3.21 Cubic feet (consisting of 7 boxes, 3 oversize folders.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Advertising
Advertisements
Catalogues
Advertising fliers
Advertising mail
Sales letters
Print advertising
Invoices
Ephemera
Commercial catalogs
Printed materials
Printed ephemera
Publications
Sales catalogs
Photographs
Business records
Advertising cards
Sales records
Mail order catalogs
Business letters
Printed material
Reports
Commercial correspondence
Correspondence
Trade cards
Business ephemera
Catalogs
Business cards
Trade literature
Letterheads
Trade catalogs
Receipts
Periodicals
Manufacturers' catalogs
Illustrations
Date:
1833-1975
Summary:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Office Equipment 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:
The collection includes devices and systems such as typewriters, calculation machines, mimeographs and copiers, punches and canceling machines, coin counters, telephonics, addressing and indexing systems, recording and message transmission, stamping, perforating, records storage and files, and also some consumable products like fasteners, ledgers, erasures. A few product samples are present.
Some product information contains suggestions and information on good business business practices or increasing efficiency and accuracy in the office or workplace environment.
A small amount of material related to furnishings, such as desks, bookcases, lockers, and trade show displays is present.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into three subseries.
Business Records and Marketing Materials
Genre
Subject
Brand Name Index:
The following is a list of brand names for various office equipment and related names that appear on this list is a compilation of those found on materials in the vertical document boxes. It is not a complete list of all the brand names for office equipment. The list is intended to assist researchers locate desired materials when only the brand name is known.
Brand Name Index
Efficiency -- Watson Mfg. Co.
Flatpakit -- American
Multigraph -- American Multigraph Sales Co.
Portland -- Southworth Machine Co.
Wiz -- American Sales Book Co.
Y & E -- Yawman & Eube Mfg. Co.
Forms Part Of:
Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
Missing Title
Series 1: Business Ephemera
Series 2: Other Collection Divisions
Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers
Series 4: Photographic Reference Material
Provenance:
Office Equipment is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Office Equipment, 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).
This collection documents a patent dispute between the S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company and the Williams Typewriter Company.
Scope and Contents:
This collection concerns a patent dispute between the S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company and the Williams Typewriter Company. The dispute centered on the manufacture and sale by the White company of typewriters on behalf of the Brooks Typewriter Company. These were a typewriting machine developed and patented by Byron A. Brooks in 1891. The Williams company produced a very similar machine which Brooks claimed was infringing on his patents. The records in this collection document Brooks' and the White company's efforts to prove Brooks' claims.
The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence received or sent by the S. S. White Company. Most of these letters are from either Byron A. Brooks or Joseph I. Peyton, a Washington, D.C., patent attorney. A group of summary notes and memoranda about the correspondence (filed separately) provides insight into the nature and progress of the case. The collection includes a number of legal agreements between the various parties, as well as a copy of the 1890 Incorporation Certificate of the Union Writing Machine Company and the original Incorporation Certificate of the Brooks Typewriter Company. Also of interest are a number of credit reports prepared by R. G. Dun & Company of New York in 1893 1896; these report on the background and assets of the Union Writing Machine Company and the Elliott & Hatch Book Typewriter Company. Also included in the collection are balance sheets for production of the Brooks Typewriter, 1894 1896.
Arrangement:
Collection is arranged into
Biographical / Historical:
The S. S. White Company was a dental supply house founded in Philadelphia in 1844 by dentist Samuel Stockton White. Initially, White manufactured porcelain teeth only for his own use. He eventually gave up his dental practice in favor of full time production of dental instruments, supplies, and teeth. His porcelain teeth won awards at both the 1851 Crystal Palace Exposition in London and the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In 1881 the firm was incorporated as the S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company. Soon afterwards, extensive manufacturing facilities were acquired on Staten Island, New York. The firm's main offices were located in Philadelphia and two additional factory buildings were located in that city's Frankford section. In addition to producing dental supplies, such as teeth, amalgams for fillings, and precision instruments, the firm manufactured dental machinery such as vulcanizers and sterilizers. It also interested itself in and produced other types of machinery, such as typewriters. In 1970 the company was merged into the Penn Walt Company.
Related Materials:
Mr. Fitzgerald deposited photostatic copies of some of the records in this collection in the Dietz collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum. The bulk of surviving records from the S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company are located at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware, where they form accession #1320 in the Manuscripts and Archives Department.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Thomas E. Fitzgerald, December 19, 1989.
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.
