officer from November 1993 until August 1994. In November of 1993 the research and development office was moved from Chandler to Tempe, Arizona.
In January 1994 Safko International, Inc. was acquired by Safko Industries Inc., of Wyoming and Safko Sales International was formed. By 1994 Safko International, Inc. had sales representatives covering Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Washington, Illinois, California, and New York. Reflected in the company's active marketing campaign and its significant increase of personnel, from 1994 to1995 Safko International, Inc. was at its peak in terms of corporate growth.
In 1995 Safko International, Inc. received Veterans Administration and Medicare approval. In the research and development division the company enhanced the SenSei System to be functional for the visually disabled and blind. As of 1995 Sakfo, Bowman, Emsley, Fischer, Honacker, and Hirota remained at the company. New employees included: Teresa Caldwell, Michael Montgomery (Marketing Assistant), Kahn Beal (contract employee), Jill Lund (Secretary), Carl E. McKowan (Vice President Financial), Marjory Bain (Administrative Assistant). Due to financial difficulties, in October of 1995 the entire staff was laid off and only Safko, Bowman, and Fischer continued to work for the company. Conditions only got worse and in November of 1995 Safko, Bowman, and Fischer were forced to leave their office space and work out of their cars and homes.
On May 28, 1996 Lon S. Safko officially resigned from the company and shortly thereafter the company shut down. Immediately following Safko International, Inc.'s closure, Synosure, Inc. was formed and given all rights, copyrights, and trademarks to the Safko International, Inc. products. One of the significant aspects about the company during this time was its attempt to finalize distribution plans with Great Britain, but the momentum was lost. Synosure, Inc. only lasted a year. On June 23, 1997 it dissolved.
Lawrence "Lon" S. Safko was born on August 1, 1955, in Yonkers, New York. He completed his General Equivalency Diploma (G.E.D.) in 1976 and graduated from Westchester College in 1978 with a three year advanced degree in Civil Engineering. Safko also took courses at Mercy College, Pace University and Hofstra University.
In the spring of 1982, Safko began his entrepreneurial career by forming Civil Consultants, a firm to provide the first ever engineering services using computers. The company specialized in surveying, coordinate geometry, earthworks, highway and transportation design, traffic analysis, and hydrologic computations. In 1985, Safko sold Civil Consultants and relocated to the Pacific Northwest. Wanting to work more closely with computers, he became the general sales manager for two Apple Computer, Inc. retail outlets.
That same year, Safko designed a voice activated environmental control system for the disabled called SoftVoice Computer System. On March 6, 1986, Safko founded Safko International, Inc. and began field testing the SoftVoice Computer System. During 1987, Safko designed an artificial intelligence computer system for the United States Department of Energy and the Westinghouse Electric Company, on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, in Washington State. This system compiled thousands of reports developed by the five uranium and plutonium production companies on the nuclear reservation, analyzed this information, and reported to the operator any signs of potentially hazardous patterns that could result in a nuclear disaster. In 1988, Safko began research and development of a Macintosh-based SenSei Computer System for the Disabled.
Safko holds United States Patent # 7,072,949 for a, "System and method for providing paper models over a wide area computer network," and several copyrights and trademarks. Currently, Safko is a professional speaker, trainer, and consultant for Better Homes Seminar and Innovative Thinking, L.L.C. He also is President and founder of Paper Models, Inc., providing corporate specialty advertising and educational paper models.
Related Materials:
Materials at Other Organizations
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA holds several artifacts related to Lon Safko. Accession Lot # X3342.2006 contains:
First RCA TV Sip Controller
First Hospital Bed Nurse Call
Sip Puff IR Controller
Production Version Sip Puff Controller
Smith & Davis Electric Hospital Bed Controller
Sip Puff Modified Mouse
Computer Controlled Telephone
HeadMouse
First SenSei Server (Mac)
Prototype SenSei Server (Mac)
Sip Puff IR Controllers
Sip Puff Accessory Pack
Final SenSei Server Production Model
Final SenSei Server Production Model
SyQuest SenSei Software Back Ups
First CD SenSei Software Back Ups
Separated Materials:
The Division of Information, Technology, and Society (now Division of Medicine and Science) holds 18 artifacts related to this collection as accession number 2005.0291 including:
1 Computer, with detached cord
Apple II cpu/keyboard
External Drive, ""Apple Disk II""
External Drive, ""Distar""
Magnavox computer monitor 80
4 Diskettes, ""SoftVoice""
Super Disk Demo 1
Super Disk Demo 2
SoftVoice Trainer
1 PC Daughter Board, ""Speech Recognition for Apple II""
1 Mouse Emulator, ""Head Master,"" with parts and manual in shipping box made by Prentke Romich Company
1 Trackball, ""Kensington TurboMouse""
1 Siptroller Case, Prototype, ""Safko International Inc.""
1 Puff Stick Base, ""Gravis"" with a hand piece and a chin piece only
1 Production Sensei Server, ""Version 2.0 Safko International Inc.""
This collection was donated by Lon S. Safko, 2006.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research use.
Rights:
Copyright held by the Smithsonian Institution. Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: fees for commercial use.
Papers relating to the development of the flexible drinking straw, Friedman's manufacturing company, and Friedman's other inventions, such as an ice cream scoop, fountain pens, and household appliances.
Scope and Contents:
Papers relating to the development of the flexible drinking straw, Friedman's manufacturing company, and Friedman's other inventions, such as an ice cream scoop, fountain pens, and household appliances. Includes company ledgers, preliminary sketches, blueprints, correspondence, a video cassette, and photographs.
The Joseph B. Friedman Papers encompass the years 1915-2000, with the bulk of the material ranging between 1925 and 1965. This collection is a near complete source for the understanding inventive process of an American entrepreneur. In the case of the flexible straw, the evolution of the invention can be traced from early concept drawings through its manufacture and production, to the development of advertising and marketing materials. Records of necessary design modifications in the flexible straw and legal issues concerning Friedman's invention through its various stages are present here. In addition to providing a detailed linear account of the flexible straw, these papers reflect the varied interests and additional accomplishments of Friedman's invention career. The collection is arranged in three series to reflect the subjects of the material, namely personal papers, invention materials, and corporate records. Materials within each series are arranged by topic and type, and then chronologically.
Series 1: Personal Records (c.1920s-1940) contains family photographs, personal correspondence, education and employment records. Friedman's education records are in Subseries A, while the records of his careers in optometry, insurance and real estate are contained in Subseries B. Subseries C contains personal financial records, including bank statements and income tax returns. Correspondence, photographs, family history items and death certificate are located in Subseries D.
Series 2: Invention & Patent Materials (1915-1967) consists of invention records that include original concept drawings, legal records and patents, marketing correspondence, and the business records of Friedman's sole proprietorship invention business, the Commercial Research Company. It is important for researchers to note that information on the assignment of straw patents and their machinery, all associated legal records to those specific issues, as well as patent defense case research, and straw advertising and marketing after 1938 may be found in Series 3. Series 2 is divided into several subseries. Subseries A - I are patented inventions arranged chronologically by patent issue date, and include research and development, legal records and correspondence, and advertising and marketing materials. Subseries J - M contain unpatented inventions and business records, as well as multiple concept drawings and invention lists that refer to both patented and unpatented inventions. Researchers interested in the conceptual development of the straw should review the information contained not only in Subseries E: Drinking Tube and Subseries H: Flexible Straw, but also in Subseries L: Invention Lists & Drawings for straw ideas that were drawn on lists or sketches with other concepts. Additionally, researchers interested in the manufacturing device for the straw should review Subseries I: Apparatus & Method for Forming Corrugations in Tubing, as well as Subseries K: Unpatented Inventions, for the Flexible Straw & Method of Forming Same information.
Series 3: Flex-Straw Corporate Records (1938 - 1967) includes correspondence relating to the company and its formation, financial statements, tax returns, legal documents, patent assignments, royalty information, patent defense case research and records, and documents pertaining to the advertising and marketing of the flexible straw. Researchers should note that all conceptual and developmental details relating to the straw and its manufacture, as well as the original patents and their specifically associated legal correspondence can be found in Series 2. Series 3 is divided into several topically arranged subseries. Subseries A consists of the organizational materials for the company, including the minutes, by-laws and limited employee records. This subseries also contains two day books belonging to Joseph B. Friedman recording his appointments and personal notes from 1947 and 1950. Subseries B includes company related correspondence, organized by the correspondent. It begins with general correspondence, from 1939 - 1963, and continues with the letters of Bert Klein (1945 - 1950), David Light & Harry Zavin (1938 - 1962), and Betty Friedman (1940 - 1954). Much of the operational information on the company may be found in the letters Betty Friedman wrote and received from her brother. Subseries C holds the financial records of the company, including financial statements, ledgers, bank statements, check books, tax returns and royalty statements. Subseries D consists of legal records and correspondence, including such topics as changes in entity type, patent assignments, fair trade agreements and patent defense. Subseries E contains the advertising and marketing records of the company. This includes published material relating to the Flex-Straw specifically, as well as some advertising for flexible straws in general. Pencil concept drawings of Flex-Straw packaging and advertising art are drawn on the reverse of Pette calendar pages, and international advertising materials for the product are also present. Product testimonials, distributor bulletins, and corporate letterhead that traces the progression of company locations can also be found here.
Arrangement:
The collection is ivided into three series.
Series 1: Personal Records, circa 1920s-1940
Series 2: Invention and Patent Materials, 1915-1967
Series 3: Flex-Straw Corporate Records, 1938-1969
Biographical / Historical:
Joseph B. Friedman (1900 - 1982) was an independent American inventor with a broad range of interests and ideas. Born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 9, 1900, Joseph was a first generation American and the fifth of eight children for Jacob Friedman and Antoinette Grauer Friedman. By the age of fourteen, he had conceptualized his first invention, the "pencilite" lighted pencil, and was attempting to market his idea. Over the course of his inventing career, he would experiment with ideas ranging from writing implements to engine improvements, and household products to sound and optic experiments. He was issued nine U.S. patents and held patents in Great Britain, Australia and Canada. His first patent was issued for improvements to the fountain pen on April 18, 1922, (U.S. patent #1,412,930). This was also the first invention that he successfully sold, to Sheaffer Pen Company in the mid 1930s. In the 1920s, Friedman began his education in real estate and optometry. He would use both of these careers at different points in his life to supplement his income while improving his invention concepts. Although he was working as a realtor in San Francisco, California, the 1930s proved to be his most prolific patenting period, with six of his nine U.S. patents being issued then. One of these patents would prove to be his most successful invention - the flexible drinking straw.
While sitting in his younger brother Albert's fountain parlor, the Varsity Sweet Shop in San Francisco, Friedman observed his young daughter Judith at the counter, struggling to drink out of a straight straw. He took a paper straight straw, inserted a screw and using dental floss, he wrapped the paper into the screw threads, creating corrugations. After removing the screw, the altered paper straw would bend conveniently over the edge of the glass, allowing small children to better reach their beverages. U.S. patent #2,094,268 was issued for this new invention under the title Drinking Tube, on September 28, 1937. Friedman would later file and be issued two additional U.S. patents and three foreign patents in the 1950s relating to its formation and construction. Friedman attempted to sell his straw patent to several existing straw manufacturers beginning in 1937 without success, so after completing his straw machine, he began to produce the straw himself.
The Flexible Straw Corporation was incorporated on April 24, 1939 in California. However, World War II interrupted Friedman's efforts to construct his straw manufacturing machine. During the war, he managed the optometry practice of Arthur Euler, O.D., in Capwells' Department Store in Oakland, California, and continued to sell real estate and insurance to support his growing family. Joseph obtained financial backing for his flexible straw machine from two of his brothers-in-law, Harry Zavin and David Light, as well as from Bert Klein, a family associate. With their financial assistance, and the business advice of his sister Betty, Friedman completed the first flexible straw manufacturing machine in the late 1940s. Although his original concept had come from the observation of his daughter, the flexible straw was initially marketed to hospitals, with the first sale made in 1947.
Betty Friedman played a crucial role in the development of the Flexible Straw Corporation. While still living in Cleveland and working at the Tarbonis Company, she corresponded regularly with her brother and directed all of the sales and distribution of the straw. In 1950 Friedman moved his family and company to Santa Monica, California. Now doing business as the Flex-Straw Co., sales continued to increase and the marketing direction expanded to focus more strongly on the home and child markets. Betty moved west in 1954 to assume her formal leadership role in the corporation. Additional partners and investors were added over time, including Art Shapiro, who was initially solicited as a potential buyer of the patent. On June 20, 1969, the Flexible Straw Corporation sold its United States and foreign patents, United States and Canadian trademarks, and licensing agreements to the Maryland Cup Corporation. The Flexible Straw Corporation dissolved on August 19, 1969.
Dr. Joseph Bernard Friedman died on June 21, 1982. He was survived by his wife of over 50 years, Marjorie Lewis Friedman, his four children Judith, Linda, Pamela and Robert, and seven grandchildren
Separated Materials:
"Straw samples and an original dispensing device (ice cream disher) are located in the Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life).
A mandrel prototype from the original flexible straw manufacturing machine is held by the Division of Work and Industry."
Provenance:
Daughters Judith B. Rosen, Linda A. Reiss and Pamela B. Leeds, and son Robert A. Friedman donated this collection and its related artifacts to the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History on May 1, 2001.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
The collection documents S. Newman Darby's development of the sailboard, which became known as the windsurfer through sketches, mechanical drawings, plans, patent specifications, legal documents, photographs, correspondence, notebooks, clippings, periodicals, and an 8mm film.
Scope and Contents:
The S. Newman Darby Windsurfing Collection, 1946-1998, documents the body of Newman Darby's inventive output as well as the development of the windsurfing industry. It consists of sketches, mechanical drawings, plans, patent specifications, legal documents, photographs, correspondence, notebooks, clippings, periodicals, an 8mm film and a videocassette. The collection is particularly rich in the material related to the development of the sailboard, including Darby's personal memoirs. It contains U.S. and foreign patents related to windsurfing as well as records and reports related to Darby's testimony in litigation and the recognition of the priority of his invention. the collections research value lies in the documentation of the invention of the windsurfer and the industry and culture it spawned. It documents the processes of invention and marketing of new devices. It is evidence of the full range of S. Newman Darby's imagination, life and career.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into six series.
Series 1: Biographical materials, 1969-1982
Series 2: Inventions and designs, 1953-1990
Series 3: Darby Industries, 1982-1983
Series 4: History of windsurfing, 1944-1998
Series 5: Photographs, 1946-1997
Series 6: Audio-Visual materials, 1965-1997
Biographical / Historical:
S. Newman Darby is recognized as the first person in the United States to conceive of connecting a hand-held sail rig fastened with a universal joint to a floating platform for recreational use. He called it sail boarding in 1965, when he published his designs in Popular Science Monthly magazine. Although he and his brothers Ronald and Kenneth began manufacturing the boards through their company Darby Industries, they never applied for a patent.
S. Newman Darby (1928-2016) was born in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. He graduated from West Pittston High School in 1946. A sign painter and artist, like his father Sidney Darby, he studied drafting at the Pennsylvania State University extension school where he took chemistry, business, art, and photography courses for one year. His first invention, the Darby Dory, a folding rowboat dates from 1953. The sailboard developed out of Darby's experiments with a personal pontoon catamaran, each hull being big enough for one foot and designed to be operated with a hand-held sail and no rudder. By 1964 he had designed a universal joint that connected a mast to a flat bottom sailing scow. This board had a centerboard, tail fin and kite shaped free sail. Early tests were conducted on Trailwood Lake and the Susquehanna River, near West Pittston.
Today sail boarding is known as windsurfing. It adopted its name from Windsurfer International, a company Hoyle Schweitzer and Jim Drake established on the basis of a patent granted to them in 1970 for a "wind-propelled apparatus." In all essential qualities, their claims duplicated Newman Darby's earlier work.
After Schweitzer bought out Drake's share in 1973, he energetically promoted the sport and licensed manufacturing rights to more than 20 companies around the world. Schweitzer forcefully prosecuted patent infringements he perceived among windsurfer manufacturers and he threatened to sue the 1984 Olympic Committee should it authorize a board produced by a manufacturer not licensed by Windsurfer International.
Although he was aware of the growth of the sport and the profits flowing into Windsurfer International through its licensing activities, Darby was unable to mount a legal challenge to Schweitzer. His priority in the invention of the sport was overlooked and almost forgotten.
In the late 1970's, Mistral, a Swiss manufacturer sued by Windsurfer International in Germany, located Darby and presented his "prior art" as a defense. In the early 1980's, courts in the United States were asked to rule on the validity of the Windsurfer International patent. Newman Darby's prior art was at the center of the controversies. The court voided Windsurfer's original patent and Schweitzer was forced to apply for a reissue based on severely limited claims. He lost the use of "windsurfer" as a trademark. Schweitzer retained the reissued patent through further challenges until it expired in 1987. The example of Newman Darby has become a textbook case of the importance of thorough searches for "prior art" for patent attorneys.
Following completion of the patent litigation Darby designed original sail rigs for Mistral in Europe and Horizon in the United States. In 1982 Newman entered into a new partnership with his brothers Ronald and Kenneth and formed NRK, Inc., to design and manufacture windsurfing boards, training devices and to produce written and video documentaries of his contributions to the history of the sport.
Naomi Albrecht Darby, Newman's wife, sewed the first sails for the boards and participated in their testing and marketing. She documented Darby's inventions through the years in photographs and moving images. Over the years, Darby has worked on numerous inventions--most of them related to wind propulsion. Like many independent inventors, Newman Darby conceives of his ideas, executes all of the mechanical plans, builds his own prototypes and tests them. Darby continues to research improvements in windsurfing and to teach courses in boat building and design.
Related Materials:
An original sailboard, rig, mast and daggerboard from the same period are also housed in the Pennsylvania State Museum at Harrisburg.
Separated Materials:
The Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life) holds artifacts relating to S. Newman Darby and his invention of the windsurfer, including an original board, boom and mast, and sail dating from 1964. See accessions #1998.0086 and #1998.0323.
Provenance:
Most of the collection was donated to the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History by S. Newman Darby and his wife Naomi on February 3, 1998.
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.
This collection documents the products and business activities of the Worthington Corporation, its predecessors and its subsidiaries. The records focus on the products that the Worthington Corporation produced, including steam pumps, hydraulic pumps and gas engines.
Scope and Contents:
This collection documents the products and business activities of the Worthington Corporation, its predecessors and its subsidiaries. It consists of annual and monthly reports, correspondence, legal filings, trade literature, photographs, airbrushed photographs and product illustrations, financial reports, meeting minutes, newsletters, company histories and research notes, patents, blueprints, engineering sketchbooks, lecture notes, publications, and promotional materials for several World's Fairs where Worthington products were exhibited.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into five series.
Series 1: Historical and Reference Materials, 1847-1965
Series 2: Administrative and Business Records, 1856-1963
Series 3: Publications, 1872-1982
Series 4: Photographs, 1840-1964
Series 5: Sketchbooks and Notebooks, 1882-1964
Biographical / Historical:
Henry R. Worthington (December 17, 1817-December 17, 1880) was an innovator in the world of 19th century steam pumps earning patents for a direct-acting steam pump (US Patent 6274) and a duplex steam pump (US Patent 116,131). Initially, Worthington partnered with William H. Baker to found the Worthington & Baker Works in 1845, with the works based in Brooklyn. Worthington's company began by producing various pumps for naval craft, including pumps installed on the USS Monitor, the first ironclad ship of the US Navy. After Baker's death, Worthington changed the name of his business to the Henry R. Worthington Corporation and expanded into the production of water works pumps for major cities.
Worthington pumps gained international acclaim at World's Fairs in the latter half of the 19th century. Fountains at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 and Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the hydraulic pumps for the Eiffel Tower's elevators at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 were all powered by Worthington products.
In 1899, Worthington was purchased and merged into the International Steam Pump Company, along with the Blake and Knowles Steam Pump Company, Laidlaw-Dunn-Gordon Company, the Snow Steam Works, the Deane Steam Pump Company and several smaller works. After the acquisition of these different works, the International Steam Pump Company's product line expanded to include gas engines and mining machinery.
International Steam Pump reverted to the Worthington name, first as Worthington Pump and Machinery Corporation (1916-1952) and then as the Worthington Corporation (1952-1967). It was also during this time when Worthington relocated its main works from Brooklyn to Harrison, New Jersey in 1917. All the while, the company continued to produce hydraulic engines, gas engines and water works pumps. Through various mergers the company also diversified into refrigeration and air conditioning. In 1967, the Worthington Corporation merged with the Studebaker Automobile Manufacturing Company, becoming Studebaker-Worthington.
Related Materials:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Series: Pumps (AC0060)
Division of Political and Military History
The Division of Political and Military History holds photographs of a World War I bond drive at the Deane Works of Holyoke, Massachusetts. See accessions: 1979.0015.01 and 1979.0015.04.
Division of Medicine and Science
The Division of Medicine and Science holds several Watch Dog Water Meters produced by the Worthington-Gamon Meter Company. See accessions PH.325890 and PH.325891.
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Trade Literature Collection
The libraries contain trade literature on Worthington and its subsidiaries.
Provenance:
Donated to the Smithsonian in the 1960s by Studebaker Worthington, Inc.
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.
Printed advertisements, photographs (including negatives and slides), sales presentation materials and packaging; patent and legal information, clippings, posters, scripts for radio commercials, sheet music for jingles, etc. Also includes personal papers (correspondence) of Christian Nelson, inventor of the Eskimo Pie.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into eight series.
Biographical / Historical:
Eskimo Pie, America's first chocolate covered ice cream bar, was invented by Christian Kent Nelson in his home laboratory in 1920. Nelson patented his invention and the ice cream bar quickly rose in popularity in America. By 1922, Nelson was earning $2000 per day in royalties on his product.
Christian K. Nelson was born on March 12, 1893, in Gunstrup, Denmark, to Pedar Nelson and Margerethe Madesen Nelson. While Nelson was an infant, the seven Nelson children and their parents emigrated to the United States. The dairy farming family settled in Illinois, Wisconsin, and finally in Iowa in 1903. In Onawa, Iowa, Nelson opened a small confectionery shop near the high school where he worked as a teacher.
The inspiration for the invention of Eskimo Pie was a boy's indecision in Nelson's confectionery store in 1920. A boy started to buy ice cream, then changed his mind and bought a chocolate bar. Nelson inquired as to why he did not buy both. The boy replied, "Sure I know--I want 'em both, but I only got a nickel." For weeks after the incident, Nelson worked around the clock experimenting with different methods of sticking melted chocolate to frozen ice cream until he found cocoa butter to be the perfect adherent.
Immediately, he produced 500 ice cream bricks with a chocolate candy coating. The "I-Scream Bars" were a hit at the local village fireman's picnic and Nelson began searching for companies to manufacture his new product.
On July 13, 1921, Nelson and chocolate maker Russell C. Stover entered into a joint agreement to market and produce the product. It was decided the name would change from Nelson's "I-Scream Bar" to "Eskimo Pie". In the hand-written agreement composed the same day the two met for the first time, the entrepreneurs agreed to "coat ice cream with chocolate [sic] divide the profits equally." They decided to sell the manufacturing rights to local ice cream companies for $500 to $1000, plus royalties on each Eskimo Pie sold.
Nelson and Stover began their business venture with an advertising campaign in Des Moines, Iowa. The first 250,000 pies produced were sold within 24 hours. By spring 1922, 2,700 manufacturers sold one million Eskimo Pies per day.
On January 24, 1922, the United States granted patent number 1,404,539 for the Eskimo Pie. Nelson's patent applied to any type of frozen material covered with candy. Nelson also had the name "Eskimo Pie" trademarked. Initially, even the word "Pie" in a brand name frozen treat was covered by this trademark. The breadth of the patent was detrimental to Eskimo Pie because of growing legal costs associated with its defense.
Russell Stover sold his share of the company in 1922. Because of the cost of litigation, high salaried salesmen, and difficulties in collecting royalties, the company was sold in 1924. Eskimo Pie became a subsidiary of United States Foil Company, the supplier of the Eskimo Pie wrapper. Headed by R.S. Reynolds, Sr., the company later became known as Reynolds Metals Company.
In 1925, dry ice was invented. Nelson was eager to find a way to make buying Eskimo Pie as easy as buying another snack from a vendor. Nelson began to market thermal jugs with dry ice supplied with Eskimo Pies to vendors without access to a freezer. This increased visibility and distribution and made Eskimo Pie an "impulse" item.
The patent litigation continued until October 3, 1929, when the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the lower courts declared that the 1922 patent was invalid, due to "lack of invention." Eskimo Pie resembled an earlier product that also called for ice cream with cocoa butter dipped in chocolate. The judge declared that Nelson had merely changed the shape for an existing product. Even his trademark on the work "pie" was invalidated, as the judge said the word had a wide variety of use.
Nelson retired to California and assigned his royalties to his wife, Myrtle Skidmore "Skid" Nelson. However, Nelson, reportedly "bored," came out of retirement in 1935 to rejoin Eskimo Pie and work on new products. Nelson continued to create ice cream innovations such as ice patties and colored ice cream holiday centers within Eskimo Pie products.
In 1955, Nelson was awarded a patent for his Eskimo Machine. The machinery squeezed out ice cream of the correct dimensions which was then cut into bars. This process was faster than the older method of molding the ice cream bar.
After a decline in sales during the Great Depression, Eskimo Pie received a boost from sales to the United States armed forces during World II. Rising commodity prices in the post war era forced the company to reduce the size of the product. However, the distinct foil wrapper remained the same. Nelson officially retired from Eskimo Pie in 1961 as vice-president and director of research. Surviving his wife by one year, he died March 8, 1992.
In 1992, Eskimo Pie became independent of Reynolds' Metals. The company continues to market dozens of shapes, sizes, and types of frozen treats. The brand name Eskimo Pie continues to have strong consumer recognition and has appeared in cartoons, movies, and even in Funk and Wagnall's Dictionary.
Sources
"He Made Kids Scream for Ice Cream," 1959, manuscript from collection
Nelson-Stover Agreement, July 13, 1921, manuscript from the collection
U.S. Patent 1,404,539 January 24, 1922, manuscript from the collection
Scope and Content Note
The Eskimo Pie Collection consists primarily of materials relating to the advertising, business, and packaging of its ice cream products. The collection includes numerous photographs, printed advertisements, and packaging materials. It also contains company annual reports and newsletters, business history, information on machines and equipment used in manufacturing the product, and the history of the invention of Eskimo Pie. The formulas and directions for creating many of the Eskimo Pie products are included.
Series 1: CHRISTIAN NELSON PAPERS, 1921-1992 - Contains personal information on the inventor of Eskimo Pie, Christian Nelson, including his correspondence and financial information. Most of the correspondence is business related.
Subseries 1: Christian Nelson Personal Papers, 1933-1988 - These materials include tax information, bank account information, and a few documents related to his personal life. Not many documents of a personal nature are in the collection. Most details of his life are found in magazine and newspaper clippings in Series 2, Subseries 4.
Subseries 2: Nelson Correspondence (by correspondent), 1944-1946 - This subseries contains Nelson's business correspondence previously arranged alphabetically by correspondent. The correspondence only dates from 1944-1946.
Subseries 3: Nelson and Business Correspondence (by date), 1920-1990 - Arranged chronologically by decade, this correspondence consists of letters on various topics that were scattered throughout the collection. Most of these letters are business related but many have personal notations within them. Not all letters include Nelson.
Series 2: HISTORICAL AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION, 1921-1992 - This series includes any information that helps to narrate the story of the invention of Eskimo Pie and the company that sold the product. It contains company scrapbooks of specific years, important historical documents regarding Eskimo Pie history, and newspaper clippings and magazine articles that summarize the detailed history of the company.
Subseries 1: Background Information on Company, 1921-1992 - This information includes company scrapbooks that contain articles, letters, promotions and/or advertisements for a particular year. The scrapbooks often relate the history of Eskimo Pie in past years as well as representing the year of the scrapbook. Other materials such as the Eskimo Pie patent, and information on Christian Nelson and Russell Stover with their original agreement are included.
Subseries 2: Information on Related Companies, 1947-1987 - This material contains annual reports and the company publications of Reynolds Aluminum which supplied the Eskimo Pie wrapper. Eskimo Pie became a subsidiary of Reynolds (then known as US Foil Company) in 1924. Other companies whose products are related to Eskimo Pie are also included.
Subseries 3: Patent and Legal Information, 1921-1965 - Important legal documents of the Eskimo Pie business are arranged in this subseries by type of document. The patents include many of Nelson's patents as well as other patents of invention related to ice cream.
Subseries 4: Newspaper Clippings and Magazine Articles, 1920-1990 - Most articles in the subseries are related to the history or business of Eskimo Pie, although a few are not. Cartoons that use the Eskimo Pie name are included.
Series 3: MANUFACTURING AND EQUIPMENT, 1922-1990 - This series documents the machinery and equipment used to produce, package, and freeze the ice cream. It also includes the specific formulas of Eskimo Pie products with ingredients and directions for their preparation.
Subseries 1: Machinery, 1922-1990 - This series is comprised of catalogues, plans, and brochures on general types of machines used to create ice cream along with very specific types of machines with specific names (such as the Eskimo Machine). It also includes video footage of a 1990 production line. Some photographs of equipment are included in the catalogues but other photographs of machinery can be found in Photographs under Series 5, Subseries 1.
Subseries 2: Formulae and Directions, 1942-1963 - Formulas and specifications to create certain Eskimo Pie products make up this series. The formulas and directions were sent to franchise manufacturers and field personnel and state how to use the machinery to create the desired product. The folders labeled with product numbers include booklets of formulas and the folders labeled with formulas of specific products are loose pages or additions to the booklets. Other formulas and directions for specific products can be found in some of the promotional brochures in Series 7 Subseries 4.
Series 4: ESKIMO PIE COMPANY RECORDS, 1951-1995 - The company records in this series are comprised of Annual Company Reports and Company Newsletters.
Subseries 1: Eskimo Pie Annual Reports, 1951-1995 - The Annual Reports include financial information as well as the names of the directors, officers, and management personnel for that particular year.
Subseries 2: Eskimo Pie Newsletters, 1968-1979 - These monthly newsletters function as a company information tool for employees. They include company news along with general interest features such as cartoons, news of the company sports teams, announcements of vacations and birthdays, etc.
Series 5: PHOTOGRAPHS AND NEGATIVES, 1928-1990 - This series consists of photographs and negatives of various subject matter.
Subseries 1: Photographs, 1928-1990 - These photographs are arranged by subject matter. Some of the main subject categories of the photographs include machinery and equipment, advertising, promotions, and pictures of Christian Nelson at company events.
Subseries 2: Photograph Negatives and Slides, 1928-1990 - This subseries includes many negatives of the photographs already contained in Subseries 1. Only one folder in this subseries is slides.
Series 6: ESKIMO PIE BUSINESS INFORMATION, 1921-1990 - This series consists of any records pertaining to the business of the Eskimo Pie company including finances, marketing, sales, promotions, personnel information, packaging, and publications. It does not include advertising.
Subseries 1: General Business Information, 1922-1990 - Business information that did not fit into any particular business category comprises this series. Each folder's information is very specific to its own particular topic and is arranged chronologically.
Subseries 2: Marketing, 1927-1996 - This series includes any marketing information that attempts to sell Eskimo Pie to the consumer. This information does overlap with some aspects of advertising and packaging, as they also function as marketing tools to promote increased buying. It also includes promotional materials for the film AWho's Minding the Mint?" which featured an Eskimo Pie ice cream man as a character. The information is organized by specific years or time periods.
Subseries 3: Employee Information and Incentives, 1952-1970 - This subseries includes general information such as personnel lists and phone lists but also includes incentive campaigns for employees. These incentive campaigns were directed towards salesmen, particularly route driver salesman, and propose prize rewards for sales. The booklets in box 31 include the ads for incentives to be sent out to the salesmen throughout the year. Along with the ads are explanations of the incentive and the company's reasoning behind its approach to the salesmen in that particular ad. The prizes to be awarded are not specifically listed but are displayed in pictures in many of the incentive ads.
Subseries 4: Premiums and Promotions, 1937-1990 - Information on premiums in which consumers save wrappers and send them to Eskimo Pie for goods as well as special promotions are included in this subseries. Lists of goods that can be purchased with the corresponding number of wrappers are included. Other promotions include prizes for contests or special offers with Eskimo proofs of purchase. This subseries includes promotional brochures that explain the new promotions.
Subseries 5: Financial Information, 1932-1990 - Any business information pertaining to Eskimo Pie's finances, sales, and\or profits is included in this subseries. It also includes U.S. Foil Royalty Reports that report the number of wrappers shipped and manufactured of different businesses including those of Eskimo Pie (Eskimo Pie was a subsidiary of U.S. Foil). The U.S. Foil reports are addressed to Myrtle Nelson. Bank information of Frozen Products, Inc., which manufactured Eskimo Pie and Eskimo confections, is also included.
Subseries 6: Packaging, 1921-1954 - This subseries consists of actual boxes, wrappers, lids, and sticks that were used in packaging Eskimo Pie products. The materials are organized by types of packaging and the dates of the materials are generally unclear.
Subseries 7: General Publications Related to Ice Cream, 1935-1990 - Listed in chronological order, these publications provide information on the ice cream, dairy, and chocolate industries in a specific time frame. These publications generally do not mention Eskimo Pie products.
Series 7: ADVERTISING MATERIALS, 1922-1992 - The advertising materials included in this series mainly consist of the actual advertisements. Little written information on specific advertising campaigns is included with the print, radio, and television advertisements. The promotional brochures do include some written information on the product the company is promoting.
Subseries 1: Print Advertisements, 1922-1989 - This subseries includes a range of types of advertisements. Some ads include printed ads in magazines and newspapers while many are proofs of advertisements that will go to print. Other types of advertisements include banners, decals, and railstrips which appear to be point of purchase displays for vending machines, ice cream stands, ice cream carts or trucks, or even the grocery store. Although the scrapbooks mainly consist of advertisements, they also include packaging, machinery, and marketing information.
Subseries 2: Radio Advertisements, 1930-1985 - This small subseries includes scripts for radio announcements and advertisements. The sheet music for the radio jingles, "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream," "Oh My, Eskimo Pie,"and "New Eskimo Pie on a Stick" are included here.
Subseries 3: Television Advertisements, 1948-1992 - The television materials included consist of story boards, scripts for television advertisements with corresponding still photographs, television commercials, and little written information on television campaigns.
Subseries 4: Promotional Brochures, 1951-1964 - This subseries consists of materials pertaining to new products or special occasion items (e.g. Christmas, Halloween). The brochures were probably sent to vendors, distributors and /or ice cream producers. The brochures intended for vendors and distributors contain samples of advertising, packaging, point of purchase displays and in some instances, inexpensive premiums to be awarded to consumers. The brochures for ice cream manufacturers contain some of the same material as well as the formula and directions for the product, a list of equipment required, and a price list for rental of that equipment. The material, contained in the boxes has been organized alphabetically where possible.
Series 8: MISCELLANEOUS, 1921-1979 - This series includes materials found in the collection with no apparent relation to Christian Nelson or Eskimo Pie. Random materials that display the Eskimo Pie logo are also included.
Provenance
The Eskimo Pie collection was donated on May 10, 1996, to the National Museum of American History, Archives Center.
Related Collections
The Division of Cultural History has several objects which are also part of the Eskimo Pie Collection.
The Archives Center holds many collections related to ice cream and the food industry including:
#58 Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (see Dairy)
#78 Faris and Yamna Naff Arab-American Collection, 1880-1995 (see waffle cone machine)
#112 Famous Amos Collection, 1979-1983
#300 Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, 1790-1980 (see Ice Cream)
Records documenting Pratt, Read and Company; its early competitor and later partner, Comstock, Cheney and Company; and a number of predecessor, subsidiary and related companies. Other topics include the late 19th century African ivory trade and Pratt, Read's production of troop-carrying gliders during World War II.
Scope and Contents:
Pratt, Read & Company, located in the Essex area of Connecticut, was once the world's largest producer of ivory products. Beginning with the manufacture of combs, collar buttons, and toothpicks, the company moved on to the production of piano and organ key veneers, and soon dominated the field. Eventually, it began to produce complete piano and organ keyboards and actions, becoming the major supplier to the American piano industry. The records in this collection document Pratt, Read & Company; its early competitor and later partner, Comstock, Cheney & Company; and a number of predecessor, subsidiary, and related companies. Other topics of interest dealt with in this collection include the late nineteenth century African ivory trade and Pratt, Read's production of troop carrying gliders during World War II.
Arrangement:
The Collection is divided into seven series.
Series 1: Predecessor and Miscellaneous Companies, 1839-1870s
Series 2: Comstock, Cheney and Company, 1863-1936
Series 3: Pratt, Read and Company, 1863-1988
Series 4: Gould Aeronautical Division, 1941-1977
Series 5: Subsidiary and Related Companies, 1859-1980
Series 6: Information on Related Companies, 1977-1992
Series 7; Addenda, 1837-2004
Historical:
Pratt, Read & Company is one of the oldest companies in the state of Connecticut. The firm traces its origins to 1798, when an Essex goldsmith and clockmaker named Phineas Pratt invented a circular saw to cut the teeth on ivory combs. In 1809, George Read and his brother in law, Phineas Pratt II, dammed the Deep River in the nearby town of Deep River and constructed a waterwheel to power ivory cutting machinery. Read left the partnership in 1816, and Phineas Pratt II joined with Alfred Worthington to manufacture ivory combs under the name of Pratt Worthington & Company. When Worthington died in 1830, two of Phineas Pratt II's sons, Ulysses and Alexis, took over the business, operating as U & A Pratt. The name was changed in 1844 to Pratt Spencer & Company, when a new partner was added, and changed again in 1850, to Pratt Brothers & Company. In 1856 the company erected a much larger factory in Deep River.
In the meantime, Julius Pratt, another of Phineas Pratt I's sons, had joined with Thomas Howard to set up an ivory comb factory in the town of Meriden. This firm was known as Howard, Pratt & Company. After Howard's death in 1822, it became Julius Pratt & Company. In 1854, the firm began to produce wooden piano keyboards, which then were fitted with keys of ivory. One half interest in this firm was owned by George Read.
When Read left his original partnership with Phineas Pratt II in 1816, he joined with Essex comb maker Ezra Williams to set up a new ivory working factory in Deep River. This new firm was known as Ezra Williams & Company. In 1829, Read became the senior partner and the company's name was changed to George Read & Company. This company later secured a very important contract to supply ivory keys for the first American manufacturer of pianos, Chickering & Sons of Boston.
In 1863, the firms of George Read & Company, Julius Pratt & Company, and Pratt Brothers & Company, were merged to form Pratt, Read & Company. The new company further enlarged its factory in Deep River in 1866. In 1871, the old Julius Pratt & Company factory in Meriden was closed and its operations moved to Deep River. Though this factory was destroyed by fire in 1881, a larger factory was quickly rebuilt and the company was back in business early in 1882.
With the election of George L. Cheney as president in 1892, Pratt, Read & Company began a period of continued expansion. In December of that year the company joined with another Connecticut piano component manufacturer, Comstock, Cheney & Company, to organize a midwestern manufacturing branch, under the name of the Piano & Organ Supply Company. This firm was to serve the territory west of Toledo, Ohio, operating in competition with its parent companies. In 1929 Pratt, Read and Comstock, Cheney combined to buy out the Piano & Organ Supply Company and it was dissolved.
In 1910 Pratt, Read & Company decided to begin the manufacture of piano actions. An independent manufacturer of piano actions, New York based Wasle & Company, and its subsidiary, the Wasle Unique Player Action Company, were acquired that same year. In 1914, Pratt, Read built a second factory solely for the production of player piano actions in Deep River. Wasle & Company was dissolved in 1919 and its production was continued under the Pratt, Read name. The company soon acquired two additional keyboard and action manufacturers: the Sylvester Tower Company of Cambridge, Mass., was purchased, dissolved, and all its equipment was moved to Deep River in 1924; and Strauch Bros. Company of New York was purchased in 1926. The Deep River player action plant operated until 1928, when business declined and production of player piano actions was discontinued in favor of manufacturing small motorboats. This line of business also soon declined and the project was abandoned by 1932.
COMSTOCK, CHENEY & COMPANY. Meanwhile, other manufacturers of ivory products had been at work in the Essex area. Chief among these was the firm of Comstock, Cheney & Company of Ivoryton. The dominant figure in this company was Samuel M. Comstock. He had learned the ivory cutting trade while working in his older brother's Saybrook area ivory cutting shop, known as Joseph A. Comstock & Company. By 1838, Samuel had left his brother's shop and joined with Edwin Griswold to set up Comstock & Griswold Company further west up the Falls River in Centerbrook. In 1848, the company moved its operations to a new factory in the Ivoryton area, where combs, toothpicks, and other ivory products were made. At the same time, the firm's name was changed to
S. M. Comstock & Company, reflecting Samuel's sole ownership.
In 1860, Samuel Comstock allied his firm with George A. Cheney to form Comstock, Cheney & Company. Cheney had invested in Comstock's firm and was one of the principals in the important New York based ivory importing firm of Arnold, Cheney & Company. The new firm began production of thin slices of ivory for mounting on wooden piano keys. It also had its own agents buying ivory in Africa, most of which went toward production of piano keys. The company was formally incorporated in 1872 and in 1873 it opened an even larger factory in Ivoryton.
1936 MERGER. On December 31, l936, Pratt, Read & Company of Deep River was consolidated and merged with Comstock, Cheney & Company of Ivoryton. The resulting corporation was titled Pratt, Read & Company, Inc. By l938, all manufacturing operations had been consolidated in Ivoryton and the Deep River factory closed. During World War II, both the Deep River factory and the Ivoryton factory were used to produce CG 4A "Waco" troop carrying gliders for the U.S. Army Air Forces, along with LNE 1 training gliders and the GLOMB experimental plane for the U.S. Navy. Production of piano keyboards and actions was sharply curtailed for the duration of the war, and was slow to resume afterward. In l946 the Deep River factory was sold.
From 1948 to l957, the Ivoryton factory was enlarged and modernized on a large scale. During the Korean War, the company contracted to make helicopter blades for the Kaman Corporation of Bloomfield, Conn., and this partnership lasted for fourteen years. In l958, Pratt, Read transferred all of its piano action manufacturing operations to a newly built plant in Central, S.C. This move was made primarily in order to modernize production facilities at a lower cost than would have been possible through continued renovation of the Ivoryton plant.
With the election of Peter H. Comstock (a great grandson of one of the founders of Comstock, Cheney & Company) as President in 1954, the firm began an ambitious plan of diversification. The Cornwall & Patterson Company of Bridgeport, Conn., manufacturer of piano hardware, was purchased in l957. In 1959, Pratt, Read joined with six British Commonwealth firms to acquire British Piano Actions, Ltd., of Wales. Keyboards, Inc., a Chicago based producer of keyboards for electronic organs, was acquired in 1960. The Tech Art Plastics Company of Morristown, N.J., a custom molder of plastics materials especially for the piano industry, was acquired in 1961.
The F. Kelly Company of Derby, Conn., which specialized in the production of small metal parts, was acquired in l964, and operated as a division of Cornwall & Patterson. In l966, Pratt, Read purchased the Allen Rogers Corporation of Laconia, N.H., which produced wooden furniture and piano components.
MERGER WITH VOCALINE COMPANY. In February l968, Pratt, Read & Company, Inc., was merged into the Vocaline Company of America, Inc., of Old Saybrook, Conn. Peter H. Comstock became chairman and chief executive officer of Vocaline Corporation, while remaining president of Pratt, Read. Vocaline was then organized into two major divisions the Vocaline Division and the Pratt, Read Division. The Pratt, Read Division concentrated on the production of piano keys and actions. It operated three subdivisions: the Ivoryton Division (keyboards, wooden and plastic moldings, and unfinished furniture); the Action Division (piano actions); and the Lund Division, formerly Keyboards, Inc., (electronic organ components). Both of the latter divisions operated out of the Central, S.C., plant. The Lund Division was known as the Electronics Division by 1970.
The Vocaline Division produced and sold electric motors, timing devices, and other small electromechanical mechanisms through its Electronics Section and its Bristol Motor and Timer Section. Another subsidiary of the Vocaline Division Altron, Inc., based in Westerly, R.I. produced wire coils. Through its Research and Development Center in Waldboro, Maine, Vocaline conducted antisubmarine warfare research for the U.S. Navy. By 1970, the Vocaline Division had been streamlined into four divisions: the Allen Rogers Corporation (small shaped wood products); Altron, Inc. (wire coils); the Bristol Division, later known as the Bristol Saybrook Company (electric motors and timers); and the Cornwall & Patterson Company (piano hardware and small tools). In addition, research for the Navy had been expanded and combined with other oceanographic research under the control of a subsidiary company, VAST, Inc., with operations in both Maine and the Caribbean.
PRATT READ CORPORATION. In October 1970, the Vocaline Corporation changed its name to the Pratt Read Corporation. This was done partly to increase identity with its oldest traditions and partly to reflect a shift away from the early emphasis on the Vocaline side of the corporation. The new corporation continued to refine its interests under the direction of Peter H. Comstock, who became company president in February 1970. The Tech Arts Plastic Company was sold off in May 1972, although it remained a source of supply for custom molded parts. In 1974 Pratt Read purchased the Atlas Plywood Company of Morrisville, Vt., in order to use its mill and kilns in the preparation of lumber for the Ivoryton factory, whose own facilities were overburdened. This company was operated as a subsidiary of Pratt Read.
By 1976, the Pratt Read Corporation was organized into five operating divisions. The Allen Rogers Corporation produced toys, golf tees, spools, knobs, and other turned and shaped wood products. Altron, Inc., produced bobbins and coils of copper wire. The Bristol Saybrook Company produced small electric motors and timers. The Cornwall & Patterson Company produced piano hardware parts, screwdriver blades, and other small hand tools. Pratt, Read & Company produced wooden components for pianos and other musical instruments. The company's ownership of VAST, Inc., was sold off in March 1976. Later that year, the company acquired Sight Line Corporation, a Freehold, N.J., manufacturer of golf clubs. This subsidiary, operated as the Sounder Sports Division, was sold in May 1979.
In October of 1979, James H. Tucker replaced Peter H. Comstock as president of Pratt Read; Comstock remained chairman of the board and chief executive officer. His nephew, Harwood B. Comstock, became the next president in October 1982. In June 1982, the Ivoryton factory was severely damaged by flooding after two dams burst upstream during a torrential rainstorm. Although the administrative offices were destroyed and the plant filled with several feet of mud and debris, the facility was back in production within two weeks. In August 1982, Pratt Read acquired the Sohmer Piano Company, a 111 year old Long Island based manufacturer of pianos, and in December 1982 Sohmer's production facilities were moved into the Ivoryton factory. By July 1983 Sohmer was producing about six upright pianos a day in its new location.
By the early 1980s, the American piano industry had entered a period of decline and even Peter Comstock's diversification efforts could not keep it out of trouble. A major blow came in 1984 with the loss of a large contract to manufacture keyboards for Mattel Electronics's Intellivision home video system. This was exacerbated by a slump in the piano industry in mid year. The increased import of Japanese and Korean pianos further undercut the American industry, resulting in slowdowns and profit losses for Pratt Read. Attempting to compete on the same basis with this foreign competition, Pratt Read joined with the Baldwin Piano and Organ Company in May 1985 to establish the Pratt Win Corporation. This joint venture resulted in the closing of Pratt Read's Central, S.C., piano action manufacturing plant and the transfer of its operations to a new Baldwin plant in Juarez, Mexico. Pratt Read sold its interest in Pratt Win to Baldwin in October 1986.
Piano sales continued to decline, however, and Pratt Read continued to suffer losses. In March 1986, the company was acquired by Crescent & Company, a corporation controlled by Harwood B. Comstock, president of Pratt, Read & Company. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of Crescent & Company, but retained the name Pratt Read Corporation. In April 1986, the company sold its Sohmer piano subsidiary together with the Ivoryton factory where it was housed; Sohmer & Company continued to produce upright pianos under independent ownership in Ivoryton until December 1988. In December 1986 the Bristol Saybrook Company was sold off. By 1990, the company had sold off all remaining assets except for a sawmill in Vermont and the Cornwall & Patterson Company in Bridgeport, Conn., where the remaining corporate staff relocated.
Sources
Deep River Historical Society, Inc. A History of Pratt Read & Co. 1973.
1899 Souvenir of Essex, Connecticut. Rpt., The Ivoryton Public Library, 1979.
Johnson, Curtiss S. "From Ivory Combs to Carnegie Hall and Today:The History of the Pratt Read Corporation." [Unpublished history in the collection.]
Moore, Ernst D. "History of Pratt, Read & Company." [Unpublished history in the Ernst D. Moore Collection, Archives Center Collection #321.]
Newspaper Clippings in the collection.
Pratt Read Corporation. Annual Reports.
Vocaline Corporation. Annual Report, 1970.
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History:
Records relating to Pratt, Read and to Comstock, Cheney can be found in a number of other collections, both within the Archives Center and in other repositories. The Wood & Brooks Company Records (Archives Center coll. #457) contain significant information on Pratt, Read's operations and an important record of production statistics gathered by George Wood while he was factory superintendent and taken with him when he set up a rival firm in Buffalo. While the Ernst Moore Collection (Archives Center coll. #321) primarily documents the purchase of ivory in Africa (much of which was ultimately used by Pratt, Read), it also includes a history of Pratt, Read written by Moore while he was employed by them. The Sohmer & Company Records (Archives Center coll. #349) document the piano manufacturing firm that Pratt Read acquired in 1982.
Separated Materials:
"The Pratt Read Corporation also donated a number of objects to the National Museum of American History, Division of Cultural and Community Life and Division of Work and Industry at the same time as their 1988 donation of archival records. Included were combs and letter openers and other examples of products made from ivory; piano components, such as gauge boards, key actions, and keys; and such diverse items as tools used in the factory, World War II employee I.D. badges, and a uniform from the company sponsored basketball team.
"
Provenance:
Donated by Pratt, Read Corporation in 1989. In addition to the papers donated by the company, several individuals donated Pratt, Read materials in their possession.
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.
The collection documents approximately fifty years of the Hubbard Harpsichord business. The records include correspondence, financial and accounting materials, sales and promotional materials, records, newsletters, dealer files, project files, photographs, research files on European instruments, kit manuals, and design drawings.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the approximately fifty years of the Hubbard Harpsichord business. The records include correspondence, financial and accounting materials, sales and promotional materials, records, newsletters, dealer files, project files, photographs, research files on European instruments, kit manuals, and design drawings.
Series 1, Correspondence, 1949-2003, consists of letters among representatives of the company, individuals, churches, seminary schools, musical societies, companies, universities, harpsichord owners and enthusiasts. The correspondence is rich with information about historical issues, construction techniques, ownership genealogy, the early music movement, and Hubbard's importance to the historical building movement. The correspondence is handwritten and typed. There are some loose papers, notes, and postcards. Requests for information on the harpsichord manual kit, harpsichord purchases, and questions/answers pertaining to the building of harpsichords comprise the majority of the series. There are also invoices, checks, and publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Review, and Saturday Review. Correspondents include the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University, Yale University, a number of professional harpsichordists, and dealers of the company. The series is arranged in chronological order, then alphabetically by correspondent's last name or business name.
Series 2, Business Files, 1965-2000, is divided into three subseries: Subseries 1, Annual Meetings and Reports, 1965-2000; Subseries 2, Corporate Affairs, 1960-1997, and Subseries 3, Employee Files, 1967-1997.
This series documents both the development of Frank Hubbard Harpsichords Kit, Inc., the company created to sell "do-it-yourself" kits, and Frank T. Hubbard Harpsichords, the finished instruments company. Hubbard headed the finished instruments company, officially established in 1973, until his death, while Lawrence C. Erdmann headed the kits company. The issue of what role the two separate companies should take was a prominent question before and after Hubbard's death. Diane Hubbard, Hubbard's wife, began running the company after Hubbard's death in 1976 until her retirement in 2000. This series is arranged topically, then in chronological order.
Subseries 1, Annual Meetings and Reports, 1965-2000, documents many of the issues the company faced at the corporate level. Minutes, corporate resolutions, and correspondence highlight yearly financial and operational activities, financial and operations projections, consolidation of the two companies, review of leadership positions, proposed investments, incoming stockholders and activities of the board of directors, and acquired leases.
Subseries 2, Corporate Affairs, 1960-1997, includes property leases the company held from its founding at Moody Street in 1959, until the 1980's. This subseries documents stockholder, stock purchases by Phil Cooper, a major shareholder in the company in the 1990's. Other items include the Hubbard Memorial Committee which documents a memorial concert, the establishment of the Historical Harpsichord Monograph essays, and some of Hubbard's publications. Dr. Howard Schott, author of the Historical Harpsichords series, and Dr. John D. Montgomery, chairman of the Frank Hubbard Memorial Committee are frequent correspondents. A finished instruments schedule documents (Box 21/folder 9), through notes and correspondence, the length of time it took to complete building the harpsichord. The same box holds records of the company's acquisition of a clavichord business (Box 21/folder 10), and a 1997 business plan (Box 21/folder 11).
Subseries 3, Employee Files, 1967-1996, consists of correspondence among representatives of the company, college students searching for internships, and job applicants seeking positions.
The materials document the continually changing structure and hierarchy of the company through notes and correspondence. There are materials relating to the employment of Michel Van Hecke, an apprentice craftsman in the late 1960's, and Robert A. Murphy, a piano craftsman, in 1984, which document the company's hiring process over time.
Series 3, Frank Hubbard Harpsichords Kit, Inc., 1964-1997, is divided into three subseries: Subseries 1, Kit Instructions, 1964-1989, undated, Subseries 2, Price Lists and Costs, 1974-1999, undated, and Subseries 3, Catalogues of Hubbard Harpsichords, 1984-1997.
Determined to offer instruments of authenticity and perfection, Hubbard initially created a finished instruments company. In 1963, Hubbard also developed a kit manual which anyone with basic woodworking skills could follow in order to build their own harpsichord. This series is arranged topically, then chronologically.
Subseries 1, Kit Instructions, 1964-1989, undated, consists of the pioneering kit manuals Hubbard promoted while waiting for finished instrument orders. The earliest manual, 1964, is a general purpose harpsichord manual that is most likely an early kit for a French harpsichord. Others include the Flemish harpsichord, fortepiano by Johann Andreas Stein, a German maker of keyboard instruments, English bentside spinet, 17th century Flemish Ottavino, Flemish virginal-museler spinet, and Flentrop chamber organ.
Subseries 2, Price Lists and Costs, 1974-1999, undated, consists of the costs, price, and inventories related to the production of kit manuals.
Subseries 3, Catalogues of Hubbard Harpsichords, 1984-1997, contains Hubbard harpsichord catalogues and price list booklets. Orders for kits are with the packing lists under sales and promotional materials.
Series 4, Research, 1930-1973, is divided into eight subseries: Subseries 1, Notebooks, 1932-1973, undated; Subseries 2, Correspondence and Notes, 1955-1956, undated; Subseries 3 Drawings, 1950-1959; Subseries 4, Publications and Manuscripts, 1930-1974, undated; Subseries 5, Photographs, undated; Subseries 6, Card Files, undated; Subseries 7, Samples, undated; and Subseries 8, Miscellaneous, 1934-1960, undated.
Research files document Hubbard's efforts to perfect his skills building harpsichords in the 1940's and 1950's. Hubbard journeyed to archives in small towns and gathered information there. He also worked as an apprentice at Arnold Dolmetsch's workshop and later with Hugh Gough in England. This research eventually resulted in instruments that had all the qualities of their older models. This series is arranged topically, then chronologically.
Subseries 1, Notebooks, 1932-1973, includes Work and Ideas of Arnold Dolmestch, which paved the way for building harpsichords based on historical principles. Other notebooks include the Ruckers Taskin (an eighteenth century Flemish harpsichord) and Hubbard's notebook on the alteration of a Hemsch Harpsichord in 1972. There are some notebooks titled by volume that relate to the Hubbard and Dowd Company.
Subseries 2, Correspondence and Notes, 1955-1961, undated, consists of letters and technical notes such as workshop methods, the Ruckers Taskin, and notes from the Harding Museum. The majority of correspondence and notes are unidentified.
Subseries 3, Drawings, 1950-1959, undated, consists of tracings, rubbings, templates, and Hubbard and Dowd drawings of harpsichord designs and harpsichord parts. Some drawings depict the construction of harpsichords by earlier builders. The drawings are unprocessed.
Subseries 4, Publications and Manuscripts, 1930-1974, undated, includes loose pages of an "Ars Organi sketch," articles by Edwin W. Ripin, and loose pages of the French Encyclopedia. There are publications in French, such as a biographical note on the "Blanchet" describing Parisian harpsichord makers. Illustrated London News, Le Soir Illustre, Christian Science Monitor, and Cincinnati Enquirer magazine articles are also included.
Subseries 5, Photographs, undated, consists of unidentified photographs of harpsichords.
Subseries 6, Card Files, undated, consists of index cards documenting instruments examined and instrument makers. There is an index for the cards.
Subseries 7, Samples, undated contains DeQuoco harpsichord iron strings, wood samples, DeQuoco harpsichord wire, and soft iron wire samples.
Subseries 8, Miscellaneous Items, 1934-1960, undated, includes a map of Central Europe, sheet music, museum procedure forms, concert programs, Successor Brocco Instruments, a 1950's instrument maker of the fortepiano, and promotional material for instrument makers.
Series 5, Sales and Promotional Materials, 1961-2000, is divided into six subseries: Series 1, Sales Journals, 1983-1998, Series 2, Instruments on order, 1968-1987, Series 3, Dealer files, 1975-1990, Series 4, Packing lists, 1970-2000, Series 5, Promotional files, 1961-2001, and Series 6, Catalogs of Other Instruments. It is arranged topically then chronologically.
Subseries 1, Sales Journals, 1983-1998, consists of loose pages of expenses and receipts for the instruments produced by the company in the 1980's and 1990's. These include the French harpsichord, the English Bentside Spinet, fortepiano, virginal, ottavino, and organ.
Subseries 2, Instruments on Order, 1968-1987, includes correspondence between representatives of the company and individuals, companies, musical societies, and colleges relating primarily to orders for finished instruments. Requests for kit orders and replacement parts are included. There are also instrument-on-order tracking sheets, invoices, and shipping orders and forms that document the orders that were placed.
Subseries 3, Dealer Files, 1975-1990, contains correspondence between Hubbard representatives and dealers, both domestic and international, who promoted Hubbard harpsichords. The customs broker company, T.D. Downing, is also represented. Other materials include tracking sheets, shipping forms invoices, bills, checks, inventory lists, mail, telegrams, and certificates of insurance between the Hubbard Harpsichords Company and dealers. Dealers include Japanese companies like Arai and Company and German individuals like Klevers. Dealers from Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and United States are also represented.
Subseries 4, Packing Lists, 1970-2000, consists of the kit orders placed for the French harpsichord, English bentside spinet, fortepiano, virginal, ottavino, and organ the company produced. Some packing lists indicate the number of kits the company packed each year. The numbers on the folders indicate the number of kits produced by the company.
Subseries 5, Promotional Files, 1961-2001, includes correspondence and catalogs from festivals, exhibitions, workshops, and projects that helped the company reach out to the wider public. The Boston Early Music Festival, for which Diane Hubbard was a board member, is well represented. Workshops in skills such as voicing, tuning, repair, and general woodworking classes helped amateur craftsman receive instructions for harpsichord-related activities. The special projects document other activities and venues, such as high school projects, and other activities by the Hubbard's to share their knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, harpsichords.
Subseries 6, Catalogs of Other Instruments, undated, consists of competitors' catalogs for early instruments. Hubbard's notable competitors include Wallace Zuckerman (Zuckerman harpsichords), and Hubbard's former business partner, William Dowd. The subseries is arranged alphabetically by competitor name.
Series 6, Financial Records, 1976-2000, consists of general financial documents, balance sheets, tax information, and payrolls.
Materials include account receivables, kits work in progress, monthly expense budgets, accounts payable, cash disbursements, write-offs and cancellations, bad debts, finished instrument orders and sales, miscellaneous income, monthly totals from sales journals, cash disbursements petty cash statements, kits ordered and shipped, restorations and fixed assets. Balance sheets, tax information, payroll documents, and related income statements complement the general financial documents to document the company's finances. The materials are arranged chronologically, then topically.
Series 7, Legal Records, 1959-1987, undated, consists of memoranda, notes, correspondence, and financial materials relating to legal cases and commercial acquisitions for the Hubbard Harpsichord Company from the 1970's to 1980's. The series is divided into five subseries: Subseries 1, Notes of John Ashby, 1968-1977; Subseries 2, Notes of Henry S. Healy, 1973-1978; Subseries 3, Belt v. Hubbard, 1963-1977; Subseries 4, Correspondence, 1963-1979; and Subseries 5, Acquisitions and Mergers, 1959-1987.
Subseries 1, Notes of John Ashby, 1968-1977, consists of notes of the company's lead attorney John H. Ashby pertaining to legal agreements between Hubbard and Erdmann, Hubbard's estate, Belt v. Hubbard, and general financial matters.
Subseries 2, Notes of Henry S. Healy, 1973-1978, consists of the notes of Henry S. Healy regarding the company's acquisition of commercial real estate and leases.
Subseries 3, Belt v. Hubbard, 1963-1977, consists of correspondence, memos, notes, affidavits, pleading matters, and pending matters used in the Belt v. Hubbard case.
Subseries 4, Correspondence, 1963-1979, consists of general correspondence. Wallets five through nine deal with merger acquisitions and sublease agreements during the 1970's and 1980's. Reviews of the company's financial operations are included in accountant reports, tax returns, and documents for the board of directors meetings.
Series 8, Soundboard Newsletters, 1979-1999, consists of a yearly newsletter with information about the company's activities for harpsichord enthusiasts.
Series 9, Photographs, 1968-1993, undated, consists of two albums of harpsichord photos and slides at events and concert halls.
Series 10, Drawings, undated (unprocessed)
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into nine series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1949-2003
Series 2: Business Files, 1965-2000
Subseries 2.1: Annual meetings and reports, 1965-2000
Subseries 2.2: Corporate Affairs, 1960-1997
Subseries 2.3: Employee Files, 1967-1996
Series 3, Frank Hubbard Harpsichord Kits, Inc., 1964-1997, undated
Subseries 4.4: Publications and Manuscripts, 1930-1974, undated
Subseries 4.5: Photographs, undated
Subseries 4.6: Card Files, undated
Subseries 4.7: Samples, undated
Subseries 4.8: Miscellaneous, 1934-1960, undated
Series 5: Sales and Promotional Materials, 1961-2001, undated
Subseries 5.1: Sales Journals, 1983-1998
Subseries 5.2: Dealer Files, 1975-1990
Subseries 5.3: Instruments on Order, 1968-1987
Subseries 5.4: Packing Lists, 1970-2000
Subseries 5.5: Promotional Files, 1961-2001
Subseries 5.6: Catalogs of Other Instruments, undated
Series 6: Financial Records, 1976-2000
Series 7: Legal Records, 1959-1987, undated
Subseries 7.1: Notes of John Ashby, 1968-1977
Subseries 7.2: Notes of Henry S. Healy, 1973-1978
Subseries 7.3: Belt v. Hubbard Materials, 1963-1977
Subseries 7.4: Correspondence, 1963-1979
Subseries 7.5: Acquisitions and Mergers, 1959-1987
Series 8: Soundboard Newsletters, 1979-1999
Series 9: Photographs, 1968-1993, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Frank Twombly Hubbard (1920-1976) was an American early instruments maker who with William R. Dowd (1922-2008) and the German harpsichord maker Martin Skowroneck, resurrected historical methods of harpsichord building. Many harpsichord makers in the United States are in debt to Frank Hubbard, his research, and his work with Dowd which became central to the twentieth century revival of harpsichord building in the United States.
Born on May 15, 1920, in New York, Hubbard graduated from Harvard University (Bachelor's, 1942; Master of Arts, 1947). At Harvard, Hubbard met William Dowd (1922-2008) who also had an interest in early instruments. Together they constructed a clavichord, an early stringed keyboard instrument used during the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. Hubbard and Dowd both decided to leave Harvard to pursue instrument making. In 1947, Dowd went to work with John Challis in Michigan, while Hubbard went to England and became an apprentice at the workshop of Arnold Dolmetsch in Haslemere. Not learning much about the historic harpsichord, Hubbard worked with Hugh Gough in London in 1948. During his one-year stay with Gough, he was able to visit collections of early keyboard instruments around Europe and study the instruments of fifteenth to eighteenth century harpsichord makers.
Hubbard returned to the United States in 1949 and founded a workshop with Dowd, called Hubbard and Dowd, Inc., in Boston, Massachusetts, which was dedicated to building harpsichords on historical principles. Hubbard and Dowd restored harpsichords in public and private collections (including the Smithsonian) which helped improve their own techniques of design and construction. In 1958 the partnership ended and Hubbard formed his own workshop, Frank Hubbard Harpsichords, Inc. on the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts. Dowd opened a larger workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Hubbard held several fellowships--a Fulbright Fellowship (1957), American Philosophical Society Grant (1958) and the Belgium American Educational Foundation CRB Fellowship (1958)--to examine instrument collections in Europe. From 1967 to 1968, he set up the restoration workshop for the Musee Instrumental at the Paris Conservatoire. In the 1970s, he taught courses at Harvard and Boston Universities. Hubbard wrote Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making in 1965. Ralph Kirkpatrick, a harpsichordist, wrote, "Hubbard unquestionably knows more about the history and construction of harpsichords than anyone alive today."
Hubbard developed a harpsichord in 1963 based on a 1769 French harpsichord which was sold as a "do-it-yourself" kit. It included a manual and all the crucial parts. Any person with a good grasp of woodworking and basic knowledge of harpsichord making, with dedication and careful work, was able to produce a fine instrument. Other kit designs followed in subsequent decades, and were marketed and sold under the name of Frank Hubbard Harpsichord Kits, Inc.
Frank Hubbard died on February 26, 1976 in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Operations at the Hubbard shop continued under the direction of Hubbard's wife, Diane Hubbard until 2000. Diane Hubbard died in 2009. Approximately 300 instruments were built in the shop, and nearly 4,000 kits were sold to customers around the world.
Related Materials:
Materials at the National Museum of American History
Materials in the Archives Center
Dowd Harpsichord Collection, 1949-1997 (AC0593)
The Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life
The division has a Hubbard clavichord and harpsichords built by other makers.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Hendrik Broekman, President, Hubbard Harpsichords, Inc., on September 20, 2011.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
The papers of New York art dealers and gallery owners Otto and Ilse Gerson measure 3 linear feet and date from 1933 to 1980. This collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, exhibition files, artists' files, collectors' files, business records, inventory and stock records, printed materials, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York art dealers and gallery owners Otto and Ilse Gerson measure 3 linear feet and date from 1933 to 1980. This collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, exhibition files, artists' files, collectors' files, business records, inventory and stock records, printed materials, and photographs.
Biographical material consists of Otto and Ilse Gerson's naturalization certificates and Ilse Gerson's will.
Correspondence includes a mixture of personal and professional letters. There are a few scattered letters between Otto and Ilse Gerson as well as correspondence with clients, museums, dealers, and artists. Notable correspondents include art dealer Curt Valentin and the artist Gerhard Marcks. There is also correspondence with the Dina Vierny Gallery in Paris, France.
There is a small number of files on the Joseph Mallord William Turner exhibition at Gerson Gallery in 1960 which include correspondence, loan forms, and printed material.
Artists' files contain correspondence, estimates, inventories, sales records, and printed material for art work by five different artists such as Jacques Lipchitz, David Smith, and Fritz Wotruba.
Collectors' files include correspondence, invoices, photographs, and other material related to purchases by various art collectors.
Business records consist of purchase and sales records, audit reports, balance sheets, certificates of authenticity, a sales ledger, and legal documents regarding the business conducted by Fine Arts Associates and Otto Gerson Gallery, and legal agreements and contracts related to the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery merger.
Inventory and stock records include assorted art inventories, a stock book, and stock cards for artists.
Printed material includes a few Gerson Gallery exhibition catalogs and clippings of exhibition reviews.
Photographs consists of a few snapshots of Otto and Ilse Gerson and images of gallery installations.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1933-1973 (0.1 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1937-1980 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Turner Exhibition Files, 1960-1961 (0.1 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 4: Artists' Files, 1950-1966 (0.3 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 5: Collectors' Files, 1956-1966 (0.3 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 6: Business Records, circa 1945-1964 (0.3 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 7: Inventory and Stock Records, 1946-1965 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1951-1962 (0.1 linear feet; Box 3)
Series 9: Photographs, circa 1945-circa 1960 (2 folders; Box 3)
Biographical / Historical:
Otto Gerson was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States, where he met and married Ilse Goehler in 1939. They both became U.S. citizens and together they rose to prominence as art dealers in New York City, circa 1940-1962, bringing works by noted post-war European (and some American) artists to the American market.
The Gersons also owned and operated galleries in New York, including Fine Arts Associates and Gerson Gallery. The Gerson Gallery was located at 41 East 57th Street in New York City and later merged with another gallery to form the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery around 1963, shortly after Otto Gerson's death.
Provenance:
The Otto and Ilse Gerson papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in 1984 by Indian Head Bank North on behalf of Otto and Ilse Gerson.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Gallery owners -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The records of the New York City based Valentine Gallery measure 1.8 linear feet and date from circa 1890 to 1960. The bulk of the material documents the gallery's dealings with artists Louis Eilshemius, John Kane, Henri Matisse, and C.S. Price. Additionally, there is one scrapbook which contains printed materials regarding Valentine Gallery exhibitions from 1925-1936.
Scope and Contents:
The records of the New York City based Valentine Gallery measure 1.8 linear feet and date from circa 1890 to 1960. The bulk of the material documents the gallery's dealings with artists Louis Eilshemius, John Kane, Henri Matisse, and C.S. Price. Additionally, there is one scrapbook which contains printed materials regarding Valentine Gallery exhibitions from 1925-1936.
The artist's file for Eilshemius contains biographical information; correspondence between Valentine Dudensing and the artist, as well scattered letters from Carl Van Vecten, Alfred H. Barr, and museums and institutions; writings and notes; price lists and other financial and legal documents; printed material from Eilshemius's varied career and from his affiliation with the Valentine Gallery; photographs including portraits of the artist, and photos of installations and of works of art; and a scrapbook containing clippings and scattered other printed materials covering Eilshemius's shows at the Valentine Gallery.
Artists' files for John Kane, Henri Matisse, and C.S. Price contain scattered documentation. The file for John Kane includes correspondence between Valentine Dudensing and Kane's estate managers as well as museums and institutions, price lists, legal records, and printed materials. There are two letters from Henri Matisse to Valentine Dudensing regarding travel plans and a thank you message. The C.S. Price file consists of letters from Price regarding specific works of art, and scattered financial records.
A scrapbook dates from 1925-1936 and includes newspaper and magazine clippings about exhibitions and artists represented by the Valentine Gallery. Artists and exhibitions mentioned in the clippings include Alexander Brook, Giorgio de Chirico, Stuart Davis, Jean Lucrat, Carlos Merida, and Joseph Stella. Also, there is a poster created by Valentine Dudensing to fundraise for ambulances for France.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 2 series.
Series 1: Artists Files, circa 1890-1960 (Box 1, 3; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 2: Scrapbook, 1925-1936 (Box 2, 4; 0.5 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
The Valentine Gallery was founded by F. Valentine Dudensing in 1926 and operated in New York City until 1947. The gallery hosted many exhibitions of Modern European art and specialized in School of Paris paintings.
F. Valentine Dudensing was born in 1892 in New York City. His father, Richard Dudensing was a well known art publisher and gallerist who owned Dudensing Galleries. Valentine served in World War I in the United States Aviation Corps and in 1920, married Margaret van der Gros. During a trip to Europe in the early 1920s, Dudensing became acquainted with the son of artist Henri Matisse, Pierre. Together, they conceived a gallery managed by Dudensing in New York while Matisse organized and curated art from Europe.
Dudensing opened his gallery in 1926 at 43 East 57th Street as the F. Valentine Dudensing Gallery. At this time, his father's gallery, the Dudensing Galleries, was located at 45 West 44th Street. Valentine Dudensing changed his gallery's name in 1927 to the Valentine Gallery to distinguish it from his father's gallery. The gallery was one of the first to bring Modern European works to New York City and hosted exhibitions of Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Lurçat, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and André Dunoyer de Segonzac. Additionally, Valentine Gallery represented American artists including Louis Eilshemius, John Kane, and C.S. Price. Pierre Matisse left the partnership with Valentine Dudensing to open his own gallery in 1931.
In 1947, Valentine Dudensing closed his gallery and moved to France with his wife. He died in 1967.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel NY59-5) including gallery index cards. Loaned materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The Valentine Gallery records were donated by gallery founder, Valentine Dudensing in 1958. Dudensing also lent the Archives of American Art gallery index cards for microfilming in 1959. Roy R. Neuberger donated materials regarding Louis Eilshemius in 1959 who received the material from Valentine Dudensing.
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.
4.89 Cubic feet (consisting of 10.5 boxes, 2 folders, 5 oversize folders, 2 map case folders.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Business records
Business cards
Publications
Trade catalogs
Advertisements
Sales catalogs
Business letters
Printed materials
Receipts
Printed material
Invoices
Illustrations
Business ephemera
Letterheads
Design patents
Advertising mail
Patents
Print advertising
Catalogs
Sales records
Advertising
Trade cards
Advertising fliers
Periodicals
Catalogues
Manufacturers' catalogs
Advertising cards
Commercial correspondence
Ephemera
Printed ephemera
Manuals
Reports
Commercial catalogs
Trade literature
Sales letters
Legal documents
Correspondence
Mail order catalogs
Date:
1804-1967
Summary:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Glassware forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana
Scope and Contents:
Covers glassware in its many forms and application including in building design and sculpture, both as a structural and an aesthetic component, in lighting, in art as a medium and as a method to protect and display art (picture frames, cases, etcetera.), in industry (insulators, electronics), in transportation (lighthouses, railroad signal glasses, headlamps), and in science with medical and lab supplies and instruments, and equipment such as telescopes. Daily and practical use consumer products feature prominently in the form of household and decorative goods (jarring, canning, dish and serving ware, daily and special use), windows, lamps and lighting, storage of liquids and solids, including detergents, medicine storage, plus beverages and foodstuffs, and cleaning of glass. Colored, ornamental, ground, etched, leaded, stained, and mosaic glasswork related material appears sporadically. China and other ceramic and pottery breakable wear is sometimes categorized along with clear, cut, opaque, and colored glass. Related aspects, such as stoppers, are also included.
Collection materials represent a sampling of businesses and products. The Patent and Design folder has numerous submission summaries, along with schematics, some hand drawn, and a few blueprints, mostly related to bottle design. A limited amount of industry publications and union documents are present, especially for the Glass Workers.
Arrangement:
Glassware is arranged in three subseries.
Business Records and Marketing Material
Genre
Subject
Partial List of Companies in the Oversize Materials:
Oversize materials include, but are not limited to the following companies:
Averbeck, M.J., New York, NY
Cleveland Glass Works, Cleveland, NY
Cold Spring Distilling Company Cincinatti, OH
Craft House Williamsburg Restoration, Inc. Williamsburg, VA
Cullen & Newman Knoxville, TN
French, Richards, and Company Philadelphia, PA
Glassware: Union Wages and Rules
Jones, Thomas New York, NY
Libby Owens Ford Class Company Manufacturers of Safety Glass Location unknown
Metropolitan Plate Glass Insurance Company New York, NY
Morgantown, WV
New Jersey Plate Glass Insurance Company Newark, NJ
New York Plate Glass Insurance Company New York, NY
Seneca Glass Company
Smalley, A.G. and Company Boston, MA
Woods, Sherwood and Company Lowell, MA
Forms Part Of:
Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
Series 1: Business Ephemera
Series 2: Other Collection Divisions
Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers
Series 4: Photographic Reference Material
Provenance:
Glassware is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Glassware, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
The collection documents the lives and careers of the Smothers Brothers, with emphasis on their 1960s television variety show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
Scope and Contents:
Collection documents the private lives and professional careers of Tom and Dick Smothers, with emphasis on their television variety show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The largest portion of the collection contains photographic materials. Publicity materials including press releases, programs, newspaper clippings, and magazine articles; correspondence containing fan mail (some from famous persons such as Lucille Ball, Jack Paar, and others), letters from viewers both complimentary and critical of shows, and letters from members of Congress; business records including contracts, tour itineraries, talent agency materials, scripts, and scrapbooks; and legal documents relating to the lawsuit against Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) are also found in the collection. Collection is arranged into three series: Series 1, Photographs, 1961-2007, undated; Series 2, Business Records, 1959-2002, undated; and Series 3, Personal Papers, 1966-2008, undated.
Arrangement:
Collection is arranged into three series:
Series 1: Photographic Materials, 1961-2007, undated
Subseries 1.1: Television Shows, 1966-1989, undated
Subseries 1.2: Specials, Tours, and Public Appearances, 1964-1988, undated
Subseries 1.3: Motion Picture Films and Theatre, 1969-1982
Subseries 1.4: General, 1961-2007, undated
Subseries 1.5: Promotional, 1961-2003, undated
Series 2: Business Records, 1959-2002, undated
Subseries 2.1: Press, 1960-2002, undated
Subseries 2.2: Employee Files, 1959-1999, undated
Subseries 2.3: Smothers Brothers v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Incorporated (CBS), 1966-1972, undated
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 16: Country, Western and Folk Music NMAH.AC.0300
Bob Rule Papers, NMAH.AC.0855
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
The papers of Xavier Gonzalez, a New York and Massachusetts painter, sculptor, educator, and owner of the Wellfleet Art Gallery, measure 14.1 linear feet and date from 1908 to 1997. The collection consists of biographical materials, correspondence, writings, project files, business records, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographs, and artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Xavier Gonzalez, a New York and Massachusetts painter, sculptor, educator, and owner of the Wellfleet Art Gallery, measure 14.1 linear feet and date from 1908 to 1997. The collection consists of biographical materials, correspondence, writings, commission project files, business records, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographs, and artwork.
Biographical materials include an address book and calendars, awards, passports, resumes, student rosters, and legal documents. Correspondence is with family, friends, and colleagues regarding Gonzalez's work and art school in Wellfleet, his uncle and artist Jose Arpa, and other personal and professional activities. Manuscripts for Notes About Painting, unpublished books, and various essays by Gonzalez, along with manuscripts by other authors are in writings.
Commission project files are found for a U.S. Bicentennial monument, murals in New York and Texas, paintings commissioned by the Department of the Interior and Life magazine, and educational aids for the U.S. Navy.
Business records include sales and inventory records for Gonzalez's Wellfleet Art Gallery, The Spanish Institute, and other galleries. Printed materials consist of printed representations of artwork, clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, invitations, press releases, and books including He Who Saw Everything, The Epic of Gilgamesh, illustrated by Gonzalez.
The collection also includes 72 numbered scrapbooks that contain sketches, printed materials, project plans, photographs, writings, correspondence, and business records. One of the scrapbooks contains a notebook labeled "Notes of Paris, Visits with Picasso, 1936-1938". Photographs are of Gonzalez, his artwork and studio, his family and friends, Ethel Edwards, student artwork, composer Aaron Copeland, museum director Philip R. Adams, and Art Students League director Stewart Klonis. Artwork includes illustrated notes to Ethel Edwards, folded and cutout paper projects, and pencil and painted sketches.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1932-1992 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1930s-1995 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 3: Writings, 1948-1993 (0.5 linear feet; Boxes 2, 14)
Series 4: Project Files, 1942-1987 (0.5 linear feet; Boxes 2-3, OV 22)
Series 5: Business Records, 1949-1997 (0.5 linear feet; Boxes 3, OV 22)
Series 6: Printed Materials, 1928-1990s (1.5 linear feet; Boxes 4-5, OV 22)
Series 7: Scrapbooks, circa 1911-1980s (5.4 linear feet; Boxes 5-9, 14-20, OV 21)
Series 8: Photographs, 1908-1990s (3.5 linear feet; Boxes 9-12, 14)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1950s-1980s (0.7 linear feet; Boxes 12-14)
Biographical / Historical:
Xavier Gonzalez (1898-1993) was a painter, sculptor, and educator who was active in New York, NY and Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
Gonzalez was born in Almeria, Spain and came to the United States at the age of 19. While working odd jobs in Chicago, he attended the Chicago Art Institute. Throughout his career, Gonzalez completed numerous commissions including murals in Texas and New York, a monument for the 1976 bicentennial celebration in New York, paintings for the Department of the Interior, and paintings of Egypt's Old Kingdom for Life magazine. During World War II, he designed posters and maps for the Navy. After the war, Gonzalez opened the Wellfleet Art Gallery with his wife, artist Ethel Edwards, in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The gallery served as an exhibition space, studio, and art school where Gonzalez taught summer classes.
Gonzalez died in New York in 1993.
Related Materials:
Also found at the Archives of American Art are the papers of Xavier Gonzalez's wife, Ethel Edwards.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming on reels N68-113, N69-42, N69-43, and N70-53. Most of this material was included in subsequent gifts, but a comparison of the film and papers was not completed. Loaned materials not donated at a later date remain with the lender and are not described in the container listing of this finding aid.
Provenance:
Xavier Gonzalez first loaned the Archives of American Art material for microfilming in 1968, most of which was included in the later 1999 gift. Gonzalez also donated a small amount of papers in 1971. Additional materials were donated by the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse University in 1984 and 1992, and by the estate of Ethel Edwards Gonzalez in 1999.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the 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.
This collection consists of material relating to Harold W. "Toffy" Tofflemire's tenure at Eastern Air Lines, including the following: correspondence (letters, interoffice memoranda, and a telegram between Tofflemire and Edward Vernon "Eddie" Rickenbacker, president and chairman of Eastern Air Lines; Eastern Air Lines postcards; published material; and photographs.
This collection is in English.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of .25 cubic feet of material relating to Harold W. "Toffy" Tofflemire's tenure at Eastern Air Lines, including the following: correspondence (letters, interoffice memoranda, and a telegram between Tofflemire and Edward Vernon "Eddie" Rickenbacker, president and chairman of Eastern Air Lines; Eastern Air Lines postcards; published material; and photographs. There are also a few items from other airlines, including American Airlines wartime passenger brochures, and a photograph of the Apollo 8 Earth view autographed by Frank Borman.
Arrangement:
Arranged by type of material.
Biographical / Historical:
Harold W. "Toffy" Tofflemire (1904–1983) was a station manager for Eastern Air Lines (1930 - 1968). Tofflemire's flying career started in Pipestone, Minnesota, when he built and flew an airplane in 1918. He then barnstormed with friend Earl Smith in a Curtiss JN-4 through South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Kansas. Tofflemire joined Eastern Air Lines in the 1930s and was a station manager in Miami, Chattanooga, New Orleans, Chicago Midway, and Atlanta. His team started the control tower concept in Atlanta, originated the "transfer point" idea and established the reservation roundtable. Tofflemire also invented a scooter-powered baggage truck and a conveyor belt loading device for Eastern
Provenance:
David Koch, Gift, 2020, NASM.2021.0007
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.
Captain Michael Gitt was a pilot for several airlines from 1940 until 1968, most notably Colonial Airlines and Eastern Airlines. This collection consists of materials from Captain Michael Gitt's aviation career, particularly his thirty years as a commercial airline pilot for Colonial Airlines and Eastern Airlines. Of special note are the documents from his 1969 age discrimnation lawsuit regarding the "Age 60" mandatory retirement rule for pilots.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of materials from Captain Michael Gitt's aviation career, particularly his thirty years as a commercial airline pilot. Documents include: flight logs and aviation licenses; applications for employment; aerial negatives and photographs of the New York City area; correspondence, mostly to colleagues at Canadian Colonial Airways, later renamed Colonial Airlines, and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA); Colonial Airlines bulletins and staff newsletters; material relating to his employment at Colonial Airlines, including aircraft manuals for the DC-2 and DC-3; rosters and documentation relating to the Retired Eastern Pilots Association (REPA); and legal briefs and correspondence associated with his age discrimination case against Eastern Airlines in 1969. A small selection of personal materials include correspondence, licenses, housing documentation, and an autobiography and obituaries. There are also materials regarding his wife, Cornelia Gitt, her flight records, and her attempt to organize a Colonial wives safety petition.
Note: The digital images in this finding aid were repurposed from scans made by an outside contractor for a commercial product and may show irregular cropping and orientation in addition to color variations resulting from damage to and deterioration of the original objects. Materials with personally identifiable information have not been included.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into five series. Materials within each series are arranged chronologically.
Series 1: Early Aviation Career
Series 2: Canadian Colonial Airways and Colonial Airlines
Series 3: Eastern Airlines
Subseries 3.1: Age 60 Lawsuit
Subseries 3.2: General Eastern Materials and Retired Eastern Pilots Association
Series 4: Logbooks, Licenses, and Cards
Series 5: Personal Materials
Biographical / Historical:
Captain Michael Gitt (1908-2002) was a pilot for several airlines from 1940 until 1968, most notably Colonial Airlines and Eastern Airlines.
Michael A. Gitt learned to fly on a Brunner-Winkle Bird at the Flushing Flying School in 1931. In November 1931, he bought a Buhl Flying Bull Pup and a Taylor Cub E-2 in March 1935. He earned his transport license in 1937. He studied with the Aircraft Radio and Instrument Company at Roosevelt Field. Between 1938 and 1940, he was employed by Aero Service for aerial photography, Bennett Air Service, and Standard Flying Service at Somerset Hills Airport in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
In August 1940, Gitt began his career as a commercial airline pilot with Canadian Colonial Airwayss, which was renamed Colonial Airlines in 1942. In 1956, Eastern Airlines purchased Colonial and Gitt continued his employment with Eastern until he retired as a Senior Captain in 1968.
Gitt was also extremely active with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) union from 1946-1956. He served as chairman of numerous negotiating committees, including the retirement committee and the Colonial #28 Council. Gitt filed many grievances with the airlines on his own behalf over issues such as vacation time, compensation, and seniority. In 1969, he filed one of the first airline pilot age discrimination suits against Eastern Airlines in response to the "Age 60" mandatory retirement rule for pilots.. F. Lee Bailey served as one of his lawyers. His suit was not successful and the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots remained 60 until 2007, when it was changed to 65.
After his retirement from the airlines, Gitt began a second career as director of Marine Activities for the Park District of Great Neck, Long Island, New York. Besides his work and many civic and community organizations that he was involved with, Gitt also fulfilled a dream during the 1970s by earning his glider pilot license. He also was a member of the Retired Eastern Pilots Association (REPA).
Provenance:
Patricia and Brian Gitt, Gift, 2003, NASM.2003.0033
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
This collection consists of blueprints, a manual, newspaper articles, brochures and photographs of airships and balloons during the early part of the 20th century, usually relating to Gampper's career. The airships included are the Roma, the Wingfoot Express, and the Pony Blimp at Commercial Air Syndicate.
Biographical / Historical:
Frederick K. Gampper, Jr., began his aviation career in 1917. During the late 1910s and early 1920s, Gampper worked for the dirigible department at Goodyear Rubber Company where he was a supervisor of dirigible construction in Key West, an airship pilot, and trained other pilots for Goodyear. After his stint at Goodyear, Gampper helped raise stock for the Commercial Airship Syndicate, LTD., which would have been the first commercial airship airline in the United States. The night before the commencement of the company's schedule began, however, a storm destroyed the airship. Gampper's dirigible balloon pilot's license was no. #53, his Spherical Balloon Aero Club of America license was no. #655.
General:
NASMrev
Provenance:
James M. Gampper and Frederick K. Gampper III, gift, 1993, 1993-0062, NASM
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
The records of Milch Gallery measure 42.5 linear feet and date from 1911-1995. Edward Milch (1865-1953) opened the Edward Milch Gallery in New York City. In 1916, he formed a partnership with his brother Albert Milch (1881-1951), a gilder and framer, creating E. & A. Milch, Inc., a gallery specializing in American art. Harold C. Milch (1904-1981), Albert's son, was appointed a partner in 1944 and continued the business until his death. Business records of Milch Gallery, 1911-1968, include correspondence, sales records, inventories, financial records, printed matter, photographs, and legal documents. Later additions to the records date from 1922-1995 and include correspondence; artists' files; financial, sales, and stock records; printed material; and photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of Milch Gallery document the business transactions of the corporation and the professional and personal relationships of the Milch brothers with the artists they represented, as well as with the larger community of artists and art dealers between 1911 and 1995. Unfortunately, early correspondence is sparse. In a letter responding to a 1951 request for historical information, Milch replied: "Several years ago [1947] we had to give up our gallery at 108 West 57th Street, and move to smaller quarters here. Since we had no room for old records, we had to destroy most of them."
Alphabetical files are comprised mainly of incoming correspondence from 1911 to 1962. Correspondence concerns arrangements for exhibitions, sales and consignments, advice to collectors and executors of estates, and routine business matters. A number of the artists represented in these files were friends of the Milch brothers and some of their letters mention their personal lives as well as their formal business with the Gallery. Collectors who routinely dealt with Milch Galleries included John Gellatly, Mary Blair, Hersey Egginton, Carlton Palmer, and Edward Coykendell; a three volume manuscript catalogue of Coykendell's collection is included. Among the estates handled by Milch were Willard Metcalf, John Twachtman, Abbott H. Thayer, Maurice Fromkes, and Thomas Moran.
Also found are sales records and other financial records such as general ledgers, sales and purchase records, and tax information.
Printed matter consists of gallery exhibition catalogs, checklists, invitations, announcements, publications, and scrapbooks. Many catalogs and checklists are annotated with prices and other information. A complete run of Milch Galleries Art Notes, issued intermittently from 1918-1928/29 is preserved with the gallery records. as is a scrapbook relating to early exhibitions held at the Edward Milch Galleries and E. & A. Milch, Inc., and artists represented by them.
Photographs included with the records are less voluminous than might be expected, and pictures of works of art predominate. There are also a very small number of exterior and interior photographs of Milch Gallery, photographs of people including artists, Edward and Albert Milch, and photographs of groups such as Ten American Artists and the Associated Dealers in American Paintings.
The 1995 and 2014 additions measure 3 linear feet and date from 1922-1995. Milch Gallery activities are documented through correspondence; artists' files; financial, sales, and stock records; printed material; and photographs.
See Appendix for a list of Milch Gallery exhibitions and checklists
Arrangement:
Records of the Milch Gallery are organized into seven series. With the exception of the alphabetical files, records are arranged by record type and then chronologically. Photographs are categorized by subject, with pictures of individuals arranged alphabetically by name, and works of art arranged alphabetically by artist.
Series 1: Alphabetical Files, 1911-1962
Series 2: Sales Records and Inventories, 1911-1969, undated
Series 3: Financial Records, 1914-1980, undated
Series 4: Printed Matter, 1996, 1910-1967, undated
Series 5: Photographs, 1903-circa 1944, undated
Series 6: Miscellaneous, 1916-1970, undated
Series 7: Addition to the Milch Gallery Records, 1922-1995 (Boxes 60-65, 3 linear feet)
Historical Note:
Between 1911 and 1916, prior to the establishment of the Milch Galleries, Austrian immigrant Edward Milch (1865-1953) operated the Edward Milch Galleries at 939 Madison Avenue 1911, mainly handling prints and providing framing services.
Albert Milch (1881-1951) was employed by a gilder and later a picture framer before becoming the business partner of his older brother. In 1916 they incorporated as E. & A. Milch (with Edward as President and Albert as Secretary of the corporation) and opened the Milch Galleries at 108 West 57th Street, New York City. During their partnership, Edward served as President and Albert as Secretary of the corporation. According to Joseph Gotlieb, a long-time employee, during this period Montross Gallery became inclined toward modern French art and the American artists associated with them began searching for galleries more sympathetic to their interests. "As Albert Milch was a framemaker to several of them, and as he was opening a new gallery in 1916 to specialize in American Art, some artists decided to let the Milch Galleries, and others, handle their work. It turned out to be a good arrangement for both sides, and a successful one" (letter from Joseph S. Gotleib to Susan Hobbs [National Museum of American Art], December 30, 1977).
From the beginning, Milch Galleries dealt in American art almost exclusively, representing living artists, handling the estates of recently deceased artists; in addition they acquired nineteenth century works for resale and accepted pieces on commission. Although framing and restoration services continued to be offered to customers, this aspect of the business soon diminished in importance.
Harold C. Milch (1904-1981), Albert's son, was affiliated with the business, and upon his father's retirement was appointed partner; after Albert died in 1951, Harold was sole proprietor, serving as both President and Secretary.
Milch Galleries moved to smaller quarters at 55 East 57th Street in 1947, and ten years later to 21 East 67th Street. In 1967, the name was changed to Milch Gallery and the business relocated to 1014 Madison Avenue. The gallery dissolved upon the death of Harold Milch. A third brother, David C. Milch, was also an art dealer, but was not associated with Milch Gallery.
1911 -- Edward Milch Galleries opens at 939 Madison Ave.
1912 -- First exhibition at Edward Milch Galleries
1916 -- Incorporation of E. & A. Milch; Edward Milch, President, and Albert Milch, Secretary; change of name to Milch Galleries and relocation to 108 West 57th St.
1918 -- Milch Galleries Art Notes begins publication
1944 -- Edward Milch retires; Albert Milch President, and Harold C. Milch [son of Albert], Secretary
1947 -- Milch Galleries moves to 55 East 57th St.
1951 -- Death of Albert Milch (1881-1951); Harold C. Milch, President and Secretary
1953 -- Death of Edward Milch (1865-1953)
1957 -- Milch Galleries moves to 21 East 67th St.
1966 -- Archives of American Art begins acquiring records of the Milch Galleries (gifts and loans from Milch Galleries)
1967 -- Relocation to 1014 Madison Ave., and name change to Milch Gallery
1981 -- Death of Harold C. Milch (1904-1981)
1986 -- Archives of American Art receives the bulk of Milch Gallery records (gift of Salander-O'Reilly Galleries)
Appendix: List of Milch Gallery Exhibitions and Checklists:
Items marked with an asterisk (*) are contained in the scrapbook rather than with the Milch Gallery exhibition catalogs.
Nov. 16-Dec. 7, 1912* -- Exhibition of 300 Original Sketches in Oil by 100 Well Known American Artists
Feb. 15-March 8, 1913* -- Glimpses of Nature We Love to See, Feast, and Dwell On
April 28-May 7, 1913* -- Portraits of Children and Grown-Ups by Miss Susan Ricker Knox
Oct. 18-Nov. 1, 1913* -- Small Paintings and Bronzes
Oct. 18-Nov. 1, 1913* -- Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures by Noted American Artists
Feb. 9-21, 1914* -- Paintings by W. Herbert Dunton of The Old West
Oct. 17-31, 1914* -- Portraits in Oil, Miniatures, and Sculpture
Feb. 20-March 7, 1915* -- Paintings and Etchings by Gordon Mallet McCouch
April 26-May 8, 1915* -- Paintings by Frew W. Kost, N.A.
Nov. 7-19, 1915 -- Paintings and Sculpture by Matilda Browne
Nov. 15-30, 1915* -- Views of the Panama California Exposition and Landscapes of Southern California
Jan. 31-Feb. 12, 1916 -- Paintings by Garber, Pearson, Lathrop, and Spencer
Feb. 14-26, 1916* -- Landscapes by Walter Clark, N.A.
Feb. 14-26, 1916* -- Paintings by Guy Wiggins
Nov. 4-18, 1916* -- Opening Exhibition
Nov. 25-Dec. 9, 1916* -- Works by the Late Louis Loeb
Jan. 15-27, 1917* -- Paintings by Helen M. Turner
Jan. 30-Feb. 10, 1917* -- Paintings by Leonard Ochtman, N.A.
Feb. 14-24, 1917* -- Recent Paintings by William V. Schevill
March 6-24, 1917 -- Ten American Painters
March 13-24, 1917* -- George Bellows
March 14-24, 1917* -- Paintings by Frederick J. Waugh
March 26-April 7, 1917* -- Paintings by Howard Russell Butler, N.A.
April 10-21, 1917 -- Paintings by Harry F. Waltman and Howard Giles, and Sculptures by Willard D. Paddock
April 15-27, 1917* -- Paintings by Valentino Molina
April 24-May 5, 1917* -- Paintings by Thalia Millet
Oct. 27-Nov. 17, 1917* -- William Jean Beauley
Jan. 15-Feb. 15, 1918* -- Etchings, Dry-Point and Lithographs by Ernest Haskell
Jan. 28-Feb. 4, 1918 -- Sketches and Paintings by the "Nova Scotia Group"
Feb. 25-March 16, 1918* -- Paintings by Robert Henri
March 13-24, 1918 -- George Bellows
March 22-April 4, 1918* -- Paintings by H. Gabrielle Levey
April 8-, 1918* -- Etchings by Allen Lewis
Nov. 25-Dec. 16, 1918* -- Paintings by Edward H. Potthast, N.A.
Dec. 18-Jan. 16, 1918 -- Annual Holiday Exhibition of Selected Paintings of Limited Size by American Artists
Dec. 23-Jan. 10, 1919* -- Etchings and Dry-Points by Ernest Haskell
Jan. 13-25, 1919* -- Paintings by Mary Prindeville
Jan. 27-Feb. 13, 1919* -- With the A.E.F., Paintings and Drawings Made at the Front by S. J. Woolf
Feb. 14-26 [1919?]* -- Paintings by Arthur C. Goodwin
Feb. 18-March 1, 1919* -- Paintings by Jerome Myers
March 3-16, 1919* -- Recent Paintings of California by William Ritschel, N.A.
March 17-29, 1919 -- Recent Paintings by Lillian Genth, A.N.A.
March 28-April 9, 1919* -- Drawings of New York City by Peter Marcus
April 8-30*, 1919 -- Paintings by Leading American Artists
April 19-May 1*, 1919 -- Paintings by Valentino Molina
May 3-22, 1919 -- Recent American Sculpture
May 5-17*, 1919 -- Recent American Sculpture in Bronze, Wood, and Terra Cotta for the Town and Country House, the Grounds, and Garden
May 20-, 1919 -- Flag Pictures and Street Scenes by Childe Hassam
Nov. 16-Dec. 6, 1919 -- Childe Hassam
Nov. 17-Dec. 6, 1919 -- Exhibition of Works in the Various Mediums by Childe Hassam
Dec. 18-Jan. 16, 1920 -- Annual Holiday Exhibition of Selected Paintings of Limited Size by American Artists
Dec. 29-Jan. 15, 1920* -- Portraits and Other Paintings by Royston Nave
Feb. 2-14, 1920 -- George Biddle
Feb. 2-14, 1920* -- Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels, Monotypes, Silver-Points and Etchings by George Biddle
Feb. 16-28, 1920* -- Paintings by Ossip L. Linde
March 1-12, 1920 -- Bruce Crane
March 1-13, 1920 -- Bruce Crane, A.N.A.
March 15-April 3, 1920 -- Willard L. Metcalf
April 5-20, 1920 -- Paintings
April 8-30 [1920] -- Exhibition of Paintings by Leading American Artists
April 15-May 1, 1920 -- Valentino Molina
Oct. 18-30 [1920?]* -- Paintings of New England and Drawings of the Devastated Towns of Flanders by George Wharton Edwards
Nov. 1-13, 1920 -- Six American Painters [Clark, Potthast, Snell, Nichols, Olinsky, and Volkert
Nov. 1-15, 1920 -- Paintings by Theresa F. Bernstein
Nov. 15-27, 1920 -- Childe Hassam
Nov. 21-Dec. 3, 1920* -- Sculpture by Gleb Derujinsky
Dec., 1920* -- Exhibition by George Biddle
Dec. 1-21, 1920 -- Etchings and Color Etchings by William Meyerowitz
Dec. 27-Jan. 28, 1921 -- Albert Delbert Smith
circa 1920 -- Ossip L. Linde
circa 1920 -- William Meyrowitz
circa 1920 -- Exhibition
Jan. 10-29, 1921 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Brush, Crane, Dewing, Metcalf, Hassam, and Murphy
Jan. 31-Feb. 12, 1921 -- American Art
Feb. 14-26, 1921 -- Guy Wiggins
Feb. 14-26, 1921 -- Arthur G. Goodwin
Feb. 28-March 12, 1921 -- Paintings by Robert Henri
March 14-April 9, 1921 -- Paintings by Gari Melchers
March 28-April 9, 1921 -- Peter Marcus
April 11-23, 1921* -- Portraits and Figure Paintings by Edith Catlin Phelps
April 11-30, 1921 -- Paintings by Willard Metcalf
May 2-30, 1921 -- American Sculpture for the Town and Country House, the Garden, and the Grounds
Oct. 18-30 [1921?]* -- Paintings and Drawings by George Wharton Edwards
Oct. 24-Nov. 5, 1921 -- Portraits and Paintings of Old New Orleans by Wayman Adams
Nov. 7-19, 1921 -- Flower Paintings and Sculpture by Mathilde Browne
Nov. 7-19, 1921 -- Paintings in Oil and Water Color by George H. Clements
Nov. 19-Dec. 3, 1921 -- Sculpture-Gleb Derujinsky
Dec. 5-31, 1921 -- Works by Abbott H. Thayer, Including Important Paintings, Water Colors, and Drawings
circa 1921 -- Exhibition
Jan. 9-21, 1922 -- Paintings by Katherine Langhorne Adams
Jan. 9-21, 1922 -- Paintings of California by Douglass Ewell Parshall
Feb. 13-March 4, 1922 -- Paintings of Cape Ann by Harry A. Vincent, A.N.A.
March 6-25, 1922* -- Pastels of the Cascapedia River, Canada, by Arthur C. Goodwin
March 6-25, 1922 -- Connecticut Landscape Paintings by Wilson Irvine
March 27-April 15, 1922* -- Moonlight Motifs: Garden of the Gods, Colorado and Other Paintings by Robert Reid, N.A.
Dec. 26-Jan. 13, 1923 -- Paintings and Pastels by Henry C. White
Jan. 15-27, 1923* -- Paintings of Spain by William J. Potter
Jan. 29-Feb. 10, 1923 -- Water Colors of the South Sea Islands by William Ritschel, N.A.
Feb. 12-March 3, 1923 -- Paintings by Willard L. Metcalf
March 5-31, 1923 -- Paintings of the Far East by Leon Gaspard
March 19-31, 1923* -- Landscape Paintings by Guy Wiggins, A.N.A.
April 2-21, 1923* -- Portrait Drawings by Ercole Cartotto
April 19-May 6, 1923 -- Paintings by Leading American Artists
Oct. 1-20, 1923 -- Paintings by Sidney E. Dickinson, A.N.A.
Oct. 22- Nov. 3, 1923 -- Paintings and Sculpture by Mathilda Brown (Mrs. Frederick Van Wyck)
Nov. 5-17, 1923 -- Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by William Gedney Bunce
Dec. 11-23, 1923* -- Water Colors by James Montgomery Flagg
Jan. 14-26, 1924 -- Exhibition of Nudes, Portraits, Landscapes and Genre by Eugene Paul Ullman
Feb. 18-March 8, 1924 -- Paintings by Willard L. Metcalf
March 27-April 5, 1924 -- Connecticut Landscapes by Guy Wiggins, A.N.A.
Dec. 1-27, 1924 -- Maurice Fromkes
Jan. 5-17, 1925 -- Paintings of the Pacific Coast by Armin Hansen
Jan. 19-31, 1925 -- Martha Walter
Feb. 16-March 7, 1925 -- Willard L. Metcalf
March 9-21, 1925 -- John Noble
March 23-April 11, 1925 -- Bruce Crane
May 4-16, 1925 -- Brynjulf Strandenaes Exhibition of Portraits
May 18-30, 1925 -- Paintings by Robert Brackman
Dec. 7-31, 1925 -- Paintings by the Late Willard Metcalf
Dec. 7-21, 1925 -- Sketches by Dorothea A. Dreier,
Jan. 11-23, 1926 -- Recent Landscape Paintings by Frank V. Du Mond
Jan. 25-Feb. 13, 1926 -- Smaller Paintings by Max Bohm
Feb. 15-March 6, 1926 -- Paintings of the Sea by William Ritschel
April 13-May 2, 1926 -- Jonas Lie
April 26-May 15, 1926 -- Landscapes and Street Scenes by William Jean Beauley
Nov. 15-27, 1926 -- California Marine Paintings and Water Colors by Armin Hansen
Nov. 29-Dec. 18, 1926 -- Water Colors by Frank W. Benson
Nov. 29-Dec. 18, 1926 -- Silver-Point Drawings by Ercole Cartotto
Jan. 10-22, 1927 -- Portraits by Millie Bruhl Frederick (Mrs. Leopold Fredrick)
Jan. 24-Feb. 12, 1927 -- Paintings of Cornwall and Devonshire by W. Elmer Schofield
Jan. 24-Feb. 12, 1927 -- Etchings by Teresa Cerutti Simmons, Watercolors by Will Simmons
Feb. 14-March 5, 1927 -- Sculpture by Heinz Warneke
March 28-April 16, 1927 -- Paintings by Henry Golden Dearth
April 18-30, 1927 -- Decorative Flower Paintings by Olin Howland
April 18-30, 1927 -- Recent Water Colors by John Whorf of Boston
Oct. 10-28, 1927 -- Decorative Embroideries by Georgiana Brown Harbeson
Nov. 14-26, 1927 -- Pastels and Etchings of Cambodia and China by Lucille Douglass
Nov. 28-Dec. 24, 1927 -- Works by Gari Melchers
Nov. 28-Dec. 24, 1927 -- Sculpture by Max Kalish
Dec. 26-Jan. 14, 1928 -- Water Color Exhibition of West African Native Types by Erick Berry; Also a Group of West African Pottery and Brass Figures Made by the Natives of Nigeria
Dec. 29-Jan. 14, 1928 -- Paintings by Joacb Dooyewaard
Jan. 14-26, 1928 -- Decorative Paintings by Jane Peterson
Feb. 7-April 29, 1928 -- Alfred Hutty
Feb. 13-25, 1928 -- Water Colors by Alice Judson
March 12-24, 1928 -- Etchings of Ancient Dances by Teresa Cerutti-Simmons and Wild Life by Will Simmons
March 12-24, 1928 -- An Important Exhibition of Paintings and Pastels by John H. Twachtman
March 12-24, 1928 -- Sculpture by Heinz Warnecke
March 26-April 14, 1928 -- Water Colors by John Whorf
April, 1928 -- Water Colors by William Ritschel, N.A.
April 15-May 5, 1928 -- Portrait Drawings in Pastel by Jessie Voss Lewis
Oct. 22-Nov. 3, 1928 -- Water Colors of France and Italy, and Etchings by Louis Wolchonok
Oct. 22-Nov. 3, 1928 -- Poetic Landscapes with Figures by Henry M. Rosenberg of Nova Scotia
Nov. 19-Dec. 1, 1928 -- Water Colors by Frank W. Benson
Nov. 19-Dec. 1, 1928 -- Water Colors of Architectural Subjects in France, Also Landscape and Figures by William de Leftwick Dodge
Dec. 1-28, 1928 -- Alfred Hutty
Dec. 3-24, 1928 -- Important Exhibition of Early and Recent Works by Childe Hassam of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Dec. 3-24, 1928 -- Still Life Paintings by Ruth Payne Burgess
Dec. 20-Jan. 8, 1929 -- Drawings by Frank di Gioia
Dec. 20-Jan. 8, 1929 -- Memorial Exhibition, Water Color Sketches by Thomas Moran, N.A.
Dec. 27-Jan. 14, 1929 -- Erick Berry
Dec. 27-Jan. 14, 1929 -- Helen K. McCarthy Memorial Exhibition
Dec. 29-Jan. 14, 1929 -- Paintings by Jacob Dooyewaard
circa 1928 -- Indian and Animal Pictures and Bronzes by Edwin Willard Deming
Jan. 28-Feb. 9, 1929 -- Painitings of Western Life by F. Tenney Johnson
Jan. 28-Feb. 9, 1929 -- Paintings and Water Colors by Alice Judson
Feb. 11-23, 1929 -- Paintings and Drawings by Max Bohm
Feb. 11-23, 1929 -- Landscapes and Marines by Jay Connaway
Feb. 25-March 9, 1929 -- Water-Colors by Harold Putnam Browne
Feb. 25-March 9, 1929 -- Paintings by Truman Fassett
March 11-23, 1929 -- Recent Water Colors by C.E. Polowetski
March 11-23, 1929 -- Louis Ritman
March 25-April 6, 1929 -- Landscapes by Frank Vincent Du Mond
March 25-April 6, 1929 -- Water Colors by Armin Hansen of California
March 25-April 6, 1929 -- Sculptures by Roy Sheldon
April 8-20, 1929 -- Water Colors by John Whorf, Distinguished Young Boston Artist
Oct. 21-Nov. 2, 1929 -- Corners in Spain, An Exhibition of Paintings by Wells M. Sawyer
Nov. 4-17, 1929 -- Recent Sculpture by Heinz Warnecke
Nov. 4-16, 1929 -- Paintings of Ireland and Other Scenes by Power O'Malley
Nov. 18-30, 1929 -- Group of Recent Paintings by Hayley Lever
Nov. 18-30, 1929 -- Recent Water Colors and Etchings by Louis Wolchonok
Dec. 2-21, 1929 -- Paintings by Maurice Fromkes
Jan. 30-Feb. 11 [192?] -- Water Colors of Greek Temples in Sicily by Wm. De Leftwich Dodge
Feb. 2-15 [192?] -- Figure Paintings by Murray Bewley
March 15-April 3 [192?] -- Paintings by Willard L. Metcalf
March 28-April 16 [192?] -- Paintings by Henry Golden Dearth
April 2-21 [192?] -- Landscape Paintings by Bruce Crane, N.A
Oct. 17-29 [192?] -- Water Colors of the Rivera by Ferris Connah
Oct. 18-30 -- Paintings and Drawings by George Wharton Edwards
Oct. 25-Nov. 13 [192?] -- Recent Landscapes by John F. Carlson, N.A.
Oct. 25-Nov. 13 [192?] -- John F. Carlson
[192?] -- Indian and Animal Pictures and Bronzes by Edwin Willard Deming
Nov. 19-Dec. 1 [192?] -- Water Colors of Architectural Subjects in France, also Landscape and Figures by William De Leftwich Dodge
Jan. 20-Feb 1, 1930 -- West African Water Colors by Erick Berry
Jan. 20-Feb. 1, 1930 -- Paintings by Nelson C. White
Feb., 1930 -- Thelma Wood
Feb. 3-15, 1930 -- Paintings by Horace Brown
Feb. 17-March 1, 1930 -- Paintings by Francis Speight
Feb. 17-March 1, 1930 -- Paintings by Ruth Payne Burgess
March 3-15, 1930 -- Paintings by John Noble
March 17-29, 1930 -- Russian Paintings by Irwin D. Hoffman, Also a Group of Recent Watercolors
March 17-29, 1930 -- Alexander Warshawsky
March 31-April 12, 1930 -- Memorial Exhibition, Paintings and Watercolors of Sigurd Skou
March 31-April 12, 1930 -- Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos
April 14-26, 1930 -- Water Colors by John Whorf
Oct. 20-Nov. 1, 1930 -- Recent Paintings of Lake Como by Charles Warren Eaton
Nov. 3-15, 1930 -- Pastels and Etchings of Angkor and the Far East by Lucille Douglass
Nov. 17-29, 1930 -- Joseph Szekely
Nov. 17-29, 1930 -- Important Exhibiton of Paintings by a "Group of Americans"
Dec. 1-13, 1930 -- Diana Thorne and Canine Portraiture
Dec. 1-13, 1930 -- Recent Paintings of Ireland by Power O'Malley
Dec. 1-13, 1930 -- Paintings by Charles M. Cox of Boston
Jan. 19-31, 1931 -- Portraits by Jere R. Wickwire
Jan. 20-Feb. 1, 1931 -- Nelson C. White
Jan. 24-Feb. 7, 1931 -- Pastels and Etchings of Angkor and the Far East by Lucille Douglass
Feb. 2-24, 1931 -- Recent Paintings by Lillian Gentle
Feb. 2-24, 1931 -- Impressions of India and Palestine by Ruth Coleman
Feb. 16-28, 1931 -- Watercolors of Vermont Scenes and Other Views by Ruth Payne Burgess
Feb. 16-28, 1931 -- Martha Walter Recent Work in Oil and Watercolor
March 2-14, 1931 -- Recent Paintings by Alice Judson
March 2-28, 1931 -- Paintings & Drawings by Gari Melchers
March 16-28, 1931 -- Recent Watercolors by Harold Putnam Brown
March 30-April 11, 1931 -- Paintings by Louis Kronberg
March 30-April 11, 1931 -- Watercolors by John Whorf
April 13-25, 1931 -- Americans by American Artists, Exhibition of Portraits
April 13-25, 1931 -- Louis Kronberg
April 13-25, 1931 -- Portraits and Crayon Heads by Ferris Connah
April 13-May 2, 1931 -- Abbott H. Thayer
Sept. 22-Oct. 6, 1931 -- Water Colors by Gladys Brannigan, Alice Judson, Margery Ryerson
Oct. 19-30, 1931 -- Portraits by William Steene
Nov. 2-7, 1931 -- Portraits and Sketches by Maria Kammerer under the Patronage of Countess Laszlo Szechenyi
Nov. 9-21, 1931 -- Paintings by Bessie Lasky
Nov. 23-Dec. 5, 1931 -- Recent Oils, Water Colors and Etchings by Joseph Margulies
Dec. 7-21, 1931 -- Recent Paintings by George Wharton Edwards
Dec. 7-19, 1931 -- Paintings and Etchings of African and American Big Game by Major A. Radclyffe Dugmore
Dec. 7-19, 1931 -- Watercolors of Yucatan, "Land of the Mayas" by William de Leftwich Dodge
Dec. 20-Jan. 8, 1932 -- Water Colors of the Yellowstone and Mexican Series by Thomas Moran, N.A.
Jan. 11-23, 1932 -- Paintings, Watercolors and Etchings of Animals by Sybilla Mittell Weber
Jan. 25-Feb. 6, 1932 -- Paintings by George Oberteuffer, Member of the Salon d'Automne, Paris
Feb. 8-March 5, 1932 -- Important 19th and 20th Century American Painters
March 7-19, 1932 -- Paintings by Mrs. B. King Couper
March 7-19, 1932 -- Drawings by Maurice Sterne, Ernest Fiene, Alexander Brook, yasuo Kuniyoski, Bernard Karfiol, Peggy Bacon, and Leon Kroll
March 28-April 9, 1932 -- Watercolors by John Whorf
April 11-30, 1932 -- Forty Years of American Art
Oct. 3-15, 1932 -- New Paintings by American Artists
Oct. 19-Nov. 5, 1932 -- Paintings by Stephen Etnier
Nov. 7-30, 1932 -- Paintings by Edward Bruce
circa 1932 -- Recent Paintings by Stephen Etnier
Jan.30-Feb. 25, 1933 -- Important Exhibition of Paintings by Thomas Eakins
March 6-25, 1933 -- 19th and 20th Century Watercolors
March 27-April 14, 1933 -- Paintings by Francis Speight
April 17-May 6, 1933 -- Water Colors by John Whorf
May 15-31, 1933 -- 19th Century American Landscape Artists
Nov. 27-Dec., 1933 -- Water Colors by Emil Holzhaur
Feb. 26-March 17, 1934 -- Paintings by Stephen Etnier
March 19-April 7, 1934 -- Water Colors by John Whorf
April 16-May 5, 1934 -- Bali Studies by Maurice Sterne
June-Aug., 1934 -- Paintings by American Artists
Sept., 1934 -- Paintings by American Artists
Oct. 15-Nov. 3, 1934 -- New and Recent Paintings by American Artists
Nov. 5-21, 1934 -- Paintings by Sidney Laufman
Nov. 26-Dec., 1934 -- Recent Vermont Landscapes by Edward Bruce
circa 1934 -- American Figure Paintings of the 19th and 20th Century
Jan. 7-26, 1935 -- Paintings and Watercolors from the Samuel Halpert Estate
Feb. 4-28, 1935 -- Small Paintings by 19th and 20th Century American Artists
March 4-22, 1935 -- Recent Paintings by Stephen Etneir
March 25-April 13, 1935 -- Water Colors by John Whorf
April 22-May 11, 1935 -- Figure and Landscape Studies by Leon Kroll
May 20-June, 1935 -- Group Exibhition of Paintings
Summer, 1935 -- Paintings by American Artists
Oct. 1-26, 1935 -- Paintings by Childe Hassam
Oct. 28-Nov. 16, 1935 -- Watercolors by Millard Sheets
through Dec., 1935 -- Paintings by Americans
Jan. 1936 -- Paintings by Americans
Feb. 3-29, 1936 -- Important Exhibition of 19th and 20th Century American Painters
March 2-21, 1936 -- Stephen Etnier
March 30-April 19, 1936 -- Watercolors by John Whorf
May 18-June, 1936 -- Paintings by American Artists
Summer, 1936 -- Paintings by American Artists
September, 1936 -- Paintings by American Artists
Oct. 12-31, 1936 -- Contemportary Viewpoint
through Nov. 30, 1936 -- 19th and 20th Century American Figure Paintings
circa 1936 -- Landscapes--Contemporary Viewpoint
Jan. 11-30, 1937 -- Selected Landscapes
Feb., 1937 -- Contemporary American Sculpture
March 15-April 3, 1937 -- Watercolors by Millard Sheets
April 12-30, 1937 -- John Whorf
April 27-May 16, 1937 -- Maurice Sterne
May, 1937 -- Paintings by American Artists
Summer, 1937 -- Paintings
Oct. 1-15, 1937 -- Recent Watercolors
Oct. 18-Nov. 6, 1937 -- Paintings by Lucille Blanche
Nov. 8-30, 1937 -- Paintings by American Artists
Dec. 6-24, 1937 -- Watercolors by Lester Field
Jan. 3-22, 1938 -- Recent Paintings by Stephen Etnier
Jan. 24-Feb. 5, 1938 -- Paintings by Margaret Cooper
Feb. 7-26, 1938 -- Colonial Portraits
March 7-26, 1938 -- Recent Oils and Watercolors by Millard Sheet
April 4-23, 1938 -- Recent Watercolors by John Whorf
Summer, 1938 -- Paintings by American Artists
through Oct., 1938 -- Paintings by American Artists
Oct. 24-Nov. 12, 1938 -- Recent Watercolors by Karl Oberteuffer
Nov. 21-Dec. 17, 1938 -- Paintings for the Home by American Artists
Jan. 16-Feb. 4, 1939 -- Recent Paintings by Floyd Clymer
Feb. 6-25, 1939 -- Harry Hering
March 6-31, 1939 -- Figure Paintings by American Artists
April 3-22, 1939 -- Recent Watercolors by John Whorf
May 15-June 3, 1939 -- Recent Watercolors by Millard Sheets
Summer, 1939 -- Selected Group of Paintings by American Artists
Sept., 1939 -- Paintings and Watercolors by American Artists
through Oct. 13, 1939 -- Recent Paintings by a Group of American Artists
Oct. 16-Nov. 4, 1939 -- Recent Paintings by Saul Schary
Nov. 13-Dec. 2, 1939 -- Toreros and Dancers of Spain and Mexico by Carlos Ruano Llopis
Dec., 1939 -- Paintings for the Home
Nov. 5-17 [193?] -- Table Portraits by Eulabee Dix
[193?] -- Paintings by American Artists
Jan. 2-27, 1940 -- Stephen Etnier
Feb. 12-March 2, 1940 -- Recent Watercolors by Robert Carson
March 11-30, 1940 -- Daniel Serra Paintings
April 8-27, 1940 -- Recent Watercolors by John Whorf
April 28-May 18, 1940 -- Rubin Recent Paintings
through June 29, 1940 -- Paintings by a Selected Group of American Artists
through Sept. 28, 1940 -- Summer Exhibition of Paintings by a Selected Group of Early and Contemporary American Artists
Oct. 1-19, 1940 -- Recent Paintings by a Selected Group of American Artists
Oct. 21-Nov. 9, 1940 -- Recent Watercolors by Allen Ingles Palmer
Nov. 18-Dec. 7, 1940 -- Helen Sawyer
Dec., 1940 -- Selected Paintings for the Home, and A Group of Original Studies in Color by Maurice Sterne
Jan. 13-Feb. 8, 1941 -- Watercolors by American Artists
Feb. 17-March 15, 1941 -- Paintings by Stephen Etnier, Sidney Laufman, and Francis Speight
April 7-26, 1941 -- Recent Watercolors by John Whorf
April 28-May 17, 1941 -- Remembrances of South America and British West Indies by Manicol
May 19-June 30, 1941 -- Group of Paintings by Selected Contemporary American Artists
Summer, 1941 -- Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists
Sept., 1941 -- A Selected Group of Paintings by Americna Artists
Oct. 6-25, 1941 -- Recent Paintings by a Selected Group of American Artists
Oct. 27-Nov. 15, 1941 -- Eliot O'Hara Watercolors
Nov. 17-Dec. 5, 1941 -- Recent Paintings by Jay Connaway
Nov. 17-Dec. 6, 1941 -- Recent Watercolors by Richard A. Kimball
Dec. 8-27, 1941 -- Edith Blum Paintings
Jan. 5-24, 1942 -- Recent Paintings by Stephen Etnier
through Feb. 28, 1942 -- Selected Paintings by a Group of Contemporary American Artists
March 9-28, 1942 -- New Talents Presented by the Gloucester Society of Artists
April 6-25, 1942 -- Recent Watercolors by John Whorf
May, 1942 -- Selected Paintings by Contemporary American Artists
June 2-13, 1942 -- Yun Gee
Summer, 1942 -- Selected Paintings by Early and Contemporary American Artists
Summer, 1942 -- Paintings by Selected American Artists
Oct. 5-31, 1942 -- Recent Paintings by a Selected Group of American Artists
Nov. 9-30, 1942 -- Watercolors by American Artists
Jan. 18-Feb. 6, 1943 -- Paintings by Yovan Radenkovitch
April 4-24, 1943 -- Recent Watercolors by John Whorf
April 26-May 15, 1943 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Childe Hassam
May 25-June 5, 1943 -- Exhibition by Gladys Irene Cook
June, 1943 -- Selected Paintings by American Artists
Summer, 1943 -- Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists
Sept., 1943 -- Paintings by a Selected Group of American Artists
Oct. 4-23, 1943 -- Paintings by Yun Gee
Nov., 1943 -- Recent Paintings by a Selected Group of American Artists
Jan. 24-Feb. 12, 1944 -- Recent Watercolors by James Fitzgerald
Feb. 14-March 4, 1944 -- Paintings by Sidney Laufman
March 6-25, 1944 -- Paintings by Jessie Ansbacher
April 3-22, 1944 -- Recent Watercolors by John Whorf
May, 1944 -- Paintings by Important American Artists
Summer, 1944 -- Exhibition of Paintings by a Selected Group of American Artists
Summer, 1944 -- Exhibition of Selected Paintings by a Group of American Artists
Oct. 2-21, 1944 -- Recent Paintings by Jay Connaway
Oct. 23-Nov. 11, 1944 -- Harry Hering
Nov. 13-Dec. 2, 1944 -- Paintings by Hobson Pittman
Dec., 1944 -- Paintings for the Home by American Artists
Jan. 3-13, 1945 -- Paintings by Therese Steinhardt
Jan. 22-Feb. 10, 1945 -- Louis Ritman
Feb. 18-, 1945 -- Memorial Exhibition, Paintings and Pastels by William Henry Singer, Jr., N.A.
Nov. 19-Dec. 7, 1963 -- New Paintings by Aaron Bohrod
April, 1964 -- Watercolors and Pastels
April 21-May 9, 1964 -- Grigory Gluckmann
May 13-29, 1964 -- Frank di Gioia Recent Paintings
Oct., 1964 -- Group Exhibition
Nov. 3-21, 1964 -- Stephen Etnier
Nov. 24-Dec. 12, 1964 -- Thomas Blagden
Jan., 1965 -- Comtemporary American Artists
Feb. 2-14, 1965 -- Figure Paintings by Murray Bewley
Feb. 2-14, 1965 -- Exhibition by George Biddle
Feb. 11-23, 1965 -- Paintings and Drawings by Max Bohm
Feb. 14-26, 1965 -- Paintings by Arthur C. Goodwin
Feb. 16-28, 1965 -- Water Colors by Matilda Browne
Feb. 16-March 6, 1965 -- Water Colors by Adolf Dehn
March, 1965 -- 19th and 20th Century American Artists
March 1-13, 1965 -- Bruce Crane, N.A.
March 6-25, 1965 -- Pastels of the Cascapedia River, Canada, by Arthur C. Goodwin
March 26-April 7, 1965 -- Paintings by Howard Russell Butler, N.A.
March 23-April 10, 1965 -- Paintings by Dan Lutz
March 28-April 16, 1965 -- Paintings by Henry Golden Dearth
April 2-21, 1965 -- Landscape Paintings by Bruce Crane, N.A.
April 13-May 1, 1965 -- Paintings by Louis Bosa
April 16-28, 1965 -- Water Colors and Etchings by Adolphe W. Blondheim
May, 1965 -- Gallery Contemporaries
Oct. 25-Nov. 13, 1965 -- Recent Landscapes by John F. Carlson, N.A.
Oct. 26-Nov. 13, 1965 -- Twenty-Four New Paintings by Aaron Bohrod, Artist in Residence, University of Wisconsin
Nov. 2-14, 1965 -- Paintings by Ann Crane
Nov. 5-17, 1965 -- Memorial Exhibition of Paintings of Venice by Wm. Gedney Bunce, N.A.
Nov. 7-19, 1965 -- Paintings and Sculpture by Matilda Browne
Nov. 16-Dec. 4, 1965 -- Electra Bostwick
Dec. 7-30, 1965 -- Recent Drawings and Watercolors of European Countries and North Africa by Frank di Gioia
Jan. 11-29, 1966 -- Georges Schreiber Watercolors: 1963-1965
Jan.-Feb., 1966 -- 19th and 20th Century American Artists
Feb.-March, 1966 -- Group Exhibition
June, 1966 -- Group Exhibition
Oct. 11-29, 1966 -- Thomas Blagden
Nov. 1-19, 1966 -- Stephen Etnier
Nov. 22-Dec. 10, 1966 -- Pleissner
Jan. 24-Feb. 11, 1967 -- Xavier Gonzalez
April, 1967 -- Group Exhibition
April 18-May 6, 1967 -- Grigory Gluckmann
July, 1967 -- Group Exhibition
undated -- Etchings and Color-Etchings
undated -- Etchings of China and Cambodia by Lucille Douglass
undated -- Thomas Jefferson Bust in Bronze by Robert Aitken, N.A.
undated -- Paintings by Ossip L. Linde
undated -- Etchings by William Meyerowitz
undated -- Recent Screens and Panels by Roy Mac Nicol
undated -- Summer Exhibition of Paintings and Watercolors by 19th and 20th Century American Artists
undated -- Paintings by Clement
undated -- Important Works in Paintings and Sculpture by Leading American Artists
Jan. 3-14, undated -- Armin Hansen
Jan. 8-27, undated* -- Recent Etchings by William Meyerowitz
Jan. 8-31, undated -- Group of American Figure Paintings, 19th and 20th Century
Jan. 9-21, undated -- Paintings by Katherine Langhorne Adams
Jan. 16-28, undated -- Paintings by Dewitt Parshall, N.A., and Douglass Parshall, N.A.
Jan. 23-Feb. 11, undated -- Paintings by Bruce Crane, Elliott Daingerfield, Granville Smith, and F. Ballard Williams
Jan. 27-Feb. 11, undated -- Willam de Leftwick Dodge
Jan. 28-Feb. 16, undated -- Paintings by Gari Melchers
Jan. 29-Feb. 10, undated -- Paintings of the California Coast by Armin Hansen
Jan. 30-Feb. 11, undated -- Sigrud Skou
Feb. 13-25, undated -- Water Colors by Alice Judson
Feb. 13-25, undated -- Paintings by Guy Wiggins, N.A.
Feb. 13-March 11, undated -- Paintings by H.T. Keasbey
Feb. 15-March 5, undated -- Frederic James
Feb. 17-March 1, undated -- Silver Point Drawings by Thelma E. Wood
Feb. 18-March 6, undated -- Landcapes, Nature Moods Expressed in Terms of Light by Julie Mathilde Morrow
Feb. 18-March 8, undated -- Paintings of Venice, Rome and French Landscape, also Pastel Drawings of the Battle Sectors of the 26th Division, A.E.F. by J. Alden Twachtman
Feb. 27-March 10, undated -- Portrait Busts and Drawings by Alexander Portnoff
March 5-17, undated* -- Pastels of the Hudson River by Arthur C. Goodwin
March 7-16, undated -- Paintings of Africa and Spain by Lillian Genth
March 7-26, undated -- Sigurd Skou
March 8-20, undated -- Paintings by Sigurd Skou
March 10-22, undated -- MacDowell Club of New York City Annual Exhibition of Paintings
March 22-April 10, undated -- Paintings of the Cathedrals of France by Pieter Van Veen
March 26-April 12, undated -- Paintings by E. Martin Hennings
March 26-April 14, undated -- Recent Etchings by Elias M. Grossman
March 28-April 16, undated -- Martha Walter Water Colors of Spain and North Africa
April 5-17, undated -- Paintings by Ernest L. Blumenschein, Victor Huggins, Walter Ufer
April 7-19, undated -- Figure Paintings by Louis Ritman
April 12-23, undated -- Portraits and Figure Paintings by Edith Catlin Phelps
April 12-24, undated -- Paintings of American Gardens by Abbott Graves
April 16-28, undated -- Portrait Drawings in Pastel by Jessie Voss Lewis (Mrs. H.L. Daingerfield Lewis)
April 19-May 1, undated -- Paintings by Valentino Molina
April 21-May 3, undated -- Paintings of Tahiti and California by William Ritschel, N.A.
April 21-May 3, undated -- Leonard Lopp, Glacier Park Artist
April 22-May 15, undated -- Sculpture for House, Garden & Grounds by Leading American Artists, and Pottery by Clara L. Poillon
April 24-May 5, undated -- Paintings by Thalia Millett
April 26-May 15, undated -- Dan Lutz, Mighican Summer and Mexican Sojourn
April 26-May 15, undated -- William H. Singer
April 27-May 16, undated -- Recent Paintings by Gluckmann
May 3-28, undated -- Exhibition of Sculpture for Garden and Grounds by Leading Sculptors
May 5-17, undated -- Recent American Sculpture in Bronze, Wood and Terra Cotta for the Town and Country House, Grounds and Garden
Oct. 11-23, undated -- Paintings by Anna Heyward Taylor
Oct. 25-Nov. 13, undated -- Water Colors by Alice Judson
Oct. 27-Nov. 15, undated -- Paintings and Etchings by William Auerbach-Levy
Oct. 30-Nov. 11, undated* -- Connecticut Landscape Paintings by Robert Nisbet, A.N.A.
Oct. 31-Nov. 12, undated -- Paintings of China and Tibet by Alice Job
Oct. 31-Nov. 14, undated -- Drawings by James Wilkie
Nov. 5-17, undated -- Paintings of Venice
Nov. 15-27, undated* -- Water Colors by Childe Hassam
Nov. 16-Dec. 5, undated -- Recent Etchings by Alfred Hutty
Nov. 16-Dec. 5, undated -- Paintings by W. Elmer Schofield
Nov. 17-29, undated -- Paintings and Etchings by Power O'Malley
Nov. 18-30, undated -- Recent Work in Water Color and Etching by Louis Wolchonok
Nov. 19-Dec. 1, undated -- Winter Landscapes in Water Color by Walter Launt Palmer, N.A.
Nov. 19-Dec. 1, undated -- Painter Friends, Robert H. Nisbet, Guy C, Wiggins, Edward C. Volkert, Wilson Irvine, George M. Bruestle, and Carl J. Nordell
Nov. 23-, undated -- Landscapes by Ault, Brook, Coleman, Karfiol, Ritman, Speight, Sterne, and Weber
Nov. 23-Dec. 6, undated -- Portraits of America's Most Distinguished Women by Leon Gordon
Nov. 24-Dec. 3, undated -- Sculpture by Gleb Derujinsky
Nov. 26-Dec., undated -- Exhibition of Recent Vermont Landscapes by Edward Bruce
Nov. 26-Dec. 5, undated -- Alfred Hutty
Nov. 27-Dec. 9, undated -- Paintings by Sigure Schou
Dec. 1-27, undated -- Works Painted in Spain by Maurice Fromkes
Dec. 1-25, undated -- Annual Holiday Exhibition of Selected Paintings of Limited Size
Dec. 3-29, undated -- Recent Paintings, Water Colors, and Etchings by Hilde Hassam, N.A., of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Dec. 6-30, undated -- Selected Paintings for the Home by American Artists
Dec. 14-Jan. 2, undated -- Recent Paintings by George Shillard
Dec. 20-Jan. 8, undated -- Selected Small Paintings for the Home
Dec. 27-Jan. 12, undated -- Helen K. McCarthy Memorial Exhibition
Dec. 30-Jan. 18, undated -- Paintings by Stewart McDermot
Dec. 31-Jan. 12, undated -- Second Annual Exhibition in Pure Water Color by The Aquarellists
Provenance:
Milch Gallery gave the Archives of American Art a small selection of correspondence, photographs, and printed matter, and loaned a few other items in 1966-1967; these records were microfilmed on reels D285, N730, and NM1-NM2. Records of the Milch Gallery were purchased from the estate of Harold C. Milch by Elliott Galleries of New York City, and subsequently acquired by Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, which donated them to the Archives in 1986. With the exception of the scrapbook about Thomas Moran (reel N730; present location of the original is unknown), prior loans and gifts from Milch Gallery were incorporated and refilmed with the 1986 gift.
Stuart Feld of Hirschl & Adler Galleries donated an additional .8 linear feet of records in 1995. Zachary Ross of Hirschl & Adler Galleries donated 2.2 linear feet in 2014.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
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.
The records of Midtown Galleries measure 86.82 linear feet and date from 1904 to 1997. The collection documents the operation and general administration of the business and includes artist records, exhibition material, inventories, financial records, photographs, and printed material.
Scope and Content Note:
Records of Midtown Galleries [including the addition], circa 1904-1997, comprise 86.82 linear feet on 117 microfilm reels. Records are sparse for the early years when the gallery was operated as a cooperative. As the business expanded and became profitable, recordkeeping was more systematic and thorough. Records consist of administrative correspondence, 1927-1989 and undated; exhibition records, 1934-1982 and undated; inventories and sales records, 1946-1980 and undated; financial records, 1933-1957; miscellaneous, 1934-1985 and undated; photographs, circa 1925-circa 1980; printed matter, 1932-1982 and undated; personal papers of Alan D. and Mary J. Gruskin, 1932-1983 and undated; and Papers of Francis C. Healey, 1932-1935 and undated An addition, represents scattered material, 1932-1997 and undated, that remained after the gallery closed in 1995. It includes administrative records, 1934-1995 and undated; photographs circa 1938-1988 and undated; artists records, 1932-1993 and undated; exhibitions, 1958-1993 and undated; videotapes, 1977-1988; and oversize printed matter, 1973-1977 and undated Because microfilmimg of the Midtown Galleries records was already underway when this material was received, it could not be integrated with the main portion of the collection.
Administrative correspondence is categorized as General Correspondence, Artists Correspondence, and Artists Applications. General Correspondence is with clients, collectors, museums and galleries, arts organizations, and businesses providing services to Midtown Galleries, and concerns routine business matters. Artists Correspondence contains both personal and business letters since the Gruskins were close friends of many artists represented by Midtown Galleries. Artists Applications consists of correspondence with artists seeking representation by Midtown Galleries. Both accepted and rejected artists are included in this subseries.
Exhibition records includes schedules and general correspondence about cooperative exhibitions and traveling shows. Exhibition files, arranged by title, contain correspondence concerning arrangements for each show.
Inventories include listings by artist and by warehouse location; also, lists of paintings on consignment, paintings returned to artists, loan/shipping log, and "traffic cards." Sales records include "groups totals,: artists account ledger, and sales slips.
Financial records consist of bills paid, banking records, accounting records, and tax returns with related documentation.
Miscellaneous items include manuscripts of Isabel Bishop Catalogue Raisonne and Biography by Karl Lunde and The Art of Philip Guston by Lester D. Longman. Also included are legal documents such as Act of Incorporation, partnership agreement, and leases; 32 guest registers, 1924-1985 and undated, and 15 samples of artist-designed fabrics produced by Onandoga Silk Co., 1946-1947.
Photographs of people include founders Alan D. Gruskin and Francis C. Healey, Mary J. Gruskin (Mrs. Alan D.) and many artists affiliated with Midtown Galleries. Photographs of works of art are by Midtown artists and others. Also, illustrations for Painting in the U.S.A. by Alan D. Gruskin; 2 albums of photographs of the work of Waldo Peirce, circa 1925-1930s (probably compiled by Peirce). Photographs of exhibitions include Midtown Galleries exhibitions and shows elsewhere featuring works by Midtown artists. Miscellaneous photographs include: Gruskin's Department Store (Pa.); models used by artists Julien Binford, Henry Koerner, and Doris Rosenthal; properties owned by Julien Binford and Hans Moeller; Anatol Shulkin's travel pictures of the Soviet Union; store window displays featuring Midtown artists, and fashion models at Midtown Galleries.
Printed matter includes material produced by Midtown Galleries: exhiition catalogs, 1932-1983 and undated; news releases, 1932-1983 and undated; Midtown News, 1965-1970; and miscellaneous items, 1943-1970 and undated Printed matter produced by others includes is comprised of artists files consisting mainly of newsclippings; also, articles about Midtown Galleries and the Gruskins.
Personal papers of Mary J. and Alan D. Gruskin contain biographical information, correspondence, financial records, miscellaneous items, calendars, and writings of Alan D. Gruskin. Correspondence, 1931-1970 and undated, with family and friends concerns personal business; also, letters of condolence on the death of Alan D. Gruskin, 1970. Financial records include personal finances and documentation of gifts of artwork to institutions, with appraisals and tax information. Calendars, 1939-1983, record both personal engagements and some business appointments. Writings of Alan D. Gruskin include manuscripts and drafts of columns, short stories, a screenplay, radio broadcasts, and lecture notes from courses at Harvard.
Papers of Francis C. Healey are comprised of correspondence that relates to both gallery and ersonal business. Also included are scripts and drafts for radio broadcasts, printed matter, press releases, and proposals for radio programs.
Administrative records received with the addition include general correspondence, correspondence with clients, and correspondence regarding gifts, sales and purchases. Records concerning the sale of Midtown Galleries to John Whitney Payson include Gruskin's and Payson's inventories. Also, included is a history of the gallery.
Photographs are of the Gruskins, their friends, and country house; also, views of Midtown exhibitions, openings, artists, and individual works of art.
Artists records are comprised mainly of artists files, largely containing printed matter. Among the artists records are a file of holiday cards by various artists, many with original artwork. Also included are catalogs of group shows featuring Midtown artists at other galleries
Exhibition materials include announcements, news releases, catalogs, miscellaneous printed matter, and a guest book. A small number of these items are dated after Payson's purchase of Midtown Galleries.
Videotapes of William Palmer, Isabel Bishop, and Robert Vickrey, as well as oversize printed matter relating to Midtown artists, complement the artists records.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 10 series. A detailed explanation of the arrangement of each series is provided with the series descriptions. Each series is subdivided, often by record type, with categories usually arranged chronologically; exceptions are noted. Administrative correspondence (Series 1) is arranged alphabetically, as are many inventories sales records (Series 3). Photographs of people, exhibitions, and works of art (Series 6) are arranged alphabetically, as are the artists files and exhibition clippings portions of the printed matter (Series 7). The addition is described separately in Appendix A; and, wherever possible, reel and frame numbers of related materials received and filmed with the addition have been included in the main text's series descriptions.
Series 1: Administrative Correspondence, 1927-1989, undated (51 linear ft.)
Series 2: Exhibitions, 1932-1982, undated (4 linear feet)
Series 3: Inventories and Sales Records, 1932-1980, undated (5.3 linear ft.)
Series 4: Financial Records, 1933-1957 (3.5 linear feet)
Series 5: Miscellaneous, 1934-1985, undated (2 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1925-circa 1980 (6.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Printed Matter, 1932-1990, undated (7.25 linear ft.)
Series 8: Personal Papers of Alan D. and Mary J. Gruskin, 1904-1990, undated (4.5 linear feet)
Series 9: Papers of Francis C. Healey, 1932-1935, undated (0.5 linear ft.)
Series 10: Addition, 1932-1997, undated (2.5 linear feet)
Historical Note:
Alan D. Gruskin (1904-1970) hoped to become an artist, but while still a student realized that his talents were better suited to art administration than painting. Following graduation from Harvard University, he worked at a New York gallery that specialized in old masters, returning home to Pennsylvania after a year to pursue a writing career that ultimately proved unsuccessful. Gruskin returned to New York and opened Midtown Galleries at 559 Fifth Avenue in 1932. Specializing in work by living American artists, Midtown was one of a rather small number of commercial galleries in New York City that showed contemporary American art. Midtown Galleries represented academic and realist painters, and purposely avoided abstract art.
Founded during the Depression, Midtown Galleries was a shoe-string operation in its early years. Originally operated as a cooperative, Midtown Galleries' participating artists contributed to the costs and work of presenting exhibitions. Between 1932 and 1935, Gruskin served as "Art Director" of the gallery and his business partner, Francis C. Healey was "Publicity Director." Healey appears to have been responsible for weekly broadcasts on NBC radio designed to interest people in visiting the gallery. The 15-minute programs consisted of discussions with museum directors, curators, artists, writers, and musicians about a broad range of cultural topics. Copies of the scripts were offered for a dime, and the payments mailed by radio listeners bought Gruskin's meals. During this period, Gruskin lived in the gallery. After Healey's departure in 1935, Midtown Galleries ceased to be run as a cooperative.
Midtown Galleries usually represented approximately two dozen artists, and many remained with the gallery for decades. They included: Julien Binford, Isabel Bishop, Paul Cadmus, Gladys Rockmore Davis, Emlen Etting, Maurice Freedman, Dong Kingman, Oronzio Maldarelli, William C. Palmer, Waldo Peirce, Doris Rosenthal, Zoltan L. Sepeshy, Frederic Taubes, William Thon, Margit Varga, and Robert Vickrey.
Gruskin worked to educate and interest the public in American art and to promote the artists he represented. In addition to countless reviews, articles, and catalog essays, he wrote three books: Painting in the U.S.A. (1946), The Watercolors of Dong Kingman and How the Artist Works (1958), William Thon: The Artist and His Technique (1964). Gruskin advocated the use of fine art in advertising and industry, obtaining commissions for his artists and at the same time assisting clients in building corporate collections. A prime example is the Upjohn Company which, at Gruskin's urging, included reproductions of paintings in "Your Doctor Speaks," a series of public service announcements. Many of the paintings were purchased subsequently, forming the basis of the Upjohn Collection. A traveling exhibition, The Upjohn Company Collection of Contemporary American Paintings, was circulated by Midtown Galleries and featured in a Life magazine article about fine art and advertising. Another example is the fabric patterns, based on paintings by several of Midtown Galleries' artists, commissioned by the Onandoga Silk Company; the fabrics were used for dresses by popular designers, with fashion shows and window displays of paintings by the participating artists at selected department stores throughout the country. Working closely with architects and interior designers, Gruskin and Midtown Galleries were innovators in the use of domestic and business settings to showcase art with Art In Interiors, a series of exhibitions held annually between 1952 and 1961.
Midtown Galleries was a pioneer in circulating traveling exhibitions to colleges and art associations in communities distant from major art museums and commercial galleries. Beginning in 1936 and or more than 35 years, Midtown Galleries circulated 8-10 shows throughout the country each year; most were group shows organized around a theme, though occasional solo exhibitions were offered. Other important exhibitions off the premises were the Central Illinois Art Exposition, 1939, and the contemporary American art exhibition at the New York World's Fair, 1964-1965. The 1939 show organized by Gruskin for the Bloomington, Illinois, Art Association was a large exhibition of American art borrowed from a variety of institutions; the very well-publicized show was heavily attended, drawing visitors from a large area of the rural Midwest, many of whom had never visited a museum or seen original art.
1932 -- established as a cooperative gallery at 559 Fifth Ave. by Alan D. Gruskin (Art Director) and Francis C. Healey (Public Relations Director); Midtown Galleries presented programs on contemporary American art broadcast by NBC radio
1934-1935 -- Tudor City Art Galleries at 8 Prospect Place, New York City, featuring works by Midtown Galleries' artists and others, administered by Gruskin and Healey
1935 -- departure of Francis C. Healey; gallery moved to 605 Madison Ave.; gallery ceased to be run as a cooperative
1936 -- began traveling exhibitions to universities, museums, and regional art associations
1939 -- Central Illinois Art Exposition (Bloomington, Ill.)
1946 -- San Francisco branch opened and closed; publication of Painting in the U.S.A. by Alan D. Gruskin
1951 -- gallery moved to 17 East 57th Street
1958 -- publication of The Watercolors of Dong Kingman and How the Artist Works by Alan D. Gruskin
1962 -- gallery moved to 11 East 57th Street
1964 -- exhibition of contemporary American art at the New York World's Fair, organized by Midtown Galleries; shown in American Interiors Pavilion, this was the only exhibit of its kind at the Fair; publication of William Thon: The Artist and His Technique by Alan D. Gruskin
1966 -- loan of Midtown Galleries' records for microfilming by the Archives of American Art; this small selection, along with many other gallery records, was donated by Mary Gruskin to the Archives between 1972 and 1991, with an additional gift in 1997
1970 -- death of Alan D. Gruskin (1904-1970); Mary J. Gruskin assumes position of Director
1972 -- first portion of Midtown Galleries' records donated to the Archives of American Art by Mrs. Gruskin
1985 -- sale of Midtown Galleries to John Whitney Payson; Bridget Moore, Director, and Mary J. Gruskin, Director Emerita
1986 -- majority of Midtown Galleries' records acquired by the Archives of American Art
1990 -- name changed to Midtown-Payson Galleries; gallery moved to 745 Fifth Ave.
1991 -- additional gift of records by Mrs. Gruskin
1992 -- records arranged, described, and prepared for microfilming
1993 -- microfilming began; continued sporadically, in small segments
1995 -- Midtown-Payson Galleries closed
1997 -- additional gift of records by Mrs. Gruskin
1999 -- microfilming completed
Provenance:
Midtown Galleries loaned a small number of records consisting of news releases, 1939-1966, and exhibition schedules to the Archives of American Art for microfilming in 1966. Subsequently, Mary J. Gruskin donated this material, along with many other gallery records, to the Archives in several installments between 1972 and 1991; an additional gift was received in 1997. The portion loaned in 1966 is now integrated with the main records and has been refilmed in sequence. Unfortunately, the addition of 1997 was received in Washington, D.C. after microfilming was well underway. The addition has been microfilmed and described separately as Series 10. Wherever possible, the main text has been annotated with reel and frame numbers for related items contained in the addition.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
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:
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- United States Search this
Function:
Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State)
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Video recordings
Citation:
Midtown Galleries records, 1904-1997. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
The Maid of Cotton (MOC) beauty pageant was sponsored by the National Cotton Council, Memphis Cotton Carnival, and the Cotton Exchanges of Memphis, New York, and New Orleans from 1939-1993. The contest was held annually in Memphis, Tennessee until the National Cotton Council and Cotton Council International moved to Dallas, Texas. Beginning with the 1985 pageant (held December 1984) the competition was held in Dallas. The pageant was discontinued in 1993 due to lack of funds, a sponsor, and changes in marketing strategies. The records include files on contestants, photographs, and scrapbooks.
Scope and Contents:
The collection contains the records for the Maid of Cotton pageant (1939-1993) sponsored by the National Cotton Council (NCC), Memphis Cotton Carnival, and the Cotton Exchanges of Memphis, New York, and New Orleans. The collection consists of approximately 38 cubic feet of records created by the NCC in the course of operating the Maid of Cotton contest from 1939 to 1993. The records form the complete archive of this fifty-four year program. The records include administrative files, scrapbooks, photographs, slides, and videotapes.
"One of the main values of the Maid of Cotton collection is its completeness. These are all of the official records of the program, documenting all of its activities throughout its entire existence from 1939 to 1993. As such, it represents a truly unique documentary record and opportunity for research.
Beauty contests have been the subject of serious scholarly study for many years. A search of WorldCat reveals over fifty books on the topic. Scholars have found the subject to be a fruitful springboard from which to study a wide variety of topics, primarily centered around issues of beauty, femininity, culture values, national identity, racism, and feminism.
Beauty pageants serve as symbols that reflect the values of American culture. For example, pageant winners have symbolized the advances made by formerly disenfranchised groups. Vanessa Williams, the first African American to win the Miss America crown (1983), rewrote the definition of beauty in America, and Heather Whitestone, the first deaf Miss America (1995), proved that physical handicaps need not hold anyone back from their dreams. Pageants can provide a focus for the re-examination of our society and culture. The tragic murder of six-year-old Jonbenet Ramsey in 1996 provided a window into what author Susan Anderson calls "the extravagant world of child beauty pageants," that led to public debate about issues of motherhood and adolescence.
In addition, beauty pageants can be viewed in advertising terms: they are the ultimate expression of the tried and true adage that sex sells. All pageants have sponsors and all sponsors want their products to be seen in a positive light. Some sponsors are content to contribute goods and services to the contestants --a new car, a trip to the Caribbean, a fur coat, etc. --so that their generosity can be noted in the publicity surrounding the contest. Others prefer to sponsor the entire program. The Miss Universe contest, for example, was created in 1952 by the Jantzen Company specifically to enable the company to showcase pretty girls wearing its swimsuits. Jantzen abruptly withdrew its previous support of the Miss America pageant when Yolande Betbeze refused to wear a bathing suit during her reign as Miss America 1951. The Maid of Cotton pageant is a highly organized, year-long, very visible public relations program that allows the National Cotton Council to showcase the wonders of cotton through the wonders of young beauty queens. Attractive young women are the perfect vehicle for promoting fashionable fabrics made from cotton.
Cotton --the product at the heart of the Maid of Cotton program --has been central to American economic and political history. NMAH's collecting and research interests reflect this. The Division of Work & Industry contains numerous cotton-related objects and much documentation on the subject. The Archives Center holds several cotton-related collections, including the Peter Paul Haring Papers, 1897-1935, documenting Haring's development of cotton picking machinery; the Lockwood Greene collection of thousands of engineering drawings, many of which were for textile mills; the Robert L. Shurr Script and Scrapbook for a 1939 biographical motion picture on Dr. George Washington Carver; and the Southern Agriculture Oral History Project Records, 1985-1992, which documents modern cotton farming through photography and oral history interviews. In addition, all aspects of cotton production, from farm to factory to finished goods, are documented in several hundred photos in the Underwood & Underwood Agricultural Photonegative Collection, the Underwood & Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection, the Division of Work & Industry Lantern Slide Collection, and the Donald Sultner-Welles Photograph Collection. Cultural aspects of cotton can be discovered in both the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana and in the DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music." (Orr, Craig. "NMAH Collections Committee", memorandum, 2009)
Series 1, Organizational and Pageant Files, 1939-1993, undated., is arranged chronologically by year. Files may contain correspondence, photographs, news clippings, radio commercial scripts, tear sheets, itineraries, trip reports, sheet music, legal documents, waivers, and permissions, and other material related to the Maid of Cotton pageant for that year. Files may also contain subsequent personal information on the Maid of Cotton for that year, for example change of address, news clippings, and the like. This series contains finalist files, trip files and tour report files.
Series 2, Photographs, Slides, and Transparencies, 1939-1994, undated., is arranged chronologically by year. This series contains photographs, slides, and transparencies related to the Maid of Cotton and her travels throughout the United States and overseas. It also contains photographs of the fashions worn by each Maid.
Series 3, Scrapbooks, 1951-1988, contains the scrapbooks created by the National Cotton Council office as well as scrapbooks created by the Maids themselves or others for her. Scrapbooks most often contain news clippings, ephemera, and sometimes correspondence.
Series 4, Audio-Visual, 1991-1993. This series contains video and audio related to the Maid of Cotton. It is currently unprocessed.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into four series.
Series 1: Organizational and Pageant Files, 1939-1993, undated
Subseries 1.1: Maid of Cotton files, 1939-1993
Subseries 1.2: Little Miss Cotton, 1956-1963, undated
Series 2: Photographs, Slides, and Transparencies, 1939-1994, undated
Subseries 2.1: Photographic Negatives and Transparencies, 1939-1993, undated
Subseries 2.2: Slides, 1939-1993, undated
Series 3: Scrapbooks, 1951-1988
Series 4: Audio-Visual, 1991-1993, undated
Biographical / Historical:
The Maid of Cotton pageant began in 1939. The annual pageant was sponsored by the National Cotton Council (NCC), Memphis Cotton Carnival, and the Cotton Exchanges of Memphis, New York, and New Orleans. The pageant was held in Memphis, Tennessee, in conjunction with the Carnival until the 1980s.
In mid-December every year the NCC released a list of contestants. Contestants were required to have been born in one of the cotton-producing states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North and South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas or Virginia. They might have also been born in the cotton-producing counties of Alexander, Jefferson, Massac, Pulaski, Williamson or Madison, Illinois or in Clark or Nye counties of Nevada. There were usually twenty contestants each year.
Contestants were judged on personality, good manners, intelligence, and family background as well as beauty and an ability to model. A Top Ten were chosen and then a Top Five, and finally second and first runners up and a winner. Winners served as goodwill and fashion ambassadors of the cotton industry in a five-month, all-expense tour of American cities. In the mid-1950s the tour expanded globally. In the late 1950s a Little Miss Cotton pageant was begun but lasted only until 1963 before being discontinued. In the mid-1980s Dallas,Texas took over the pageant, in conjunction with the NCC and its overseas division, Cotton Council International. In 1986, to bolster interest and participation, the NCC eliminated the rule requiring contestants to be born in a cotton-producing state. The pageant was discontinued in 1993, one of the reasons being that Cotton Inc. stopped contributing scholarship money as well as waning public interest and changing marketing strategies. (pageantopolis.com website accessed April 2012.)
"The National Cotton Council is the official trade association of the cotton industry. The NCC was founded in 1939 to promote the interests of cotton farmers, ginners, brokers, and manufacturers from the Southern, cotton-growing states. Its mission evolved over the years as new uses for cotton and its byproducts have been found; as competition from synthetic fibers developed; as fashion tastes changed; as government regulation increased; and in response to foreign competition in both farming and manufacturing . The NCC website states that its modern-day mission is "to ensure the ability of all U.S. cotton industry segments to compete effectively and profitably in the raw cotton, oilseed and U.S.-manufactured product markets at home and abroad." Throughout its existence, the NCC has been the contact point for issues affecting its members, legislators in Congress, allied agribusiness, and consumers.
One of the first NCC programs undertaken by to promote the versatility and value of cotton to consumers was the Maid of Cotton program, begun in 1939. This consisted of a beauty pageant open to young women born in one of the seventeen southern cotton growing states. The contestants were evaluated on the basis of beauty, personality, poise, good manners, and intelligence; a family background in cotton production was especially helpful. The girls had to apply for selection to compete in the program. At first this was done directly to the Memphis-based program but eventually a system of state Maid of Cotton programs were established, whose winners went on to compete in the national Maid of Cotton contest. The Maid of Cotton received numerous prizes, whose value and variety tended to increase over the years. In the late 1940s, the program added a scholarship prize, probably in emulation of the Miss America contest. The Maid of Cotton pageant was held each December in Memphis as part of that city's Cotton Carnival festivities. The winner was featured prominently on her own float in the Cotton Carnival parade, was feted at prestigious Carnival events, and was treated as royalty wherever she went. Selection as the Maid of Cotton carried a high degree of status and mature ladies in the South to this day proudly identify themselves as such.
The Maid of Cotton's main function, once crowned, was to serve as a goodwill and fashion ambassador for cotton; any publicity she gained was automatically positive publicity for the cotton industry. Accompanied by an NCC-appointed manager, the Maids embarked on an all-expenses-paid tour. The Maids appeared in full regalia at public events such as county fairs, parades, and holiday events; starred in fashion shows featuring all-cotton outfits; gave speeches to local chambers of commerce and other groups; and in general were the attractive personification of the cotton industry wherever they went. At first, the tours concentrated on the cotton states but they were later extended to major cities outside the cotton belt and came to include visits to legislators on Capitol Hill. Beginning in the mid-1950s, the Maids began touring internationally and in the 1970s and 1980s they frequently headed up fashion shows in Asia.
Over time, however, the publicity value of an industry-anointed beauty queen lost its attraction both to the public and --more importantly --to the press. In addition, the role of cotton in the South, particularly in Memphis, declined. In 1986 the contest was moved from Memphis to Dallas. Eventually the cotton industry withdrew its support for the program's scholarships; the 1993 Maid of Cotton was the last to be crowned." (Orr, Craig. "NMAH Collections Committee", memorandum, 2009)
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
National Cotton Council Records, circa 1960s-1980s (AC1177)
Southern Agriculture Oral History Project Records, 1986-1991 (AC0773)
Provenance:
This collection was donated by the Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange on October 14, 2009.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the negatives 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.
