Smedley, W. T. (William Thomas), 1858-1920 Search this
Extent:
24 Volumes ((on 8 microfilm reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Volumes
Date:
1870-1938
Scope and Contents:
A series of scrapbooks compiled by Card on late 19th and early 20th century illustrators and cartoonists, each containing illustrations and political cartoons from magazines, newspapers, and books, together with lists of illustrations, and in some cases critical and biographical articles. Most of the reproductions are from Harper's Weekly and Monthly, Scribner's, and Century. Illustrators represented are Edwin Austin Abbey (2 v., 1871-1929, reel N68-17), Arthur B. Frost (4 v., 1874-1924, reel N68-18), Arthur I. Keller (3 v., 1886-1924, reel N68-23), Edward W. Kemble (6 v., 1880-1919, reels N68-24 & 25), Charles Stanley Reinhart (3 v., 1870-1897, reel N68-31), Frederic Remington (5 v., 1886-1938, reel N68-26), and William Thomas Smedley (1 v., 1880-1910, reel N68-32).
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1968 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
This collection documents, in correspondence, publications, forms, paperwork, drawings, newspaper clippings, diplomas and photographs, the operations and products of the Frick Company of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, manufacturers of steam-powered engines (portable, stationary, and traction), sawmills, threshing machines, grain separators and other mechanized agricultural harvesting implements, refrigeration, mechanical cooling systems, and ice making plants, from its founding in 1852 through 1961.
Scope and Contents:
This collection documents the founding and business operations of the Frick Company* of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, manufacturers of portable, stationary, and traction engines, threshing machines, sawmills, and refrigeration and ice making machinery. The collection covers the period from 1852 to 1961, with the bulk of the material dating from 1860-1873 and from 1880 through the 1920s and illuminates the evolution of mechanized agriculture and refrigeration technology from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.
The largest portion of the collection contains photographs of Frick engines and refrigeration machinery, taken both in the foundry and in various installations worldwide, as well as original drawings of Frick machines, parts, and components used to illustrate catalogs and trade publications. Another large portion of the collection is correspondence, containing communication from clients ordering Frick products for their farms or businesses, as well as receipts and correspondence from local and regional suppliers of raw materials and components for the construction of Frick products.
The collection also contains numerous examples of operational paperwork from the 1880s-1890s, such as letterheads, order forms, contracts, test logs, and timesheets, as well as a significant amount of trade literature largely from 1880-1920, such as price lists, catalogs, product pamphlets, and advertising material.
There are several published company histories, technical drawings/blueprints of Frick products, diplomas awarded to Frick machinery presented at expositions and fairs (including the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893), full-color posters advertising Frick & Co., agent supplies (including telegraph cipher code books), accounting paperwork, payroll records, communications with shareholders, and significant documentation of the highly publicized labor dispute/strike at Frick in 1946.
This collection would be of interest to researchers in the areas of: agricultural machination and invention in the nineteeth century, steam and horse-powered engines, the development of refrigerating and ice making equipment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, business operations and financial transactions in the nineteenth century, Pennsylvania history and companies, industrial photography, and nineteenth and twentieth centuries industrial trade literature.
*The name of the company was modified several times over the history of its operation, variations including George Frick, Frick & Bowman, Frick & Co., and Frick Company, depending on the time period in question. Efforts have been made to align the description of the materials throughout the collection with the correct company name at the time of their creation.
Arrangement:
This collection is divided into six series:
Series 1: Publications, 1852, 1874-1875; 1880-1932; 1942-1943; 1953; 1961
Founded in 1852 by engineer and inventor George Frick (1826-1892), Frick Company has been an innovative machinery design leader in many areas of the agricultural and refrigeration industries over the last 160 years. Frick began building steam engines and threshing machines in a small shop in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania.
Frick quickly gained a reputation for quality in the growing field of mechanized agriculture. His designs for early portable engines--transported and driven by horsepower--soon evolved into self-propelling, steam-powered vehicles that could be driven into the fields and then used to run the grain separating, cleaning and bagging machines that were revolutionizing the farming industry, increasing production at exponential rates.
In addition, Frick's stationary engines were put to use in mills of all kinds (grist, flour, paper, and woolen) to augment or replace their dependence on unreliable natural water power, including sawmills, of which Frick was soon building a line of portable, steam-driven versions. Between the mid-1850s and the early 1870s, the company continued to expand, outgrowing three different shops before building the final location of the works in Waynesboro. George Frick himself was continuously active in the company through the end of the nineteenth century as a mechanical engineer and product designer, as well as a frequent consultant, traveling to confer with clients on specifications for their orders.
Beginning in 1872, George Frick's business and personal life took a downturn with the deaths in quick succession of both his oldest son Frank and his new business partner C.F. Bowman, as a result of a typhoid fever epidemic that swept through the area. Additionally, the financial Panic of 1873 nearly closed Frick's company along with thousands of other American businesses that year, but thirteen local businessmen formed a partnership, putting forth the necessary capital to keep the manufacturing plant afloat. George Frick sold his controlling interest to the partnership, but remained as general manager of the company.
After this brief period of struggle, Frick and Company began again to expand its product line as well as its reputation. The new works in Waynesboro were modern and efficient, enough to warrant a feature article in Scientific American in 1881. The following year, the company built its first refrigeration machine, and a whole new direction of production opened up. Automatic and traction engines were still in demand, being constantly improved and updated, but refrigeration was the new frontier. Frick rose to become one of the leaders in development of high quality, durable, and functional refrigeration machinery. George's son A.O. Frick, now an engineer with the company, partnered with Edgar Penney, another design engineer, to develop the Corliss engine line, which would run the large ammonia compressors, creating what was called a refrigeration machine. They were intially used to power ice plants, which were being built all over the world after the mild winter of 1890 tipped the natural ice industry into decline. They also used cold storage/mechanical cooling units, of which breweries and meat packing plants were the earliest adopters, followed by cold food stores, florist shops, and fur storage, as well as the dairy and shipping industries. The Armour Packing Plant in Kansas City, Missouri was the proud owner of "The Largest Ice Machine in the World," built by Frick and shipped by train via specially-reinforced rails in 1896. At the turn of the twentieth century, hotels, restaurants, hospitals and industrial plants soon began to rely on refrigeration units for daily operations, and Frick's business was booming.
As gas-powered engine technology began taking over in the first decades of the twentieth century, Frick moved away from steam engines and focused on more specialized farm equipment such as dehydrators, peanut pickers, combines, balers and silo fillers. Their line of sawmills was also still in high demand. But increasingly, Frick was focused on steadily refining and improving its refrigeration equipment. Ammonia, while highly efficient as a coolant, had its dangerous downsides: it could be fatal if leaked, and could contaminate plant ice easily. Although many of Frick's ammonia compression refrigeration machines were still in use forty or more years after installation and were still preferred for industrial use, the technology needed to improve in order to be viable for the general public. Several publicized accidents led eventually to the preferred use of chloroflorocarbons as a coolant, and Frick developed enclosed-type CO2 compressors and eventually freon units. Other Frick refrigeration products included machinery for making dry ice, air conditioning units, and temperature controls for test plants, as well as marine refrigeration (developed during the First World War) for shipping food between continents. Frick did contract work for the US military during and following World War II, and was a major company involved in the development of quick-freezing systems to support the growing frozen food industry starting in the late 1940s.
Frick Company positioned itself as a permanent leader in the food production and distribution industry by the 1950s. The company is still in operation today, though it has been purchased several times, most recently by Johnson Controls, which maintains a product line bearing the name Frick.
Related Materials:
The Archives Center holds several collections that may be of interest to researchers in relation to the Frick Company Collection.
For related material on Corliss engines, see the following collections:
Chuse Engine and Manufacturing Company Records (AC 1088)
For related material on threshing machines and agricultural machinery, see the following collections:
John K. Parlett Collection (AC 3066)
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (AC 0060)
For related material on refrigeration machinery, see the following collections:
Madison Cooper Papers (AC 1105)
Nickerson and Collins Photography (AC 1044)
Southwork Foundry and Machine Company Records (AC 1107)
Separated Materials:
The Division of Work and Industry holds artifacts related to this collection. See acquisition numbers AG79A09.1, MC 319243.12 and .13, and 58A9.
Provenance:
Collection donated by the Frick Company, through Terry Mitchell in 1961.
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.
Papers related to Dr. John C. Boyd's career as a U.S. Navy surgeon, including his commission, names recommended for awards, his casebook for 1874-1877, his correspondence, including two letterpress books, 1895-1902; photographs. Also photographs, especially those by his son, Dr. Walter Willard Boyd, of Dr. Harvey Cushing performing neurosurgical and other operations; two films (1931) of an operation; two scrapbooks, including one outlining an accident and eventual amputation of the leg of Walter Jones Willard (includes letters and sympathy cards).
Scope and Contents note:
This collection is divided into six series.
Series 1: Awards and Commissions, 1917-1920
Series 2: Casebook, 1874-1877
Series 3: CORRESPONDENCE, January 1895-February 1902
Series 4: PHOTOGRAPHS,1928 - 1939
Series 5: POSTERS, early 1900's- mid 1940's
Series 6: SCRAPBOOKS, 1888-1945
Series 7: FILM, 1931
Arrangement:
Divided into 7 series.
Biographical / Historical:
The Boyd Family Collection consists primarily of correspondence, recruitment and other posters, personal papers, and photographs of a naval surgeon, John C. Boyd, and his son Walter Willard Boyd.
Dr. John C. Boyd was a surgeon and medical inspector for the United States Navy. Included in the collection is Boyd's Naval Commission, December 19, 1873, his Patient Case Book 1874-1877, and a Letterpress book of his correspondence with other professionals and military officials. As a naval inspector, he not only examined patients' conditions, but he also inspected the sanitation of the soldier's quarters and other areas aboard naval ships.
His son, Dr. Walter Willard Boyd, was a photographer of medical surgeries performed by Dr. Harvey Cushing (1869 1939). Cushing was widely known as the greatest neurosurgeon of the 20th century and his school of neuro surgery was world famous. His contributions to neuroscience were numerous and he was also known as a medical historian. Cushing's biography of Sir William Osler won a Pulitzer Prize in 1926. Boyd interned under Cushing and put together an exhibit at the Bent Brigham Hospital's 30th Anniversary Celebration in honor of Dr. Harvey Cushing's contributions to neuroscience. This collection contains photographs taken by Walter Boyd that were displayed at this exhibit. Dr. Richard U. Light (one of Cushing's last residents and also an avid photographer) and Dr. Boyd filmed Dr. Cushing's 2000th verified brain tumor operation on April 15th, 1931. Two films of this operation are included in the collection. In addition, Scrapbook #3 contains photographs of Dr. Cushing performing operations.
Also contained in this collection is a scrapbook outlining the details of a leg accident of Walter Jones Willard. Walter Jones Willard is the son of C.C. Willard, former owner and proprietor of the Ebbitt Hotel and the Willard Hotel, both in Washington, D.C. Walter Jones Willard and his brother Edward were both graduates of Yale University class of 1892 and were members of the prominent Willard family of D.C.
Related Materials:
Some materials from the donor were distributed to other NMAH divisions or to other archival repositories.
Princeton University Posters Collection. The Princeton University Library donated this extensive collection of WWI, and WWII materials to the Smithsonian in 1963 and 1967.
Photographic scrapbook #4 of Dr. Cushing's operations can be found at the Cyber Museum of Neurosurgery. It was donated to the American Association of Neurosurgery Archives by Dr. Richard U. Light. http://www.neurosurgery.org/cybermuseum/journal/
Provenance:
Donated by Ms. Josephine Carpenter, daughter of Dr. Walter Willard Boyd, Nov. 19, 1999.
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.
Scrapbook contains articles and ephemera relating to an African American troupe of thirty five minstrels who performed in the Pacific Northwestern United States.
Scope and Contents:
The scrapbook offers documentation of the troupe's activities dating from 1876-1909 in the Pacific Northwestern United States. It contains articles, ticket stubs, newspaper and magazine clippings and programs. Also included are brief biographical sketches of Billy Williams, the contortionist, and Harry Gillam, the "Hebrew acrobat," and an article about the managers of the Up To Date minstrels, J. Edward George and G. E. Hart. In addition, there are business cards from other minstrel performing groups including, Cissel and Mines and Oliver and Gilliam, with accompanying pictures. There are loose materials which were probably once part of the scrapbook, including programs and letterhead stationery. There are also photographs of the troupe taken in Missouri in 1900 standing outside a train car as they travelled from one location to another. The materials are arranged first by type and then in chronological order.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in one series.
Biographical / Historical:
George and Hart's Up To Date Georgia Minstrels were an African American troupe of thirty-five entertainers about whom this scrapbook was created. In 1901, these minstrels were described as "the only colored show running for thirty years." The troupe, which began circa 1866, was billed as "the most popular" troupe of performers from California to Montana to Washington to New Mexico to Colorado to Minnesota. They performed standard minstrel acts and included a contortionist, an acrobatic act, and a male impersonator. This form of theater entertainment was used by African American dramatic performers for consistent employment with reasonable wages. The Up To Date Georgia Minstrels were said to have been the "highest paid" performers in the area, making five to fifteen dollars a week. The troupe was managed by George Hart.
Provenance:
The material was donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History by the San Diego Historical Society on March 11, 1997. The Society has no further information about the scrapbook which was outside the scope of its collecting policy.
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 Advertising, dating from 1880 to 1989, are by far the most comprehensive records of the collection. They are reflective of Sohmer & Co.'s heavy dependence on advertising to get its product before the people. The company advertisements represented range from the colorful cartoon advertisements featured in the magazine Puck in 1888 1890, to an undeveloped sketch by Harry Sohmer entitled: "New York Oddities, New York Certainties." [Series 7: Boxes OS 16 and OS 55 respectively.] Generally, all the ingredients for an advertising campaign from start to finish are present in these records. From the Art Work (i.e., photographs and sketches), to the Mechanicals (represented by the assemblage of art work, text, captions, layouts, and overlays), the concepts behind a campaign can be seen in the process of design development. Proof Sheets show the finished advertisement before publication, while Trade Paper and Newspaper Reprints and clippings show the advertisement as it appeared in print.
The Scrapbooks of Sohmer Advertisements include advertisements clipped from newspapers (primarily New York) and trade papers from 1883 through 1983. There are none for the years 1942 1945. Occasionally included within these scrapbooks are also the latest Sohmer catalog or booklet and clippings of editorial comments about the company's latest advertisements.
The scrapbooks of the years 1883 to 1903 primarily contain newsclippings relating to New York City politics and the 1897 nomination of Hugo Sohmer's brother William as mayoral candidate of the German faction of Tammany Hall. Other clippings relate to New York municipal elections, William Sohmer's political activities, and his appointment as city clerk in 1898. Interspersed with these articles, many of which are from German language publications such as the New York Plattduettsche Post, are clippings of Sohmer piano advertisements. Although all the scrapbooks are in very brittle condition and require careful handling, the earliest scrapbooks should be handled with particular caution due to their extremely critical condition.
The scrapbooks of the early 1900's continue to include news clippings about Sohmer & Co., e.g. regarding the move of their salesrooms in 1909, along with advertisement clippings. After c. 1922 scrapbooks primarily contain wholesale and retail advertisements, and fewer or no news clippings.
One undated scrapbook contains information for dealers about the Sohmer Piano Company. Sohmer also followed the advertisement campaigns of its competitors, as scrapbooks of competitor advertisements [OS FLDR 6 8] and a scrapbook with competitor ads and news clippings [OS 48] demonstrate.
The Scrapbooks covering the years 1953 through 1966 include schedules for advertisements, which are organized by the name of the newspaper in which the advertisement is to run, when it is to run, how many lines, and the cost per line; there are total costs and agency fees for each newspaper. The scrapbooks also include coupon advertising statistics and analyses, which are organized by media (i.e., newspaper or magazine), and in the following categories: number of inquiries, number of units sold, sale cost in dollars, advertising dollars spent, and advertising cost per sale.
Statistics on the pianos used as prizes on television game shows, such as "The Price is Right" and "Say When," can be found in the scrapbooks from 1959 through the 1960s. They include the date of broadcast, whether it was an evening or daytime show, the piano model, and whether it was purchased or contributed to the show.
The Scrapbook of Sohmer Advertising Mail Follow ups of 1935 include typed letters of thanks, testimonials, and marketing booklets. The trade paper reprints of advertisements are arranged numerically by piano model number, then alphabetically by name of campaign. Newspaper Reprints are arranged alphabetically by name of campaign. The Proof Sheets for dealer use, arranged numerically by their assigned numbers, were utilized by dealers to promote their store as well as Sohmer pianos. On these proofs was a request for copies of the advertisements as they appeared in print. A sampling of these is found in the Dealer Advertisements of 1948 1954.
The promotional campaign organized between Sohmer and pianist Edward J. McGinley in 1955 represents advertising in a microcosm. Included are letters to McGinley setting up a public demonstration entitled "Piano Playing Made Easy," preliminary design sketches of the advertisement, clippings of the advertisement, and a "Book of Official Record of Inquiries" about the demonstration.
The series also includes several items of miscellaneous advertisements such as a recording of a Sohmer commercial, a map of New York City, and gift wrapping paper with Sohmer advertisements.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Mechanisms Search this
Extent:
0.6 Cubic feet (1,box.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Clippings
Scrapbooks
Place:
Connecticut
Hartford (Conn.)
Date:
1897-1906.
Scope and Contents:
Scrapbook kept by the Pratt & Whitney Company, Hartford, Connecticut, manufacturers of general purpose machine tools; contains correspondence, price lists and quotes, and sales literature from U.S. and foreign companies to Pratt and Whitney in reply to requests for information and prices of machinery and tools; copies of business cards from U.S. and foreign companies and their representatives around the turn of the century; and miscellaneous news clippings.
Provenance:
Immediate source of acquisition unknown.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
The scrapbook contains approximately sixty-three items dealing mainly with small town matters in Wales. Among them are: a printed page (dated July 1885) soliciting for subscriptions to restock the trout in the Blaenau Festiniog area; a four page printed pamphlet (1884) published by the Conservatives, enumerating the Corrupt Practices, Illegal Practices and Illegal Payment, Employment or Hiring provisions of the Corrupt Practices Act of 1883; a two page statement, in Welsh and a second in English, by Henry Robertson, candidate to Parliament, stating his platform to the Electors of Merionethshire (former county, western Wales) as a Liberal; a two page statement, one in Welsh and the second in English, by Morgan Lloyd, Liberal candidate to Parliament, stating his platform to the electors of Merioneth, September 1885; a short story written by hand, of a soldier, his pack of cards and his religion; a certificate appointing W.W. Jones a full consul of the Bicycle Touring Club in April 1882; a page from Whitaker's Almanack, 1880, of rules distributing estates of persons who died Intestate; a poem, "The Thunder" Which was a translation of "Cywyold Y Daran" by Davydd Inowr.
Biographical / Historical:
William W. Jones apparently compiled most of this scrapbook which consists of letters, newspaper clippings, poetry and other items. Most of the materials are in the Welsh language. From an application for a Certificate of Death (included in the scrapbook), we learn that W.W. Jones was born in 1822 and died in 1882 at the age of 59. He was a station master. Jones had two sons and two daughters born between 1851 and 1859. According to an obituary in the scrapbook, Mary Catherine Jones, wife of William W. Jones, died in Granville, New York, in 1904.
Provenance:
Immediate source of acquisition unknown.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
This scrapbook contains newspaper reviews & theatre programs in which the St. Felix Sisters are named, and which covers the period from April, 1880 to November, 1898.
The scrapbook also contains a newspaper article on the death of President Garfield, and article about Greenwood Cemetery where many "stage artists" were buried in the public lots, and an engraving titled "Puck and the Fairies" (Midsummer Night's Dream).
Biographical / Historical:
The three Felix sisters, Henrietta, Clementina and Charlotte, performed in theatre companies, such as Tony Pastor's Vaudeville Theatre, and the D'Oyly Carte and E.E. Rice's Opera Comique Company. A fourth sister, Leonora, died in 1880. Their act consisted of original song and dance sketches which were described as "refined and elegant." They had a great variety of costumes of "richness of fabric and elegance of design."
On their annual tours with the vaudeville companies they performed in cities across the United States and in Montreal, Canada. Between 1887 and 1888 they toured Europe, playing for seven months in London; then in Paris, Vienna, Hanover, Dresden, Berlin and Rotterdam.
Provenance:
Transferred from the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
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.
