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John H. White, Jr. Railroad Reference Collection

Collector:
Watkins, J. Elfreth (John Elfreth), 1852-1903  Search this
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Transportation  Search this
Creator:
White, John H., 1933-  Search this
Extent:
31.33 Cubic feet (94 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Articles
Color slides
Correspondence
Ephemera
Magazines (periodicals)
Manuscripts
Negatives
Newsclippings
Patents
Photocopies
Photographs
Research
Writings
Date:
1880s-1990
Scope and Contents:
The archivist has arranged the collection into five series. The collections consists of orginal photographs, brochures, advertisements, correspondence, and trade literature as wells as photcopies of same and assembled by John White for many of his books about railroads.

Series 1: Car Builders, arranged alphabetically by company or individual.

Series 2: Equipment, Rolling Stock, arranged in two sections: alphabetically by White's heading: Articles in Progress and alphabetical by type of railroad car under White's heading: Research Files for Book in Progress.

Series 3: Locomotives, arranged alphabetically by Locomotive builders in two sections, first by individual company and second by individuals.

Series 4: Railroad Companies and Lines, arranged alphabetically by railroad companies and railroad lines.

Series 5: Publications, White's files for his book The American Railroad Freight Car, which are arranged into two sections, Illustrations and Text. Both sections are arranged numerically by chapters or sections of the book.

Series 6: Freight Cars

Series 7: Passenger Cars
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into seven series. Most material arranged alphabetically and then chronologically.

Series 1: Car Builders

Series 2: Equipment--Rolling Stock

Subseries 2.1: Articles in progress

Subseries 2.2: Research Files for Books in Progress

Series 3: Locomotives

Series 4: Railroad Companies and Lines

Series 5: Publications

Series 6: Freights Cars

Series 7; Passenger Cars
Historical:
John H. White, Jr., (1933- ), historian and museum curator, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated with a B.A. in history from Miami University, Ohio, in 1958. Shortly after receiving his degree, White joined the staff of the Smithsonian Institution as Assistant Curator of the Division of Transportation, Department of Science and Technology, National Museum of History and Technology (NMHT). White became Associate Curator of the Division, 1961-1966, Curator, 1967-1985, and Senior Historian, 1986-1989. White specialized in land transportation, particularly the history of railroads. He retired in 1990. His papers, the John H. White, Jr., Papers, circa 1959-1989 are at the Smithsonian Institution Archives.

This collection of railroad materials was begun many years ago by employees of the Smithsonian Institution, and maintained later by curators and museum specialists working in the Division of Transportation, NMHT, later named the National Museum of American History (NMAH).

Some of the clippings date back to the time of J. Elfreth Watkins in the 1880-1890s. In 1885 Watkins was appointed Curator of the Section of Steam Transportation, which was successively known as Transportation and Engineering, and Technological Collections. Other portions of White's collection were clearly from Carl Mitman, author of several hundred entries on inventors and engineers in the Dictionary of American Biography and a Smithsonian employee who served as Curator of Mechanical Technology in 1919. In 1921 Mitman took the title of Curator of the Divisions of Mineral and Mechanical Technology, serving in this capacity until 1931. In 1931 the Division of Engineering was established. Mitman served as Curator of the Division and in charge of Mineral Technology, 1931-1938, Head Curator of the Department of Arts and Industries, 1932-1938, and Head Curator of the Department of Engineering and Industries, 1938-1948.

Some portions of this collection were acquired under the time of Frank A. Taylor (Mitman's protégé) who was Assistant Curator, 1928-1931, Assistant Curator for Mechanical Technology, 1932, Curator of the Division and in charge of Mechanical Technology, 1932-1948, Head Curator of the Division of Engineering and Industry, 1948-1957. In 1955 Taylor was appointed Assistant Director, United States National Museum (USNM), with special responsibility for planning the new NMHT, and in 1958 was appointed the first Director of the new museum. In 1962 Taylor became Director of the USNM with responsibility for both the National Museum of Natural History and NMHT.

Smith Hempstone Oliver of the Division of Transportation also kept up the files to a degree, though his main interest was in automobiles.

When White started employment at the Museum in June, 1958, there were, perhaps, two file cabinets on railroads. As Mr. White mentions in a letter to the archivist in March of 2002, "It was and is a great mix of odds and ends -- photos, news clippings, small prints, manufacturing catalogs, post cards, etc. Some junk and some treasure."

White found the material very useful for research and greatly expanded the collection. It more than doubled in size during his years in the Division, 1958-1990. The collection was White's working file and was set up to meet his needs. According to White, the collections greatest lack was cross referencing -- which was mostly in his head. He could usually find things but the organization might be confusing to other users. It was not intended for public use.

White is the author of many books on railroads, including:

American Locomotives: An Engineering History, 1830-1880. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1968; 1997.

Early American Locomotives, with 147 engraving. New York: Dover Publications, 1972.

American Single Locomotives and the "Pioneer". Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973.

The Pioneer, Chicago's First Locomotive. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 1976.

The American Railroad Passenger Car. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978.

The John Bull, 150 Years a Locomotive. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981.

A Short History of American Locomotive Builders in the Steam Era. Washington, D.C.: Bass, 1982.

Great Yellow Fleet: A History of American Railroad Refrigerator Cars. Golden West Books, 1986

The American Railroad Freight Car: From the Wood-Car Era to the Coming of Steel. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
Provenance:
Collection materials donated by Jack White in 1995.
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:
Freight cars  Search this
Locomotives  Search this
Railroads -- History  Search this
Railroad passenger cars  Search this
Transportation  Search this
Genre/Form:
Articles
Color slides
Correspondence
Ephemera
Magazines (periodicals)
Manuscripts
Negatives
Newsclippings
Patents
Photocopies
Photographs -- 19th century
Photographs -- 20th century
Research
Writings
Citation:
John H. White, Jr. Railroad Reference Collection, ca. 1830-1980, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0523
See more items in:
John H. White, Jr. Railroad Reference Collection
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep83b50b7ee-ab37-4b18-b17c-cffb2543738e
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0523
Online Media:

Andy Granatelli Collection

Creator:
Granatelli, Andy, 1923-2013  Search this
Grancor Automotive Specialists  Search this
Hurricane Hot Rod Association  Search this
Studebaker Corporation  Search this
Donor:
Granatelli, Vincent  Search this
Names:
Indianapolis Speedway Race  Search this
Soldier Field (Chicago)  Search this
Studebaker Corporation. STP Division  Search this
Afrons, Arthur Eugene "Art", 1926-2007  Search this
Afrons, Walter Charles "Walt", 1916-2013  Search this
Agajanian, Joshua C. James , 1913-1984  Search this
Agnew, Spiro T., 1918-1996  Search this
Andretti, Mario, 1940-  Search this
Banks, Henry, 1913-1994  Search this
Bishop, Joey  Search this
Bridges, Lloyd  Search this
Carson, Johnny, 1925-2005  Search this
Carter, Jimmy, 1924-  Search this
Chapman, Anthony Colin Bruce , 1928-1982  Search this
Clark, Jim, 1936-1968  Search this
Cole, Hal, 1912-1970  Search this
Cooper, Earl, 1886-1965  Search this
Cooper, Leroy Gordan, 1927-2004  Search this
DePaolo, Peter, 1898-1980  Search this
Derr, Ernest Virgil "Ernie" , 1921-  Search this
Egbert, Sherwood, 1920-1965  Search this
Ford, Gerald R., 1913-2006  Search this
Foyt, A. J., 1935-  Search this
Gable, Clark, 1901-1960  Search this
Garagiola, Joe  Search this
Grissom, Virgil I.  Search this
Guerrero, Roberto, 1958-  Search this
Hartke, Vance, 1919-2003  Search this
Hill, Graham, 1929-1975  Search this
Holland, Willard, 1907-1984  Search this
Hurtubise, Jim, 1932-1989  Search this
Kennedy, Edward M. (Edward Moore), 1932-2009  Search this
Kladis, Danny, 1917-2009  Search this
LaMotta, Jake  Search this
Lasorda, Tommy  Search this
Leno, Jay (comedian)  Search this
Leonard, Joe, 1932-2017  Search this
Lorenzen, Fred, 1934-  Search this
Luyendyk, Arie  Search this
Malone, Art, 1936-2013  Search this
Marcenac, Jean  Search this
Marciano, Rocky  Search this
Mays, Rex Houston, 1913-1949  Search this
McCain, John  Search this
McElreath, Jimmy, 1928-2017  Search this
Miller, Chet, 1902-1953  Search this
Murphy, Paula, 1928-  Search this
Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994  Search this
Palin, Sarah, 1964-  Search this
Parsons, Johnnie, 1918-1984  Search this
Petty, Richard, 1937-  Search this
Pickens, T. Boone (Thomas Boone)  Search this
Pollard, Artle Lee, 1927-1973  Search this
Quayle, Dan, 1947-  Search this
Rathman, Royal Richard "Jim", 1928-2011  Search this
Reagan, Ronald  Search this
Robbins, Marty  Search this
Russo, Paul, 1914-1976  Search this
Tremulis, Alex S.  Search this
Unser, Bobby  Search this
Weld, Greg, 1944-2008  Search this
Williams, Carl, 1930-1973  Search this
Actor:
Anderson, Eddie "Rochester", 1905-1977  Search this
DeVito, Danny  Search this
Douglas, Kirk, 1916-2020  Search this
Goulet, Robert, 1933-2007  Search this
Extent:
66 Cubic feet (108 boxes, 16 map-folders)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Advertisements
Business records
Clippings
Correspondence
Design drawings
Drawings
Financial records
Legal records
Minutes
Photographs
Scrapbooks
Speeches
Date:
1932-2008
Scope and Contents:
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)

Winton-Anderson Scrapbook Collection (NMAH.AC.0122)

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.
Topic:
Automobile driving  Search this
Automobile industry and trade  Search this
Automobile industry executives  Search this
Automobiles  Search this
Automobiles -- Design and construction  Search this
Automobiles, Racing  Search this
Engines, automobile  Search this
Hot rods  Search this
Publications  Search this
Slides  Search this
Genre/Form:
Advertisements -- 20th century
Business records -- 20th century
Clippings -- 20th century
Correspondence -- 20th century
Design drawings -- 20th century
Drawings
Financial records -- 20th century
Legal records -- 20th century
Minutes -- 20th century
Photographs -- 20th century
Scrapbooks
Speeches
Citation:
Andy Granatelli Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.1403
See more items in:
Andy Granatelli Collection
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8b8ed345f-7459-4956-9875-900f8585af74
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1403
Online Media:

"Iconography of Desolation"

Collection Creator:
Smithson, Robert  Search this
Container:
Box 3, Folder 15
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1961
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, holds the intellectual property rights, including copyright, to all materials created by Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt with the exception of the following items: two holiday cards found in box 11, folders 22-23. For these two items, copyright held by Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Requests for permission to reproduce should be submitted to ARS.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt papers, 1905-1987. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
See more items in:
Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt papers
Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt papers / Series 4: Writings / 4.1: By Robert Smithson
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw975d5dad2-4ff1-4fed-a4f6-4146973a0372
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-aaa-smitrobe-ref177
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Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan

Collector:
Rosin, Henry D., Dr.  Search this
Rosin, Nancy  Search this
Creator:
Lyman, Benjamin Smith, 1835-1920  Search this
Ueno, Hikoma, 1838-1904  Search this
Beato, Felice, b. ca. 1825  Search this
Stillfried, Raimund, Baron von, 1839-1911  Search this
Underwood & Underwood  Search this
Names:
Meiji, Emperor of Japan, 1852-1912  Search this
Shōken, Empress, consort of Meiji, Emperor of Japan, 1850-1914  Search this
Extent:
616 Items (approximate count)
Culture:
Ainu  Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Mammoth plates
Photographs
Photograph albums
Stereographs
Cartes-de-visite
Photographic prints
Place:
Japan
Japan -- 1890-1900
Kyoto (Japan)
Tokyo (Japan)
Yokohama-shi (Japan)
Date:
1860 - ca. 1900
Scope and Contents:
Assembled by collectors Dr. Henry D. Rosin and Nancy Rosin to document nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century photography of Japan. Includes albumen prints, portions handcolored, some signed and numbered in the negative. Taken by photographers Felice Beato (b. ca. 1825), Baron Raimon von Stillfried (1938-1911), Kusakabe Kimbei (active 1880s), Ueno Hikoma (1838-1904), Ogawa Kazumasa (1860-1929) and unknown photographers to depict architecture, landscapes, formal studio portraits, and daily activities.
Arrangement:
Organized chronologically by the creators.
Biographical / Historical:
Henry and Nancy Rosin were collectors of Japanese photography of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1999.35
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Topic:
Photography of women  Search this
Streets -- Japan  Search this
Temples -- Japan  Search this
Samurai  Search this
Sumo wrestlers  Search this
Religion  Search this
Japanese tea ceremony  Search this
Genre/Form:
Mammoth plates
Photographs -- 1850-1900
Photograph albums
Stereographs -- 1860-1900
Cartes-de-visite
Photographic prints
Citation:
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Identifier:
FSA.A1999.35
See more items in:
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc377c3c477-251b-43d9-8ce5-9626389db8ca
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1999-35
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Online Media:

Waterman Aerobile

Manufacturer:
Waterman Arrowplane Co.  Search this
Materials:
Metal and steel tubing with fabric cover
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 11.5 m (38 ft.)
Height: 2.6 m (8 ft. 8 in.)
Length: 6.3 m (20 ft. 8 in.)
Weight: 952.5 kg (2,100 lbs.)
Type:
CRAFT-Aircraft
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Date:
1957
Credit Line:
Gift of Waldo Waterman
Inventory Number:
A19610156000
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
National Air and Space Museum Collection
Location:
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA
Exhibit Station:
Sport Aviation
Data Source:
National Air and Space Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv96d536a84-71c4-4e3d-908c-3ec7f66a1ac6
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nasm_A19610156000
Online Media:

Bede BD-5B

Manufacturer:
Albert C. Beckwith  Search this
Peter K. Graichen  Search this
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 6.6 m (21 ft 6 in)
Length: 4.1 m (13 ft 4 in)
Height: 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in)
Weights: Empty, 243.2 kg (535 lb)
Gross, 431.8 kg (950 lb)
Engine: Honda Civic EB-2 turbocharged, 101 horsepower
Type:
CRAFT-Aircraft
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Credit Line:
Gift of Albert C. Beckwith and Peter Graichen.
Inventory Number:
A19840839000
Restrictions & Rights:
CC0
See more items in:
National Air and Space Museum Collection
Location:
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA
Exhibit Station:
Sport Aviation
Data Source:
National Air and Space Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv9e2d093a9-5984-4555-9c00-b2e7f944b2e4
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nasm_A19840839000
Online Media:

The Black American Racers fought for equity in auto racing

Creator:
National Museum of American History  Search this
Type:
Blog posts
Smithsonian staff publications
Interviews
Blog posts
Published Date:
Fri, 19 May 2023 17:52:07 +0000
Topic:
American History  Search this
See more posts:
Blog Feed
Data Source:
National Museum of American History
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:posts_ed49debb9dfdeb113bf1c7e41ca07dda

N W Ayer Advertising Agency Records

Creator:
Ayer (N W) Incorporated.  Search this
Names:
American Telephone and Telegraph Company -- Advertisements  Search this
Cunningham & Walsh.  Search this
Hixson & Jorgenson  Search this
United Air Lines, Inc. -- Advertisements  Search this
Ayer, Francis Wayland  Search this
De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997  Search this
O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986  Search this
Extent:
270 Cubic feet (1463 boxes, 33 map-folders, 7 films)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Business records
Interviews
Oral history
Print advertising
Proof sheets
Proofs (printed matter)
Scrapbooks
Trade literature
Tear sheets
Advertisements
Date:
1817-1851
1869-2006
Summary:
Collection consists of records documenting one of the oldest advertising agencies created in Philadelphia. The company then moves to New York and expanses to international markets. During its history NW Ayer & Sons acquires a number of other advertising agencies and is eventually purchased. The largest portion of the collection is print advertisements but also includes radio and television. NW Ayer is known for some of the slogans created for major American companies.
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists primarily of proof sheets of advertisements created by NW Ayer & Son, Incorporated for their clients. These materials are in series one through thirteen and consist primarily of print advertisements. There are also billboards, radio and television commercials. The advertisements range from consumer to corporate and industrial products. The majority of the advertisements were created for Ayer's New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and international offices. Printed advertisements created by Cunningham & Walsh, Hixson & Jorgensen and Newell-Emmett are also included among these materials. Researchers who are interested in records created by Ayer in the course of operating an advertising agency will find these materials in Series fourteen-nineteen.

Series fourteen consists of advertisements created by NW Ayer & Son to promote their services to potential clients.

Series fifteen are scrapbooks of some of the earliest advertisements created by the company. Series sixteen are publications. Some of the publications were created by Ayer while others were about Ayer or the advertising industry in general. Provides good background materials and puts the company in perspective. Series eighteen are the legal records. Materials relating to employees including photographs, oral histories etc. are found in series nineteen.

Series twenty is one of the smallest amounts of materials and includes information relating to the history of NW Ayer & Son.

The container lists for series one-thirteen are part of a database and are searchable. The list has been printed for the convenience of the researcher and is included in this finding aid. Series fourteen-twenty container lists are also a part of the finding aid but are not in a searchable format.

Series 1, Scrapbooks of Client Advertisements, circa 1870-1920, is arranged into three boxes by chronological date. There are two bound scrapbooks and one box of folders containing loose scrapbook pages. NW Ayer & Son compiled an assortment of their earliest ads and placed them into scrapbooks. Besides the earliest advertisements, the scrapbooks contain requests to run advertisements, reading notices and listings of papers Ayer advertised in. The early advertisements themselves range from medical remedies to jewelry to machines to clothing to education and more. Most of the advertisements in the bound scrapbooks are dated.

Series 2, Proofsheets, circa 1870-1930, NW Ayer was fond of creating scrapbooks containing proofsheets. The series contains proofsheets created between 1892 and 1930, organized into 526 boxes. For convenience of storage, access and arrangement, the scrapbooks were disassembled and the pages placed in original order in flat archival storage boxes. The proofsheets are arranged by book number rather than client name. Usually the boxes contain a listing of the clients and sometimes the dates of the advertisements to be found within the box.

Series 3, Proofsheets, circa 1920-1975, is organized into 532 oversize boxes, and contain proofsheets and tearsheets created between 1920 and 1972. Within this series, materials are arranged alphabetically by company name (occasionally subdivided by brand or product), and thereunder chronologically by date of production. Many major, national advertisers are represented, including American Telephone & Telegraph, Armour Company, Canada Dry, Cannon Mills, Carrier Corporation, Domino Sugar, Caterpillar tractor company, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Goodyear, Hills Bros. Coffee, Ladies Home Journal, National Dairy, Plymouth (Chrysler Corporation), Steinway, TV Guide, United Airlines and the United States Army. Also contained in this series are three scrapbooks of client advertisements including Canada Dry, Ford Motor, and Victor Talking Machine.

Series 4, 2001 Addendum, circa 1976-2001, is organized into ninety three oversized boxes,one folder and contains proofsheets for select Ayer clients, created between 1975 and 2001. Within this series, materials are arranged alphabetically by client name and there under chronologically by date of production. Major national advertisers represented include American Telephone & Telegraph, Avon, the United States Army, DeBeers Consolidated Diamond Mines, Dupont, TV Guide, Sealtest, Kraft Foods, Gillette, General Motors, Cannon Mills.

Series 5, Billboards, circa 1952-1956, consists of mounted and un-mounted original art/mock-ups. Twenty-two pieces of original art created as mock-ups for Texaco billboards.

Series 6, Film and Video Commercials, 1967-1970,

Series 7, Radio and Television Materials, 1933-1993, undated, is arranged into eight boxes and includes radio scripts, television scripts, and story boards for commercials.

Subseries 7.1, Scripts and storyboards for Radio and Television Commercials, dates Scripts for radio and television commercials includes title, date, length of commercial, advertising agency, client information

NW Ayer's radio and television materials mainly focus on the American Telegraph and Telephone account. Some of Ayer's materials relate to Bell Telephone Hours.

Storyboards are used in television and film to assist the director in working with crew to tell the story. To show the viewer through the use of figures, visual effects and camera angles. When directors first start thinking about their storyboard they create a story in their mind. They think of all the camera angles, visual effects and how the figures will interact in their mind. They try to create an extraordinary story in their head to attract the viewer (YOU) In order for the storyboard to be entirely effective it can't be a passive document. When done properly, a storyboard serves as a central design, meeting the needs of many team members including graphics artists, video personnel and programmers.

Another function of a storyboard is to help the team communicate during the training development process. This communication is very important in working with a large team as in the movie King, produced in 1996. Figures help the director explain to the crew how they are going to record the film and how to present it to the audience. Sometimes the director wants special effects to be added to the film, but his budget might not be that big so the director will have to change the story to fit their budget.

The Visual Effects are an important part in the storyboards it adds a special touch of creativity to your film. Camera angles are an important expects in your film because the camera angles determine where the viewing audience will look. If you want your audience to look at a certain object you must turn their attention to it by focusing on that object and maybe you might try blocking something out. Then you will have your audience's attention and you may do whatever else you have to, it could be scaring them are just surprising them or whatever you do.

Also included is talent information and log sheets relating to the storage of the commercials.

Bell Telephone Hour Program, 1942-[19??], The Bell Telephone Hour, also known as The Telephone Hour, was a five minute musical program which began April 29, 1940 on National Broadcasting Company Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television from 1959 to 1968.

Earlier shows featured James Melton and Francia White as soloists. Producer Wallace Magill restructured the format on April 27, 1942 into the "Great Artists Series" of concert and opera performers, beginning with Jascha Heifetz. Records indicate that the list of talents on the program included Marian Anderson, Helen Traubel, Oscar Levant, Lily Pons, Nelson Eddy, Bing Crosby, Margaret Daum, Benny Goodman, José Iturbi, Gladys Swarthout and .The series returned to radio in 1968-1969 as Bell Telephone Hour Encores, also known as Encores from the Bell Telephone Hour, featuring highlights and interviews from the original series.

National Broadcasting television specials sponsored by the Bell System, 1957-1987includes information relating to Science series, Bell system Theshold Series, Bell telephone hour and commercial and public sponsored programs

Series 8, Chicago Office Print Advertisements, 1954-1989, is arranged alphabetically by the name of the client in ninety boxes and six oversize folders. Clients include Illinois Bell Telephone (1955-1989), Microswitch (1969-1989), Teletype (1975-1984), John Deere (1974-1989) and Caterpillar (1966-1972) are particularly well represented. Other clients of interest include Dr. Scholl's shoes (circa 1968-1972), the Girl Scouts (1976-1980), Sunbeam Personal Products Company (1973-1981), Bell and Howell (1974-1983) and Alberto Culver shampoos (1967-1971), Honeywell, Incorporated, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Associations, Kraft, Incorporated, Sears, Roebuck and Company, and YMCA.

Series 9, Los Angeles Office Materials, 1950s-1987, include printed advertisements created by this office and information relating to the employees.

Subseries 9.1, Print Advertisements, 1977-1987, printed advertisements arranged in one box alphabetically by client. There is a sparse sampling of clients from this particular Ayer branch office. The majority of the advertisements contained within this series are from Pizza Hut (1986-1987). Also included are Computer Automation (1977-1978), State of the Art, Incorporated (1982) and Toshiba (1986).

Subseries 9.2, Personnel Files, 1950s-1970s, includes cards of employees who worked in the Los Angeles office. Information on the cards includes name, address, telephone number, birthday, date hired, departure date and why (retired, terminated, resigned, etc) and position. Not all cards have all information. There is also a photograph of the employees on the cards.

Series 10, Foreign Print Advertisements, 1977-1991, undated, NW Ayer maintained partnerships with international companies such as Sloanas Ayer in Argentina, Connaghan & May Paton Ayer in Australia, Moussault Ayer in Belgium, NW Ayer, LTD. in Canada, GMC Ayer in France, Co-Partner Ayer in Germany, Wong Lam Wang in Hong Kong, MacHarman Ayer in New Zealand, Grupo de Diseno Ayer in Spain, Nedeby Ayer in Sweden, and Ayer Barker in United Kingdom. This group of material is a small sampling of advertisements created from these International offices. It is arranged alphabetically by client. There are quite a few automobile advertisements (i.e. Audi, Fiat, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen). In addition there are numerous advertisements for various personal items from MacLean's toothpaste to Quick athletic shoes to Labello lip balm, etc. Most of the advertisements have the creator's name printed on the advertisements.

Series 11, Cunningham & Walsh, Incorporated Materials, 1915-1987, undated contains 98 boxes 11 folders materials from the New York advertising agency acquired by NW Ayer in the 1960s. The company began with Newel-Emmett, an agency of nine men which broke up in 1949. Two of the men Fred Walsh and Jack Cunningham formed this agency in bearing their names in 1950. The agency created "let your fingers for the walking campaign for American Telephone & Telegraph, Mother Nature for Chiffon, and Mrs. Olson for Folgers's coffee and let the good times roll for Kawasaki motorcycle. In 1986, NW Ayer Incorporated purchased Cunningham & Walsh Incorporated.

Subseries 11.1, Print Advertisements, 1915-1987, are contained in ninety eight boxes of primarily print advertisements arranged alphabetically by client name. Clients that are particularly well represented are Graybar (electrical implements, circa1926-1937), Johns-Manulle (circa1915-1971), Smith and Corono typewriters (circa 1934-1960), Sunshine Biscuit Company (circa 1925-1961), Texaco Company (circa 1936-1961), Western Electric (circa 1920- 1971) and Yellow Pages (circa 1936-1971). Cunningham and Walsh also represented several travel and tourism industry clients, including Cook Travel Services (circa 1951-1962), Italian Line (circa 1953-1961), Narragansett and Croft (circa 1956-1960) and Northwest Airlines (circa 1946-1955). There are photographs of Texaco advertisements dating from 1913-1962. There is also a scrapbook of advertisements from the Western Electric Company dating from 1920-1922.

Subseries 11.2, Radio and Television Advertisements, 1963-1967, consist of materials created for Western Electric. Materials are arranged in chronological order.

Subseries 11.3, Company Related Materials, 1962-1986, undated include client lists, information relating to NW Ayer purchase and annual report 1962.

Series 12, Hixson & Jorgensen Materials, 1953-1971, a Los Angeles advertising company, merged with Ayer in 1969. This series is housed in one box. Within the box are four scrapbooks and folders with a hodgepodge of materials relating to advertising. Of most interest are the scrapbooks. Two scrapbooks deal with Hixson and Jorgensen's self promotion ad campaign "the right appeal gets action" (1953-1957). The other two scrapbooks contain news clippings about the company and its activities (1959-1971).

Series 13, Newell-Emmet, 1942-1957, founded in 1919 and governed in the 1940s by a partnership of nine men. The partnership broke up in 1949 when the men went their separate ways. The materials consist of print advertisements for one of client, Permutit Company, a water conditioning company. The materials are arranged in one box in chronological order.

Series 14, House Print Advertisements, 1870-1991, 16 boxes consists of advertisements or self-promotion advertisements to campaign for new clients. The series is arranged chronologically by date into fifteen boxes. Within the series are two scrapbooks containing self promotion ads from 1888-1919 and 1892-1895. Numerous house ads relate to Ayer's "Human Contact" campaign. In addition to the self promotion ads, Ayer ran advertisements expounding about particular concepts or themes for example, one month the concept would "understand" while another month would be "teamwork" and yet another would be on "imagination". Some of the self promotion ads target specific groups like Philadelphia businessmen. Other advertisements incorporate the fine arts.

Series 15, Scrapbooks, 1872-1959, relates to company events, records and news clippings about Ayer's history. The six boxes are arranged by chronological date. Two of the boxes focus solely on the death of founder F.W. Ayer (1923). Another box houses a scrapbook that showcases Ayer's annual Typography Exhibition (1931-1959). One box contains a scrapbook that specifically deals with correspondences relating to Ayer's advertising. Yet another box's contents are folders of loose pages from scrapbooks that have newspaper clippings, order forms, correspondences and other company records. In one box, a bound scrapbook houses a variety of materials relating to Ayer and advertising (i.e. newspaper clippings, competitor's advertisements, NW Ayer's advertisements, correspondences for advertisements, clippings regarding the "theory of advertising."

Series 16, Publications, 1849-2006, are housed in thirty four boxes and are arranged into three main categories.

Subseries 16.1, House Publications, 1876-1994, covers diverse topics; some proscriptive works about the Ayer method in advertising, some commemorating people, anniversaries or events in the life of the agency. Materials consist of scattered issues of the employee newsletter The Next Step 1920-1921. The materials are arranged in chronological order by date of publication. Ayer in the News, The Show Windows of an Advertising Agency, 1915, book form of advertisements published on the cover of Printer's Ink, highlighting Ayer's relations with advertisers. The Story of the States, 1916, Reprint in book form of a series of articles published in Printer's Ink for the purpose of adding some pertinent fact, progressive thought and prophetic vision to the Nationalism of Advertising highlights major businesses, manufacturer, natural resources and other qualities or attractions of each state. The Book of the Golden Celebration, 1919, includes welcome address and closing remarks by founder F. Wayland Ayer, The Next Step, 1920 employee newsletter with photographs, employee profiles, in-house jokes, etc., Advertising Advertising: A Series of Fifty-two Advertisements scheduled one time a week. Twenty-seven, thirty and forty inches, a day of the week optional with publisher, 1924

Subseries 16.2, Publications about NW Ayer, 1949-2006, includes a book first published in 1939. Includes articles, documenting events and is arranged chronologically by date of publication.

Subseries 16.3, General Publications about Advertising, 1922-1974, are arranged chronologically by date of publication and relate primarily to the history of advertising.

Subseries 16.4, Publications about Other Subjects, 1948-1964, include four books about the tobacco industry primarily the history of the American Tobacco Company and Lorillard Company from the Cunningham and Walsh library.

Series 17, Business Records, circa 1885-1990s

Subseries 17.1, Contracts, 1885-1908, undated, are arranged alphabetically and span from 1885-1908. The majority of the contracts are with newspaper and magazine publishers from around the country.

Subseries 17.2, General client information, 1911-1999, undated, including active and cancelled lists with dates, client gains, historical client list, (should move this to series 20) Ayer Plan User Guide Strategic Planning for Human Contact, undated

Subseries 17.3, Individual Client Account Information, 1950s-1990s, undated, contain information used by Ayer to create advertisements for some of its clients. American Telephone &Telegraph Corporate Case History, American Telephone &Telegraph Corporate advertisement memo, commissioned artists for DeBeers advertisements, DeBeers information relating to the creative process and photography credits, a case history for DeBeers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., The Diamond Engagement Ring, Managing Communication at all levels, DuPont publications, JC Penny Marketing Communication Plan Recommendation, Leaf, Incorporated, Saturn presentation, and USAREC oral presentation.

Subseries 17.4, Potential Clients, 1993, includes grouping has a questionnaire sent to Ayer by a potential client. Questionnaire response for Prudential Securities, 1993 Prudential Securities advertising account review, 1993.

Subseries 17.5, Financial Records, 1929-1938, includes balance sheet, 1929 May 1 Balance sheet and adjustments Consolidated statement of assets and liabilities, Expenses 191936-37 Business review and expenses, 1937 and 1938 Business review and expenses comparative statement, 1937 and 1938.

Series 18, Legal Records, circa 1911-1982, Ayer's legal records are arranged by twelve subject groupings within four boxes. The twelve groupings are advertising service agreements (circa 1918-1982), bylaws, copyright claims, correspondences, international correspondences, dissolution of trusts, stock information, agreements between partners, incorporation materials, reduction of capital, property information and miscellaneous materials. The bulk of the materials are the advertising service agreements. These agreements are between Ayer and their clients and state the services Ayer will offer and at what cost. The bylaws are Ayer's company bylaws from 1969 and 1972. The copyright claims are certificates stating Ayer's ownership over certain published materials (i.e. "Policy", Media Equalizer Model, and Don Newman's Washington Square Experiment). The correspondences relate to either the voting trust and receipts for agreement or the New York Corporation. The international correspondences are from either Ayer's Canadian office or London office. The dissolutions of trusts contains materials about the dividend trust of Wilfred F. Fry, the investment trust of Winfred W. Fry, the voting trust, and the New York corporation. The stock information has stock certificates and capital stock information. The agreements between partners (1911-1916) specify the terms between F.W. Ayer and his partners. The incorporation materials (circa 1929-1977) deal with Ayer advertising agency becoming incorporated in the state of Delaware. The reduction of capital grouping is a notification that shares of stock have been retired. The property information grouping contains property deeds and insurance policy (circa 1921-1939), a property appraisal (1934), and a bill of sale (1948). The miscellaneous grouping contains a house memo regarding a set of board meeting minutes and a registry of foreign companies in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1929-1954).

Subseries 18.1, Advertising Service Agreements, 1918-1982

Subseries 18.2, Bylaw Materials, 1969-1972

Subseries 18.3, Copyright Claims, 1962-1969

Subseries 18.4, Correspondence, 1928-1933

Subseries 18.5, International Office Correspondence, 1947-1948

Subseries 18.6, Dissolution of Trusts, 1934-1937

Subseries 18.7, Stock Information, 1934-1974

Subseries 18.8, Agreements between Partners, 1911-1916

Subseries 18.9, Incorporation Materials, 1929-1977

Subseries 18.10, Certificates of Reduction of Capital, 1937; 1975

Subseries 18.11, Property Information, 1921-1948

Subseries 18.12, Miscellaneous Materials, 1929-1977

Series 19, Personnel Records, circa 1889-2001, are arranged into eight groupings within eight boxes. The groupings are employee card files, photographs, Ayer alumni, biographies, speeches, recollections, oral histories, and miscellaneous. Typed manuscript of book A Copy Writer Speaks by George Cecil, NW Ayer, Incorporated copy head 1920s-1950s

Subseries 19.1, Employee card files, circa 1892-1915; 1929-1963, consists of index cards with the name, age, job title, date and wage increases, date of hire/fire, as well as remarks about the employee's service and/or reasons for seeking or leaving the job. Materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the employee within three boxes.

Subseries 19.2, Photographs, circa 1924-1984, undated, are housed in two boxes. The photographs grouped together by subjects i.e. personnel, company events, Ayer buildings, and miscellaneous. This grouping primarily consists of personnel photographs. Includes a glass plate negative dated 1924 of NW Ayer.

Subseries 19.3, Ayer Alumni, circa 1989-98, include employees who have left Ayer. There is a listing of Ayer "graduates" and their current job. Emeritus, Ayer's alumni newsletter 1989-1996, makes up the majority of materials in this grouping. The newsletter keeps the alumni up to date with the happenings of Ayer and what has become of former Ayer employees. Emeritus is a quarterly newsletter devoted to the activities, thoughts and feelings of Ayer alumni a body of people who consists of retirees and former employees.

Subseries 19.4, Biographical Information, circa 1889-1994, undated, prominent members of Ayer's operations had biographical sketches completed of them. This was true for the bio sketches of Robert Ervin, Louis T. Hagopian, and George A. Rink. There is a substantial file on Dorothy Dignam ("Mis Dig"), a leading woman in the advertising world from the 1930s to the 1950s. Also of interest is a video ("The Siano Man") compiled by Ayer employees to commemorate Jerry Siano's retirement from Ayer in 1994. The series is arranged alphabetically by last name.

Subseries 19.5, Speeches, circa 1919-1931; 1975, contains speeches made by Wilfred W. Fry and Neal W. O'Connor. Wilfred W. Fry had various speaking engagements connected with Ayer. Contained in this group is a sampling of his speeches from 1919 to 1931. Neal O'Connor's speech "Advertising: Who Says It's a Young People's Business" was given at the Central Region Convention for the American Association of Advertising Agencies in Chicago on November 6, 1975. The speeches are arranged alphabetically by the speaker's last name.

Subseries 19.6, Recollections, 1954-1984, undated, are arranged alphabetically by last name. These are recollections from Ayer employees about the company and its advertisements. Some recollections are specifically about certain types of advertisements, like farm equipment while others reflect on F. W. Ayer and the company.

Subseries 19.7, Oral History Interview Transcripts, 1983-1985; 1989-1991, include interviews with key NW Ayer personnel, conducted by Ayer alumnae Howard Davis, Brad Lynch and Don Sholl (Vice President creative) for the Oral History Program. The materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee.

Subseries 19.8, Oral History Interview Audio Tapes, 1985-1990, include interviews on audiotape the materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee.

Subseries 19.9, Internal Communications, 1993-1999, includes information sent to employees relating to retirements, management changes, awards won by the company, promotions, potential new accounts, free items, grand opening of Ayer Café, donation events, sponsorship programs, holiday schedules, discounts for employees from clients, Ayer joins MacManus Group.

Subseries 19.10, General Materials, 1940; 1970, includes agency directory entry including a list of the employees, 1970s, annual banquet program for the Curfew Club May 22, 1940 a group formed by the Philadelphia employee in 1938. It sponsored numerous sports, social and educational activities. Groups were formed in public speaking, music appreciation and a series of talks on Monday evenings title the modern woman. The front page was a series of talks for general interest. A list of officers, 1991, Twenty five year club membership, 1973 December 1, List of NW Ayer graduates, 1970, List of Officers, 1991 May 31, Obituary for Leo Lionni, 1999 October 17, List of photographers of advertisements, 2001

Series 20, Background and History Information, 1817-1999, undated includes a chronology, 1817-1990, quick reference timeline, 1848-1923, loose pages from a scrapbook containing examples of correspondence, envelopes, advertisements dating from 1875-1878; slogans coined by NW Ayer & Sons, Incorporated, 1899-1990, history of management, 1909-1923, articles and photographs about the building and art galleries, 1926-1976, publications about the Philadelphia building, 1929, pamphlet relating to memories of NW Ayer & Sons, Incorporated, 1930s-1950s, television history, 1940-1948, Article about the history of the company, 1950 January, pocket guide, 1982, AdWeek reports about standings for advertising agencies, information relating to Human Contact which is NW Ayer's Information relating to Human Contact, undated which is their philosophy on advertising.

Series 21, Materials Created by other Advertising Agencies, 1945-1978, undated, consists of print advertisements collected by Ayer from other major advertising companies. The companies include Doyle Dane Bernback, Incorporated, Leo Burnett Company, Grey Advertising Agency, D'Arcy Ad Agency, Scali, McCabe, Sloves, Incorporated and Erwin Wasey Company. The materials are arranged in alphabetical order by client and include products from Ralston Purina and Van Camp (Chicken of the Sea), Kellogg, American Export Lines and No Nonsense Fashions.

Series 22, 2010 Addendum of Print Advertisements, circa 1879s-1999, undated, includes material given to the Archives Center in 2010. It is organized into seventy one oversized boxes and contains proofsheets of print advertisements for select Ayer clients. These are arranged alphabetically by client name and include substantial quantities of materials from American Telephone &Telegraph (1945-1996), Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (1967-1987), Carrier (1971-1981), Citibank (1973-1991), DeBeers (1940s-1960s and1990s), Electric Companies Advertising Program [ECAP] (1942-1970s), General Motors (1989-1998), J.C. Penney (1983-1986), Newsweek (1966-1975), and Proctor and Gamble (1980s-1890s). There are also numerous other clients represented by smaller quantities of materials.

Subseries 22.1, Print Advertisements, 1930-1990, undated

Subseries 22.2, Print Advertisements on Glass Plate Negatives, 1879-1881, undated, include Cannon towels, Cheny Brothers silks, Cornish & Company organs and pianos, Enterprise Manufacturing Company, 1879 sad iron, an ad from Harper's Weekly 1881 for ladies clothing, Ostermoor & Company mattresses, Pear's soap, Porter's cough balsam, Steinway pianos.

Series 23, Microfilm of Print Advertisements, circa 1908-1985, consists of three boxes of printed advertisements for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Some of the same advertisements might also be found in series two, three and four.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into twenty-three series.

Series 1: Scrapbooks of Client Print Advertisements, circa 1870-1920

Series 2: Proofsheets, circa 1870-1930

Series 3: Proofsheets, circa 1920-1975

Series 4: 2001 Addendum, circa 1976-2001

Series 5: Billboards, circa 1952-1956

Series 6: Audiovisual Materials

Series 7: Radio and Television Materials, 1933-1993, undated

Series 8: Chicago Office Print Advertisements, 1954-1989

Series 9: Los Angeles Office Materials, 1950s-1987

Subseries 9.1: Printed Advertisements, 1977-1987

Subseries 9.2: Personnel Files, 1950s-1970s

Series 10: Foreign Print Advertisements, 1977-1991, undated

Series 11: Cunningham & Walsh Incorporated Materials, 1915-1987, undated

Subseries 11.1: Printed Advertisements, 1915-1987

Subseries 11.2: Radio and Television Advertisements, 1963-1967

Subseries 11.3: Company Related Materials, 1962-1986, undated

Series 12: Hixson & Jorgensen Materials, 1953-1971, undated

Series 13: Newell-Emmet, 1942-1957

Series 14: House Print Advertisements, 1870-1991

Series 15: Scrapbooks, 1872-1959

Series 16: Publications, 1849-2006

Subseries 16.1: House Publications, 1876-1994

Subseries 16.2: Publications about NW Ayer, 1949-1995

Subseries 16.3: General Publications about Advertising, 1922-2006

Subseries 16.4: Publications about other Subjects, 1948-1964

Series 17, Business Records, circa 1885-1990s

Subseries 17.1: Contracts, 1885-1908, undated

Subseries 17.2: General Client Information, 1911-1999, undated

Subseries 17.3: Individual Client Account Information, 1950s-1990s, undated

Subseries 17.4: Potential Clients, 1993

Subseries 17.5: Financial Records, 1929-1938

Series 18: Legal Records, circa 1911-1984

Subseries 18.1: Advertising Service Agreements, 1918-1982

Subseries 18.2: Bylaw Materials, 1969-1972

Subseries 18.3, Copyright Claims, 1962-1969

Subseries 18.4: Correspondence, 1928-1933

Subseries 18.5: International Office Correspondence, 1947-1948

Subseries 18.6: Dissolution of Trusts, 1934-1937

Subseries 18.7: Stock Information, 1934-1974

Subseries 18.8: Agreements between Partners, 1911-1916

Subseries 18.9: Incorporation Materials, 1929-1977

Subseries 18.10: Certificates of Reduction of Capital, 1937; 1975

Subseries 18.11: Property Information

Subseries 18.12: Miscellaneous Materials, 1929-1977

Series 19: Employee Materials, circa 1889-2001

Subseries 19.1: Employee Card files, circa 1892-1915; 1929-1963

Subseries 19.2: Photographs, circa 1924-1984, undated

Subseries 19.3: Alumni Publications, circa 1989-1998

Subseries 19.4: Biographical Information, circa 1889-1994

Subseries 19.5: Speeches, circa 1919-1931; 1975

Subseries 19.6: Recollections, 1954-1984, undated

Subseries 19.7: Oral History Interview Transcripts, 1983-1985; 1989-1991

Subseries 19.8: Oral History Audiotapes, 1985-1990

Subseries 19.9: Internal Communications, 1993-1999

Subseries 19.1: General Materials, 1940-2001

Series 20: History and Background Information about the Company, 1817-1999, undated

Series 21: Materials Created by other Advertising Agencies, 1945-1978, undated

Series 22: 2010 Addendum of Print Advertisements, circa 1879s-1990s, undated

Subseries 22.1: Print Advertisements, 1930-1990, undated

Subseries 22.2: Print Advertisements on Glass Plate Negatives, 1879-1881, undated

Series 23: Microfilm of Print Advertisements, circa 1908-1985
Biographical / Historical:
Founded in Philadelphia in 1869, NW Ayer & Son is one of the oldest and largest advertising agencies in America. For most of its history, it was the undisputed leader and innovator in the field of advertising. In 1876, NW Ayer & Son pioneered the "open contract", a revolutionary change in the method of billing for advertising which became the industry standard for the next hundred years. NW Ayer pioneered the use of fine art in advertising and established the industry's first art department. It was the first agency to use a full-time copywriter and the first to institute a copy department. The agency relocated to New York City in 1974. During its long history, the agency's clients included many "blue-chip" clients, including American Telephone & Telegraph, DeBeers Consolidated Diamond Mines, Ford Motor Company, Nabisco, R. J. Reynolds and United Airlines. However, in later years, the Ayer's inherent conservatism left the agency vulnerable to the creative revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, the advertising industry restructuring of the 1980s and the economic recession of the early 1990s. The agency was bought out by a Korean investor in 1993. In 1996, NW Ayer merged with another struggling top twenty United States advertising agency, Darcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, under the umbrella of the McManus Group. Ayer continues to operate as a separate, full-service agency.

Through a series of buyouts and mergers, Ayer traces its lineage to the first advertising agency founded in the United States, a Philadelphia agency begun by Volney Palmer in 1841. Palmer began his career in advertising as a newspaper agent, acting as middleman between newspaper publishers and advertisers across the country. By 1849, Palmer had founded his own newspaper, V. B. Palmer's Register and Spirit of the Press, and had developed a complete system of advertising which included securing advertising space and placing ads in scores of commercial, political, religious, scientific and agricultural journals across the country. Palmer went one step further than the "space jobbers" of the day when he began offering "advertisements carefully drawn for those who have not the time to prepare an original copy." Always an enthusiastic promoter of advertising as an incentive to trade and American economic growth, Palmer promised advertisers that "every dollar paid for advertising in country newspapers will pay back twenty-fold" and encouraged skeptical consumers that "he who wishes to buy cheap should buy of those who advertise." When Palmer died in 1863, the agency was bought by his bookkeeper, John Joy, who joined with another Philadelphia advertising agency to form Joy, Coe & Sharpe. That agency was bought out again in 1868 and renamed Coe, Wetherill & Company. In 1877, Coe, Wetherill and Company was bought out by the newly formed NW Ayer & Son.

Francis Wayland Ayer was an ambitious young schoolteacher with an entrepreneurial streak. Having worked for a year soliciting advertisements on a commission basis for the publisher of the National Baptist weekly, Francis Ayer saw the potential to turn a profit as an advertising agent. In 1869, Ayer persuaded his father, Nathan Wheeler Ayer, to join him in business, and with an initial investment of only $250.00, NW Ayer & Son was born. Notwithstanding a smallpox epidemic in Philadelphia in 1871 and the general economic depression of the early 1870s, the agency flourished. The senior Ayer died in 1873, leaving his interest in the agency to his wife, but Francis W. Ayer bought her out, consolidating his interest in the company's management. In 1877, with Coe, Wetherill & Company (the successor to Palmer's 1841 agency) on the verge of bankruptcy and heavily indebted to Ayer for advertising it had placed in Ayer publications, Ayer assumed ownership of that agency. Thus did NW Ayer lay claim to being the oldest advertising agency in the country.

Both Nathan Wheeler and Francis Wayland Ayer began their careers as schoolteachers, and one of their legacies was a commitment to the cause of education: correspondence schools and institutions of higher learning were historically well-represented among Ayer clients. Just after World War I, the agency was heralded as "co-founder of more schools than any citizen of this country" for its conspicuous efforts to advertise private schools. Well into the 1960s, an "Education Department" at Ayer prepared advertisements for over three hundred private schools, camps and colleges, representing almost half the regional and national advertising done for such institutions. In fact, to its clients Ayer presented advertising itself as being akin to a system of education. In 1886, Ayer began promoting the virtues of the Ayer way advertising with the slogan, "Keeping Everlastingly at It Brings Success."

The agency's goals were simple: "to make advertising pay the advertiser, to spend the advertiser's money as though it were our own, to develop, magnify and dignify advertising as a business." Initially, Ayer's fortunes were tied to newspapers, and the agency began to make a name for itself as compiler and publisher of a widely used American Newspaper Annual. During the first years, Ayer's singular goal was "to get business, place it [in newspapers] and get money for it"; after several years as an independent space broker, however, Francis Ayer resolved "not to be an order taker any longer." This decision led NW Ayer and Son to a change in its mode of conducting business which would revolutionize the advertising industry: in 1876, Ayer pioneered the "open contract" with Diggee & Conard, Philadelphia raised growers and agricultural suppliers. Prior to the open contract, NW Ayer & Sons and most agencies operated as "space-jobbers," independent wholesalers of advertising space, in which the opportunities for graft and corrupt practices were virtually unlimited. In contrast, the open contract, wherein the advertiser paid a fixed commission based on the volume of advertising placed, aligned the advertising agent firmly on the side of the advertiser and gave advertisers access to the actual rates charged by newspapers and religious journals. The open contract with a fixed commission has been hailed by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker as one of the "three great landmarks in advertising history." (The other two were Lasker's own development of "reason-why" advertising copy and J. Walter Thompson's pioneering of sex appeal in an advertisement for Woodbury's soap.) Although the transition to the open contract did not happen overnight, by 1884, nearly three-quarters of Ayer's advertising billings were on an open contract basis. Since Ayer was, by the 1890s, the largest agency in America, the switch to direct payment by advertisers had a significant impact on the advertising industry, as other agencies were forced to respond to Ayer's higher standard. Just as important, the open contract helped to establish N W Ayer's long-standing reputation for "clean ethics and fair dealing" -- a reputation the agency has guarded jealously for over a century. The open contract also helped to establish Ayer as a full service advertising agency and to regularize the production of advertising in-house. From that point forward, Ayer routinely offered advice and service beyond the mere placement of advertisements. Ayer set another milestone for the industry in 1888, when Jarvis Wood was hired as the industry's first full-time copywriter. Wood was joined by a second full time copywriter four years later, and the Copy Department was formally established in 1900. The industry's first Art Department grew out of the Copy Department when Ayer hired its first commercial artist to assist with copy preparation in 1898; twelve years later Ayer became the first agency to offer the services of a full time art director, whose sole responsibility was the design and illustration of ads.

Ayer's leadership in the use of fine art in advertising has roots in this period, but achieved its highest expression under the guidance of legendary art director Charles Coiner. Coiner joined Ayer in 1924, after graduating from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Despite early resistance from some clients, Coiner was adamant that "the use of outstanding palette and original art forms bring a greater return in readership, in impact and prestige for the advertiser." To this end, Coiner marshaled the talents of notable painters, illustrators and photographers, including N.C. Wyeth and Rockwell Kent (Steinway), Georgia O'Keefe (Dole), Leo Lionni (DuPont), Edward Steichen (Steinway, Cannon Mills), Charles Sheeler (Ford), and Irving Penn (DeBeers). Coiner believed that there was a practical side to the use of fine art in advertising, and his success (and Ayer's) lay in the marriage of research and copywriting with fine art, an arrangement Coiner termed "art for business sake." Coiner's efforts won both awards and attention for a series completed in the 1950s for the Container Corporation of America. Titled "Great Ideas of Western Man" the campaign featured abstract and modern paintings and sculpture by leading U.S. and foreign artists, linked with Western philosophical writings in an early example of advertising designed primarily to bolster corporate image. In 1994, Charles Coiner was posthumously named to the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Fame, the first full time art director ever chosen for that honor.

Coiner and fellow art director Paul Darrow also created legendary advertising with the "A Diamond Is Forever" campaign for DeBeers; ads featured the work of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and other modernist painters. The "A Diamond is Forever" tagline was written in 1949 by Frances Gerety, a woman copywriter at Ayer from 1943 to 1970. In 1999, Ad Age magazine cited "A Diamond is Forever" as the most memorable advertising slogan of the twentieth century.

Coiner also earned respect for his volunteer government service during World War II; he designed the armbands for civil defense volunteers and logos for the National Recovery Administration and Community Chest. As a founding member of the Advertising Council in 1945, Ayer has had a long-standing commitment to public service advertising. In the mid-1980s, Ayer became a leading force in the Reagan-era "War on Drugs". Lou Hagopian, Ayer's sixth CEO, brokered the establishment of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a media coalition which generated as much as a million dollars a day in donated advertising space and time to prevent the use and abuse of illegal drugs. Famous names appear among NW Ayer's clientele from the very earliest days of the agency. Retailer John Wanamaker, Jay Cooke and Company, and Montgomery Ward's mail-order business were among the first Ayer clients. The agency has represented at least twenty automobile manufacturers, including Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Plymouth, and Rolls-Royce. Other major, long-term clients through the years have included American Telephone & Telegraph, Canada Dry, Cannon Mills, Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Kellogg's, R. J. Reynolds, Steinway and Sons, United Airlines, and the United States Army. By the time of Ayer's hundredth anniversary in 1969, some of these companies had been Ayer clients for decades if not generations, and the longevity of those relationships was for many years a source of Ayer's strength.

But the advertising industry began to change in the late 1960s and 1970s, due in part to a "creative revolution." Small advertising agencies won attention with provocative copywriting and art direction that more closely resembled art than advertising. Advances in market research allowed clients to more narrowly tailor their advertising messages to distinct groups of consumers, and this led to a rise in targeted marketing which could more readily be doled out to specialized small agencies than to larger, established firms like NW Ayer & Son. The civil rights and anti-war movements also contributed to increasing public skepticism with the values of corporate America, and by extension, with some national advertising campaigns. Older, more conservative firms like Ayer were hard pressed to meet these new challenges.

About 1970, in an effort to meet these challenges and to establish a foothold on the West Coast, Ayer bought out two smaller agencies--Hixson & Jorgenson (Los Angeles) and Frederick E. Baker (Seattle). The agency relocated from Philadelphia to New York City in 1974 in an attempt both to consolidate operations (Ayer had operated a New York office since the 1920s) and to be closer to the historic center of the advertising industry. Riding the wave of mergers that characterized the advertising industry in the late 1980s and 1990s, Ayer continued to grow through the acquisition of Cunningham & Walsh in 1986 and Rink Wells in 19xx.

During this transitional period, Ayer received widespread acclaim for its work for the United States Army, which included the widely recognized slogan "Be All You Can Be". Ayer first acquired the Army recruitment account in 1967 and with help from its direct marketing arm, the agency was widely credited with helping the Army reach its recruitment goals despite an unpopular war and plummeting enlistments after the elimination of the draft in 1973. Ayer held the account for two decades, from the Vietnam War through the Cold War, but lost the account in 1986 amid government charges that an Ayer employee assigned to the account accepted kickbacks from a New York film production house. Despite Ayer's position as the country's 18th largest agency (with billings of $880 million in 1985), the loss of the agency's second largest account hit hard.

NW Ayer made up for the loss of the $100 million dollar a year Army account and made headlines for being on the winning end of the largest account switch in advertising history to date, when fast food giant Burger King moved its $200 million dollar advertising account from arch-rival J. Walter Thompson in 1987. Burger King must have had drive-thru service in mind, however, and Ayer made headlines again when it lost the account just eighteen months later in another record-breaking account switch. Another devastating blow to the agency was the loss of its lead position on the American Telegraph and Telephone account. Ayer pioneered telecommunications advertising in 1908, when the agency was selected to craft advertising for the Bell System's universal telephone service. Despite valiant efforts to keep an account the agency had held for most of the twentieth century, and for which they had written such memorable corporate slogans as American Telephone &Telegraph "The Voice with a Smile" and "Reach Out and Touch Someone", the agency lost the account in 1996.

After a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the late 1980s, the economic recession of the early 1990s hit Madison Avenue hard, and Ayer was particularly vulnerable. Despite the agency's long history and roster of "blue-chip" clients, Ayer was not known for cutting-edge creative work. Moreover, though the agency had offices overseas, Ayer had never built a strong multinational presence, and many of the smaller international offices were sold during the financial turmoil of the 1980s. This left a real void in the new climate of global marketplace consolidation. By about 1990, earnings were declining (although Ayer was still among the top twenty United States agencies in billings), and the agency was suffering from client defections, high management turnover, expensive real estate commitments and deferred executive compensation deals, all fallout of the high-flying 1980s. This was the atmosphere in 1993, when W.Y. Choi, a Korean investor who had already assembled a media and marketing empire in his homeland, began looking for an American partner to form an international advertising network. Jerry Siano, the former creative director who had recently been named Ayer's seventh CEO, was in no position to refuse Choi's offer of $35 million to buy the now floundering agency. The infusion of cash was no magic bullet, however. Choi took a wait-and-see approach, allowing his partner Richard Humphreys to make key decisions about Ayer's future, including the purging of senior executives and the installation of two new CEOs in as many years.

The agency's downward trend continued with the loss of another longtime client, the DeBeers diamond cartel in 1995. Adweek reported that Ayer's billings fell from $892 million in 1990 to less than $850 million in 1995. Several top executives defected abruptly, and the agency failed to attract major new accounts. Ayer was facing the loss not merely of revenue and personnel, but the loss of much of the respect it once commanded. Ayer remained among the twenty largest U.S. agencies, but an aura of uncertainty hung over the agency like a cloud. A new CEO was appointed, and Mary Lou Quinlan became the agency's first woman CEO in 1995. A year later, Ayer and another struggling top twenty agency, D'arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, combined as part of the McManus Group of companies. In 1998, the McManus Group had worldwide billings of more than $6.5 billion.

Under the McManus Group, Ayer was able to expand its international operations and begin to rebuild a stronger global presence. Several important new clients were won in 1997 and 1998, including Avon, General Motors, Kitchenaid, several Procter & Gamble brands and, most notably, Continental Airlines worldwide accounts. Born in the nineteenth century, Ayer may be one of a very few advertising agencies to successfully weather the economic and cultural transitions of both the twentieth and twentieth first centuries. Ayer was eventually acquired by the Publicis Groupe based in Paris, France which closed down the N.W. Ayer offices in 2002.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (AC0060)

Hills Bros. Coffee Incorporated Records (AC0395)
Provenance:
The collection was donated by N W Ayer ABH International, April 15, 1975 and by Ayer & Partners, October 30, 1996.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.

Physical Access: Researchers must use microfilm copy. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.

Technical Access: Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire; listening to audio discs requires special arrangement. Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
Rights:
Publication and production quality duplication is restricted due to complex copyright, publicity rights, and right to privacy issues. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Advertising agencies  Search this
advertising  Search this
Genre/Form:
Business records -- 1840-2000
Interviews -- 1980-2000
Oral history -- 1980-1990
Print advertising
Proof sheets
Proofs (printed matter)
Scrapbooks -- 1840-1990
Trade literature
Tear sheets
Advertisements
Citation:
NW Ayer & Sons, incorporated Advertising Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0059
See more items in:
N W Ayer Advertising Agency Records
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8920ed035-d211-4a58-9047-b31fa79464bd
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0059
Online Media:

Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection

Creator:
Naff, Alixa, 1919-2013  Search this
Names:
American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee  Search this
Arab American Institute  Search this
National Association of Arab Americans  Search this
Syrian Protestant Church  Search this
Naff, Faris  Search this
Naff, Yamna  Search this
Former owner:
Archdioceses of Antiochan Orthodox, Melkites, and Maronites  Search this
Southern Federation of Lebanese Clubs  Search this
Spring Valley (Ill.) Syrian Orthodox Church  Search this
Extent:
120 Cubic feet (295 boxes )
2,000 Photographs
450 Cassette tapes
Culture:
Arab Americans  Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Cassette tapes
Advertisements
Audiotapes
Books
Correspondence
Diaries
Journals (accounts)
Newspaper clippings
Oral history
Scrapbooks
Place:
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
Cedar Rapids (Iowa)
Dearborn (Mich.)
Detroit (Mich.)
Fort Wayne (Ind.)
Los Angeles (Calif.)
Spring Valley (Ill.)
Date:
1862-2004, undated
Summary:
The collection is the result of research conducted by Dr. Alixa Naff (1920-2013) relating to the study of the early Arab immigrant experience in the United States from about 1880-World War II. The study began with oral history interviews in 1962 and became a major project in 1980 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It documents the assimilation of Arabic speaking immigrants in the United States.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the immigration and assimilation of mostly Christian Syrian-Lebanese who came to America at the turn of the twentieth century. The immigrants were predominately-small land-owning peasants and artisans from the village of Syria and Lebanon. According to Alixa Naff, immigrants knew exactly where they were going to live and what they were going to do once they immigrated to America. They mostly chose to live in cities where earlier immigrants had already created communities. The majority of the immigrants became peddlers. Peddlers carried packs containing scissors, razors, pins, buttons, ribbons, threads, needles, combs, mirrors, soap, voile and muslin, lace and crotchet crafts, perfume, scarves, picture frames, oriental rugs, fine linens, leather goods, pictures of saints, religious notions from the holy land, confections and cakes. Peddling offered the immigrants a source of income and a way to learn the English language, American customs and lifestyles. It often led to ownership of a small dry goods store. More successful businesspersons then went on to own a department store or a chain of stores. For those Syrian/Lebanese who chose not to pursue peddling as a source of income other occupations included farming, work in New England textile mills, Midwestern factories, Pittsburgh and Birmingham steel mills and Detroit's automobile assembly lines.

It was in these Syrian communities created by Arab immigrants that Dr. Naff sought interviews, photographs and personal papers. For Alixa Naff this pioneering generation of people offered a wealth of information on the immigrant experience and the critical role that peddling played. Naff conducted interviews in urban and small town communities with an emphasis on Midwestern states. Her informants included first and second generation Christians, Druze and Muslims. Locations of interviews included Detroit, Michigan because it was an industrial city with a large and stable Syrian population of all faiths. Cedar Rapids, Iowa was smaller, a railroad depot at the turn of the century and home to the earliest Muslim groups. Peoria, Illinois was also a small, railroad depot at the turn of the century and it consisted predominately of the Maronite Sect originally from one village in Mount Lebanon. Spring Valley, Illinois was a small mining town with a Christian community and the remnant of a once flourishing peddling settlement. Their Eastern Rite Syrian Orthodox Church was the only one in Illinois until 1961 and served smaller Syrian groups.

Oral history interviews deal with the sociological factors of the assimilation process. Most tapes have been fully transcribed or abstracted. Information from the interviews are supported with published articles; demographic statistics; articles from the Arab-American press, books, journals and dissertations published in the United States or in Arab countries. Personal papers collected from individuals and families provide evidence of the experiences discussed in the interviews and add a personal touch to the reference materials. While there are a number of original items included among the personal papers, there is a substantial amount of duplicate materials. Naff would often collect the originals make copies and then return the originals to the donors.
Arrangement:
Collection is arranged into the eight series created by Alixa Naff.

Series 1, Personal Papers, 1891-2002, undated

Series 2, Photographs, 1890-1996, undated

Series 3, Oral interviews, Abstracts, Transcripts and Supporting Materials, 1962-1995, undated

Series 4, Publications, 1862-2000, undated

Series 5, Subject Files, 1888-2000

Series 6, Project Files, 1977-1995

Series 7, Alixa Naff Personal Papers, 1943-1996, undated

Series 8, Audio Visual Materials, 1908-1994, undated
Biographical / Historical:
The Faris and Yamna Naff Collection is the result of the dedication and research efforts of Dr. Alixa Naff, the daughter of Syrian-Lebanese immigrants. She spent most of her life documenting the early American experience of the generation of Arabs, mostly Christian, from Syria/Lebanon who came to this country around the turn of the century.

After an administrative career in private industry, Alixa Naff enrolled at the University of California to obtain her B.A. degree. During her senior year, she was required to write a paper for an American history seminar. The topic for the seminar was immigration. Alixa Naff chose Arabs in America as her subject. According to Naff, there was a lack of reference materials relating to her topic. Therefore, she relied mostly on conversations with her parents' friends. Impressed by her work, Alixa Naff's professor offered her a grant to collect Arab folklore.

Alixa Naff conducted her research during the summer of 1962. She interviewed eighty-seven people in sixteen communities across the United States and eastern Canada. All of her informants were at least sixty years old at the time of the interviews and represented the last surviving members of her parents' pioneer immigrant generation. After completing her fieldwork, Naff went on to earn her master's and Ph.D. degrees. She taught on the college level at California State University and the University of Colorado. In 1977, she left teaching citing anti-Arab feelings as the reason for her shift in career paths. Her desire to counter the anti-Arab stereotyping with accurate sources of information created yet another opportunity for her to pursue more research about Arab Americans.

Later in 1977, Alixa Naff served as a consultant on a documentary film relating to Arabs in America. She again realized existed on the subject of the Arab immigrant experience in America. Moreover, much of what she found conflicted with what pioneer informants had told her. Naff was also painfully aware that family members of decreased Arab immigrants often discarded the early artifacts, personal papers, photographs and books brought to America. Shortly after, she began working on a study on the history of Arab immigrants. In 1979, Alixa Naff met Gino Baroni, then undersecretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and founder of the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs. His center helped her secure funding for her research from the National Endowment for the Humanities and provided an office for her to work. The result of this work was a book entitled Becoming American: The Early Arab Immigrant Experience published in 1985. Richard Ahlborn, then curator of the Smithsonian's Community Life Division (now its Department of Cultural Affairs), convinced Naff to donate the collection to the Smithsonian in honor of her parents, Faris and Yamna Naff, and their generation of Arabs who immigrated to America.

Alixa Naff died on June 1, 2013 at the age of 93.
Related Materials:
Materials at the National Museum of American History

The Division of Home and Community Life (now Division of Cultural and Community Life)holds artifacts related to this collection including. See Accession #: 2007.3245.

Materials at the Smithsonian Institution

Photo Lot 2011-02, Alixa Naff photographs of Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean and audio tapes on Mediterranean folklore, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Provenance:
The collection is the result of research conducted by Dr. Alixa Naff relating to the study of the early Arab immigrant experience in the United States from about 1880-World War II. The study began with oral history interviews in 1962 and became a major project in 1980 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.

Researchers must use microfilm copies. 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.

Viewing film portions of collection require special appointment; please inquire with a reference archivist. Do not use when original materials are available on reference video or 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:
Associations, institutions -- voluntarism  Search this
Automobile industry workers  Search this
Businessmen -- Arab Americans  Search this
Emigration and immigration  Search this
Emigration and immigration -- Arab Americans  Search this
Ethnic groups -- cultural history  Search this
Naturalization -- Arab Americans -- United States  Search this
Peddlers  Search this
Press -- Arabic language  Search this
Transcripts  Search this
voluntarism -- associations, institutions, etc  Search this
Genre/Form:
Advertisements
Audiotapes
Books
Correspondence -- 19th-20th century
Diaries
Journals (accounts)
Newspaper clippings
Oral history -- Arab Americans
Photographs -- 20th century
Photographs -- 1850-1900
Scrapbooks
Citation:
Faris and Yamna Naff Arab-American Collection Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0078
See more items in:
Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8a88907b6-52b1-4275-beca-efb48f9cff4a
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0078
Online Media:

[Miscellaneous Billboards and Signage]: billboard next to a bridge advertising Polarine motor oil.

Collection Creator:
Garden Club of America  Search this
Extent:
1 Photograph (lantern slide, black-and-white, 3.25 in. x 4in.)
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Lantern slides
Place:
Miscellaneous Billboards and Signage (Summit, New Jersey)
United States of America -- New Jersey -- Union -- Summit
Date:
[between 1914 and 1949?]
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Topic:
Gardens -- New Jersey -- Summit  Search this
Billboards  Search this
advertising  Search this
Roads  Search this
Bridges  Search this
Automobiles  Search this
Roadside improvement  Search this
Genre/Form:
Lantern slides
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Identifier:
AAG.GCA, Item NJ661003
See more items in:
The Garden Club of America collection
The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / New Jersey / NJ661: Summit -- Miscellaneous Billboards and Signage
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Gardens
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb678941b8b-a5d4-4f3a-83c8-cc96724d7ae1
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref21338

General Motors EV1 Records

Creator:
General Motors Corporation  Search this
Extent:
3 Cubic feet (7 boxes, 2 oversize folders )
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Reports
Advertisements
Audiovisual materials
Catalogs
Correspondence
Diagrams
Photographs
Magazines (periodicals)
Posters
Press releases
Date:
1990-2005
bulk 1993-1999
Summary:
This collection documents the design, testing, production and promotion of the first zero-emission electric car produced by a major car company, the General Motors EV1. The materials include photographs, promotional booklets and marketing, press coverage, and publications, as well as design details and specifications, describing the process by which this ambitious and controversial vehicle was produced and released to the public in the mid- to late 1990s. This collection would be of interest to researchers in the areas of innovative design, automobile marketing, environmental initiatives, and the automotive industry.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains materials relating to General Motors's development, promotion, and production of the EV1, the first commercially-available zero-emission electric vehicle, between 1990 and 2005. Included are design diagrams, photographs, and internal communication, but the vast majority of items are publicity materials such as press releases, newspaper and magazine coverage, and promotional material for auto shows.

Due to the nature of the donation (twenty-three separate donors from the original EV1 design team) there is some duplication of materials throughout the collection, though efforts were made to keep duplicates to a minimum.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into six series.

Series 1: Design, Testing, and Production Materials, 1991-1997

Series 2: Event Photographs, 1993-1994, 2000

Series 3: Press Coverage Materials,1991-2005

Series 4: Product Promotion Materials, 1990-2002

Series 5: Publications,1994, 1996-1999

Series 6: Post-Production Materials, 1999, 2002, 2004-2005
Biographical / Historical:
The General Motors EV1 is considered one of the most technologically advanced vehicles produced in the twentieth century and was the most energy-efficient car in the world at the time of its premiere. Manufactured for the consumer market by GM in 1997, EV1 featured many engineering innovations in aerodynamics, electric drive systems, electronic controls, and hydraulic braking, and was propelled by a rechargeable lead-acid battery pack, producing zero emissions. It was issued twenty-three patents for its advanced features, as well as winning several awards and competitions, including the electric vehicle world land speed record in 1994.

In early 1990, partly based on a boast by departing president of GM Roger Smith that electric vehicle technology was a reality, the state of California mandated that the major auto makers produce two percent of their vehicles emissions-free by 1998. Between 1990, when the barely-functional prototype car Impact debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show, and 1994, when a fleet of fifty Impacts were premiered across the nation in the prEView Drive Program, a team of engineers worked on design, manufacture, and proof of concept vehicles that would eventually develop into the EV1: the first zero-emissions car to be released to consumers. The car's components were manufactured in several stages and locations: the assembly plant was in the Craft Centre in Lansing, Michigan; the motors were produced by Delco Remy in Anderson, Indiana; the battery pack, consisting of thirty-two 10-volt lead-acid batteries was produced by Delco Remy at their plant in Muncie, Indiana; and the power inverter and magnetic battery charger were constructed by Hughes Aircraft in Torrence, California.The finished car emitted zero pollutants, could accelerate from 0-60 mph in eight seconds, and had a range of eighty miles between charges. During 1995, the manufacturing process was refined, and the EV1 was announced in 1996 at both the Los Angeles and Detroit Auto Shows. The following year it became available to consumers through the Saturn division of GM marketing. However, due to concerns about parts and maintenance for the life of the car, GM only offered it on three-year lease programs, never for sale outright.

Though the EV1 did relatively well in the California and Arizona markets its first year, the 1999 EV1 Generation II showed a significant decline in consumer interest. The lease-only option was not appealing to many, and the limited range of the car, combined with a lack of publicly available charging stations, was a significant deterrent. Despite initial plans to expand the fleet of EVs by producing an S10 pickup truck with the new technology, and enthusiastic support from EV1's small but loyal customer base, GM stopped production on EVs altogether before the year 2000. When the last lease ran out in 2003, the fleet was recalled into storage, and except for a few that were donated to museums and universities for engineering programs and design study, the remaining EV1 vehicles were crushed and recycled in 2005.

The legacy of the EV1 remains in most of the hybrid fuel-electric vehicles and fuel-cell technology produced in the twenty-first century. It vaulted General Motors into the lead for development of advanced technology vehicles, beginning the long and ongoing effort to reduce US dependence on foreign oil as well as addressing the environmental issues caused by gasoline-powered engines.
Related Materials:
Related artifacts were donated to the Division of Work and Industry. See accession 2005.0061 and 2006.031-.034.
Provenance:
Collection donated in 2006 by Jill Banaszynski, General Motors Corporation; Patrick M. Bouchard, General Motors Corporation; Loran D. Brooks; Dan Brouns; Linda Ludek Brouns; Ray Buttacavoli; Laurel Castiglione, General Motors Corporation; Dennis H. Davis, General Motors Corporation; Robert E. DeGrandchamp; James N. Ellis; Hesham Ezzat, Marty M. Freedman, General Motors Corporation; Jamie Grover, Saturn Corporation; Steve M. Kunder, General Motors Corporation; Michael Kutcher, General Motors Corporation; Linda J. Lamar, General Motors Corporation; Kuen Leung, General Motors Corporation; Thomas M. Lobkovich; Joanne Mabrey, General Motors Corporation; Joseph F. Mercurio, General Motors Corporation; William L. Shepard, General Motors Corporation; Steven Tarnowsky; Lance Turner, General Motors Corporation.
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:
Automobiles, Electric  Search this
Genre/Form:
Reports
Advertisements -- 20th century
Audiovisual materials
Catalogs
Correspondence -- 20th century
Diagrams
Photographs -- 1950-2000
Magazines (periodicals) -- 20th century
Photographs -- 20th century
Posters -- 20th century
Press releases
Citation:
General Motors EV1 Records, 1990-2005, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0912
See more items in:
General Motors EV1 Records
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep83a3aef6a-1970-4712-8298-1c19b067067d
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0912
Online Media:

New York Central Railroad Valuation Negatives

Creator:
Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company  Search this
New York Central Railroad Company  Search this
Collector:
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering  Search this
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Work and Industry  Search this
Extent:
12 Cubic feet (36 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Date:
1914-1923
Summary:
The collection consists of photographic negatives relating to a valuation study of the New York Central Railroad dating from 1914 to 1923.
Scope and Contents:
Collection consists of over 3,500 photographic negatives relating to a valuation study of the New York Central Railway. These materials include images of bridges, structures, stations, railroad cars, and other subjects. Certain negatives also capture glimpses of everyday life including families outside of company-owned housing, railroad employees at work, busy city scenes, advertisements, automobiles, and in some cases, the surveyors at work. The negatives begin with valuation survey number twenty-seven and end with 145. These negatives date from 1914 to 1923 with the bulk dating from 1916 to 1921. The negatives are arranged sequentially according to their valuation survey (VS) numbers, which denote specific geographic areas along the railway lines. Geographic locations were identified using copies of valuation survey maps from the Pennsylvania State Archives.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into one series.
Related Materials:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Grand Central Terminal Collection (NMAH.AC1071)

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (NMAH.AC.0060)

James Forgie Papers (NMAH.AC.0986)

Clayton M. Hall Collection of Railroad Photographs (NMAH.AC1168)

Foundation Company Records (NMAH.AC.0974)

Thomas Norrell Railroad Photographs Collection (NMAH.AC.1174)

John H. White, Jr. Railroad Reference Collection (NMAH.AC.0523)

Interstate Commerce Commission Locomotive Inspection Reports (NMAH.AC.0241)

Railroad Trade Literature (NMAH.AC.1136)

Cummings Structural Concrete Company Records (NMAH.AC.0218)
Provenance:
Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company donated the collection in 1986.
Restrictions:
Collection is opened for research. Unprotected photographs must be handled with gloves.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction. Smithsonian Institution owns rights. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Railroad bridges  Search this
Railroad companies  Search this
Railroad cars  Search this
Railroads -- Trains  Search this
Railroad stations  Search this
Railroads -- 20th century  Search this
Railroads  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- 20th century
Photographs -- 20th century
Citation:
New York Central Railway Valuation Negatives, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.1072
See more items in:
New York Central Railroad Valuation Negatives
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8bcc38a77-143e-4a74-8714-8083a0b1b492
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1072
Online Media:

Grace Jeffers Collection of Formica Materials

Creator:
Jeffers, Grace  Search this
Formica Corporation.  Search this
Names:
Faber, Herbert A.  Search this
Loewy, Raymond  Search this
O'Conor, Daniel J.  Search this
Stevens, Brooks  Search this
Extent:
18 Cubic feet (59 boxes, 11 oversize folders )
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Scripts (documents)
Videotapes
Posters
Samples
Advertisements
Brochures
Blueprints
Photographs
Newsletters
Exhibition catalogs
Catalogs
Correspondence
Date:
1913-2003
Summary:
The Grace Jeffers Collection of Formica Materials consists of textual files, photographs, slides, negatives, drawings, blueprints, posters, advertisements, product brochures, newsletters, and informational pamphlets documenting the history of the Formica Corporation and the use of Formica brand plastic laminate.
Scope and Contents:
The Formica Collection, 1913-2003, consists of textual files, photographs, photo slides, drawings, blueprints, posters, advertisements, product brochures, informational pamphlets, and research notes documenting the history of the Formica Corporation and the use of Formica brand plastic laminate.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into ten series.

Series 1: Corporate Records, 1920-1992, 2003

Subseries 1.1: Annual reports, 1949, 1966, 1988

Subseries 1.2: Correspondence and company identity, 1920-1988

Subseries 1.3: Corporation histories and timelines, 1949-1991, undated

Subseries 1.4: Newspaper clippings and articles, 1934-2003

Subseries 1.5: Awards, 1940s-1987

Subseries 1.6: Patent information, 1925-1994

Subseries 1.7: Photographs, 1927-1966

Series 2: Personnel Records, 1943-1992

Series 3: Newsletters, Magazines, and Press Releases, 1942-1990

Subseries 3.1: Newsletters, 1942-1988

Subseries 3.2: Press releases, 1973-1990

Series 4: Product Information, 1948-1994

Series 5: Advertising and sales materials, 1913-2000

Subseries 5.1: Advertising materials, 1913-2000

Subseries 5.2: Sales materials, 1922-1993

Series 6: Subject Files, circa 1945, 1955-1991, 2002

Series 7: Exhibits, 1981-1994

Series 8: Grace Jeffers Research Materials, 1987-1997

Series 9: Audio Visual Materials, 1982-1995, undated

Series 10: Martin A. Jeffers Materials, 1963-1999

Subseries 10.1: Background Materials, 1965-1999

Subseries 10.2: Employee Benefits, 1963-1998

Subseries 10.3: Product Information, [1959?]-1997

Subseries 10.4: Advertising and Sales Records, 1987-1999
Biographical / Historical:
Since its founding in 1913, the history of the Formica Company has been marked by a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. The history begins with the discovery of Formica by two men who envisioned the plastic laminate as breakthrough insulation for motors. Later, Formica became a ubiquitous surfacing material used by artists and architects of post-modern design. The various applications of the plastic laminate during the twentieth century give it a prominent role in the history of plastics, American consumerism, and American popular culture.

The Formica Company was the brainchild of Herbert A. Faber and Daniel J. O'Conor, who met in 1907 while both were working at Westinghouse in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. O'Conor, head of the process section in the Research Engineering Department, had been experimenting with resins, cloth, paper, and a wide array of solvents in an effort to perfect a process for making rigid laminate sheets from Kraft paper and liquid Bakelite. O'Conor produced the first laminate sheet at Westinghouse by winding and coating paper on a mandrel, slitting the resulting tube, and flattening it on a press. The finished product was a laminated sheet with the chemical and electrical properties of Bakelite that were cut into various shapes and sizes. O'Conor applied for a patent on February 1, 1913, but it was not issued until November 12, 1918 (US Patent 1,284,432). Since the research was done on behalf of Westinghouse, the company was assigned the patent, and O'Conor was given one dollar, the customary amount that Westinghouse paid for the rights to employees' inventions.

Herbert Faber, Technical Sales Manager of insulating materials, was excited about O'Conor's discovery. Faber saw limitless possibilities for the new material. However, he quickly became frustrated by Westinghouse's policy limiting the sale of the laminate to its licensed distributors. After failing to persuade Westinghouse to form a division to manufacture and market the new material, Faber and O'Conor created their own company. On May 2, 1913, the first Formica plant opened in Cincinnati, Ohio. On October 15, 1913, the business incorporated as the Formica Insulation Company with Faber as president and treasurer and O'Conor as vice-president and secretary. The company began producing insulation parts used in place of or "for mica," the costly mineral that had been used in electrical insulation.

Like most new companies, Formica had modest beginnings. Faber and O'Conor faced the challenge of looking for investors who would let them maintain control over the company. Finally, they met J. G. Tomluin, a lawyer and banker from Walton, Kentucky, who invested $7,500 for a one-third share in the Formica Company. Renting a small space in downtown Cincinnati, Faber and O'Conor began work. The company's equipment list consisted of a 35-horsepower boiler, a small gas stove, and a variety of homemade hand screw presses. By September 1913, Tomluin had brought in two more partners, David Wallace and John L. Vest. With the added capital, O'Conor, Faber, and Formica's eighteen employees began producing automobile insulation parts for Bell Electric Motor, Allis Chalmers, and Northwest Electric.

Initially, the Formica Company only made insulation rings and tubes for motors. However, by July 4, 1914, the company obtained its first press and began to produce flat laminate sheets made from Redmenol resin. Business gradually grew, and by 1917 sales totaled $75,000. Fueled by World War I, Formica's business expanded to making radio parts, aircraft pulleys, and timing gears for the burgeoning motor industry. In the years that followed, Formica products were in high demand as laminate plastics replaced older materials in washers, vacuum cleaners, and refrigerators. By 1919, the Formica Company required larger facilities and purchased a factory in Cincinnati.

During this time, patent battles and legal suits emerged to challenge Formica's success. On June 11, 1919, Westinghouse sued Formica for patent infringement on its laminated gears; Formica won. Later that year, Westinghouse brought two new lawsuits against Formica. The first was for a patent infringement on the production of tubes, rods, and molded parts; the second was over an infringement based on a 1913 patent assigned to Westinghouse through O'Conor. Formica prevailed in both suits.

Legal battles did not deter the company. Having to defend itself against a giant corporation gave Formica a reputation as a scrappy contender. Finally, Faber and O'Conor made a quantum leap in 1927, when the company was granted a U.S. patent for a phenolic laminate utilizing lithographed wood grains of light color, forming an opaque barrier sheet which blocks out the dark interior of the laminate. In 1931, the company received two more patents for the preparation of the first all paper based laminate and for the addition of a layer of aluminum foil between the core and the surface, making the laminate cigarette-proof. These patents would allow Formica to move from a company dealing primarily with industrial material to the highly visible arena of consumer goods.

In 1937, Faber had a severe heart attack which limited his activity within the company. O'Conor continued as president, encouraging new product lines, including Realwood, as a laminate with genuine wood veneer mounted on a paper lamination with a heat-reactive binder. With the introduction of Realwood and its derivatives, manufacturers started using Formica laminate for tabletops, desks, and dinette sets. By the early forties, sales of Formica laminate were over 15 million dollars. The final recipe for decorative laminate was perfected in 1938, when melamine resins were introduced. Melamine was clear, extremely hard, and resistant to stains, heat, light, less expensive than phenolic resins. It also made possible laminates of colored papers and patterns.

Due to World War II, Formica postponed the manufacturing of decorative laminate sheets. Instead, the company made a variety of war-time products ranging from airplane propellers to bomb buster tubes.

The post-World War II building boom fueled the decorative laminate market and ushered in what would come to be known as the golden age for Formica. The company, anticipating the demand for laminate, acquired a giant press capable of producing sheets measuring thirty by ninety-six inches for kitchen countertops. Between 1947 and 1950, more than 2 million new homes were designed with Formica brand laminate for kitchens and bathrooms.

Formica's advertising campaigns, initially aimed at industry, were transformed to speak to the new decorative needs of consumer society, in particular the American housewife. Formica hired design consultants, Brooks Stevens, and, later, Raymond Loewy who launched extensive advertising campaigns. Advertising themes of durability, cleanliness, efficiency, and beauty abound in promotional material of this time. Advertisers promised that the plastic laminate, known as "the wipe clean wonder," was resistant to dirt, juices, jams, alcohol stains, and cigarette burns. Atomic patterns and space-age colors, including Moonglo, Skylark, and Sequina, were introduced in homes, schools, offices, hospitals, diners, and restaurants across America.

The post-war period was also marked by expansion, specifically with the establishment of Formica's first international markets. In 1947, Formica signed a licensing agreement with the British firm the De La Rue Company of London for the exclusive manufacture and marketing of decorative laminates outside North America, and in South America and the Pacific Basin. In 1948, Formica changed its name from the Formica Insulation Company to the Formica Company. In 1951, Formica responded to growing consumer demand by opening a million square foot plant in Evendale, Ohio, devoted to the exclusive production of decorative sheet material. In 1956, the Formica Company became the Formica Corporation, a subsidiary of American Cyanamid Company. A year later, the international subsidiaries that Formica formed with De La Rue Company of London were replaced by a joint company called Formica International Limited.

The plastic laminate was not merely confined to tabletops and dinette sets. Formica laminate was used for skis, globes, and murals. Moreover, well-known artists and architects used the decorative laminate for modernist furniture and Art Deco interiors. In 1960, Formica's Research and Development Design Center was established, adjacent to the Evendale plant, to develop uses for existing laminate products. In 1966, the company opened the Sierra Plant near Sacramento, California. Such corporate expansion enabled Formica to market its laminates beyond the traditional role as a countertop surface material.

In 1974, Formica established its Design Advisory Board (DAB), a group of leading designers and architects. DAB introduced new colors and patterns of laminate that gained popularity among artists and interior designers in the 1980s. In 1981, DAB introduced the Color Grid, a systematic organization of Formica laminate arranged by neutrals and chromatics. The Color Grid was described as the first and only logically arranged collection of color in the laminate industry. DAB also developed the Design Concepts Collection of premium solid and patterned laminates to serve the needs of contemporary interior designers.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the corporation continued to produce laminates for interior designers, artists, and architects. In 1982, Formica introduced COLORCORE, the first solid-color laminate. Due to its relatively seamless appearance, COLORCORE was adopted by artists for use in furniture, jewelry, and interior design. The introduction of COLORCORE also marked the emergence of a wide variety of design exhibitions and competitions sponsored by the Formica Corporation. In 1985, Formica Corporation became independent and privately held. Formica continues to be one of the leading laminate producers in the world with factories in the United States, England, France, Spain, Canada, and Taiwan.

For additional information on the history of the Formica Corporation, see:

DiNoto, Andrea. Art Plastic: Designed for Living. New York: Abbeville Press, 1985.

Fenichell, Stephen. Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century. New York: Harper/Collins, 1996.

Jeffers Grace. 1998. Machine Made Natural: The Decorative Products of the Formica Corporation, 1947-1962. Master's thesis. Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts.

Lewin, Susan Grant, ed. Formica & Design: From Counter Top to High Art. New York: Rizzoli, 1991.
Related Materials:
Materials at the Archives Center

Leo Baekeland Papers, 1881-1968 (AC0005)

DuPont Nylon Collection, 1939-1977 (AC0007)

J. Harry DuBois Collection on the History of Plastics, circa 1900-1975 (AC0008)

Earl Tupper Papers, circa 1914-1982 (AC0470)

The Division of Medicine and Science holds artifacts related to this collection. See accession # 1997.0319 and #1997.3133.
Provenance:
This collection was assembled by Grace Jeffers, historian of material culture, primarily from materials given to her by Susan Lewin, Head of Formica's New York design and publicity office when the office closed in 1995. The collection was donated to the Archives Center by Grace Jeffers in September 1996.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. 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. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Plastics industry and trade  Search this
Plastics -- 1920-2000  Search this
Plastics as art material -- 1920-2000  Search this
Plastics in interior design -- 1920-2000  Search this
advertising -- plastic industry -- 1920-2000  Search this
Plastic jewelry -- 1920-2000  Search this
Laminated plastics -- 1920-2000  Search this
Exhibitions -- 20th century -- United States  Search this
House furnishings -- 1920-2000 -- United States  Search this
Housewives as consumers -- 1920-2000  Search this
Electronic insulators and insulation -- Plastics -- 1920-2000  Search this
Inventions -- 1920-2000 -- United States  Search this
Women in advertising  Search this
Women in popular culture -- 1920-2000  Search this
Genre/Form:
Scripts (documents)
Videotapes
Posters -- 20th century
Samples -- 1920-2000
Advertisements
Brochures
Blueprints -- 20th century
Photographs -- 20th century
Newsletters -- 20th century
Exhibition catalogs
Catalogs
Catalogs -- 1920-2000
Correspondence -- 20th century
Citation:
Grace Jeffers Collection of Formica Materials, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0565
See more items in:
Grace Jeffers Collection of Formica Materials
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8859e644e-2a2b-427b-ae69-3dfadd400aa4
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0565
Online Media:

[Scrapbook 1]

Collection Creator:
Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922  Search this
Beals, Jessie Tarbox  Search this
Container:
Box 1, Binder 1
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
November 7-December 31, 1906
Collection Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Collection Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Collection Citation:
Early Aeronautical Newsclippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection, Acc. NASM.XXXX.0086, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
See more items in:
Early Aeronautical News Clippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection
Early Aeronautical News Clippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection / Series 1: Scrapbooks
Archival Repository:
National Air and Space Museum Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pg23a27eb2f-8c7e-499b-8d87-7d0040e10807
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-nasm-xxxx-0086-ref507
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[Scrapbook 2]

Collection Creator:
Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922  Search this
Beals, Jessie Tarbox  Search this
Container:
Box 1, Binder 2
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
January 1-February 28, 1907
Collection Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Collection Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Collection Citation:
Early Aeronautical Newsclippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection, Acc. NASM.XXXX.0086, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
See more items in:
Early Aeronautical News Clippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection
Early Aeronautical News Clippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection / Series 1: Scrapbooks
Archival Repository:
National Air and Space Museum Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pg21fbb2c2d-8ffe-4a18-aab8-55f47c2aeba5
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-nasm-xxxx-0086-ref508
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[Scrapbook 3]

Collection Creator:
Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922  Search this
Beals, Jessie Tarbox  Search this
Container:
Box 1, Binder 3
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
March 1-April 30, 1907
Collection Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Collection Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Collection Citation:
Early Aeronautical Newsclippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection, Acc. NASM.XXXX.0086, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
See more items in:
Early Aeronautical News Clippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection
Early Aeronautical News Clippings (Alexander Graham Bell) Collection / Series 1: Scrapbooks
Archival Repository:
National Air and Space Museum Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pg28d596493-4048-435c-9c5b-899958ce4fcf
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-nasm-xxxx-0086-ref509
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"Savvy A Special Report The Savvy 60 The Top U.S. Businesses Run by Women" with an article on Sklarek "Designing Women"

Collection Creator:
Sklarek, Norma Merrick, 1926-2012  Search this
Container:
Box 5
Type:
Archival materials
Text
Date:
1984
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Access to collection materials requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
The NMAAHC Archives can provide reproductions of some materials for research and educational use. Copyright and right to publicity restrictions apply and limit reproduction for other purposes.
Collection Citation:
Norma Merrick Sklarek Archival Collection, 1944-2008. National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution.
See more items in:
Norma Merrick Sklarek Archival Collection
Norma Merrick Sklarek Archival Collection / Series 7: Published Materials, 1965-2004 (Bulk: 1980-1993) / 7.1: Books and Periodicals, 1965, 1983-1984
Archival Repository:
National Museum of African American History and Culture
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/io3d09f616e-cf64-47f3-a255-ac40dee0a367
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-nmaahc-a2018-23-ref92
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Manila Davis Talley Scrapbook

Creator:
Talley, Manila Davis.  Search this
Names:
Curtiss-Wright Corporation  Search this
United States. Civil Air Patrol  Search this
Extent:
0.23 Cubic feet (1 box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Scrapbooks
Date:
bulk 1917-1967
bulk 1929-1942
Summary:
This collection consists of a scrapbook relating to Manila Davis Talley and her aviation career.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of one scrapbook which contains newspaper clippings, membership cards, programs, photographs, and pilot's licenses, mostly relating to Manila Davis Talley and her aviation career. The focus of the collection is on the years 1929-42, and highlights Talley's career as a salesperson for Curtis-Wright, and her association with the 99s and the Betsy Ross Corps. Also included is the scrapbook is information on the Women's National Air Races, the Women's National Air Meets, and Talley's work with the Civil Air Patrol. The scrapbook also includes clippings and other items related to Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Doolittle and General Balbo.
Arrangement:
Single item in original order.
Biographical / Historical:
Manila Davis Talley (1898-1973) soloed in October 1929 and received her pilot's license in April of 1930. She joined Curtis-Wright Corporation as a saleswoman in late 1929 or early 1930. Talley joined the 99s (international association of female pilots) in 1930 and was a founding member of Betsy Ross Corps, a private 1930s female auxiliary/reserve for the Army Air Corps. Talley was the third woman to go through Air Force War College, in December 1966.
Provenance:
Estate of Manila Davis Talley, Gift, Unknown, NASM.XXXX.0041
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Topic:
Aeronautics  Search this
Women air pilots  Search this
Airplane racing  Search this
Genre/Form:
Scrapbooks
Citation:
Manila Davis Talley Scrapbook, NASM.XXXX.0041, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
NASM.XXXX.0041
Archival Repository:
National Air and Space Museum Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pg2b3cfd97b-f6e7-454c-b17d-1c97c8b7f0e6
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nasm-xxxx-0041
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Online Media:

American Petroleum Institute Photograph and Film Collection

Creator:
American Petroleum Institute.  Search this
Names:
Bush, George, 1924-  Search this
Carter, Jimmy, 1924-  Search this
O'Neill, Tip  Search this
Extent:
45 Cubic feet (122 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Scripts (documents)
Photographs
Motion pictures (visual works)
Date:
1860s-1980s
bulk 1955-1990
Summary:
Collection includes historic photographs, slides and films on subjects relating to all aspects of the petroleum industry, including exploration, drilling, refineries, tankers, pipelines, automobiles, trucks, aviation, refueling, buildings, coal, gasification, plants, mining, surface mining, fields, land reclamation, coastal zone management, corporate public service, educational programs, crude oil, deepwater ports, and watercraft It also documents numerous products other than gasoline produced by the petroleum industry, such as propane, lubricants, heating oil, and plastics.
Scope and Contents:
The collection contains, color and black-and-white photographs, contact sheets, slides, color transparencies, negatives, transcripts, audio tape cassettes, and films documenting the American Petroleum Institute (API) and all its activities. The material in the collection was assembled by API public relations staff from oil industry sources over several years and was used in public relations and educational materials.

The photographs and slides are both original and copy prints are organized according to the organizational structure that API used. The photographs and slides document all aspects of the production of oil, from exploration to drilling, from cracking to refineries, from pipelines to tankers, and from storage tanks to service stations. They also document the numerous products other than gasoline produced by the petroleum industry including: kerosene, liquid propane gas, lubricants, heating oil, and plastics. Additionally, they document the industry's efforts at self-promotion, its stand on environmental issues and energy conservation, its efforts to promote safety in its plants, and its perceived competition from other energy sources, such as gasohol, geothermal energy, solar energy, and nuclear energy. Overall, these images portray the petroleum industry as it saw itself.

The collection also includes general images of petroleum workers, landscape and wildlife scenes, urban settings, vernacular architecture (service stations), railroads, road development, and the industry's crucial role during World War II.

Series 1, Historical Photographs, 1860s-1950s

This series is divided into forty subseries and contains primarily black-and-white photographs, but there are some negatives. Many of the photographs contain captions. The content includes: advertising, lighting and heating, kerosene lamps, lubricants, medicine, aircraft, artwork, equipment, political cartoons, automobiles, terminals, disasters, charts, drilling, portable rigs, rotary rigs, exploration land rush, lighting and stoves, memorials, mining, natural gas, oil company offices, oil fields, pipelines, products, railroads, tank cars, refineries, safety, service stations, teamsters, war, watercraft, and wells.

Series 2, Modern Photographs, 1960s-1980s

The series contains black-and-white and color photographs, negatives and transparencies. The photographs are arranged into topical areas such as diagrams and maps, environment, electricity, exploration, natural gas, pipelines, storage, and wells. The following subjects are represented: artwork, automobiles, trucks, aviation, refueling, buildings, coal, gasification, plants, and mining, surface mining, fields, land reclamation, coastal zone management, corporate public service, educational programs, crude oil, and deepwater ports.

Series 3, Miscellaneous Photographs, 1900s-1970s

The photographs consist of black-and-white copy prints, color transparencies, negatives, and slides for a variety of subjects: pipelines, platforms, service stations, and wells. The names of major oil and petroleum companies, such as Shell, Standard Oil, Sun Oil, and Savory Oil, are represented.

Series 4, Slides, 1970s-1980s

The slides are divided into two subseries: slides presentations and slides by subject/topic. The slides presentations were assembled and presented by API staff. In some instances there are slides, transcripts, and audio tape cassettes for the presentations. The presentations have been arranged alphabetically by title. The subject slides are arranged alphabetically by topic/subject and are identified. Only some of the subject-related slides are dated. The miscellaneous slides contain such images as the Space Shuttle Columbia, sunsets, and industrial scenes.

Series 5, Photograph Albums, 1903-1968 (not inclusive)

This series includes two photograph albums: one that focuses on aviation, bulk plants, chemistry, and disasters and the other on an advertising series from 1953. The first album consists of black-and-white copy prints that are subdivided according to subject. Some of the photographs have captions. The album containing the advertising series is comprised of black-and-white copy prints with the corresponding print ad that was used. The print ads vary in size and amount of text. The advertising series addresses a variety of topics.

Series 6, Scripts for Films, 1955-1978

The scripts consist of final transcripts and drafts for various films commissioned by API. In some instances there are accompanying photographs.

Series 7, Publications, 1959-1990

This series includes publications from various petroleum companies such as the Shell News and Petroleum Facts and Figures and accompanying slides from the API library that were featured in articles.

Series 8, Films, 1960s

The films consist of 34 reels of motion picture film. The films are production elements (negatives, track negatives, and A and B rolls). It is not possible to make film elements available for research use. This portion of the collection has not been processed.
Arrangement:
Arranged into eight series.

Series 1, Historical Photographs, 1850s-1950s

Series 2, Modern Photographs, 1960s-1980s

Series 3, Miscellaneous Photographs, 1900s-1970s

Series 4, Slides, 1970s-1980s

Series 5, Photograph Albums, 1903-1968 (not inclusive)

Series 6, Scripts for Films, 1955-1978

Series 7, Publications, 1959-1990

Series 8, Films, 1960s
Biographical / Historical:
The origins of the American Petroleum Institute (API) date to World War I, when Congress and the domestic oil and natural gas industry worked together to help the war effort. At the time, the industry included the companies created in 1911 after the court-imposed dissolution of Standard Oil and the independents. These were companies that had been independent of Standard Oil and which had no experience working together. The companies agreed to work with the government to ensure that vital petroleum supplies were rapidly and efficiently deployed to the armed forces. The National Petroleum War Service Committee, which oversaw this effort, was initially formed under the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and subsequently as a quasi-governmental body.

After the war, momentum began to build to form a national association that could represent the whole oil and natural gas industry in the postwar years. The industry's efforts to supply fuel during World War I not only highlighted the importance of the industry to the country, but also the industry's obligation to the public.

The American Petroleum Institute was established on March 20, 1919, to afford a means of cooperation with the government in all matters of national concern; to foster foreign and domestic trade in American petroleum products; to promote in general the interests of the petroleum industry in all its branches; and to promote the mutual improvement of its members and the study of the arts and sciences connected with the oil and natural gas industry.

API offices were established in New York City, and the organization focused its efforts in several specific areas. In late 1969, API moved its offices to Washington, D.C. 0F

*History note courtesy The Story of the American Petroleum Institute , by Leonard M. Fanning, published in 1959, and The American Petroleum Institute: An Informal History, 1919-1987 by Stephen P. Potter, published by API in 1990.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History by the American Petroleum Institute through Red Cavaney and G. William Frick on December 16, 1999.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use. Viewing film 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. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: fees for commercial use.
Topic:
Tank trucks  Search this
Tankers  Search this
Trade associations  Search this
Political cartoons  Search this
Pipelines  Search this
Railroads  Search this
Pollution  Search this
Service stations  Search this
Synthetic lubricants  Search this
Stoves  Search this
Oil well drilling rigs  Search this
Oil spills  Search this
Petroleum  Search this
Oil-shale industry  Search this
Petroleum refineries  Search this
Petroleum industry and trade  Search this
Petroleum -- Prospecting  Search this
Drilling and boring  Search this
Electricity  Search this
Automobiles  Search this
Disasters  Search this
Gas-lighting  Search this
Gasohol  Search this
Enegy and environment  Search this
Gas industry  Search this
Geothermal resources  Search this
advertising -- Petroleum industry and trade  Search this
Heating  Search this
Harbors  Search this
Asphalt  Search this
Automobile racing  Search this
Airplanes  Search this
Natural areas  Search this
Natural gas  Search this
Nuclear energy  Search this
Aircraft  Search this
Oil burners  Search this
Lighting  Search this
Medicine  Search this
Mines and mineral resources  Search this
Oil fields  Search this
Genre/Form:
Scripts (documents)
Photographs -- 19th century
Motion pictures (visual works) -- 1960-1980
Citation:
American Petroleum Institute Photograph and Film Collection, 1860s-1990 (bulk 1955-1990), Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0711
See more items in:
American Petroleum Institute Photograph and Film Collection
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8d2615aa8-a45b-43a0-8f7b-965c7de06aa8
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0711
Online Media:

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Music

Creator:
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969  Search this
Extent:
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
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Music
See more items in:
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Music
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8682a819c-3ef7-4d6b-b297-8aa326d574eb
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0060-s01-01-music
Online Media:

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