Large collection of photographs, picture postcards, printed ephemera, and music related to the brass band movement in the United States: includes 8 ambrotypes, 36 tintypes, 59 stereographs, 66 cabinet prints, 90 cartes-de-visite, 150 large photoprints, and 874 picture postcards; also posters, concert programs, instrument manufacturers' advertisemements and ephemera, periodicals, sheet music, etc.
Arrangement:
3 series: (1) photographs; (2) ephemera; and (3) resources in American band history. Series 1 has 7 sub-series: (1) ambrotypes; (2) tintypes; (3) stereographs; (4) cabinet prints; (5) cartes-de-visite; (6) large mounted photoprints; and (7) postcards. Series 2 has 7 sub-series: (1) company ephemera; (2) band ephemera; (3) music; (4) periodicals; (5) oversized paper ephemera; (6) artifacts (3-dimensional); and (7) folio-size broadsides. Geographical arrangement within postcard and stereograph sub-series.
Biographical / Historical:
Dr. and Mrs. Robert M. Hazen formed this collection in conjunction with their research on the American brass band movement.
Provenance:
Collection purchased from Dr. Robert Hazen, May 23, 1985 (1988.3028).
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use on site. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves.
Rights:
Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.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 Fletcher and Horace Henderson Collection contains original scores and band books, loose sheet music, both original and published, from both Fletcher and Horace's libraries, playlists, lyrics, photographs, personal papers and correspondences, newspaper clippings, jazz publications, an oral history manuscript of an interview with Horace, audio tapes, and other personal memorabilia documenting the lives and careers of the two brothers as pianists, band leaders, and arrangers. The majority of the material dates from the mid 1920s to the early 1980s.
Series 1: Fletcher and Horace Henderson's Music ca. 1930s - 1980s Boxes 1-68.
Original band books and scores, lyrics, playlists, loose music, and published music either arranged or used by Fletcher or Horace Henderson during their careers as pianists, band leaders, and arrangers. The series is organized into six subseries: Subseries 1A: Horace's Band Books, Subseries 1B: Loose Music, Subseries 1C: Original Scores, Subseries 1D: Lyrics, Suberies 1E: Playlists, and Suberies 1F: Published Music.
Suberies 1A, ca. 1940s -1980s, boxes 1-21. Horace Henderson Band Books. Each Band Book stands on its own, and is identified by the musician who used it or the location where the music was performed. Some performers include Gail Brochman, Eddie Calhoun, and George Reed. Many of the band books were used for performances at the Trianon Ballroom in Chicago.
Subseries 1B, ca. 1930s - 1980s, boxes 22-58. Music in boxes 22-54 comes from Horace Henderson's band library, and boxes 55-58 from Fletcher Henderson's band library. The music consists of full scores, piano scores, and parts arranged or used by Horace or Fletcher Henderson. Arranged alphabetically by title; FS - Full Score, PS - Piano Score, and P - Parts. * Indicates an overlap between loose music, and music known to have been performed at the Trianon Ballroom in Chicago. **Indicates an overlap between Horace and Fletcher's Libraries. The music is arranged alphabetically by music title.
Subseries 1C, ca. 1930s - 1940s, boxes 59-60. Original scores arranged by Fletcher Henderson, many for Benny Goodman and other bandleaders, including AHoneysuckle Rose@, AKing Porter's Stomp@, and AStealin' Apples@. There is also a complete band book written and arranged by Fletcher. Arranged alphabetically by title.
Subseries 1D, ca. 1940s - 1980s, box 61. Original lyrics used in performances by Horace Henderson's bands. Arranged alphabetically by title where identified.
Subseries 1E, ca. 1940s - 1980s, boxes 62-63. Playlists compiled in preparation for performances by Horace Henderson's orchestras, listing titles played at various performances. Un-arranged.
Subseries 1F, ca. 1920s-1980s, boxes 64-68. Published sheet music and books for piano/vocal parts. Includes art music, method books, popular music, fake books, and music book covers. Folders are arranged by type of publication, and the music is arranged alphabetically by title within each folder.
Series 2: Photographs, ca. 1920s - 1980s Boxes 69-70.
Photographs documenting the lives of both Fletcher and Horace Henderson's personal lives and careers. Photographs are arranged by category including Fletcher Henderson Candids with Friends, Horace Henderson Candids, Performance Marquees, and both brothers with their orchestra. Some unique pictures include portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Henderson (Fletcher and Horace's parents), candids of Fletcher with Benny Goodman, and Horace with Lena Horne.
Series 3: Personal Papers and Correspondences, ca. 1920s - 1980s Boxes 71-78. Programs and broadsides, newspaper articles, letters, essays, publications, and other personal documents tracing the lives of Horace and Fletcher, as well as some personal items of their parents. The series is divided into six subseries: Subseries 3A: Programs and Broadsides, Subseries 3B: Newspaper Articles and Clippings, Subseries 3C: Personal Papers and Correspondences, Subseries 3D: Miscellaneous Publishings, Subseries 3E: Transcript of an Oral History Interview, and Subseries 3F: Henderson Family Scrapbook.
Subseries 3A, ca 1930s - 1980s Boxes 71-72. Contains broadsides and ad clippings promoting both Horace and Fletcher's performances, along with programs for various jazz festivals. There are also three sets of Las Vegas Programs, advertising the weekly happenings during the years Horace was performing there, mainly at the Riviera Hotel and Casino (1959-1961). These include; Ken's Spotlight Las Vegas, Fabulous Las Vegas Magazine, On The Go, and other miscellaneous circulations. Arranged by category (Fletcher's broadsides, Horace's broadsides, Programs), and by date within each set of publications or programs.
Subseries 3B, ca. 1950s - 1980s, Boxes 73 & 78. Contains newspapers, articles, and clippings, ranging from 1951 to 1986, documenting the lives of Fletcher, Horace, and some of their contemporaries (ie: Duke Ellington) through the eyes of the media. Arranged by categories; reference to Fletcher, Horace, or Miscellaneous. Box 73 contains the oversized articles.
Subseries 3C, ca. 1920s-1980s, Box 74. Contains letters, contracts, and other personal documents of Fletcher, Horace, and their parents. Also contains a copied photo collection of Horace, a manuscript of AHorace Henderson Presents his Interpretation of Jazz@, and an essay (author unknown) about Fletcher's influence on jazz.
Subseries 3D, ca. 1960s - 1980s, Box 75. Contains miscellaneous publishings collected from the various locations Horace lived and worked. Includes weekly circulations from Denver and the surrounding area where Horace lived from the mid sixties until his death, along with various music magazines that he subscribed to (ADownbeat@, AInternational Musician@). Arranged by date within each category.
Subseries 3E, ca. 1975, box 76. Contains the original transcript of the Oral History Interview of Horace Henderson, for the Smithsonian Institution, performed by Tom MacCluskey on April 9-12, 1975.
Subseries 3F, box 77. Contains a Henderson Family Scrapbook which includes photographs of Fletcher's and Horace's father and mother, and various newspaper clippings commending the careers of Mr. Henderson, Horace, and Fletcher. The scrapbook's original order has been maintained.
Series 4: Audio Tape Recordings ca.1970s - 1980s Boxes 79-80.
Contains a collection of recordings of live performances of Horace's orchestra in various Denver area locations such as the Esquire Supper Club and the Petroleum Club. Also includes a sample tape, a brief Atest@ recording by Horace and Angel, a radio tribute to Horace, and a few miscellaneous mix tapes. The tapes are arranged by date when available. Box 79 contains the original copies, and box 80 contains the duplicates.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into four series.
Series 1: Horace and Fletcher Henderson's Music, 1954-1955
Series 2: Photographs, 1942-1977
Series 3: Horace and Fletcher Henderson's Personal Papers, 1937-1987
Series 4: Horace Henderson Audio Tapes, 1978-1983, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. (a.k.a. Smack) was born on December 18, 1897 in Cuthbert, Georgia. He was born into a middle class black family, and as a child studied European art music with his mother, a piano teacher. His sister later became the head of the music department at the Tuskeegee Institute in Alabama, and his younger brother, Horace, would eventually follow in his footsteps as a jazz musician, arranger, and band leader. Horace W. Henderson (a.k.a. Little Smack) was born on November 22, 1904. He also studied piano with his mother and sister, and like his brother, began formal music training as a teenager. Fletcher Henderson attended Atlanta University where he earned a degree in chemistry and math in 1919.
In 1920, Fletcher Henderson moved to New York City to find a job as a chemist. Because employment in this field was hard to come by, especially for African Americans, he began working as a song demonstrator for the Pace Hardy Music Company. Shortly after Fletcher Henderson's arrival Harry Pace founded Pace Phonograph Corporation to produce records on the Black Swan label in 1921. Fletcher joined Pace's music team and was responsible for contracting and leading a jazz bands to accompany the label's singers.
In 1924, Fletcher's orchestra, under the direction of Don Redman, began to perform at Club Alabam (sic) on New York City's Broadway Avenue. That same year he and the band was offered a job performing at the Roseland Ballroom, where the band remained for ten years and gained national fame. His band was no different than the hundreds of dance bands, springing up across the country in response to the growing demand for social dance music, such as Count Basie's Orchestra, King Oliver and his Dixie Syncopators, and McKinney's Cotton Pickers. Don Redman left the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in 1927 to direct McKinney's Cotton Pickers. However the music collaboration of Redman and Henderson had by then established what would become the "standard" big band arrangement for several decades, specifically the dynamic interplay between the brass and reed sections of the orchestra that included interspersed solos made famous by such esteemed soloists of the band as Louis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins. Some of the band's most notable recordings made between 1924 and 1925 include Copenhagen and Sugarfoot Stomp.
By this time Horace Henderson had formed his own college jazz band in 1924, The Wilberforce Collegians, after transferring from Atlanta University to Wilberforce University to pursue a music degree. His older brother sent him arrangements and piano parts used by the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra for performances by the Collegians. Later that year Horace Henderson left the university to travel and perform with his band in New York City. His newly formed band included such notable musicians as Benny Carter and Ben Webster. While in New York he also began playing as a guest musician in his brother's band and learning from such legends of jazz as Coleman Hawkins, Buster Bailey, Louis Armstrong, and Don Redman that were working for the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. During a Smithsonian Institution sponsored oral history interview with Tom MacCluskey, Horace recalled late night jam sessions at Hawkins' (Hawk) apartment where they would play through pieces from "Fletch's" library and analyze each individual's performance. We would "stop and discuss what had transpired during that session, you know, that particular tune. And man, that was a lesson...It was a session that was actually to help everybody, so that they would try things out and take another tune, and use these particular little points that Hawk would tell 'em.'"
Until the 1930s, the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra was the principal model for big jazz bands. However, his management of the band and its finances led to frequent band break-ups. In 1934, severe financial problems forced Fletcher to sell some of his best arrangements to Benny Goodman. Horace Henderson and others suggested Goodman's rapid rise in popularity among swing bands for white audiences was largely due to Fletcher Henderson's innovative band arrangements. Fletcher Henderson continued to lead bands until 1939 when he joined Goodman's orchestra as a full time staff arranger. In 1941 he returned to band leading and arranging, but suffered a severe stroke in 1950. Fletcher was partially paralyzed from the stroke, and died on December 29, 1952.
Horace, also, formed many bands throughout the 1930s and 40s, and became a sideman for leaders such as Don Redman (1931-33) and, most notably, his brother. He was a pianist and arranger for Fletch's band intermittently between 1931 and 1947. During this time, Horace spent a lot of time in Chicago with Fletcher's band at the Grand Terrace, and formed his own band at Swingland. Horace also worked as a freelance arranger for Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, and Earl Hines3. From November 1942 through August 1943, Horace was the leader of the 732nd Military Police Band in Joliet, Illinois. The position was first offered to Louis Armstrong, who turned it down and recommended Horace for the position. After leaving the army, he played with Fletcher's band for two years. Horace began writing for Charlie Barnet in 1944, where he first came across Lena Horne. During a job at the Paramount, Charlie had Called Horace to say that his vocalist had laryngitis, and he needed a new singer. Horace went to the Apollo in Harlem in search of some talent, and they sent him to the Regent where he could find Lena Horne. She joined Charlie's show the next day, and from there went on to fame. Horace joined her for an extended tour as a pianist and arranger, and later worked with Billie Holiday3.
Horace moved to Denver with his wife, Angel, in the late 1960s. The Horace Henderson Combo performed at many nightclubs and resorts in the Denver area, including Estes Park, the Broadmoor Hotel, and the Petroleum Club. He began playing the organ in 1970 because the clubs didn't want to pay for four or five piece bands, and with an organ to replace the piano, a bass player was no longer necessary3. Horace continued to lead bands in the Denver area until his death on August 29, 1988.
Although both brothers had a major impact on the future of jazz, Horace is often thought of merely as a shadow to his more celebrated brother. Fletcher Henderson's career as a pianist, bandleader, and arranger is one of the most important in jazz history. Bands of leaders such as Count Basie, Charlie Barnet, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman all played arrangements, which were either written or influenced by Fletcher Henderson. Fletcher constantly surrounded himself with the most talented musicians of his era, and patterned the basic formula, which were imitated throughout the big band era.
However, at least thirty of Fletcher's arrangements, many for Benny Goodman, are accredited as Horace's work. His arrangement Hot and Anxious was based on the traditional riff that later became the basis for Glenn Miller's In the Mood. Christopher Columbus is the most notable example of Horace's potent piano style, which is often noted to be stronger than his brother's. Although the brothers had differences, Horace insists that they did not involve music. Fletcher's style and success had a huge influence on Horace's career, and he was incredibly grateful for all his brother taught him. In an interview in April of 1975, he was quoted as saying, "I idolize his way of thinking because he was successful. You don't fight success, you join it." 3
Sources
1. Biographical information derived from The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, edited by Barry Kernfeld (New York: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1988).
2. The Pace Phonograph corporation was the first African-American-owned recording company in the United States. Historical information derived from The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Black Music; Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians, by Eileen Southern (USA: Greenwood Press, 1982).
3. Interview with Horace Henderson, April 2-12, 1975, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Provenance:
The Fletcher and Horace Henderson collection was acquired by the museum in December of 2001, donated by Barbara and Barry Lewis.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Music -- 20th century -- United States Search this
Genre/Form:
Audiocassettes
Audiotapes
Manuscripts -- Music -- 20th century
Parts (musical)
Photographs -- 20th century
Citation:
Fletcher and Horace Henderson Music and Photographs, 1930s-1980s, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years.
Series 2 materials include cinema lobby cards, fire insurance maps, photographs and scrapbooks of liquor and wine labels.
An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
Scope and Contents note:
This portion of the collection represents a significant accumulation of one type of material rather than a mix of various types of ephemera. The bulk of this material is Cinema Lobby Cards, Fire Insurance Maps and Sheet Music.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 8 subseries.
2.1: Business Records [obsolete]
2.2: Cinema Lobby Cards
2.3: Fire Insurance Maps
2.4: Liquor and Wine Labels and Advertisements
2.5: Photographs
2.6: Stereographs
2.7: Sheet Music
2.8: Rewards and Wanted Posters
Materials in the Archives Center:
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
Forms Part Of:
Series 2: Other Collection Divisions forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana .
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:
The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060, was 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:
Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogs restricted due to fragile condition. Researchers should consult microfilm in NMAH library for 1880-1983 editions, drawer 692.
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.
Citation:
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, 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).
8.45 Cubic feet (consisting of 18 boxes, 5 folders, 8 oversize folders, 1 map case folder, 1 flat box (partial).)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Ephemera
Business ephemera
Date:
circa 1778-1968
Summary:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Music 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:
This material consists of sheet music covers, concert programs, bills, receipts, printed advertisements, import/export documents, business cards, catalogues, songbooks, journals, newsletters, information on music schools and instructors, scattered correspondence on letterhead stationary, photographs, caricatures and lithographs of individual musicians, composers and lyricists of the late 19th and early 20th century. There is material pertaining to Gilbert & Sullivan; images, concert programs, and advertisements for their operettas, including Japanese images from the Mikado. There is biographical information on the Arthur Tams Music Library with catalogues from his collection, business correspondence with G. Schirmer and others and the James Madison Americana Collection. There are unique images of musical instruments, catalogues and advertisements for their manufacturers; mechanical musical instruments, music boxes, phonographs and even a few radio and Muzak programs. This material spans a century, beginning in the 1840's. Its images chronicle the inventions of the automobile and the airplane, and the rapid industrial and life-style changes of that time period.
Arrangement:
The bulk of the material is arranged topically, the rest is organized by company name. Sheet music publishers and musical and mechanical music instrument manufacturers, dealers and importers are in Boxes 1- 7. Boxes 6-7 contain a large amount of information from one particular dealer, the Arthur W. Tams Music Library. Box 8 contains information on manufacturers and dealers of Phonographs and records. Boxes 1-8 are arranged by company name. In the remainder of Box 8 and in Boxes 9- 10, there are programs, concerts tickets and curriculum pertaining to music schools, private instructors of music and voice, music clubs, societies and unions. Boxes 10-13 contain concert programs of musical performances that are organized by their geographic location or type of performance. Under the topic heading solo performances in Boxes 12-13 are handbills , programs and ads for individual performances and music luminaries including Gilbert & Sullivan and Stephen Foster. Box 14 holds general works which consists of images of musical instruments and musicians, correspondence trade cards, patents, import/export documents and hand-written music notation. Related publications are in Boxes 15-17 and are organized by type of material. Songbooks and lyric sheets are in Box 15. Periodical publications including journals and catalogues are in Box 16. The remainder of the related publications are divided by size and grouped into books, notebooks, essays and pamphlets in Box 17.
Materials in the Archives Center:
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
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:
Music 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.
Genre/Form:
Ephemera
Business ephemera
Citation:
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Music, 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).
Business and personal papers, photographs, and audio recordings of Claude "Fiddler" Williams, an award-winning jazz fiddler. Although Williams played music for almost a century the materials in this collection date largely from 1970 to 2005.
Scope and Contents:
This collection documents the later life and career of jazz violinist Claude "Fiddler" Williams. Materials include correspondence, photographs, unpublished writings, awards, business records, financial records, programs and a few music manuscripts. There is one scrapbook and several audio recordings. There are also an autographed poster from 1997 honoring five inductees to the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, including Claude Williams, Merle Haggard, Patti Page, Woody Guthrie and Eddie Burris. While there are some materials from Williams's youth, the vast majority of the collection dates from 1970. Williams's second wife, Blanche Y. Fouse-Williams, was vigilant about saving his papers. She also managed his career for the last few years of his life. This accounts for the increased volume of materials documenting his later years. Materials generally are arranged in chronological order within series and subseries.
Series 1, Business Records, 1973-2005, undated, is divided into seven subseries and includes business records, information relating to tours and performances, awards and certificates, business and personal correspondence, financial papers, articles and newspaper clippings, and biographical information.
Subseries 1, Events, 1977-2004, undated, includes contracts, copies of newspaper clippings, performance programs, brochures, ticket stubs, travel itineraries, travel receipts, correspondence, materials regarding his work as a fiddle teacher, advertisements for performances, a certificate of recognition, and napkins saved from a Washington Education Television Association (WETA) performance at the White House in 1998. Materials are arranged in chronological order.
Subseries 2, Itineraries, 1990-2001, includes lists and correspondence detailing locations, musicians, travel and lodging plans, and financial compensation for William's performances. Materials are arranged in chronological order.
Subseries 3, Awards and Certificates, 1978-2002, contains awards and certificates of appreciation from the Steamboat Delta Queen, Annual Black Musicians Conference, Kansas City Chapter of the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors, and the Manhattan School of Music, as well as an invitation to a reception honoring Kansas City Jazz musicians from the Consul General of Japan. Materials are arranged in chronological order.
Subseries 4, Correspondence, 1975-2004, consists of information relating to travel arrangements, tours, remuneration, music recordings, press kits, contracts, public television performances, involvement with the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as Williams's Smithsonian Folkways recording. Materials are arranged in chronological order.
Subseries 5, Financial Papers, 1990-2005, includes information about travel and payment, hotel bills and receipts, invoices for performances, music recordings sales, royalty statements and copies of checks. Materials are arranged in chronological order.
Subseries 6, Press, 1973--005, undated, includes magazines, newspaper clippings and articles, about Williams's performances and music, appearances and jazz festivals, as well as the Kansas City Jazz scene. Magazine titles include Kansas City Magazine , Missouri Alumnus , The Masters Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program , Jazz Ambassador Magazine , Kansas City Ambassador to Jazz , The Mississippi Rag , Fiddler Magazine , Jazz News , Jazz Times , Living Blues , Blues Access , and Kansas City . Materials are arranged by type and then in chronological order.
Subseries 7, Music, 1989-1995, undated, contains thirteen audio tape recordings, one CD, sheet music and set lists of music performed by Williams. There is an audio recording of Black and Blue: A Musical Revue , a Folk Master performance at Carnegie Hall. Williams's work with James Chirillo, an appearance on Birdflight , as well as recordings of live and studio performances are also included among these materials. There is a copy of Williams's CD Swingtime in New York and an interview from1992. Materials are arranged in chronological order.
Series 2, Personal Papers, 1978--005, undated, is divided into two subseries and contains letters, cards, postcards, invitations, copies of email, and requests for information and interviews. Most of the correspondence was addressed to Williams but there are materials that were sent to Blanche Williams. The correspondence is generally from fans, friends and family.
Subseries 1, Correspondence, 1978-2005, undated, consists of birthday cards from school age children, postcards, copies of newspaper clippings, White House and other government correspondence, congratulations or birthday wishes, as well as personal correspondence from friends inquiring about Williams's health and well-being. Also included is a draft for a chapter in a book on Claude Williams's contributions to jazz. Requests relating to research about Williams are also included. Materials are arranged in chronological order. Materials are arranged first by type followed by general correspondence in chronological order.
Subseries 2, Miscellaneous, undated, contains ephemera, autographs, affiliates list, well-wishes to Blanche Williams, a funeral program, mailing lists, lists of affiliated organizations, and a Count Bassie autograph.
Series 3, Photographs, 1977-2004, undated, includes personal and professional photographic prints and negatives of Williams. Subjects include performances and festivals, headshots and publicity, images of other musicians, family, friends, and posters with photographs created for his funeral. The majority of these photographs are of performances. Materials are arranged by subject.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into three series.
Series 1, Business Records, 1973-2005, undated
Subseries 1.1, Events, 1977-2004, undated
Subseries 1.2, Itineraries, 1990-2001
Subseries 1.3, Awards and Certificates, 1978-2002
Subseries 1.4, Correspondence, 1975-2004
Subseries 1.5, Financial Papers, 1990-2005
Subseries 1.6, Press, 1973-2005, undated
Subseries 1.7, Music; 1989-1995, undated
Series 2, Personal Papers, 1978-2005, undated
Subseries 2.1, Correspondence, 1978-2005, undated
Subseries 2.2, Miscellaneous, undated
Series 3, Photographs, 1977-2004, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Claude "Fiddler" Williams, 1908-2004, was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, the son of a blacksmith. His musical gifts developed at a very early age, and he quickly became adept at the guitar, banjo, mandolin and cello, learning mostly by ear, without formal training. After hearing the jazz violinist Joe Venuti, the violin became his instrument of choice, and it remained so for the rest of his life. He migrated to Kansas City in 1927 and toured with several territory bands. Additionally Williams toured with the Twelve Clouds of Joy and the Cole Brothers, and in 1936, joined Count Basie's band as the first guitarist. After he was fired from Count Basie's band because John Hammond thought Williams's guitar solos were taking too much attention away from Basie, he went back to the violin (or "fiddle" as he preferred to call it) and focused exclusively on it for the rest of his life. Later he started his own band and toured with several jazz groups working for a short time with the Works Progress Administration (WPA). His band appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Nice Jazz Festival, and the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folk Life. Williams received numerous honors and awards, including induction into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, a proclamation from the city of Kansas City, and a 1998 National Heritage Fellowship which included a $10,000 award. President Bill Clinton invited him to perform at one of the parties celebrating his first inauguration. Williams continued to tour and perform until well into his nineties. He also gave instruction at Mark O'Connor's annual fiddle camp to young violinists. Mr. Williams died in April 2004.
Separated Materials:
Artifacts donated to the Museum's Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life) include a suit and violin. See accession numbers: 2005.3105 and 2007.3020.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Claude Williams's widow, Blanche Y. Fouse-Williams, in 2005.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Physical Access: Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audio-visual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.
Technical Access: Do not use original materials when available on reference audio tapes.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Music -- 20th century -- United States Search this
The Martin and Morris Company Records date from ca. 1930 to 1985 and document a neglected part of the American music historical record. The collection is particularly important because of the company's contributions to the field of Gospel music. According to Horace Boyer (in We'll Understand It Better....), Martin and Morris Music Company was the only music house that would publish compositions by others than themselves during the heyday years of Gospel music (ca.1945-1965). From the collection it can be noted also that Gospel music in the United States was a grass roots activity. Insight as to its development and distribution can be gained through study of the firm's records.
Some of the more well known musicians whose compositions were published by Martin and Morris include: William H. Brewster, Dorothy Love Coates, Lucie Campbell, Alex Bradford, Sam Cook, and Raymond Rasberry. In addition to the noted musicians, several lesser-known artists and members of churches and pastorates from around the nation were published by Martin and Morris and their music was distributed throughout the country and around the world.
Included in the collection are printed Gospel sheet music and music song books, photographs, and business records and ephemera that illustrate the company's business operations. The collection is arranged in six series.
Series 1: CORRESPONDENCE, 1941 1980, consists of four document boxes of materials dating from 1941 through 1980. The correspondence relates to arrangement, cost, and publication of songs from other music companies and individual composers and songwriters. Also included in this series is information pertaining to copyright of song titles, settlements of law suits, and other correspondence concerning disagreements between Martin and Morris and songwriters. The correspondence is arranged by year, and thereafter alphabetically by last names within each period.
Series 2: BUSINESS And FINANCIAL RECORDS, 1940 1978, documents the ordering, sales, publication, and distribution processes of the Martin and Morris Music Company, Inc. Consisting of four document and three flat storage boxes, the materials include bank books, order books, ledgers, and journals. Also contained within this series is one document box of materials consisting of agreements and contracts between Martin and Morris and others; copyright and permissions documents; company invoices; corporate income tax returns; financial statements, and business advertising ephemera, such as programs, calendars, catalogs, and receipts. Many of the books ledgers and journals in this series had bits of paper stuck between the pages. They have been filed in "ephemera folders" of the same number as the book. Items are tagged with information indicating original locations.
Series 3: SHEET MUSIC, ca. 1930 1985, consists of nine document boxes and one flat storage box of song sheets in octavo and full size. Dating from the 1940's to the 1980's, the series comprises music published by Martin and Morris (3A), music distributed by Martin and Morris (3B), and works produced and distributed by other publishers (3C and 3D). Materials are arranged by publisher. Under each publisher, materials are arranged alphabetically by title.
There are two boxes of song titles in Subseries 3A: Music Published by Martin and Morris. Some of the more recognizable ones are: Go down Moses, God be with you till we meet again, I couldn't hear nobody pray, I want two wings, I'm Climbin' Up on the rough side of the mountain, Lead me, guide me, No cross, no crown, Stand by me, What do you know about Jesus ( He's alright). Composers and performers include Doris Akers, Rev. James Cleveland, Thomas Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, C. A. Tindley.
Subseries 3B: Publishers Distributed by Martin and Morris is in two parts. The first is arranged by publisher, including the Lion, Savgos, and Savoy companies. The second comprises miscellaneous copyright owners & publishers distributed by Martin and Morris. Many of the titles in this section were arranged by Kenneth Morris. Included in this group, which is arranged by title, are compositions performed by artists such as Alex Bradford, The Mighty Clouds of Joy, AndraÇ Crouche, Rev. J. G. Moore, The O'Neal Twins, The Raymond Rasberry Singers, and Donald Vails. Some illustrations of the above groups are included in this section.
Representative publishers included in Subseries 3C: Other Publishers are: Margaret Aikens, Boosey & Hawkes, Bowles, Lucie Campbell, Theodore Frye, Frazier-Cleveland, Roberta Martin, Sallie Martin, Chas. Pace, Theodore Presser, Raymond Rasberry, and Dorothy Akers. The oversized materials from this series appear in Box 9.
Subseries 3D: Miscellaneous Publishers consists of compositions from publishing companies that have three or less sheet music titles appearing in the Martin and Morris Music Company Records. The compositions are arranged alphabetically by title. Compositions range in date from 1930's to the 1980's and include works written or performed by such greats as the Clara Ward Singers, the Davis Sisters, The Golden Tone Singers, Cleavant Derricks, and Eddie Simmons. There are dozens of titles included in this section. Among them are: He is my all and all, If I can help somebody, and Rock of Ages. Also included in this section are Christmas titles and some pop tunes. The oversized materials from this series appear in Box 9 which consists of folio sized music. Among the composers is Thomas Dorsey. Donald Vails is numbered among the performers. Many of the pieces in folder 2 contain color illustrations. A listing of titles and composers also has been compiled for this folder and is included therein.
Series 4: SONG BOOKS, ca. 1930 1985, consists of 5 document boxes of song books in octavo and full size. Dating from the 1940's to the 1980's, the series comprises music published or distributed by Martin and Morris (4A), and works produced and distributed by other publishers (4B and 4C). Materials are arranged by publisher. When needed, under each publisher, materials are listed alphabetically by title. Composers and performers include Alex Bradford, James Cleveland, The Davis Sisters, Sallie Martin, The Roberta Martin Singers, The Singing Caravans, and The Clara Ward Singers. There are lesson books included in the boxes marked Other Publishers, and the final box of miscellaneous publishers includes lesson books for jazz and blues piano, and guitar. The oversized materials from this series appear in Box 9.
Series 4C: Miscellaneous Publishers, comprises miscellaneous copyright owners and publishers, and is arranged by title. It consists of song books from publishing companies that have three or less titles appearing in the Martin and Morris Music Company Records. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by publisher.
Series 5: ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHS, nd., contains photos that were often submitted for publication on the covers of music or flyers or other advertising materials distributed by the Martin and Morris Music Company. This half document box of materials includes photos of Kenneth Morris, Joe May, the Spirit of Memphis Quartette, the Raymond Rasberry Singers, the Singing Caravan, and Martin & Morris Studios' personnel, among others. Materials are undated, and some remain unidentified.
Series 6: ADVERTISING EPHEMERA, ca. 1935-1979, the final series of the Martin and Morris Music Company Records, also comprises one half document box. It contains ephemera such as newspaper clippings, calendars, publicity materials, and programs.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into six series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1941-1980
Series 2: Business and Financial Records, 1940-1978
Series 3: Sheet Music, circa 1930-1985
Series 4: Song Books, circa 1930-1985
Series 5: Advertising Photographs, undated
Series 6: Advertising Ephemera, circa 1935-1979
Biographical / Historical:
Kenneth Morris (1917-1988) and Sallie Martin (1896-1988) were co-owners of the nation's oldest continuously-running Black Gospel music publishing company. Martin and Morris established the firm in Chicago, Illinois and it remained in operation from 1940 until the 1980's. Martin spent most of her time on the road with her singers advertising the compositions published by the firm. Morris remained in Chicago arranging, composing, and notating music. Along with his wife, Necie, Morris also handled most of the company's paperwork.
Kenneth Morris (8/28/1917-1988), Gospel music publisher, arranger, composer, and innovator, was born in New York. Although he began making music in church as a youngster, he commenced his professional career as a jazz musician. In high school, and later while studying at the Manhattan Conservatory of Music, the ever changing Kenneth Morris Band was often billed at hotels, restaurants, and lounges. He and others of his band traveled to the "Chicago World's Fair" in 1934 to perform dance music for the day and evening concerts. Because of the heavy schedule, Morris became ill, and was forced to leave the band. However, he decided to stay in Chicago, and there met members of the Gospel music community. Among them were Lillian Bowles and Charles Pace. He spent six years with Lillian Bowles Music House, and in 1940, partnered with Sallie Martin to form Martin and Morris Music Company.
Kenneth Morris' partner, Sallie Martin (11/20/1896-6/8/1988) was a noted Gospel musician as well. Born in Pittfield, Georgia, her mother was a traveling musician. After her mother's death (ca. 1912), Martin moved to Atlanta, then to Cleveland, Ohio (1917), and finally settled in Chicago, Illinois (1919). In each of these cities, she sang in church choirs. In 1932, she auditioned for and joined the Pilgrim Baptist Church chorus lead by Thomas Dorsey. And in 1933 she began traveling with Dorsey to help promote his songs. Together they founded the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. Martin left Dorsey and toured briefly as a soloist. She partnered with Roberta Martin for a short time, then went on to form her own women's group (The Sallie Martin Singers). She continued with the group and in 1940 she joined Kenneth Morris to form Martin and Morris Music Company.
Martin retired from music in 1970 and sold her portion of the business to Morris in 1973. A pioneering Gospel musician, she was widely known through the tours made by the Sallie Martin Singers. Their performance style influenced musicians across the country and around the world. Among her students were Dinah Washington, Jessy Dixon, Delois Barrett Campbell, and Alex Bradford.
The Martin and Morris Music Company (1940-ca. 1988) was a long awaited "dream come true" for Sallie Martin. As a frequent attendee of the First Church of Deliverance, pastored by Reverend Clarence H. Cobb, Ms. Martin often relayed her desire to him. A popular minister known as "the preacher," Cobb hired Kenneth Morris as his choir director. Morris became a pioneering and innovative Gospel musician. He is noted for the introduction of the Hammond organ to the Gospel music sound. Sallie Martin often sang with Kenneth Morris's Choir. And Cobb persuaded Morris to go into business with Sallie Martin. Martin was a great natural talent, but had no formal music training. She needed a partner who could write and arrange music.
Morris bought out Martin in 1973. And about 1978, he acquired the Theodore Frye and the Roberta Martin catalogues. The Bowles and the Beatrice Brown catalogues were also added to the firm's inventory before Mr. Morris's passing. When he died, Martin and Morris Publishing was the only surviving Black Gospel sheet music distribution house in the nation. His widow continued the business for some time after his death. There was little interest in the company by other family members, and requests for materials were dropping off. With little help and lighter profits, in 1993 Necie Morris began packing up and disposing of the company's records. For more information see We'll Understand It Better By and By, Bernice Johnson Reagon, ed., 1992, SI Press. Clickhere to go to scope and content.
Provenance:
The collection's acquisition was facilitated through Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon's long-time research on Gospel music. Among the contacts made in her research was the late Kenneth Morris. Dr. Reagon made it known to Chief Archivist, John Fleckner that the Morris family was clearing out the building which the firm had occupied since the 1940's. Mr. Fleckner made contact with Morris' widow, Mrs. Necie Morris, and selected the collection materials for the Museum during an August, 1993 visit to Chicago. Related objects, a large building sign and a banner advertisement, were acquired by the Division of Cultural History.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact Martin and Morris Music Company Records: Kenneth Morris, Jr., 913 Cordoba, University Park, IL 60466.
For performance rights contact Reginald Morris, 7400 S. Euclid Ave., Chicago, IL 60649 (773) 643-9492, e-mail: 4morreg@att.net
For clearance of Martin and Morris Music compositions on television contact Otubusin and Associates, Kristina Monkel, 77 W. Washington Blvd., #1204, Chicago, IL 60602 (312) 251-1480; e-mail: kristinamonkel@aol.com.
Denmark -- Emigration and immigration -- 1920-1930
Date:
1920-1930.
Scope and Contents note:
Three scrapbooks and two albums containing photographs of Corson; news clippings about the swim; a Certificate of Life Membership in the Danish American Athletic Club; a certificate from the American Red Cross; sheet music; a tribute to her which contains a picture of her and her children; programs with images of her; advertisements; and a Navy chart showing her route and time. Vaudeville appearances, product endorsements, and civic honors are depicted in photographs and playbills.
Arrangement:
Arranged into two series
Series 1: Photographs, undated
Series 2: Scrapbooks, circa 1926
Biographical/Historical note:
Mille Gade was born in Denmark into the Gade family of noted musicians. At 16 she was awarded the Royal Life Saving Medal (only five in the world at that time) by the king. She also received recognition and a cash award from the Carnegie Foundation for her life-saving feats. She emigrated to the United States in 1919. In 1921 she became the second woman to swim around Manhattan Island and in the same year swam frm Albany to New York City. On Sept. 21, 1921 she married Clemington Corson. Her first English Channel attempt was in August 1923, when she was forced to abondon the effort within two miles of the French coast. On Aug. 27 and 28, 1926, she swam the English Channel (France to England) in 15-3/4 hours, the first mother and only the second woman to conquer the Channel.
Related Archival Materials:
Artifacts from this accession located in Community Life collections (now Division of Cultural and Community Life).
Provenance:
Collection donated by Esther Stoyanoff, October 25, 1981.
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 collection documents Granatelli's lifelong involvement with automobiles, from his youth through his career as an auto industry executive, and as a racing car owner, designer and promoter. The collection consists primarily of files, photographs, scrapbooks, and drawings. Some of the earliest files relate to Grancor, a company founded by Granatelli and his two brothers in 1945, which customized cars for clients. Other things contained in the files include meeting minutes, articles of association, business and financial records, legal records and profit and loss statements. Also included are papers relating to an organization he started called the Hurricane Hot Rod Association.
A large portion of the files relate to Granatelli's term as President of STP, a division of the Studebaker Corporation, from 1961-1974. These files detail the internal workings of the company during this period, and include papers relating to such things as strategic planning, sales, marketing, advertising and competitors' products. Additionally, this portion contains STP's Board of Directors' minutes, documents on policies and procedures, papers documenting advertising campaigns, comparative sales figures, sales manuals, and Granatelli's business correspondence. The largest part of the files relate to the Indianapolis 500 race. There are detailed files on the drivers and race teams he assembled for the annual race, but these files also include design drawings, specifications, test data, lap logs, performance statistics, and reports documenting the implementation of design changes. The scrapbooks in the collection contain clippings, biographical materials, and other documents relating to auto racing in America and especially the Indianapolis 500. Finally, the collection contains a large number of photographs covering all aspects of Granatelli's career.
Arrangement:
Collection is arranged into nine series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1946-2006
Series 2: Granatelli Corporation, 1943-1975
Series 3: Studebaker Corporation, 1935-1991
Series 4: United States Auto Club (USAC)
Series 5: Novi Engine, 1949-1971
Series 6: Product Literature, 1949-1972
Series 7: Racing Programs, Publications, and Ephermera, 1940s-2007
Series 8: Photographs, 1932-2008
Series 9: Audiovisual Materials, 1960-2001
Biographical / Historical:
Andy Granatelli (1923-2013) was an automobile racing promoter, a race car engine designer and an automotive innovator. Two of his cars, a 1967 turbine engine race car and the 1969 Indianapolis 500 winner, are in National Museum of American History's Division of Work & Industry collection. More than any other racing figure, Granatelli bridged the realms of garage tinkerers and professional motorsports, and he stimulated public interest in auto racing on a national level. His STP Corporation became a high-profile sponsor of Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR race cars, with Granatelli appearing in ads and commercials. His larger-than-life personality and flair for the dramatic made him an American cultural phenomenon. His career is well summed up in the profile written for his 2003 induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame.
Racer, entrepreneur, engineer, promoter, business executive. This is how one begins to describe the career of Andy Granatelli. But the title Mister 500 is the one that befits him most, for it describes a lifelong dream to conquer the famous 500-mile race in Indianapolis.
It was a preposterous dream for the scrappy kid growing up in the slums of Chicago, whose mother had died when he was twelve, and two years later, at the age of fourteen, dropped out of school to help his father feed the family. Andy Granatelli began his quest for Indy 500 fame at the age of 20 in 1943, when he and his brother pooled their meager, hard-earned money and purchased a Texaco gas station on the north side of Chicago, which he called Andy's Super Service. Andy, always the promoter, needed a gimmick to set himself apart from other service stations. His gimmick? Granatelli initiated the first pit stop service station, utilizing four or five mechanics to work on a car at one time.
Customers appreciated the true super service experience and would often wait in line for this unique treatment. With this unique service and Andy's P.T. Barnum style it was no wonder that the station was prosperous, and just two years later, in 1945, he formed the Granatelli Corporation, known as Grancor Automotive Specialists. As the head of Grancor, Andy Granatelli pioneered the concept of mass merchandising performance products and power and speed equipment to a generation of Americans who were discovering the joys of hot rodding.
Andy quickly learned that if you give the customer what he needs, you can make a living; give him what he wants, and you can make a fortune! Granatelli's racing career began in 1946, when he built the first rocket-powered car to race on an oval track. That same year, he took his first car to the Indianapolis 500--a pre-war Harry Miller--designed Ford.
When Andy Granatelli wasn't burning up tracks, he was tearing up the business world. In 1958, Andy and his brother Joe purchased Paxton Products, a failing engineering firm that made superchargers. With Andy at the helm, Paxton Products became profitable in seven months. In 1961, Andy sold Paxton Products to Studebaker Corporation and stayed on as Paxton's CEO. Two years later, Studebaker management wanted Granatelli to work his magic on an under-performing division called Chemical Compounds Corporation. Chemical Compounds had only one, little known product . . . STP Oil Treatment. With virtually no advertising budget, Andy created a four-pronged approach to turn the company around: a recognizable corporate logo (the STP oval), a product (oil treatment), a product spokesman (himself) and a reason for existence (racing). The STP logo became one of the best recognized in history. STP could be found in virtually every venue of speed: on land, on the water or in the air. Andy Granatelli once said that in the 1960s, virtually every kid in America had an STP sticker on his bedroom door, his notebook or his lunchbox, and he was probably right!
Back at Indianapolis, Granatelli entered a revolutionary race car of his own design - one with a turbine engine in 1967 and 1968. Even though the car failed to finish both years due to mechanical failure, the cars demonstrated superior speed and performance. At the end of the 1968 season, the U.S. Auto Club revised engine specifications, effectively outlawing Granatelli's turbine car. Undeterred, Granatelli returned to Indy the following year with a conventional car and proceeded to win his first Indianapolis 500 with Mario Andretti at the wheel. Four years later, in 1973, Andy won his second and last Indy 500 with a car driven by Gordon Johncock. Andy Granatelli's childhood dream of conquering Indy was fulfilled, not once, but twice.
Source
Andy Granatelli Biography, Automotive Hall of Fame (last accessed January 29, 2020 https://www.automotivehalloffame.org/honoree/andy-granatelli/)
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
Warshaw Collection of Business American, Series: Automobile Industry (NMAH.AC.0060)
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 1: Transportation (NMAH.AC.0300)
Evan Rangeloff Collection of Punchboards and Liggett & Myers Tobacco Sales Materials (NMAH.AC.0716)
Materials at the National Museum of American History, Division of Work and Industry
The Divison holds artifacts related to STP and the STP-Paxton Turbo Car. Included are key chains, trophies, STP stickers, TuneUp Masters stickers, belt buckle, and patch. See accession 2017.3043.
STP-Paxton Turbocar, 1967. See accession 1978.0418.
Materials at the National Museum of American History, Division of Cultural and Community Life
Division holds artifacts related to Andy Grantelli's racing career such as helmets, goggles, trophies, and coveralls and vests with the STP logo. See accession 2017.0092.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Vincent J. Granatelli, 2017.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Viewing film and audio portion of collection requires special appointment. See repository for details.
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 Sports, Entertainment and Leisure Search this
Extent:
4.5 Cubic feet (12 boxes, 1 map folder)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Letters (correspondence)
Programs
Paper dolls
Interviews
Clippings
Awards
Photographs
Magazines (periodicals)
Advertisements
Date:
1910 - 2003
Summary:
Yolande Betbeze was crowned Miss America in September, 1950. During and after her reign she was influential in both the Civil Rights and Feminist movements. Her papers document her reign as Miss America, her life after Miss America, and the Miss America pageant itself.
Scope and Contents:
Scope and Content: This collection documents the life of Yolande Betbeze who reigned as Miss America 1951. Though the collection focuses heavily on the year of her reign from September 1950 to September 1951, it also includes information about her life before winning the Miss America pageant, the Miss Alabama and Miss America pageants of 1950, and her life post-Miss America. Visual imagery in the collection documents life and fashion in the 1950s through 2000. Newspaper articles offer evidence of the culture of the 1950s. This collection contains newspaper clippings, magazine articles, photographs, awards, and memorabilia of Miss America pageants throughout the twentieth century in the form of booklets, brochures, and paper dolls.
Series 1, Miss America Reign, 1950-1951, 1994, undated, includes newspaper articles, magazine articles, and awards from the House of Representatives, programs and brochures relating to Ms. Betbeze's activities as Miss America. All publicity articles—whether promotional or editorial-are included in this series. Betbeze traveled extensively during her reign, and her trips are documented here. Also included in this series are her visits to military installations, promotion of Miss America pageant sponsors, promotion of her own opera career, and most importantly her verbal attacks against the objectification of women in pageants while she wore the Miss America crown.
Subseries 1, Newspaper Clippings and Magazine Articles, 1950-1951, undated,
includes newspaper clippings about Betbeze during her reign as Miss America, documenting nearly every event she attended and delving into her love life and home life. The clippings are arranged by month and year from September 1950 through September 1951. The newspaper articles from Betbeze's reign that are without a date are arranged by topic behind the dated clippings. This subseries also includes several articles published in magazines about Betbeze during her reign. The articles are arranged in chronological order by year behind the newspaper clippings.
Subseries 2, Awards, 1950, includes awards given to Betbeze by the House of Representatives after she was named Miss America in Atlantic City, as well as an award by the town of Chickasaw naming Betbeze an honorary citizen.
Subseries 3, Programs and Brochures, 1950-1951, includes mini-photo books of Betbeze from her reign as Miss America, as well as pageant programs from pageants she attended as Miss America. It also includes programs and brochures of events she attended and participated in as Miss America, such as her Coronation Ball and a Symphony in Fashion runway show. The materials are arranged with the photograph books first, followed by pageant programs, then programs from various events.
Subseries 4, Promotional Advertisements, 1950-1951, includes promotional advertisements for Nash Automobile, the Official Car Company of Miss America, and Everglaze Fabric. These advertisements are arranged in chronological order.
Subseries 5, Materials Related to Miss America Reign, 1950-1951, 1994, includes material relevant to Betbeze's reign as Miss America, such as her schedule book from September 1950 to September 1951 and a 1994 interview regarding her life, her reign, and her beliefs. The materials are arranged in chronological order by year.
Series 2, Post-Miss America Reign, 1951-2001, undated, documents Betbeze's life after her reign as Miss America through newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and Betbeze's copy of pageant judging guidelines for Miss America 1957. It also documents the changing view of women from the 1950s through the turn of the twenty-first century. Betbeze pursued a career in opera after Miss America, but this career ended with her marriage to Matthew Fox. Materials also relate to her marriage to Matthew Fox, her relationship with Cherif Guellal, her life in Georgetown in Washington D.C in the 1960s, and her participation in later Miss America pageants.
Subseries 1, Newspaper Clippings and Magazine Articles, 1952-2001, undated, includes newspaper clippings and magazine articles about Betbeze after her reign as Miss America. They document her relationships, lifestyle, causes, and career. The clippings are arranged chronologically by year. The magazine articles are arranged chronologically by decade behind the newspaper clippings.
Subseries 2, Miss America Activities, 1957, comprises of Betbeze's copy of judging guidelines from the 1957 Miss America Pageant. It includes a schedule of events and the judging criteria for each woman, illustrating the changing perception of women in the United States of America from the 1950s through the twenty-first century.
Series 3, Photographs, 1950-2000, undated, documents Betbeze's life from the 1940s to the turn of the twenty-first century. It includes several photographs from her childhood and teen years. The majority of the series focuses on her reign as Miss America, including photos of her travels, glamour photos, publicity photos, and candid shots. It also includes photographs of Betbeze after her reign. There are negatives for several of the photographs. Photographs are arranged by topic.
Subseries 1, Pre-Miss America Reign, 1949-1950, contains Betbeze's life as a teenager and the Miss Alabama pageant. The photographs are arranged by topic.
Subseries 2, Miss America Reign, 1950-1951, undated, provides visual evidence enhancing the printed materials in the other series. It includes photographs of Betbeze's travels throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico, and the Caribbean. It also includes glamour photographs, candid shots, and publicity events that she attended as Miss America. There are a few photographs of her in a swimsuit. The photographs are arranged by topic.
Subseries 3, Post-Miss America Reign, 1951-2001, includes photographs of Betbeze in later life, especially at Miss America pageants in the 1990s. The photographs are arranged by topic.
Series 4, Materials Related to Miss America Pageants, 1910-2003, undated, documents the institution of the Miss America Pageant and its development throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. It includes memorabilia from Atlantic City, the pageants, and Miss America advertisements. It includes official pageant yearbooks and correspondence to Betbeze regarding the seventy-fifth anniversary of Miss America, including a booklet about the pageant. It also includes Miss America Through the Looking Glass (1985), a book documenting the Miss America Pageant from its inception to the 1980s.
Subseries 1, Official Pageant Yearbooks, 1946-2003, comprises of Official Pageant Yearbooks. They illustrate the changing fashions and culture surrounding the pageant. They are arranged in chronological order by year.
Subseries 2, Miss America Memorabilia, 1910-2001, undated, consists of memorabilia of the Miss America Pageant and Atlantic City. The materials include a package for a hairnet from the 1920s, advertisements using the Miss America label for Lucky Strike cigarettes, sheet music for the Miss America and Miss Alabama official songs, Miss America Through the Looking Glass, various stickers advertising the pageant and Atlantic City, Miss America paper dolls, cards and postcards. The memorabilia is arranged in chronological order by year.
Subseries 3, Seventy-fifth Anniversary of Miss America, 1995, includes correspondence between pageant directors and Betbeze regarding the seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Miss America Pageant, as well as a brochure about the pageant. The materials are arranged by type; first is the correspondence regarding the seventy-fifth anniversary, then the brochure advertising Miss America.
Series 5, Yolande Betbeze Personal Papers, 1949-1999, undated, documents life behind-the-scenes through telegrams and letters from friends and fans, invitations and Betbeze's schedule book as Miss America. It includes magazine articles and newspaper clippings from her pre-Miss America years, and the layout of an interview she gave in 1994.
Subseries 1, Personal Correspondence, 1950-1995, undated, consists of personal letters between Betbeze and her friends, including Lenora Slaughter, the head of the Miss America Pageant when Betbeze was Miss America. It also includes fan-mail and autograph requests. The correspondence is arranged chronologically by year.
Subseries 2, Telegrams, 1950-1951, consists of telegrams that Betbeze received as Miss America. They consist of well wishes for her reign, birthday, and Christmas. The telegrams are arranged chronologically by year.
Subseries 3, Newspaper Clippings and Magazine Articles, 1949-1950, consists of newspaper clippings and magazine articles saved by Betbeze. They include reviews of her performance as Musetta in La Boheme in Mobile in 1949 and articles about Matthew Fox. The clippings are arranged chronologically by month and year. The magazine articles are arranged by year behind the newspaper clippings.
Arrangement:
Tyhe collection is divided into five series.
Series 1: Miss America Reign, 1950-1951, 1994, undated
Subseries 1.1, Newspaper Clippings and Magazine Articles, 1950-1951, undated
Subseries 1.5, Materials Related to Miss America Reign, 1950-1994
Series 2: Post Miss America, 1952-2001, undated
Subseries 1, Newspaper Clippings and Magazine Articles, 1952-2001, undated
Subseries 2, Miss America Activities, 1957
Series 3: Photographs, 1950-2000, undated
Subseries 3.1, Pre-Miss America Reign, 1949-1950
Subseries 3.2, Miss America Reign, 1950-1951, undated
Subseries 3.3, Post Miss America Reign, 1951-2001
Series 4: Materials Related to Miss America Pageants, 1910-2003, undated
Subseries 4.1, Official Pageant Yearbooks, 1946-2003
Subseries 4.2, Miss America Memorabilia, 1910-2001, undated
Subseries 4.3, Seventy-fifth Anniversary of Miss America, 1995
Series 5: Yolande Betbeze Personal Papers, 1949-1999, undated
Subseries 5.1, Personal Correspondence, 1950-1995, undated
Subseries 5.2, Telegrams, 1950-1951
Subseries 5.3, Newspaper Clippings and Magazine Articles, 1949-1950
Biographical / Historical:
Yolande Betbeze, Miss America 1951, was born in 1929 in Mobile, Alabama. Her mother was of Basque ancestry, so Yolande ended up with a foreign sounding name and dark European looks, quite different from the general populace of Mobile. Early on she aspired to become a famous opera singer, and took voice lessons throughout her teenage years. In 1949 she starred as Musetta in Puccini's La Boheme, through the Mobile Opera Guild.
In 1950, Yolande entered the Miss Mobile Beauty Pageant, hoping to win and continue to state and national levels to receive a scholarship to study voice in New York City, or even abroad. When she entered the pageant she gave her age as 21, but at her next birthday in late 1950 (presumably her 22nd) she confessed that she had lied about her age. Really, she was 20 when she entered the Miss America pageant, and this was her 21st birthday.
She was crowned Miss Mobile, then Miss Alabama. In September 1950, she made her way to Atlantic City to compete for the title of Miss America. Newspapers in Alabama raved about her. Even journalists in the north predicted that Yolande would be crowned the next Miss America. In an interview, pageant director Lenora Slaughter says that from the moment she saw her she felt that Yolande would be crowned the next Miss America. During preliminaries, Yolande won first place in the swimsuit competition, while Miss Connecticut won first place in the talent competition. Nonetheless, Yolande wowed them with her singing. When she won the title of Miss America, her schedule quickly filled with singing engagements.
On September 9th, 1950, Yolande Betbeze was crowned Miss America. She became an overnight success due to her grace, poise, beauty, and talent. However, she had received an education at a convent school, and felt a bit squeamish about 'cheesecake poses' in a bathing suit. Every Miss America had done a swimsuit tour, even though it wasn't in their contracts that they must, and Yolande was expected to follow in their footsteps. But she wanted to be an opera star, not a pin-up girl, she declared. After winning Miss America, she refused to pose in a swimsuit unless she was going swimming.
The Catalina Swimwear Company, a sponsor of the Miss America pageant, did not like Yolande's stance on swimsuits. They contended that the Miss America pageant had become less focused on the beauty of the contestant and more on their talents and personality. They wanted to bring beauty back. They pulled their sponsorship and created a new pageant line which now includes Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA. This pageant focuses only on the physical beauty of a competitor. Even today there is no talent portion, and even the interview portion has been diluted.
Another issue of the Miss America pageant involved the marriage of a Miss America. Though Yolande had no plans to marry, or even a boyfriend, the papers certainly wanted to know the details surrounding her love-life and ability to marry with the title Miss America. Yolande explained that she received an extra $4000 for staying single throughout the year, but if she wanted to marry she could ask permission from the 18 pageant directors. "Wouldn't it be easier to wait a year?" she asked.
Her year as Miss America was an eventful one. She traveled throughout the United States, the Bahamas, Mexico, France, and Italy. She met with Congressmen, foreign leaders, opera stars, and famous fashion designers. According to Lenora Slaughter, Yolande had the fullest schedule of any Miss America to that date. Everyone agreed that she had put class into the Miss America pageant.
After her reign, she was succeeded as Miss America by Colleen Kay Hutchins, originally Miss Utah. The two became friends and Yolande was in Colleen's wedding some years later. Yolande took up philanthropic causes—fighting for racial equality in the pageants, for instance. She also marched in civil rights demonstrations, participated in sit-ins, and marched in a feminist demonstration in Atlantic City. In 1954 she married a motion picture and television producer, Matthew Fox. They had one daughter before his death in 1964. After she was widowed, Yolande moved to Georgetown in the District of Columbia, where she lives to this day.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History
The Miss America 1943 [Jean Bartel] Photographs, 1943-1944 (AC0902)
Separated Materials:
The Division of Work and Industry, Natiuonal Museum of American Historu holds artifacts related to this collection: the Miss America crown, scepter, and sash of 1950-1951, worn by the donor, and the Miss Alabama sash and Miss America ribbon of 1950-1951.
Provenance:
Donated by Yolande Betbeze in 2005.
Restrictions:
The 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. Reproduction restricted due to copyright or trademark.
1,150 Cubic feet (approximately. Series 1 contains approximately 1108 cubic feet consisting of approximately 2050 boxes, approximately 326 oversize boxes, and map case material. Additional material in Series 2-4 is unquantified. With also, some digital images of select collection materials.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Posters
Letterheads
Advertisements
Maps
Business ephemera
Calendars
Trade cards
Broadsides
Ephemera
Stationery
Advertising cards
Sheet music
Photomechanical prints
Sales catalogs
Chromolithographs
Place:
business ephemera -- Adirondack Mountains (N.Y.)
Albany (N.Y.)
Date:
circa 1708-1977
Scope and Contents:
The Warshaw Collection consists of approximately 1,150 cubic feet of material currently contained in approximately 2,050 vertical document boxes, approximately 326 flat oversize boxes, 34 map case drawers of oversize materials, 56 volumes of photographic photo prints, 17 boxes of 4 x 5 color transparencies and black and white photonegatives, 11 boxes of stereographs, and a videodisc. It consists of a large body of business ephemera. Ephemera is used to refer to the transient everyday items which are usually printed on paper however in some cases fabric, leather and wood have been used. This material is manufactured for a specific limited use and then meant to be thrown away. The collection also contains samples of ephemera that were meant to be saved for a short period of time and discarded later such as stock certificates. This material dates from the late eighteenth century to about 1977, but the bulk of the material is late from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The largest advertising history collection in the Archives Center, the Warshaw Collection is organized into five major categories: I. Business Ephemera -- - Vertical Files, II. Business Ephemera - - Oversize, III. Other Collection Divisions, IV. Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers and V. Photographic Reference Materials. Scope and content notes and a detailed description of the contents for all of these divisions are found in the following sections of the register.
Series 1: Business Ephemera, circa 1724-1977, makes up the largest portion of the collection. It is divided into 538 subject and geographic categories created by Mr. Warshaw and is contained in 2,050 vertical document boxes. Materials include vast numbers of advertising cards, scraps, stock cards, trade catalogs, price lists, menus, pamphlets, labels, lithographs, photographs, business letterheads, bills, receipts, greeting cards, post cards, calendars, printed advertisements, periodicals, newspaper clippings, broadsides, shipping documents, handbills, premiums, promotional items, announcements, business cards, packaging and point of purchase displays.
II. BUSINESS EPHEMERA - - OVERSIZE FILES, ca. 1850-1960, consists of approximatley 326 flat oversize boxes and 34 map case drawers of materials. Materials include posters, newspapers, point of purchase displays, packaging, printed advertisements, periodical illustrations, lithographs, labels, shipping documents, promotional items, trade catalogs, pattern sheets, maps, art reproductions, fashion design drawings, membership certificates and price lists. The material is organized by the same subject and geographical categories as materials in the vertical document boxes.
III. OTHER COLLECTION DIVISIONS, ca. 1790-1957, represents a significant accumulation of one type of material rather than a mix of various types of ephemera. Materials generally relate to one subject. Most of the material is stored in flat oversize boxes. Materials include cinema lobby cards, fire insurance maps, photographs and scrapbooks of liquor and wine labels.
IV. ISADORE WARSHAW PERSONAL PAPERS, ca. 1917-1966, consists of three document boxes of materials relating to how Mr. Warshaw maintained the collection as a business. Most of this material is correspondence sent to him in response to his research inquiries. A smaller portion of the material is printed advertisements and circulars created by Mr. Warshaw to advertise his services and the collection. Magazine articles, letterhead stationery and photographs make up the remainder of the material.
V. PHOTOGRAPHIC REFERENCE MATERIAL, consists of photographs, slides and transparencies of items found in the collection. These materials were created for a number of purposes. Some were created in response to requests by researcher for images to be used in publications, exhibitions, and for other purposes. Others were created as a quick reference source for researchers. Several thousand photographic images from the Warshaw Collection were also transferred to an experimental videodisc by the Institution's Office of Photographic and Printing Services (OPPS). The videodisc is available for viewing on equipment in the Archives Center.
Use of the prints, slides, and videodisc reduces wear and tear on the collection, permits rapid searching through many images, and assures the researcher - - in most cases that a photographic negative of transparency already exists, and that copies can be reproduced relatively quickly and inexpensively. Searching the collection's photographic reproductions is especially appropriate for researchers who want to see general images of subjects such as "women in advertising" or an advertisement from a particular year.
The Warshaw Collection originally contained books, three-dimensional objects and food crate labels. Those books that did not directly relate to the collection were transferred to the Smithsonian Libraries. Remaining publications are stored in the Business Ephemera-Vertical Files document boxes within the appropriate subject category.
Mr. Warshaw collected three-dimensional objects to illustrate packaging, to convey information about product content, shape and size, and to document advertising in three-dimensional forms. Such items included hair product packaging, games, patent medicine containers, cosmetics, tobacco tins, food containers, and liquor bottles. There were also a number of objects, mostly made of glass, tin, and wood, including trays and stained glass signs advertising products such as patent medicine, tobacco, phonographs, refrigerators, stoves, hair products, meat, agricultural tools and implements, whiskey, bakery goods, and beer. Some of these objects were framed. All these objects have been transferred to the appropriate divisions in the Museum. Information on the locations of these items can be obtained in the Archives Center reference room.
Food crate labels were once an important advertising device. Used to develop loyalty to particular growers, these labels were appealing because of the commercial artwork. Some of the labels were mounted on wood. These labels also were transferred to a curatorial unit. The un-mounted labels are in the "foods" section of the Business Ephemera - - Vertical Files.
Research Strengths and Limitations
The strength of the Warshaw Collection lies in its size, its variety, and its extraordinarily rich visual imagery. These images illustrate how Americans perceived themselves or wished to be perceived, how they saw others, their work patterns, their recreation habits, and other aspects of American culture from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. They provide an alternative source to written and printed historical materials, sometimes conveying information about values and practices not otherwise documented. These images stand as a powerful reminder that the origins of modern, visual mass communications go much farther back than the invention of television.
Most of the imagery, of course, is a vision of American life as seen through the eyes of advertising agencies and of the businesses they represented. Researchers working with the collection find it an especially rich source for examining the dynamic relationship between advertising and American culture over the centuries.
There are some problems, however, interpreting American culture through these materials. Most of the advertisements in the collection represent Anglo-American mainstream culture. African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans and members of other ethnic groups are only occasionally depicted in the advertisements. Much of this imagery is stereotypical and fails to recognize ethnic groups as consumers. Despite these limitations the ethnic imagery offers penetrating insights into American culture and its changing values and tastes. The Archives Center's Ethnic Imagery Project has identified thousands of items within the Warshaw Collection, and in other Center collections, which depict race and ethnicity. The Project also is seeking to expand the range of such imagery within the Center's collections to provide a better rounded view of how Americans see themselves and each other.
There are few indications in the collection of consumer response. The materials mostly consist of end products, what customers received. Testimonials and celebrity endorsements are among the materials but do not constitute a large portion of it, nor do they appear in every subject category. There is also little documentation on the success or failure of advertisements. Evidence about advertisers' decisions to use specific advertisements is extremely rare.
There is no complete history of any one company represented in the collection. For many of the businesses, the material consists of fragments of the advertising materials created to sell their products or services. Biographical information on founders or the early developments of the company may be included on letterhead stationery or bills and receipts but not always. Occasionally one finds company publications that discuss the history of the business. These were usually produced for anniversaries and more often for larger companies that had existed for a long time, such as Proctor & Gamble.
Most of the businesses represented in the Collection were east of the Mississippi River. This is probably due to the collecting possibilities for Mr. Warshaw. It also may be due to the concentration of many industries in this region.
Despite its limitations, the Warshaw Collection is the most heavily used collection in the Archives Center. Researchers in the Collection often find information unavailable elsewhere. Researchers in the Collection have included academic historians, Smithsonian curatorial staff , and outside museum staff interested in the collection for exhibition purposes. Smithsonian Shops buyers and others interested in motifs for licensed products, collectors and hobbyists find the collection a rich source for such research.
Series 1: Business Ephemera:
Dates -- circa 1544-1988
Contents -- Series 1: Business Ephemera1.1: Subject Categories1.2: Geographical Categories
Series 2: Other Collection Divisions:
Dates -- circa 1850-1957
Contents -- Series 2: Other Collection Divisions2.1: Business Records [Obsolete as of 2017]2.2: Cinema Lobby Cards2.3: Fire Insurance Maps2.4: Liquor and Wine Labels and Advertisements2.5: Photographs2.6: Stereographs2.7: Sheet Music2.8: Rewards and Wanted Posters
Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers:
Dates -- circa 1917-1966
Contents -- Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers3.1: Correspondence3.2: Secondary Writings about Warshaw and the Collection3.3: Business Materials3.4: Miscellaneous
Series 4: Photographic Reference Material:
Dates -- undated
Contents -- Series 4: Photographic Reference Material4.1: Photoprints4.2: 35mm color slides4.3: Color transparencies4.4: Videodisc
Arrangement note:
The collection is divided into four series.
Series 1: Business Ephemera
Series 2: Other Collection Divisions
Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers
Series 4: Photographic Reference Material
Biographical / Historical:
The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana is the result of the foresight and energy of Isadore Warshaw. Warshaw believed that the history of America was closely tied to the history of American business. He observed, however, that the business community often looked to the future rather than the past and tended not to retain historical company records. As a result, a number of businesses had no coherent record of their past. Warshaw realized that these records could be of value one day.
"Sonny" Warshaw, as he was known to family and friends, was born June 12, 1900 and reared in Albany, New York, the second youngest of ten children of Rubin and Ray (Mackler) Warshaw. Although he received little formal education, he started in business as a book scout in 1915 searching for rare publications for dealers and collectors. Later he became a rare book dealer and collector himself. His hobbies included sketching and painting, and several pieces of this self-taught artist's work were exhibited in local banks.
Warshaw's interest in collecting business ephemera began in 1928 when an important event inspired him. In the process of searching for books, he often ran across various pieces of ephemera. In these posters, labels, ledgers, invoices, calendars, business cards, correspondence on letterhead stationery, and advertising cards, he could see the romantic side of big business. One day he ran across an invoice signed by John Forsythe, founder of a New York haberdashery, and sent it to the store. In reponse, he received a thank-you note along with an invitation to select six shirts in appreciation for the item he found. This combination of events encouraged Warshaw to begin a lifelong mission. He opened an office at 61 Columbia Street in Albany, New York, announcing to the business community that he had their history and would make it available.
In 1942, Isadore Warshaw moved from Albany to New York City where he opened an office at 752 West End Avenue. In 1944, he married Augusta Levy, a former buyer for a group of women's ready-to-wear shops in Miami, Florida. They had no children. A portion of their apartment was used as an office where Mrs. Warshaw handled all the correspondence. The Warshaws lived with the fear of a fire destroying the collection because this was their sole source of income. Insurance companies informed them that in order to insure the collection, each piece would have to be counted. As a result, the collection was never insured. A fire did occur once in the building but only a small portion of their vast holdings suffered from smoke damage.
Warshaw spent a great deal of time at the New York Public Library, museums, and historical societies, gathering ideas and information relating to his business pursuits. He never referred to his time spent researching and collecting as a hobby. As his business began to grow, he relied on as many as forty scouts across the country to hunt for material. He acquired material from companies going out of business, buildings about to be demolished, garage sales, auctions, antique shows, stamp dealers and collectors, old safes, small country merchants, and bookstores. He also advertised in catalogues for the book industry throughout the country.
Warshaw's approach at first was to purchase pieces of Americana in hope of finding a buyer. He mailed thousands of advertisements to his five hundred corporate clients. Rejected items went to a brownstone building that he referred to as his warehouse. Warshaw later discovered that there was more profit in renting materials or selling reproduction rights to the very materials he had once carted away. Companies rented objects or entire packaged displays to commemorate anniversaries, for sales conventions, annual reports, trade shows, lectures, and window displays. A few of his major clients included Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Steel Company, the Riegel Paper Company, the American Can Company, and the Western Electric Company. Reward posters and gold-rush prints were used as props for TV westerns.
Warshaw used the collection to do various kinds of research for a number of businesses. Sometimes he investigated the history of a firm to supply it with founding dates. He found evidence of expansion and product diversification in various documents in the collection. For example, company records showed that Procter and Gamble began as a soap and candle manufacturer before it expanded to a wide variety of products.
Warshaw also had clients outside the business community. Members of the legal profession relied on his collection for various purposes. Lawyers contacted him when they wanted to convert personal property from estates to cash, and he also served as an expert witness, providing evidence in disputes involving trademarks, copyrights, and slogans.
American Heritage, Life, and other publications wishing to illustrate articles found graphics in the collection. Warshaw swapped items with local libraries and historical societies. Joseph N. Kane used the collection to document information for his book, Famous First Facts. Commenting on the many uses of his collection, Warshaw stated:
I have been fortunate. As a collector of things that now document the rapid growth of industry, I have been able to find wide use for my collection. People are beginning to realize that while the romance of war, fashion and science, for instance, is well preserved in swords, wax dolls, and fascinating models...the romance of business in the form of ledgers, sample books, posters, and tin cans tends to perish in debris. Now people come to me to illustrate histories and to get pictures of things as they were.
As Warshaw aged, he began to look for a buyer for the collection. Ralph M. Hower, at one time a professor of business at Harvard, recommended that the collection be purchased and indexed by the Baker Library at Harvard's Business School. He regarded it as a wealth of evidence on such topics specialization, diversification, and integration of business firms and the location of trade and industry.
Discussions about the Warshaw Collection among the staff of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (then the Museum of History and Technology) began in 1961. The primary reason for the Museum's interest in purchasing the collection was to prevent the dispersal of a unique resource that could never be assembled again. In the opinions of Smithsonian staff, it provided evidence of things that could be found nowhere else.
Although negotiations for buying the collection and bringing it to the Museum began in 1966, the collection was not actually purchased and transported to the Museum until August 1967. Warshaw had moved his business several times and at the time of the sale, it was located in three rooms on the second floor of 270 West 96th Street in New York. Packing the collection took four days and it was transported to Washington by two tractor trailers.
When the collection arrived at the Museum, it consisted primarily of advertising ephemera. There were also a number of three-dimensional objects, including shoes, clothing, jewelry, furs, ashtrays, coffee and tobacco tins, carpets, patent medicines, cosmetics, hair products, paperweights, whiskey bottles, and food packages. The collection was divided into hundreds of subject headings created by Warshaw. Some of Warshaw's personal papers revealing his business transactions were included, as well as advertisements used by Warshaw to solicit business from manufacturers and retailers. Most of the rest of Warshaw's own papers were destroyed by Mrs. Warshaw when she left New York in 1973.
Following the sale of the collection to the Museum, Warshaw found himself unable to relinquish his life's work. He continued to do research for a number of old clients, relying on such sources as the public library, historical societies, collectors, and dealers in this type of material. In the process he acquired additional material. The volume of this portion of the collection was equal to the size of a station wagon. It was offered to the Museum by Mrs. Warshaw in 1971, and Museum staff went to the New Jersey home of Mrs. Warshaw's brother to pick up the new collection in November 1971.
Curators from the Museum were encouraged to spend time with the collection after its arrival to determine its content in their subject areas. At that time the collection was stored in shirt boxes. Efforts were made to put the materials in vertical document boxes, keeping them in the subject categories created by Warshaw. As time went on, it was clear that the method used by Warshaw was not adequate for research use. Warshaw located materials by hunch rather than by system and there was little cross-referencing in the collection. Not only was it inaccessible to outside researchers, but many of the objects were fragile and required more protection than they had in their original storage containers.
When the Archives Center was established in 1982, it was intended to be a repository for documents and other archival material in the Museum, assuring proper storage and a place where researchers could come to use collections.
The Warshaw Collection was one of the greatest concerns of the Archives Center because of its heavy use. In 1983 the Archives Center and the Division of Conservation worked together to develop a plan to integrate archival principles with conservation methods and techniques, thus taking the first steps in creating a re-housing project.
The first part of the re-housing project began with a survey of the collection to analyze content and condition of the materials. Faith Zieske, a conservator, conducted the survey. She chose a standard statistical analytical method, randomly using 70 vertical document boxes as samples, to analyze the entire collection. Zieske consulted both the Library of Congress Preservation Office and the conservation staff of the Folger Shakespeare Library. A plan was then developed for implementing the survey. After examining the results of the survey, Zieske developed a phased plan for reorganizing and preserving the collection.
Conservation technician Carolyn Long and museum specialist Lorene Mayo began the pilot project in the summer of 1983, testing recommendations made in the survey. During this period Long wrote guidelines for handling the collection. Long and Mayo also developed new storage containers for housing objects of unusual shape.
As the re-housing project developed, finding aids were created for the processed portions of the collection. This was a crucial step that allowed staff and researchers to find items without actually going through the collection. Archives Center staff continue to develop means of making the collection more accessible to researchers who come to the Museum to use the collection, as well as to increase awareness of the existence of the collection in the research community outside the Museum.
List of Sources
"Cashing In On Old Office Records." Business Week, (December 6, 1958).
"A Glimpse at Industrial Advertising of the 80's." Industrial Marketing, (February 1946).
Interview by Vanessa Broussard-Simmons with Mrs. Augusta Levy Warshaw and Correspondence in Control File for Warshaw Collection.
Kahn, Joseph. "Trademark Detective: The Colorful Past of American Business is the 'Beat' of a Sleuth Who has Pioneered a New Kind of History." The Rotarian, ( December 2, 1957) .
Kramer, A. Stanley. "What's Old on Madison?" Madison Avenue. (March 1961).
Menuez, Caroline Bird. "There's Gold in Your Attic." Esquire, (1946).
General:
Several specific companies or proprietors repeatedly appear in various subseries of this collection. These records were dispersed through many subseries and prior arrangement efforts, including those done by the collector as well as post-acquisition staff, which focused on a category or business name of the vendors rather than retaining the record source original provenance and order. As of 2016, there is not a plan to cull through the collection and reconstitute such records, however if such an effort was made, it would likely result in reasonably comprehensive business records for several entities. A few have been noted here but an exhaustive survey of the collection in regards to the this trend of dispersal has not been conducted.
Jacob House (occasionally with variant spellings), which often account for some of the earliest business record within the Warshaw Business Americana Collection, particularly those documents dating in the 1700s and early 1800s.
Luddington, F.L. ... (see Hardware)
Stemmeler...(see Whiskey...)
[Note to be completed, NB 2016-10-18]
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
Provenance:
The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060, was 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:
Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogs restricted due to fragile condition. Researchers should consult microfilm in NMAH library for 1880-1983 editions, drawer 692.
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, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0060
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
1,108 Cubic feet (consisting of approximately 2,050 of boxes, approximately 336 oversize boxes, map case material.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Business ephemera
Business records
Ephemera
Printed ephemera
Date:
circa 1544-1988
Summary:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years.
Series 1 is organized into two sub-groups. The first is divided into 468 subject categories. The second sub-group is divided into 68 geographical categories.
An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
VERTICAL FILES:
This material makes up the largest portion of the collection currently contained in approximately 2,050 vertical document boxes. It consists of bills, receipts, scattered correspondence on letterhead stationery, advertising cards, trade catalogues, calendars, greeting cards, business cards, timetables, labels, handbills, photographs, lithographs, certificates, fans, newspaper clippings, envelopes, bookmarks, cigarette cards, stock cards, election literature, menus, sheet music, postcards, playing cards, posters, scraps, stickers, rewards of merit, maps, printed advertisements, application forms, and an assortment of other types of business ephemera. The material dates from the late eighteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries.
The material is organized into two sub-groups. The first is divided into 468 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. Within the subject categories, the material is organized by company where applicable or type of material. Subject categories which have been fully organized, re-housed, and described are followed by an asterisk (*). A scope and content note, folder list, and a list of subject terms for the processed subject categories is available. Many of the subjects also have brand-name indexes that are available in the Archives Center.
The second sub-group is divided into 68 categories and consists of materials arranged by geographical areas. The geographical areas include regions, states, cities and countries. Materials consists of bills and receipts, printed advertisements, maps, tourist handbooks and guides, photographs, etc. These materials remain largely unprocessed and written descriptions are not available.
OVERSIZE:
This material makes up a substantial portion of the collection currently contained in approximately 336 oversize boxes and 34 map case drawers. It consists primarily of posters, newspapers, point of purchase displays, packaging, printed advertisements, illustrations from periodicals, lithographs, labels, shipping documents, promotional items, trade catalogs, pattern sheets, maps, art reproductions, fashion design drawings, membership certificates, photographs, broadsides, price lists and an assortment of other types of business ephemera. The material dates from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries.
The material is arranged in alphabetical order in the same subject and geographical categories as materials in the Business Ephemera Vertical Files. Within a few of the subject categories, the material is organized by company if there was enough material to warrant it. These materials are housed in map case drawers, and 20x24 and 14x18 flat oversize boxes. Further descriptions and container lists for the oversize materials are available in the reference room.
Many of the materials are extremely fragile and require careful handling. Assistance from the reference archivist is highly recommended. Photocopies may not be made of the oversize materials due to size and condition. It is advisable to consult the notebooks containing black and white prints of collection materials. Photocopies of these prints can be made instead of the original materials. Researchers may request photographs, slides or transparencies from the Office of Printing and Photographic Services using existing negative numbers.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 2 subseries.
1.1: -- Subject Categories
1.2: -- Geographical Categories
General note:
(*) Categories organized and described in Scope Content Notes and Container Lists available in the Archive Center.
Materials in the Archives Center:
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
Forms Part Of:
Series 1: Business Ephemera forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana .
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:
The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060, was 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:
Select Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogs restricted due to fragile condition. Researchers should consult microfilm in NMAH library for 1880-1983 editions, drawer 692.
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, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Harpo Marx Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Papers relating to Charlotte Cramer Sachs's life and career as an inventor mainly of food and household-related products: correspondence, photographs, business papers, awards, patents, printed materials, notes, and miscellany. The collection primarily consists of invention-related marketing materials including invention samples and prototypes, notes, clippings, business correspondence, and customer account records.
Scope and Contents:
The records are divided into two series. Series 2 is further divided into eight subseries.
Series 1 documents the inventor's creativity through her artistic, literary, and musical records. Also included are awards and certificates received and materials related to her childhood home. This series contains few photos of Cramer Sachs herself, although a print of one of her paintings, "Portrait of a Lady," circa 1953, seems to be a self-portrait. There are no photos of her husband or daughter in the collection. Also missing is any information related to the inventor's formal education, childhood, the circumstances of her departure from Berlin, marriage, and family life.
Materials in Series 2 constitute the bulk of the collection and are primarily comprised of marketing ephemera, with very few financial and production records. This series gives a broad outline of Cramer Sachs's many inventions documenting Joy Products and wine-related inventions in the most depth.
Series 1: Creative and Artistic Papers, 1933-2002
These records include sheet music, songbooks, stories, and poetry of the inventor's own creation; photographic prints of her artwork; art exhibition materials; publishing company (Crambruck Press) records and published materials; childhood residence ("Haus Cramer") materials, and awards and certificates unrelated to inventions. Artwork and songs make up the bulk of the materials, and are arranged alphabetically by subject. Records in this series provide a context for Cramer Sachs's career as an inventor, although they do not reveal extensive information regarding her personal life or history.
Records relating to artwork include press releases, exhibition photographic prints and negatives, promotional materials, newspaper clippings, notebooks compiled by Cramer Sachs, as well as donation records of artworks given by the inventor to The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.
Crambruck Press publishing company is a combined name which incorporates the inventor's surname, Cramer and mother's maiden name, Bruck. These records include a pre-publication notice and order form for a Crambruck Press publication, correspondence from a donor, as well as three Crambruck Press publications: From Boring Dinosaur to Passionate Computer by Livingston Welch, 1968; Poems by Helen H. Shotwell, 1970; and In Search of Harmony by Charlo, 1964.
Haus Cramer materials include photographs, newspaper clippings (many of them in German), correspondence between Cramer Sachs and Stanford University, and floor plans of the house designed in 1912 by German architect Hermann Muthesius. A framed black-and-white photographic print of Haus Cramer is fragile and is housed in a sink matte, box 9.
Poetry materials, songs, and stories are contained in bound books, published songbooks, original sheet music, and copyright records for song words, manuscripts written by Cramer Sachs, as well as correspondence records related to her writings. The song "With Love From New York" was used in the marketing of "Joy New Yorkshire Pudding Mix," and the records contain a vinyl recording which doubles as a marketing piece. Allusions to her husband, Alexander Sachs, and daughter, Eleanor, are found in some of her songs and stories.
Translation materials are comprised of correspondence (mostly in German), as well as Cramer Sachs's complete English translation of the "Stoffel Flies Across the Ocean" story, originally written in German by Erika Mann, circa 1932.
Series 2: Invention Records, 1905-2002
Invention Records contain information related to Cramer Sachs as an inventor and are divided into eight subseries. Materials include: patent related records; samples and prototypes; marketing and advertising materials; newspaper and magazine clippings; business correspondence records; customer account records; Wine Museum materials; and patent searches. These present a broad overview of Cramer Sachs's many inventions, although the majority of information is concentrated in the Household/Office, Food Products, and Wine-related series. Records are arranged chronologically by invention. The final subseries contain patent searches requested by the inventor.
Subseries 2.1: Cramer Products Company and Affiliate Company Records, 1942-2002
Materials include financial records, business correspondence, company awards and certificates, real estate materials, license agreements with outside inventors, a promotion prospectus for the company, and three company stamps (three dimensional). Also included are records of an invention for which Cramer Sachs sought copyright, "Orthodontic Device," 1954, and those having to do with products distributed—not invented—by Cramer Products Company, "Forster Longfresh," 1985. In addition, there are black-and-white photographic prints of an office opening which include images of Cramer Sachs in 1967. These records are arranged chronologically.
These records relate to seven different inventions, each with varying degrees of information. "Combination Key and Flashlight," 1940 was an improvement on previous patents and therefore consists of the earlier patent materials (1913 and 1938), Cramer Sachs's patent application materials, an official, sealed patent application (1940), prototype drawings, correspondence records related to manufacturing and distribution, photographic prints, and a newspaper article. "Cozi-Crib," 1958 and 1968, and "Joy Originals Log Cabin Furniture Set," 1957, records include marketing materials whereas "Holdit," 1972, and "Party Platter," 1962, are minimally represented by one or two photographic prints. "Gaitray" materials consist of four product samples. Materials for "Miracle Knee Tray," circa 1953 include marketing ephemera, a photograph, and two product samples. A prototype for the "Traypron," 1954, is also included. These records are arranged alphabetically by invention name.
Subseries 2.3: Food Products, 1940-1969
Records in this subseries are mostly comprised of Joy Products prepared mix materials. Two exceptions are the small, fragile recipe book, 1940, and the "Caviodka," 1962, records. Business correspondence materials contain those from a food and equipment consultant, the Colgate-Palmolive Company, and Arthur Colton Company, in addition to those relating to the incorporation of Cramer Sachs's "baking mix manufacturing plant" (1945). There are numerous packaging samples of various Joy Products, along with handwritten recipes and notes. An example of early packaging for Joy Products "Early American Muffin Mix" is in flat box 10. This subseries also includes customer surveys and comments, marketing plans and proposals, advertisements, and a marketing portfolio compiled by the inventor. A scrapbook contains Joy Products newspaper clippings, advertisements, marketing ephemera, and photographs of store displays. The scrapbook pages are extremely brittle and are housed in sleeves. Preservation copies are available for research use. These records are arranged chronologically.
Subseries 2.4: Pet Accessories, 1953-1954
This subseries consists of materials relating to three inventions: "Bonnie Stand," circa 1953-1954; "Guidog," 1953; and "Watch-Dog," 1953. Records include photographic prints, marketing materials, printing blocks (for "Bonnie Stand"), as well as a declaration of invention for, and a product sample of, "Watch-Dog." These records are arranged alphabetically by invention name.
Subseries 2.5: Games, 1961-1969
The inventor created two games: "Domi-Notes," circa 1961 and "Musicards," circa 1969. "Domi-Notes" materials include an order form citing the distributor as G. Schirmer, Inc. and the addressee as Walter Kane and Son, Inc., and three games two in cardboard boxes, (fragile) and one housed in the original hard plastic case. Records relating to "Musicards" consist of two game samples including directions for playing.
Subseries 2.6: Wine-Related, 1966-2002
Wine-related records cover twenty distinct inventions and range from specialty cabinets—which make-up the bulk of the materials—to bottle accessories such as the "Bottle Bib" and the "Cramanna Bottle Ring." The type and number of records vary, with the majority concentrated in the "Cool-Safe," "Cramarc Multiple Cabinet," "Modern Wine Cellar," and "Well Tempered Systems" folders. Records in invention-specific folders are arranged alphabetically and include marketing materials, press releases, photographic prints and some negatives, cabinet drawings, brochures, order forms, correspondence, as well as product samples of "Bottle Bibs."
Customer account records are arranged alphabetically and consist of billing statements, invoices, receipts, blueprints, correspondence, cabinet drawings, customer feedback, bills of lading, and memoranda. Letters from David H. Wollins laud Cramer Sachs's cabinet as "the finest home wine storage system in the world." Examples of how the inventor handled an unsatisfied customer can be found in the Col. Charles Langley folder.
Miscellaneous wine-related materials follow the customer account records. Included are advertising ephemera, photographs, and newspaper clippings originally assembled into a binder by Cramer Sachs. Taped to the inside front cover was a cut-out from a magazine advertisement which reads, "If you stick with the herd, you could end up as a lamb chop." Miscellaneous materials also include unlabeled cabinet drawings, photographic prints, competitor materials, photocopies from Grossman's Guide to Wines, Spirits, and Beers, as well as marketing materials and newspaper clippings covering a range of wine-related inventions. These records are arranged alphabetically by subject.
The final section of the wine-related subseries documents the development and eventual dissolution of The Wine Museum of New York. Records are arranged chronologically and include a provisional charter; an extension of the provisional charter; a newspaper clipping; outreach correspondence; a binder of wine museum materials including brochures, event invitations, exhibition opening cards, board member profiles, a press release, and newspaper clippings; wine museum exhibition information; and records related to the dissolution of the museum.
Subseries 2.7: Temperature and/or Humidity Controlled Devices, 1968-2002
This subseries documents the inventor's temperature and/or humidity controlled inventions that do not relate to wine. Cramer Sachs created the "Well Tempered Cabinet" for both wine and musical instruments; it is documented in this and the wine-related subseries. These records cover eight distinct inventions which range from specialty cabinets for musical instruments, furs, and cigars to devices designed to cool the body. Records relate to marketing, invention-specific business correspondence, confidential information and competition agreements, and include photographic negatives and prints. Miscellaneous cabinet drawings, cigar-related materials, and newspaper articles are also included. Records are arranged alphabetically by invention name followed by miscellaneous materials.
Subseries 2.8: Patent Searches, 1905-1980
Records in this subseries include correspondence as well as copies of several patented inventions for which Cramer Sachs requested information.
Arrangement:
Tha collection is arranged into two series.
Series 1: Creative and Artistic Papers, 1933-2002
Series 2: Invention Records, 1905-2002
Subseries 2.1: Cramer Products Company and Affiliate Company Records, 1942-2002
Subseries 2.2: Household/Office, 1913-1972
Subseries 2.3: Food Products, 1940-1969
Subseries 2.4: Pet Accessories, 1953-1954
Subseries 2.5: Games, 1961-1969
Subseries 2.6: Wine-related, 1966-2002
Subseries 2.7: Temperature and/or Humidity Controlled Devices, 1968-2002
Subseries 2.8: Patent Searches, 1905-1980
Biographical / Historical:
Charlotte Cramer Sachs was born in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1907. Her father, Hans Siegfried Cramer, worked as a businessman for a successful grain import and export company whose innovative enterprises included the import of soy beans from Eastern Europe. In 1903, Hans married Gertrud Bruck, one of the first women to attain her Abitur, somewhat similar to an American high school diploma, at age eighteen. Bruck's formal education ended there, as her wish to attend university was thwarted by her father Adalbert, a judge who insisted that she remain at home. The couple settled in Berlin and had two children—Frederick H., born March 2, 1906, and Charlotte. From 1913 to 1924 The Cramers lived in the Berlin Dahlem suburb occupying "Haus Cramer," a villa built in 1912 to their specifications by German architect Hermann Muthesius.
On September 12, 1924, Cramer Sachs married Donald Samuels, a top executive of the Manhattan Shirt Company and moved to New York from England where their daughter Eleanor was born on June 11, 1926. Several years later, the couple divorced. Mother and daughter lived together in London for a few years before moving back to New York around 1936. Charlotte's parents relocated to New York at the same time, after a brief stay in London following their flight from Berlin after Hitler's rise to power. In August 1945, Charlotte Cramer married Alexander Sachs, a leading economist who had introduced Albert Einstein to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and acted as advisor to the President.
Although she established her business career in America, Cramer Sachs retained fond memories of the house and extensive grounds in Dahlem. In 1977 she composed the song "A Salute to Berlin" to commemorate the designation of Haus Cramer as one of the city's historic landmarks. In 2000, she donated a painted portrait of herself from the time she had lived in Haus Cramer to the villa's new owner, Stanford University. The house retains additional significance in the context of this collection because Cramer Sachs credited its wine cellar—unusual in that it provided a separate, climate controlled environment for red and white wines—as an inspiration for her line of custom-built, vibration-free wine storage devices, which would later make Cramer Products Company a household name among wine connoisseurs.
While she did not attend university her pursuit of learning continued throughout her life as she studied poetry, musical composition, and the fine arts. Cramer Sachs often told her niece, Lilian Randall, that she wished she had received further education, although her public art exhibitions, poetry awards, numerous original songs, the establishment of Crambruck Press (her own publishing company), as well as language fluency in French, English, and German, are testaments to this inventor's intellectual curiosity and development. Evidence of Cramer Sachs's entrepreneurial spirit surfaced in her early thirties with her first patent: Improvements in Combined Key and Flashlight, July 16, 1940, patent number 2,208,498.
In 1940, Cramer Sachs completed courses from the New York Institute of Dietetics, an effort spurred by the onset of her daughter's diabetes. With financial assistance from her parents in the early 1940s, Cramer Sachs developed Joy Products prepared mixes, marking the beginning of a successful career in inventing. "We were a pioneer in that field," said Cramer Sachs of her baking mix manufacturing company, an operation that consisted of a Bronx neighborhood factory employing ninety workers. The enterprise began with corn muffin and popover mixes and expanded into frostings, puddings, and breads. Newspaper clippings from the time promoted Joy packaged mixes as ideal gifts for "the boys overseas" who were in locations where it was "impossible to get together the makings of a cake." Cramer Sachs refused an early offer to sell her mix formulas which were subsequently copied and exploited by larger, more powerful companies. Joy Products, whose name was chosen to express the inventor's delight in creativity, remained in business as a modest one-woman operation for over twenty years before succumbing to competition.
Cramer Sachs created another highly successful invention, the specialty wine cabinet, more than twenty years after she founded Joy Products. In addition to her memories of visits with her father to the wine cellar in her family's German villa, further motivation came from an interest—though she hardly drank it at all—in wine and recognition that "standard cooling and refrigerating appliances [were] too cold for wines." Reportedly, Cramer Sachs "started looking for [an appropriate device] and could not find one," and thus the impetus to invent took shape. The "Modern Wine Cellar," 1966, was an early example of over twenty wine-related inventions, most of them storage devices. A mention of her product in Grossman's Guide to Wines, Spirits, and Beers, increased demand among wine lovers and may have prompted Cramer Sachs to state that she "should find a good market" for her newest invention line. Testimony from David H. Wollins, a successful New York lawyer and customer of Cramer Sachs, lauded the cabinet as "the finest home wine storage system in the world." She framed his letter and hung it in her office at 381 South Park Avenue, her base operation where she employed one or two part-time helpers from the 1960s until her death in 2004.
The inventor took great joy in music, expressed in her own numerous compositions and her creation of the games "Domi-Notes" and "Musicards" in 1961 and 1969. Her fondness for music also prompted the expansion of her specialty cabinets to include temperature and humidity controlled devices for storing a variety of items, most notably the "Well Tempered Cabinet for Musical Instruments," which Cramer Sachs first designed for legendary violinist Isaac Stern. Soon the inventor began producing similar cabinets for the storage of cigars, furs, and documents.
Described by her niece as "shy with people but a great admirer of talent, intellect, and humanity," Cramer Sachs also "harbored a great love for animals." She invented several pet accessories in the early 1950s, including: "Watch-Dog," a dog collar with a time piece; "Bonnie Stand," a holder fashioned to accommodate disposable food bowls; and "Guidog," an early version of a retractable dog leash.
In 1972, Cramer Sachs suffered the loss of her only child, Eleanor, and in the summer of the next year her husband Alexander passed away. She continued her "business of creating new product ideas" for the remainder of her life. The most recent invention materials represented in the collection are those for the "Conservator" from 2002, a temperature and humidity controlled device with compartments to store a variety of items. In her last telephone conversation with her niece, on March 10, 2004, Cramer Sachs expressed her hope that she would feel "strong enough to get to the office the next day or so." The inventor died the following day at the age of 96.
Patents issued to Charlotte Cramer Sachs:
United States Patent: 2,208,498, "Combined Key and Flashlight," July 16, 1940
United States Patent: 2,509,423, "Wedge Heel Shoe," May 30, 1950
United States Patent: 2,808,191, "Lap Tray," October 1, 1957
United States Patent: Des. 363,618, "Cabinet," October 31, 1995
Related Materials:
Materials in Other Organizations
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
Related materials on husband Alexander Sachs's political and professional life found in the Papers of Alexander Sachs
Art Gallery of Ontario, E. P. Taylor Research Library and Archives, Toronto Ontario, Canada
Correspondence between Cramer Sachs and Sam and Ayala Zacks dating from the 1970s and relating to Zionist art found in the Sam and Ayala Zacks Fonds.
Columbia University Libraries, Avery Drawings & Archives Collections
Haus Cramer architectural records and papers, 1911-2004, (bulk 1911-1955)
This collection primarily contains original and reprographic architectural records, photographs, correspondence and personal and professional records related to the design, construction, and ownership of the Haus Cramer in Dahlem, Berlin, Germany, designed by German architect Hermann Muthesius in 1911-1913 for Hans and Gertrud Cramer, with later additions by Muthesius and other architects. A significant portion of the collection also documents the Cramer family's efforts to obtain restitution after World War II for the seizure of the house in the 1930s. Also included are records documenting the restoration and reuse, an effort led by noted architectural historian Julius Poesner.
Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections
Cramer papers, 1938-1954
Cramer, Frederick Henry, 1906-1954; historian and college teacher. Mount Holyoke College faculty member, 1938-1954. Papers consist of writings, biographical information, and photographs; primarily documenting his scholarly activities and his interest in automobile racing.
German Historical Institute
Charlotte Cramer Sachs in the Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present.
The collaborative research project Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present sheds new light on the entrepreneurial and economic capacity of immigrants by investigating the German-American example in the United States. It traces the lives, careers and business ventures of eminent German-American business people of roughly the last two hundred and ninety years, integrating the history of German-American immigration into the larger narrative of U.S. economic and business history.
Provenance:
The papers were donated to the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History in the spring of 2005 by Lilian Randall (niece), Erich Cramer (nephew), Aileen Katz (niece), Elisabeth Weissbach (niece), and John Cramer (nephew).
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use. Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection primarily documents American folk art collected by Frederick Fried (1908-1994) and his wife Mary McKensie Hill Fried (1914-1988). It includes photographic materials, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, research files, lecture notes, unpublished manuscripts, brochures, drawings, printed advertisements, blueprints, books, patents, correspondence, trade literature, sheet music, auction catalogs, oral history interviews, and commercially recorded music. Of particular interest is the material relating to carousels. There is a substantial amount of material relating to New York architecture, wood carvings, show figures, weathervanes, mechanical and coin operated machines, amusement parks, the circus, tattoos and lesser-known folk arts. The collection is arranged by subject or genre in the order maintained by Frederick and Mary Fried.
Arrangement:
Series 1, Professional Materials, 1930-1995, undated
Subseries 1.1, Lectures, 1968-1989, undated
Subseries 1.2, Research Notes, 1962-1975, undated
Subseries 1.3, Published and Unpublished Materials, 1960-1990, undated
Subseries 1.4, Exhibitions, 1966-1985, undated
Subseries 1.5, Correspondence, 1945-1995, undated
Subseries 1.6, Office Files, 1930-1991, undated
Series 2, Sculptors and Ship Carvers, 1855-1987, undated
Series 3, Ship Carving Reference Files, 1875-1990, undated
Subseries 16.2.1, Lectures and Performances, 1969-1973, undated
Subseries 16.2.2, Interviews, 1940-1976, undated
Subseries 16.2.3, Conferences and Meetings, 1973-1977
Subseries 16.2.4, Music, 1956, undated
Subseries 16.2.5, Other, undated
Subseries 16.3, Videotapes, 1982-1991, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Frederick P. Fried was born December 11, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn where his father owned a clock business across the street from Charles Carmel, a carousel carver. Fried acquired a fine-arts education in the 1930s with an emphasis on sculpture. He served with the Air Force during the Second World War. After a successful military career, Fried worked as art director in several fashion agencies. He met Mary McKenzie Hill, an academically trained artist in one of the studios.
Mary McKenzie Hill was born in 1914 in Baltimore, Maryland. She graduated from the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts. After graduation, she spent a year abroad studying before she returned to the United States to work as a fashion illustrator in Baltimore and New York. During World War Two Hill was a draftsman for a firm of architects.
Fried and Mary Hill married in 1949. The couple had two children Robert Hazen and Rachel. Around 1953 Fried began to collect architectural ornaments in New York. Fried served as the art director for Bonwit Teller in New York City from 1955-1962. He left the fashion world in 1962 to pursue his passion for collecting and writing full time. Fried published his first book, Pictorial History of Carousels in 1964. In 1967, Fred and Mary Fried purchased a forty-acre farm in Bristol, Vermont where the family spent their summers.
In 1968, Fried led a national campaign to preserve the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse (Seamen's Church Institute at South Street). He also became active in politics and served as the campaign manager for a New York State senator. His interest in Indian cigar store figures resulted in his publication Artists in Wood: American Carvers of Cigar Store Indians, Show Figures and Circus published in 1970. The focus of the book was Samuel Anderson Robb a New York wood carver. Fried co-founded the National Carousel Association in 1973. In 1978, Fried wrote America's Forgotten Folk Art with his wife Mary. This publication covered subjects such as carousels, banner painting, scarecrows, beach sand sculpture, tattoos, cast iron toys, amusement park architecture and trade signs.
Fried's collecting goal was to first preserve artifacts and to then make them available through his writings and exhibitions. His most treasured relics were the items he salvaged from the ruins of Coney Island. Fried referred to such artifacts as the uncelebrated arts. He became one of the founders of the Anonymous Arts Recovery Society a group of individuals who saved architectural ornaments from the wreckers' balls. In addition, he was one of the founders of the National Carousel Round Table which was created to preserve hand-carved merry-go-rounds. As a result of his collecting, research and writing Fried became recognized as the authority on carousels, coin-operated machines, and cigar store figures. He served as a consultant to many Museums; in particular as chief consultant on American Folk Art for the Smithsonian Institution.
Frederick and Mary Hill worked together in many ways to document, collect, preserve and increase the awareness about primarily the folk arts. Mary McKenzie Hill Fried passed away in 1988 at the age of seventy-four. Frederick P. Fried died July 1994 at the age of eighty-six.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History
E. Howard Clock Company Records (NMAH.AC.00776)
M. Francis Misklea Carousel Collection (NMAH.AC.0665)
Archives Center Carousel Collection (NMAH.AC.0675)
Messmore and Damon, Incorporated Company Records (NMAH.AC.0846)
Anthony W. Pendergast Collection (NMAH.AC.0882)
Frank Paulin Photoprints (NMAH.AC.1373)
Wurlitzer Company Records (NMAH.AC.0469)
Industry on Parade (NMAH.AC.0507)
Reel #191, Craftsmen of the Carousel, 1954. Manufacturing merry-go-rounds for amusement reports. Arrow Development Co., Mountain View, California.
Materials at Other Organizations
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Frederick Fried Coney Island collection, 1847-2001
The collection consists of materials used by Frederick Fried in his research and writing about folk art and material culture, especially related to Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. A significant portion of the collection consists of the personal archive of William F. Mangels, which was purchased by Fried in 1955. Mangels was a designer and manufacturer of amusement rides and founder of the American Museum of Public Recreation at Coney Island. Subjects include amusement parks, amusement rides, architecture, bathing pavilions, beaches, beauty contests, carousels, carousel animals, Brooklyn, coin-operated machines, Coney Island, exhibitions, games of chance and skill, hotels, mechanical rides, mechanization, parades, pleasure railways, recreation, roller coasters, sideshows, transportation, and other subjects related to American material culture and popular amusement.
Provenance:
Collection a bequest of the Frederick Fried Estate.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Reproduction restricted due to copyright or trademark. Fees for commercial reproduction.
Collected archival materials documenting the instruction, performance, and promotion of American Indian and Native Hawaiian music.
Content Description:
Collection documents the instruction, performance, and promotion of American Indian and Native Hawaiian music. Materials include photographs, correspondence, sheet music, magazines, instructional materials, advertisements, programs, promotional material, record albums, and ephemera. Materials continue to be added to this collection.
Arrangement:
Collection is arranged into seven series:
Series 1: Musicians and Bands, 1904-2004, undated
Series 2: Music, 1892-1953, undated
Subseries 2.1: Sheet Music, 1900-1958, undated
Subseries 2.2: Folios, 1892-1948
Series 3: Schools, 1906-1908, undated
Series 4: Hawaiian Instrument Instructional Materials, 1914-1948, undated
Series 5: Publications, 1920-1945, undated
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subject Categories; "Indians", "Wild West", "Hawaii", "Schools" NMAH.AC0060,
Underwood and Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection, NMAH.AC0143
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 4: Songwriters, NMAH.AC0300
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music,Series 5: Politics and Political Movements, NMAH.AC0300
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 8: Geography, NMAH.AC0300
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 9: Domestic and Community Life, NMAH.AC0300
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 11: Entertainment, NMAH.AC0300
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 16: Country, Western, and Folk Music NMAH.AC0300
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 21: Musical Instruments, NMAH.AC0300
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 22: Native American, NMAH.AC0300
Duke Ellington Collection, NMAH.AC.0301
History of the Royal Hawaiian Band Collection, 1836-1980, NMAH.AC.0361
Program in African American Culture Collection, NMAH.AC.0408
Ruth Ellington Collection, NMAH.AC.0415
Lonesome Pine Specials, NMAH.AC.0487
Benny Carter Collection, NMAH.AC.0757
Richard Becker Collection of Alex Bradford Gospel Music Materials, NMAH.AC.0761
Ben and Ruth Liman Jazz Film Collection, NMAH.AC.0775
Fletcher and Horace Henderson Music and Photographs, NMAH.A.C0797
Shirley Leonard Papers, NMAH.AC0919
Donald J. Stubblebine Collection of Musical Theater and Motion Picture Music and Ephemera, NMAH.AC1211
International Sweethearts of Rhythm Collection, NMAH.AC1218
McIntire Family Hawaiian Entertainers Collection, NMAH.AC1511
Provenance:
Collection was donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution by John W. Troutman, 2021.
Restrictions:
The 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.
Abstract: Collection consists of over a century of paper dolls documenting their use as advertisements, and depictions of popular culture, fashion trends, family lifestyles, gender roles, ideal communities,and cultural heroes.
Scope and Contents:
Collection consists of paper dolls dating from the 1800s-1998. The bulk of the paper dolls, however, date from the 1900s-1970s. Due to the Grepkes' careful selection, the paper dolls are in excellent condition, most were never used or played with. In addition, most of the sets are complete, with few or no missing pieces. A sustainable amount of the collection remains in original packaging which often included the periodical or comic book in which it was published, the original box, or a folder or booklet. A substantial amount of these paper dolls was commercially produced with examples of hand-made dolls and clothing. Clothing for the dolls is mostly created from paper with examples of cloth, wood, and plastic. Hand colored commercially produced dolls and clothing also exist within the collection. Special features on the dolls could include hair, plastic eyes, photographic faces, and moveable parts.
The artwork aspect of the collection provides potential research use with illustrations by such paper doll artists as Queen Holden, who was renowned for her dolls of the 1930s, and Tom Tierney, who has depicted almost every celebrity of the 20th century in paper doll form. Originals and reproductions of Grace Gebbie Drayton's (1877-1936) Dolly Dingle paper dolls series, which appeared in the Pictorial Review from 1913-1933, are included among the materials. Drayton is well known for her creation and illustration of the "Campbell Kids." She illustrated books and other publications and designed dolls and toys. Frances Tipton Hunter, creator of the "Little Busy Bodies" who appeared in Women's Home Companion in 1922 and 1923, career spanned from the 1920s to her death in 1957. Besides the "Little Busy Bodies" her work also appeared in periodicals including the Saturday Evening Post, The Delineator, Collier's, and Ladies Home Journal.
Not just seen from the perspective of artwork or playthings the serious scholar will be able to focus on a variety of topics related to the dolls. Researchers interested in fashion, popular culture, and images of women, children, or celebrities will find this collection of great value. The collection has a large representation of movie and television stars from the 1930s through the 1950s. In addition, American notions of ideal family sizes, settings, relationships, teenage life, and leisure activities are represented in the collection. Dates of the paper dolls are most often time of publication rather than era they represent.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in 14 series.
Series 1, Advertisements, circa 1800-1980, undated
Series 2, Animals, circa 1950-1995, undated
Series 3, Celebrities, circa 1930-1995, undated
Subseries 3.1, Film, circa 1930-1995, undated
Subseries 3.2, Music, circa 1950-1995, undated
Subseries 3.3, Pop Culture, circa 1950-1995, undated
Subseries 3.4, Royalty, circa 1950-1995, undated
Subseries 3.5, Stage and Theater, circa 1930-1950, undated
Subseries 3.6, Television, circa 1950-1995, undated
Series 4, Literature, circa 1920-1995, undated
Series 5, Mass Media, circa 1935-1995, undated
Subseries 5.1, Cartoons, circa 1960-1995, undated
Subseries 5.2, Comic Books, circa 1940-1995, undated
Subseries 5.3, Motion Picture Film, circa 1935-1995, undated
Subseries 5.4, Newspapers, circa 1934-1951, undated
Subseries 5.5, Radio, circa 1940-1955, undated
Subseries 5.6, Television, circa 1950-1995, undated
Series 6, Toys, circa 1890-1990, undated
Subseries 6.1, Paper Dolls, circa 1890-1980, undated
Subseries 6.2, Three Dimensional Dolls as Paper Toys, circa 1910-1990, undated
Series 7, Family, circa 1880-1990, undated
Subseries 7.1, Children, circa 1880-1980, undated
Subseries 7.2, Infants, circa 1920-1970, undated
Subseries 7.3, Family, circa 1930-1950, undated
Subseries 7.4, Teenagers, circa 1910-1990, undated
Series 8, Clothing and Fashion, circa 1890-1995, undated
Subseries 8.1, Bridal, circa 1900-1990, undated
Subseries 8.2, Clothing of the World, circa 1900-1995, undated
Subseries 8.3, Designers, circa 1950-1980, undated
Subseries 8.4, Eras and Historic, circa 1890-1995, undated
Subseries 8.5, Military, circa 1940-1950, undated
Series 9, Historical Figures and Events, circa 1950-1998, undated
Subseries 9.1, African American, circa 1990-1995, undated
Subseries 9.2, Military, circa 1970-1990, undated
Subseries 9.3, Religion, circa 1984-1998, undated
Subseries 9.4, United States Presidents, circa 1970-1995, undated
Subseries 9.5, United States History, circa 1950-1990, undated
Subseries 9.6, Women, circa 1910-1995, undated
Subseries 9.7, World Leaders, circa 1980-1990, undated
Series 10, Holidays and Celebrations, circa 1930-1990, undated
Series 11, Occupations, circa 1900-1995, undated
Series 12, Periodicals, circa 1890-1995
Subseries 12.1, Characters, circa 1900-1995
Subseries 12.2, Periodicals, circa 1890-1995
Series 13, Miscellaneous Materials, circa 1890-1995, undated
Series 14, Publications, 1978-1993
Subseries 14.1, Articles, circa 1980-1990
Subseries 14.2, Books, 1978-1993
Biographical / Historical:
Donald Eugene Grepke (September 18, 1932- April 15, 2005) and Carolyn Joan Moyer Grepke (December 10, 1937- December 19, 1995) began collecting paper dolls in the 1970s in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Donald was born and raised in Fort Wayne where he attended Elmhurst High School, worked at a grocery store filling station, and graduated in 1951. In 1955, he began working at Zollner Corporation, manufacturers of pistons for cars and trucks, and retired on disability in 1989.
Carolyn Joan Moyer was born in Pennville, Indiana. Carolyn's family moved to Fort Wayne when she was four years old and after a few years they moved to Churubusco, Indiana. They returned to Fort Wayne where Carolyn attended North Side High School and graduated in 1956. Carolyn began working at Lincoln National Life Insurance Company after high school and continued to work there until she passed away.
Donald Grepke and Carolyn Moyer married at Trinity United Methodist Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana on March 2, 1957. One child, Randell Lee Grepke, was born to the union on May 5, 1958.
One of Carolyn's favorite toys as a child was paper dolls. One day while reading a publication about antiques, Donald saw an advertisement for an auction which included paper dolls in excellent condition. This began their paper doll collection. Over the next - 20-25 years, while on vacations and weekend drives, they would stop at antique shops, flea markets, and auctions in search of paper dolls. When Carolyn worked on weekends, Don would venture out by himself or with a male friend in search of paper dolls. Their collection grew to over 4,000 paper dolls.
After Carolyn passed in 1995, Don lost interest in collecting paper dolls. He pondered for about three years on what to do with the collection. He decided to donate the collection to the Smithsonian Institution in memory of his wife, where the materials would be available to the public for research and exhibition purposes.
Related Materials:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Helen Popenoe Paper Doll Collection (NMAH.AC.1156)
Elinor S. Miller Paper Doll Collection (NMAH.AC.1110)
Ming-Ju Sun Garfinckel's Fashion Drawings (NMAH.AC.0897)
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 9: Domestic and Community Life (NMAH.AC.0300)
Brownie Wise Papers (NMAH.AC.0509)
Edward J. Orth Memorial Archives of the World's Fair (NMAH.AC.0560)
Division of Cultural and Community Life, National Museum of American History
Division holds a collection of paper dolls.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, by Donald Grepke in memory of his wife Carolyn Grepke in December 2000.
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.
