The collection documents the building, operation and daily life of coal mining communities in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio between 1911 and 1946. The collection is a valuable for the study of mining technology and the social conditions of the time period and regions.
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists mostly of photographs depicting Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Company mines and mining towns in Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Subjects include worker housing, schools for miners' children, gardens, churches, recreational facilities, health services, company stores, safety, mining machinery, construction of mines and related structures, and the interiors of mines.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into two series.
Series 1: Background Materials, 1904-1933
Series 2: Photographs, 1885-1940s
Subseries 2.1: Photograph Albums, 1885-1932
Subseries 2.2: West Virginia Division, 19091-1917
Subseries 2.3: Glass Plate and Film Negatives, 1911-1940s
Subseries 2.4: Numbered Photographs, 1911-1930
Subseries 2.5: Miscellaneous, 1913, 1916
Historical Note:
The Consolidation Coal Company was started in 1864 to mine bituminous coal deposits in Maryland's Cumberland region. it expanded by acquiring other mine companies as well as rail and other transportation companies. It went into receivership in 1932. The Pittsburgh Coal Company, founded in 1900, took over the firm in 1945 and formed the Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Company.
The Consolidation Coal Company (Maryland)
The Consolidation Coal Company was incorporated in Maryland on March 8, 1860, for the purpose of effecting a merger of a number of coal operators mining the Georges Creek basin in Allegany County, Maryland. Because of the Civil War, during which Confederate armies frequently blocked the region's only outlet to market, the company was not actually organized until April 19, 1864. Starting life as the dominant operator in this small but significant coal field, "Consol" rose to become the nation's top producer of bituminous coal.
The Georges Creek or Cumberland Coal Field, occupying part of the triangle of western Maryland, contained a high-quality, low-volatile bituminous steam coal which was also, thanks to the Potomac River, the coal of this type most accessible to Eastern markets. Coal had been mined in the region beginning in the 1700s, and the first coal company, the Maryland Mining Company, had been incorporated in 1828. However, large-scale development could not occur until the mid-1840s, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached Cumberland and provided reliable transportation. This also coincided with the development of ocean steam navigation and a rapid growth in the number of railroad locomotives and stationary steam engines. Cumberland coal was ideal for ship bunkering, and much of the output was shipped to New York Harbor. Naturally, New York capitalists and manufacturers played a leading role in developing the field. Lewis Howell's Maryland and New York Iron and Coal Company rolled the first solid U.S. railroad rail at its Mount Savage mill in 1844. The Consolidation Coal merger was put together by New Yorkers such as William H. Aspinwall, Erastus Corning, the Delanos and Roosevelts, and the Boston financier John Murray Forbes, who already had substantial investments in the region.
Upon its formation, the Consolidation Coal Company acquired the properties of the Ocean Steam Coal Company, the Frostburg Coal Company, and the Mount Savage Iron Company totaling about 11,000 acres. The last named company brought with it control of the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad, which connected the mines to the Baltimore & Ohio and later the Pennsylvania and Western Maryland railroads. In 1870, Consol absorbed the Cumberland Coal and Iron Company of 1840, the next largest operator in the field, and gained an additional 7,000 acres. Further purchases from the Delano interests gave it over 80 percent of the entire Cumberland Field.
Soon after its hated rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, gained access to the Cumberland Coal Field, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began purchasing large blocks of Consolidation Coal stock to protect its traffic base in 1875, eventually gaining a 52 percent interest. A B&O slate of directors was elected in February 1877, with Charles F. Mayer of Baltimore as president, and the company offices were moved from New York to Baltimore.
Until the turn of the century, Consolidation Coal's mining operations were confined to the small soft coal region of western Maryland. The company purchased the 12,000 acre Millholland coal tract near Morgantown, W.Va. in 1902 and acquired controlling interests in the Fairmont Coal Company of West Virginia and the Somerset Coal Company of Pennsylvania the following year. These acquisitions boosted Consolidation's annual production more than six-fold in only three years. The company purchased the 25,000 acre Stony Creek tract in Somerset County, Pa., in 1904. The Fairmont Coal Company purchase included a joint interest in the North Western Fuel Company, which owned and operated docks and coal distribution facilities in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
In 1906, the Interstate Commerce Commission held a formal investigation of rail ownership of coal companies, which resulted in the passage of the Hepburn Act and its "Commodities Clause," which prohibited railroads from dealing in the commodities they hauled. In anticipation of the new regulations, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad sold its entire holdings of Consolidation stock to a Baltimore syndicate headed by Consol president Clarence W. Watson, J. H. Wheelwright and H. Crawford on April 26, 1906. At the time of the B&O's divestiture, the aggregate annual output of Consolidation's mines totaled more than 10 million tons and the company controlled more than 200,000 acres. The John D. Rockefeller interests began purchasing Consol securities in 1915, eventually securing a controlling interest. The company's offices were returned to New York City in May 1921.
After the B&O divestiture, Consol began expanding into the Southern Appalachian coal fields, which were just being opened by railroads on a large scale. The mines in this region yielded a low volatile coal that provided an ideal fuel source for stationary steam engines, ships, and locomotives. Of equal importance, operators in the remote mountains had been able to resist unionization and thus achieve lower operating costs, while all of Consol's previous holdings had been in the so-called "Central Competitive Field" to the north, which had been unionized in the 1890s. Consolidation Coal purchased 30,000 acres in the Millers Creek Field of Eastern Kentucky in 1909 and 100,000 acres in the Elkhorn Field the next year. In February 1922, Consol secured a long term lease and option on the Carter Coal Company, whose 37,000 acres straddled the borders of Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. In 1925, Consol became the nation's largest producer of bituminous coal, excluding the captive mines of the steel companies.
During the Great Depression, Consolidation Coal experienced serious financial difficulties and was forced into receivership on June 2, 1932. The Rockefellers liquidated their holdings at a loss, and the Carter Coal Company was returned to the Carter heirs in 1933. Consol was reorganized and reincorporated in Delaware as the Consolidation Coal Company, Inc. on November 1, 1935, and was able to retain its position as one of the nation's top coal producers. Eventually, stock control passed into the hands of the M.A. Hanna Company group of Cleveland, dealers in coal and iron ore. Although production reached record levels during the Second World War, management feared a recurrence of the collapse that had followed World War I. It also faced the prospect of increased competition from oil and natural gas and the loss of traditional markets such as home heating and locomotive fuel. As a result Consol opened negotiations with another large producer, the Pittsburgh Coal Company, which was the dominant operator in the Pittsburgh District.
The Pittsburgh Coal Company
The Pittsburgh Coal Company was a product of the great industrial merger movement of the late 1890s. In 1899, two large mergers were effected in the Pittsburgh District.
The Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania on October 1, 1899 to merge the properties of over 90 small firms operating mines along the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh. Some of these operations dated to the early 1800s, and all of them shipped coal down the Ohio-Mississippi River system by barge from close to the mine mouth, or later by the railroads built along the river banks. The combination controlled 40,000 acres of coal land, 100 steam towboats, 4,000 barges, and facilities for handling coal at Cincinnati, Louisville, Vicksburg, Memphis, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
The Pittsburgh Coal Company was incorporated in New Jersey as a holding company on September 1, 1899 and acquired the properties of over 80 operators located in the areas back from the river on both sides of the Monongahela south of Pittsburgh. The combination was engineered by some of the most prominent Pittsburgh industrialists, including Andrew W. Mellon, Henry W. Oliver, and Henry Clay Frick. It controlled over 80,000 acres and six collector railroads, the longest of which was the Montour Railroad. Most of its output was shipped by rail, with a large share being transferred to ships on the Great Lakes for distribution throughout the industrial Midwest. The company owned coal docks and yards at Chicago, Cleveland, Duluth, West Superior, Sault Ste. Marie, Ashtabula, Fairport and Thornburg. Subsequently, the company expanded in southwestern Pennsylvania and the Hocking Valley of Ohio through the lease of the Shaw Coal Company in 1901 and the purchase of the Midland Coal Company in 1903. Most of the properties were vested in a separate Pittsburgh Coal Company, an operating company incorporated in Pennsylvania.
Unlike the Consolidation Coal Company, which had grown by gradual accretion, the Pittsburgh Coal Company had been created in a single stroke. As with many mergers of the period, its capitalization probably contained a high percentage of "water" in anticipation of profits from future growth. Unfortunately, the years after the merger saw explosive growth in the coal fields of Southern Appalachia instead. Although farther from major consuming centers, they enjoyed several advantages. The coal itself was superior, low-volatile with higher BTU content and altogether cleaner than the high-volatile coals of Ohio and the Pittsburgh District. As already noted, the southern mines were also non-union. With the inroads of Southern Appalachian coal, the Pittsburgh Coal Company continuously lost ground in the crucial Lake and western markets from 1900 to 1915. The company's capitalization proved unwieldy in the unsettled economic conditions following the Panic of 1907. A reorganization plan was devised under which a new Pittsburgh Coal Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania on January 12, 1916 by merging the old Pittsburgh Coal Company of Pennsylvania and the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company. The old holding company was then liquidated and the stock of the new operating company distributed to its stockholders. Dissension between the common and preferred stockholders delayed consummation of the plan until July 16, 1917.
The Pittsburgh Coal Company, which had all its operations in the Central Competitive Field, had a much more difficult time than Consolidation in breaking the 1923 Jacksonville Agreement with the United Mine Workers in 1925-1927 and reverting to non-union status. The three-year struggle ended the company's ability to pay dividends. Pittsburgh Coal survived the Depression without receivership but with ever-increasing arrearages on its preferred stock. By the end of World War II, its managers were just as eager as those at Consol to attempt greater economies through merger. The Pittsburgh Coal Company and the Consolidation Coal Company merged on November 23, 1945, with exchange ratios of 65 to 35 percent. Pittsburgh Coal Company, the surviving partner, changed its name to the Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Company.
The Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Company
After the merger, the M.A. Hanna Company interests of Cleveland became the dominant factor in Pitt-Consol's affairs. Hanna had transferred its pre-merger Consol stock to its subsidiary Bessemer Coal & Coke Corporation in 1943. This led to a restructuring whereby Pitt-Consol acquired Hanna's share of the North Western-Hanna Fuel Company in April 1946 and the Hanna coal properties in eastern Ohio on June 16, 1946 These included large reserves of strippable coal that accounted for about 20 percent of the state's production. Pitt-Consol later acquired Hanna's holdings of coal land in Harrison, Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, on December 30, 1949. It purchased the New York Central Railroad's 51 percent interest in the Jefferson Coal Company, giving it full control, in 1952 and merged it into the Hanna Coal Company Division.
Pitt-Consol sold its last major railroads, the Montour Railroad and the Youngstown & Southern Railway to the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad on December 31, 1946. The Northwestern Coal Railway had been sold to the Great Northern system, and the Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad had been sold to the Western Maryland Railway in May 1944.
In addition, a new Research and Development Division was created to fund projects aimed at developing more efficient production methods, new outlets for coal consumption, coal-based synthetic fuels and chemical byproducts. A new coal gasification plant opened at Library, Pa., in November 1948, and the company began the manufacture of a smokeless fuel briquette under the trademark "Disco" at Imperial, Pa., in 1949. An experimental coal slurry pipeline was built in Ohio in 1952.
During the 1950s and early 1960s, Pitt-Consol made many changes in its coal holdings, selling high-cost or less desirable properties, diversifying its reserves across many different coal fields, rationalizing property lines to permit large mechanized underground or strip mines and forming joint ventures with steel companies to secure guaranteed customers. Pitt-Consol acquired the Jamison Coal and Coke Company in 1954 and the Pocahontas Fuel Company, Incorporated, a large producer of low-volatile Southern Appalachian coal, in 1956. In the latter year, it sold its Elkhorn Field properties to the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. As Pittsburgh District operations became less central, the corporate name was changed back to Consolidation Coal Company in April 1958.
The Consolidation Coal Company, CONOCO and CONSOL Energy, Inc.:
Consol continued to expand into the early 1960s. On April 30, 1962, it absorbed the Truax-Traer Coal Company of Illinois. Truax-Traer also mined lignite in North Dakota, a low-grade but low-sulfur coal that was taking a greater share of the power generation market as environmental laws placed greater restrictions on high-sulfur coal from the Central Competitive Field. The following year Consol acquired the Crozer Coal and Land Company and the Page Coal and Coke Company, owners of additional reserves of low-volatile, low-sulfur steam coal in southern West Virginia.
In 1966, just two years after the company marked its centennial, Consolidation Coal was acquired by the Continental Oil Company (Conoco). This was part of a general trend whereby U.S. oil companies extended their reach by acquiring coal reserves and large coal producers. In turn, Conoco was acquired by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company in 1981. This purchase was motivated by DuPont's desire to obtain better control of chemical feedstocks in an era of high oil prices. Consolidation Coal was not a major factor in the Conoco acquisition and did not really fit into DuPont's strategy, especially after coal and oil prices declined. As a result, it was quickly sold off when DuPont was restructured a decade later. In 1991, a new holding company CONSOL Engery, Inc. was incorporated as a joint venture of DuPont Energy Company and the German energy conglomerate Rheinisch-Westfalisches Elektrizitatswerk A.G., through its wholly owned subsidiaries Rheinbraun A.G. and Rheinbraun U.S.A. GmbH. Consolidation Coal Company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of CONSOL Energy, Inc. DuPont eventually sold most of its half interest, so that by 1998, Rheinbraun affiliates owned 94% of CONSOL Energy stock, while DuPont Energy retained only 6%. CONSOL Energy purchased the entire stock of the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company on September 22, 1998. CONSOL Energy stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "CNX" in 1999, with an initial public offering of more than 20 million shares.
CONSOL Energy produced more than 74 million tons of coal in 1999, accounting for approximately 7% of domestic production. The company currently operates 22 mining complexes, primarily east of the Mississippi River.
Source
Historical note from the Consolidation Coal Company Records, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
The Archives Center holds a number of collections that document coal.
Coal and Gas Trust Investigation Collection (NMAH.AC.1049)
Hammond Coal Company Records (NMAH.AC.1003)
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company Records (NMAH.AC.0071)
Lehigh Valley Coal Company Records (NMAH.AC.1106)
Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company Records (NMAH.AC.0282)
Materials in Other Organizations
Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
CONSOL Energy, Inc. Mine Maps and Records Collection, 1857-2002
AIS.1991.16
The CONSOL Energy Inc. collection contains coal mine maps, related documents and topographical information, as well as surface maps and detailed information on mine accidents. Additionally, there are technical drawings, outside notes on multiple mines, traverse and survey books, information on companies and railroads with which CONSOL conducted business, and a variety of non-print materials including photographs, negatives and aperture cards. Digital reproductions of selected material are available online.
CONSOL Energy Inc. West Virginia and Eastern Ohio Mine Maps and Records Collection, 1880-1994
AIS.2004.22
The CONSOL Energy Inc. West Virginia and Eastern Ohio Mine Maps and Records Collection contains coal mine maps as well as surface maps and detailed information on mine accidents in West Virginia and Eastern Ohio. Additionally, there are technical drawings, related documents, traverse and survey books, publications and photographs.
Consolidation Coal Company Records, 1854-1971, bulk 1864-1964
AIS.2011.03
The Consolidation Coal Company (Consol) was created by the merger of several small operators mining the Georges Creek coal basin in Allegany County, Maryland. The company expanded rapidly in the early twentieth century through the purchase of substantial tracts in the coal fields of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky as well as docks and distribution facilities in the Great Lakes region. By 1927, Consol was the nation's largest producer of bituminous coal. Following a merger with the Pittsburgh Coal Company in 1945, the company pursued a policy of acquiring companies which afforded opportunities for greater diversification while selling off unprofitable lines. In addition, a new research and development division was created to fund projects aimed at developing more efficient production methods and new outlets for coal consumption. The records of the Consolidation Coal Company and its affiliated companies are arranged in seven series. Minute books and contract files provide the most comprehensive documentation in this collection.
Provenance:
Donated to the National Museum of American History in 1987 by Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
circa 1920–2000, With Information Dating Back to 1481
Summary:
The Knez papers include material concerning many aspects of his career up to the time he retired from the Smithsonian. Of particular strength is the documentation of Asian exhibits, both temporary and permanent ones installed during his time at the Institution. There is also considerable material concerning specimens and collections acquired earlier. Material concerning Knez's work as a field researcher, bibliographer, and editor are also among the papers. After his retirement, Knez became involved in a study of Buddhism among the Tibetans living in India. Copies of film made for this study have been deposited in the Human Studies Film Archives. It should be noted that the papers represent only a portion of the Knez papers, for he has retained some of them.
Scope and Contents:
Knez was not a prolific writer. Though his research encompassed East and Southeast Asia, his field expeditions for collections and his charge to establish the first permanent Asian halls while at the Smithsonian limited his scientific writings to documentation required for Smithsonian exhibitions and his ongoing interest in the material culture of Sam Jong Dong and The Three Ministries, located in the Kimhae region of southeast Korea. To overcome Asian language barriers, Knez had to utilize informants, Korean scholars, and translators in order to carry out his research. The materials that he collected or were forwarded to him about Asia, however, represent an impressive body of information that researchers of Southeast Asia would want to review for general studies. Of special importance would be the information about culture around the South China Sea, and especially studies about Korean and Japanese ethnology and anthropology, the pre-colonial and colonial period, the period right after World War II, the Korean War, and changes in Korean agricultural farming life, from the early 1900s through the 1980s. A knowledge of Chinese calligraphy, Korean Hangul, and pre-World War Two Japanese (Taisho and Showa Periods) are required to understand the complete record documenting Korean history.
These papers contain detailed correspondence and memoranda, documenting Knez's professional life as a curator of anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. Visual images, photographs, slides, videotapes, film, and sound recording as well as research information and correspondence provide a complete record of the exhibitions that Knez established at the Smithsonian. Correspondence, memoranda, and photographs provide a less complete picture of Knez's activities before his appointment as curator. There is a very strong and complete record of his activities while stationed in Korea after World War II and during the Korean War. This material includes correspondence, photographs and film footage. Knez also brought out of Korea photographs that were taken by the Japanese during the colonial period. There is also film footage taken around 1946 on Cheju Island. In addition, there are postcards and photo cards that contain a rich visual image of Korea dating back before the 1920s.
The largest series within these papers contains Knez's material culture research on Korea. This series includes field notes, interviews, transcriptions, correspondence, photographs, publications and translations about Korean history dating back to 1481, Japanese publications and translations regarding anthropomorphic and agricultural studies of Koreans and Korean agricultural life, and Knez's draft publications. There is a large series of photographs and slides documenting Asian art collections as well as Asian cultures. The Knez Papers also includes a phonograph record collection which is not dated and contains Korean and Japanese opera and folk songs. In addition, there is a collection of Confucius teachings, school books, and genealogy written in Chinese calligraphy and Hangul.
The arrangement of these papers and the file folders within the series are not always well ordered. Multiple accessions were transferred to the National Anthropological Archives. Where subject information was the same, folders were filed into existing series developed in the 1970s and 1980s. In similar fashion, individual items that were not within folders were interfiled in existing folders that contained the same information.
The research series (series six), which primarily documents Knez's research activities and information he received or collected on Korea has some provenance. The material was reboxed several times, but there remains segments of information that are completely related. At other times, there is no logical relationship between one group of files and the next. Most of the folders were never dated. Therefore, it is difficult to understand the different periods in Knez's life when he worked on his Korean studies, without going through the entire series. Photographs are not always dated. Only a very small number were used in Knez's 1997 publication (where they are dated), The Modernization of Three Korean villages, 1951-1981 (Smithsonian Institution Press).
Most of the series within these papers contain different aspects of Knez's interest in Asia, and in particular, his focus on Korea. For example, correspondence regarding Knez's activities during his stay in Korea after World War II and during the Korean War will be found in series two, Subject File; photographs documenting the same time period will be found in series six, Research Projects, and series thirteen, Biographical and Autobiographical Material. And, series ten, Motion Picture Film and Sound Recordings, contain visual images of Knez's activities in Korea during 1946, 1950-1951.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into fourteen (14) series:
SERIES 1.Accession Correspondence and Information and Examination and Reports of Collections, 1959-1977 and undated, with information dating back to 1893, boxes 1-4
SERIES 2.Subject File, 1937-1999 and undated, with information dating back to 1852, boxes 4-32
SERIES 3.Professional and Non-Professional Association Material, 1955-1980, with information dating back to 1896, boxes 33-36
SERIES 4.Exhibitions, 1960-1977 and undated, with information dating back to 1876, boxes 36-43
SERIES 5.Research Grants, 1963-1981 and undated, with information dating back to 1884, boxes 43-46
SERIES 6.Research Projects, 1909, 1929-2000 and undated, with information dating back to 1481, boxes 47-115
SERIES 7.Geographical and Publications Files, 1929-1977 and undated, boxes 116-139
SERIES 8.Korean and Chinese Writings, boxes 140-141
SERIES 9.Collection and Research Photographs, 1946-1977 and undated, boxes 142-161
SERIES 10.Motion Picture Film and Sound Recordings, 1946-1978 and undated, boxes 162-164
SERIES 11.Phonograph Recordings, 1959- and undated, with recordings possibly dating back to the 1940s, boxes 165-170
SERIES 12.Invitations and Greetings, box 171
SERIES 13.Biographical and Autobiographical Material, Family Photographs, and Notes, circa 1920s-1997 and undated, boxes 172-174
SERIES 14.Oversize, 1952-1971 and undated, box 175 and oversize map case drawers
Biographical / Historical:
Eugene I. Knez was born Eugene Irving Knezevich on May 12, 1916, in Clinton, Indiana, where he graduated from high school in 1935. His mother and father, Ida and Sam Knezevich, were divorced in 1932, and in 1936, his mother married Edward P. Pearson. The family moved to California where Knez enrolled in pre-medical studies at Los Angeles City College. Knez transferred to the University of New Mexico (UNM), but before completing his studies, returned to Indiana to be with his father, who was ill. There, Knez enrolled at Indiana University. Since Indiana University did not offer courses in anthropology, Knez took classes in sociology and psychology so that he could fulfill the requirements of UNM. Upon completion of his course work at Indiana University, UNM awarded Knez a B.A. in 1941.
While attending the University of New Mexico, Knez was primarily interested in the Native American Indian. During the summer of 1939 he was appointed Park Ranger-Historian in the National Park Service at Coolidge, Arizona. When he returned to Indiana to be with his father, Knez found a summer job as an assistant to a psychologist, who was testing inmates at the Indiana State Farm.
Knez was drafted as a private in the United States Army in 1941. He was promoted to sergeant in 1942 and during that same year was selected for Officer's Candidate School. Knez graduated OCS as a second lieutenant. Knez was trained and later moved into personnel classification and assignment sections in various divisions before and during World War II. In 1945, he was promoted to captain while in a combat support unit on Saipan.
At the end of the war Knez was assigned to Korea. This assignment began a pivotal sequence of events in his life. With his background in anthropology, Knez was placed in charge of the Army's Bureau of Culture, National Department of Education, United States Military Government in Korea headquartered in Seoul. His responsibilities included the restoration of cultural and religious activities, including museums. At the Bureau, Knez developed a sensitivity towards Korea and her people in the aftermath of Japanese colonialism. Knez undertook the restoration of Admiral Yi's large inscribed boulder and a Buddhist pagoda that had been partially dismantled by the Japanese. He established The National Museum of Anthropology (which became the National Folk Museum). In 1946 Knez sponsored an expedition to Cheju Island to collect ethnographic artifacts and record music for the Museum. During that year he also received permission to excavate two royal Silla Tombs at Kyonju with staff from the National Museum of Korea (NMK). This was the beginning of an endearing association with Korea and her people, which culminated in Knez receiving the award of The Order of Cultural Merit (gold medal) in 1995 from the Republic of Korea.
Knez was discharged from the United States Army in 1946. From 1947 to 1948, he attended Yale University as a research assistant in anthropology and worked at the Peabody Museum. He then joined the federal government and from 1949 to 1953 Knez served as a Cultural Affairs and Public Affairs officer at the American embassies in Korea and Japan. From 1949 to 1951, Knez was chief of Branch Operations, United States Information Agency, first headquartered in Seoul and then moving from Seoul to Pusan with the invasion by North Korea.
During his assignment in Korea, Knez undertook several major activities that had a profound effect on his life. With the approaching North Korean forces getting ready to invade Seoul for the second time, Kim, Chewon, director of the National Museum of Korea, approached Knez and made a personal request to help save the Museum's treasures. Though Knez was a war time member of the American Embassy he undertook the task without receiving official permission. He coordinated the movement of the Museum and Yi dynasty collections and some of the Museum staff by having them shipped by railroad boxcar from Seoul to Pusan.
During the fighting Knez began his ethnographic material culture research at Sam Jong Dong in the Kimhae region north of Pusan. When it appeared in 1951 that the United Nations was losing the war, Knez received permission to spend two months of his home leave to stay in Korea to continue his research. This study was to continue into the 1990s.
While in Pusan, Knez recommended that two dinners be held to help the morale of Korea's cultural leaders, those who were refugees from Seoul. One dinner was to be for the older generation and the second for younger Korean scholars and members of the cultural community. At the second dinner, Knez met his future bride, Choi, Jiae, a highly regarded Korean actress.
During 1951, Knez was transferred to Tokyo as Policy and Program officer for the United States Information Agency. In 1952 he was assigned as the USIA regional Public Affairs officer in Fukuoka.
In 1953, Knez left the USIA and joined the staff at Hunter College, located in the Bronx, New York, first as a lecturer and then as an instructor. While teaching at Hunter, Knez attended graduate school at Syracuse University. In 1959, he received a Doctor of Social Science Degree in anthropology from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Knez's thesis was Sam Jong Dong: A South Korean Village. During the school year 1968-1969, the Maxwell School went from awarding the D.S.Sc. degree to the Ph.D. In 1970, Knez successfully petitioned the School to have his degree changed.
In 1959, Knez was appointed Associate Curator of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. He was given the responsibility for Asian ethnology and was assigned the task of establishing the first permanent Asian exhibitions in two halls at the United States National Museum (later, the National Museum of Natural History). At the time, the Asian collections available for the halls were poor or non-existent. Knez began his first of several field expeditions to augment the Museum's artifact and cultural collections. Almost all of the Asian exhibitions that he planned had to have collections taken directly from the field.
The first permanent exhibition was opened in 1961 and contained information on the South Asian World in Miniature, India and Pakistan. During the year two more exhibitions were completed, documenting India, Pakistan, and Thailand. In 1962, Knez completed fifteen more exhibitions; he completed eight in 1963 and 1964; one in 1965; and one in 1967. The themes for the exhibitions included China, Japan, Iran, Korea, Tibet, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Pakistan, India, East Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, Islam, and Buddhism.
From 1963 through 1973, Knez put together additional temporary exhibitions, which included themes on Korea, China, India, Japan, Bhutan, and acquisitions of Hindu and Buddhist sculpture. In 1967, Knez provided the objects and created the documentation for the United States Department of State exhibition honoring the visit of the King and Queen of Thailand. Knez developed an exhibition about Korea, which went on display between 1977 and 1979 and was coordinated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
Knez retired from the Smithsonian in November 1978 and was appointed Anthropologist Emeritus in 1979. Knez moved to Hawaii and developed ties with the University of Hawaii as a visiting scholar at the Center for Korean Studies. Knez continued his research on the Kimhae region, and in 1993, published his revised, The Modernization of Three Korean Villages, 1951-81: an Illustrated study of a people and their material culture.
May 12, 1916 -- Born
1935 -- Graduated High School
1941 -- Drafted, Private, United States Army B.A., University of New Mexico
1942 -- Officer's Candidate School, 2nd Lieutenant, United States Army
1945 -- Promoted to Captain, United States Army
1945-1946 -- United States Army, In charge, Bureau of Culture, National Department of Education, Seoul, Korea
1946 -- Excavation, National Museum of Korea, Royal Silla Tomb, Kyongju Ethnographic and Geographic Survey, National Folk Museum of Anthropology, Korea, Cheju Island
August 1946 -- Honorable Discharge, United States Army
1947-1948 -- Yale University, Peabody Museum, Research Assistant in Anthropology
1947 -- Study of American Indian Shaker cult, Washington State Museum, Seattle
1949 -- Changed Name from Knezevich to Knez
1949-1951 -- Wartime Center Director, United States Information Service, Pusan, Korea
1951 -- Shipment of National Museum of Korea Collections and Staff from Seoul to Pusan
1951-1952 -- Ethnographic Study of Kimhae Area, Korea, towards a dissertation
1952-1976 -- United States Army Reserve (retired as Full Colonel)
1953-1959 -- Lecturer and Instructor, Hunter College, New York
1959 -- Fellow, American Anthropological Association D.S.S.C. (later, Ph.D.) Syracuse University Anthropologist, Smithsonian Institution
1961-1962 -- Overseas Collecting Trips to Asia
1961 -- First Asian Exhibition Installation
1962 -- Letter of Appreciation, Republic of Korea
1965 -- Smithsonian Special Act (Development of Asian Collections) Award
1966 -- Member of the United States Museums Advisory Delegation Planning Meeting for the Establishment of a Korean National Science Museum Center, Seoul
1970 -- Award, Korean Village Study, Smithsonian Institution, Secretary's Fund
1971 -- Exhibition, A Korean Village: Its Changing Culture, which was later adapted as a traveling exhibition in the United States and Canada
1974 -- Exhibition, Bhutan: The Land of Dragons
1975 -- Invited Participant, Pakistan-Sind Government International Seminar
1977 -- Exhibition, Arms and Armor of Japan
1978 -- Retired, Smithsonian Institution Fellow, The Explorers Club, New York
1979 -- Anthropologist Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution Award, Himalayan Project, Tibetan Buddhism and Its Role in Society and State, National Endowment for the Humanities, which led to a publication by Knez with Franz Michael
1981 -- Award, Fulbright Senior Scholar, Korea, Council for International Exchange of Scholars
1995 -- Presentation of The Order of Culture Merit (Gold Medal), Republic of Korea
Related Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds Franz H. Michael and Eugene I. Knez photographs and sound recordings relating to Tibetan Buddhism in northeastern India (NAA.PhotoLot.80-13).
Separated Materials:
The motion picture film was transferred to the Human Studies Film Archives in 2002 (HSFA.2002.09).
Provenance:
Most of the papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Dr. Knez in 1978. There have been additional accretions since then.
Restrictions:
The Eugene Irving Knez papers are open for research.
Access to the Eugene Irving Knez papers requires an appointment.
Sam DeVincent loved music and art and began collecting sheet music with lithographs at an early age.
Series 4: Songwriters: A "songwriter" for this series is defined as a composer, a lyricist, or both.
An overview to the entire DeVincent collection is available here: Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music.
Scope and Contents note:
A "songwriter" for this series is defined as a composer, a lyricist, or both. The songwriters included in this online finding aid are arranged alphabetically in the Biography of Songwriters section and alphabetically in the Name and Select Title Index.
The song sheets associated with each songwriter in this series are generally arranged in the following order: General Songs; Ethnic Songs; Armed Conflict Songs or other Topical Headings; Ragtime; Instrumental; Musical Theater Production Songs; Motion Picture Production Songs; Specialized Song Sheets/Editions; Professional/Artist Copy Song Sheets; and Folios/Volumes. Songs of four or more editions (multiple editions) are usually placed in individual folders and listed separately under the appropriate category, i.e., General Songs, Topical songs, etc. Copyright dates listed in the Container List represent the latest date on any given song sheet, i.e., a song originally published in 1906, but copyrighted in 1946, will show the date 1946.
In the Container List the word "Contains" in a descriptive entry identifies a folder that contains only the song sheet titles specified. For example, Subseries 4.1, folder B "contains" three song sheets and only those three are contained in that folder. The word "Includes" in a descriptive entry identifies a folder that holds not only the song sheet title(s) named but also other song sheet title(s) not specified in the Container List. For example, folder E of subseries 4.1 "includes" (or specifies) three song sheets ("Magic Moments," "Sad Sack," and "Warm and Tender"), but, in addition, folder E contains fourteen other song sheets that are not specified.
Variations in the size of the sheet music in this series may indicate its publication date. Large song sheets-approximately 11" x 13"- were superseded in April 1919, when publishers adopted a new "standard" or "regular" size for song sheets-9 1/4" x 12 1/4"-as recommended by the National Association of Sheet Music Dealers. The probable motivation was that smaller song sheets were cheaper to produce--a conservation effort prompted by World War I.
Titles of Musical Theater Production Songs and Motion Picture Production Songs are in capital letters. Individual song titles are within quotation marks. Portraits of the artist or artists that contributed to a song's success are featured on many song sheets. Songs are filed alphabetically, by title, within each folder.
Dates after the songwriter's name in the Biography of Songwriters section of this Register refer to the songwriter's birth and death dates. Dates after a songwriter's name in the Container List of this Register refer to the dates of the song sheets in this collection for that songwriter. Where two or more songwriters were a notable team over an extended period of time, their collaboration is noted in the Biography of Songwriters and included in the Container List.
The dates in the Container List represent the latest copyright year on the song sheets. The dates are not necessarily the same as the year of the productions. Copyright dates in the Container List represent the latest date on any given piece of sheet music, i.e., a song originally published in 1906, but re-copyrighted in 1946, will show the date 1946.
Arrangement note:
Arranged alphabetically
4.1 - 4.217
4.218: Ephemera
Biographies of Song Writers:
4.42 ADAMS, STANLEY -- (8/14/1907-1/27/1994). Lyricist. Former President of ASCAP; was a leader in the successful effort for Congressional revision of copyright law. Best known song is "What a Diff'rence a Day Made."
4.43 AGER, MILTON -- (10/6/1893-5/6/1979). Composer, publishers, pianist, arranger, vaudeville accompanist, stage entertainer for silent movies. First hit was "Everything is Peaches Down in Georgia," sung by Al Jolson.
4.44 AHLERT, FRED E. -- (9/19/1892-10/20/1953). Composer, publisher. Arranger for Fred Waring. One of first songwriters to quit Tin Pan Alley for Hollywood. First hit was "I'll Get By."
4.45 AKST, HARRY -- (8/15/1894-3/31/1963). Composer. Professional pianist as a teenager. Met Berlin at Camp Upton, worked for him as staff pianist. Hits include: and "Baby Face" and "A Smile Will Go a Long, Long Way."
4.46 ALLEN, STEVE -- (12/26/1921- ). Composer, author, pianist, comedian. Toured with parents in vaudeville; worked in radio; founder and first host of NBC-TV's Tonight Show. Composed the theme from PICNIC.
4.47 ARLEN, HAROLD -- (2/15/1905-4/23/1986). Composer, author, pianist, vocalist. Played professionally at age 15. Signed by The Cotton Club to write with Ted Koehler, producing many hits. Also teamed with Yip Harburg. Write "Get Happy," "Stormy Weather," and the score for THE WIZARD OF OZ.
4.48 ARMSTRONG, HARRY W. -- (7/22/1879-2/28/1951). Composer, vocalist, pianist, producer, prize fighter. Hits include "I Love My Wife, But Oh You Kid" and "Sweet Adeline."
4.49 ASH, PAUL -- (2/11/1891-7/13/1958). Composer, author, conductor, pianist. Led his first band in 1910; became very successful bandleader. Wrote "I'm Knee Deep in Daisies."
4.50 AUSTIN, GENE -- (6/24/1900-1/24/1971). Composer, author. Sang in vaudeville, radio, films, and TV. Established as a recording star with "My Blue Heaven." Wrote "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street."
4.1 BACHARACH, BURT F. -- (5/12/1928- ). Composer and pianist. Collaborated with lyricist Hal David on a number of film scores (e.g., BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID) and popular songs, many of which were recorded by Dionne Warwick.
4.51 BALL, ERNEST R. -- (7/21/1878-5/3/1927). Composer, pianist. Began as pianist in vaudeville, performing with his wife Maude Lambert; then worked as a song demonstrator. Successful songs include "Let the Rest of the World Go By"and "Mother Machree."
4.52 BARGY, ROY -- (7/31/1894-1/15/1974). Composer, pianist. Arranger for Paul Whiteman; led several radio show bands. Edited, played, arranged, and composed piano rolls; composed rags. From 1943-1963 was music director for Jimmy Durante.
4.53 BAXTER, PHIL -- (9/5/1896-11/21/1972). Composer, pianist, lyricist, vocalist. Bandleader in 20's and 30's. Wrote "Have a Little Dream on Me" and "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas."
4.54 BAYES, NORA -- (1880-3/19/1928). Vocalist, composer, lyricist. Was a top performing star; known as "The Wurzberger Girl" after her first hit. The first edition of Cohan's "Over There" featured Bayes on the cover. Bayes and husband Jack Norworth wrote "Shine on Harvest Moon."
4.55 BERLE, MILTON -- (7/12/1908- ). Comedian, vocalist, lyricist, composer. Began performing in silent movies at age 5; worked in vaudeville; was a MC in clubs and theaters. Was the first big TV star. Wrote "Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long."
4.2 BERLIN, IRVING -- (5/11/1888-9/22/1989). Composer and lyricist. One of the most versatile and popular songwriters of the 20th century. Wrote songs for some of the most successful Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. Best songs were sentimental ballads performed in unique ragtime or popular styles.
4.56 BERNIE, BEN -- (5/30/1891-10/20/1943). Bandleader, composer. Was a monologist in vaudeville; played violin until he formed his own dance band in early 20's. Known as The Old Maestro. Wrote "Sweet Georgia Brown."
4.57 BRAHAM, DAVID -- (1834-4/11/1905). Composer. Born in London; moved to New York at age 18. Was orchestral leader and composer for minstrel shows, Tony Pastor's, Theatre Comique. THE MULLIGAN GUARD was the first of many collaborations with Ned Harrigan.
4.58 BREUER, ERNEST -- (12/6/1886-4/3/1981). Composer, pianist. Born in Germany, moved to US in youth. Vaudeville pianist. WWII interpreter and entertainer. Wrote "Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?"
4.59 BROOKS, SHELTON -- (5/4/1886-9/6/1975). Composer. Parents American Indian/African American. Pianist in Detroit cafes; moved to Chicago. Composed rages; worked as a mimic in vaudeville. Wrote "Darktown Strutters' Ball" and "Some of These Days."
4.60 BROWN, A. SEYMOUR -- (5/28/1885-12/22/1947). Author, composer, actor. Worked in vaudeville. Composed "Oh You Beautiful Doll."
4.61 BROWN, GEORGE -- ...
4.3 BROWN, LEW -- (12/10/1893-2/5/1958). Lyricist. Achieved success with a number of songs in collaboration with composer Albert Von Tilzer, and later as member of the Ray Henderson and Buddy DeSylva songwriting team on Broadway.
4.62 BROWN, NACIO HERB -- (2/22/1896-9/28/1964). Composer. First toured as piano accompanist; worked as a tailor and realtor before first successes in early 20's. One of the movies most important composers during early sound years and many years thereafter. Wrote "Singin in the Rain" and "You Are My Lucky Star."
4.63 BROWN, NACIO HERB, JR. -- (2/27/1921- ). Composer, author, publisher. Son of Nacio Herb Brown. Professional manager of publishing firms; manager of music catalogs. Songs include "Who Put That Dream in Your Eyes."
4.64 BUCK, GENE -- (8/8/1885-2/25/1957). Lyricist. Chief aide to Ziegfeld; wrote book for some of his shows. Pioneer designer of sheet music covers. Songs include "Hello Frisco" and "Tulip Time."
4.65 BULLOCK, WALTER -- (5/6/1907-8/19/1953). Lyricist. Wrote screenplays and songs for movies. Hits include "This Is Where I Came In" and "When Did You Leave Heaven?"
4.66 CAESAR, IRVING -- (4/4/1895-12/17/1996). Lyricist, composer. Wrote mostly for New York stage but began working for films in 30's. Wrote message-bearing songs for children. Wrote "Count Your Blessings" and "Tea for Two."
4.4 CAHN, SAMMY -- (6/18/1913- ). Lyricist. Wrote many successful songs for Hollywood films, notably for Frank Sinatra, and in collaboration with Charlie Chaplin, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Jule Styne.
4.67 CALLAHAN, J. WILL -- (3/17/1874-11/15/1946). Vocalist, lyricist. Started as an accountant, then singer of illustrated songs. Wrote "Smiles."
4.5 CARMICHAEL, HOAGY -- (11/22/1899-12/27/1981). Composer, lyricist, bandleader, pianist, and singer. Abandoned law profession to pursue career in songwriting. Contributed songs to a number of very popular motion pictures.
4.68 CARROLL, EARL -- (9/16/1893-6/17/1948). Composer. Produced and directed many revues. Built two theaters in New York and had a restaurant in Hollywood. Produced movies. Hits include "Give Me All of You" and "So Long Letty."
4.69 CARROLL, HARRY -- (11/28/1892-12/26/1962). Composer. Pianist in movie theaters, cafes and vaudeville. Wrote for Winter Garden productions; wrote several Broadway stage scores. Hits include "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" and "Trail of the Lonesome Pine."
4.70 CHAMINADE, MME. CECILE -- (born in Paris. Pianist, composer. Toured the US in 1908.
4.71 CLARIBEL (CHARLOTTE ALLINGTON BARNARD) -- (1830-1869) Composer, lyricist. English. Enormously popular in her time. Her "Come Back to Erin" is often regarded as an Irish folk song.
4.72 COBB, GEORGE L. -- (8/31/1886-12/25/1942). Composer. Began as composer of rags. Wrote for Melody magazine. First hit was "All Aboard for Dixieland."
4.6 COHAN, GEORGE M. -- (7/4/1878-11/5/1942). Composer, lyricist, actor, playwright, and producer. Best remembered for elaborately choreographed dance music, flag-waving songs, and songs for musical comedies and vaudeville. Best known for his patriotic songs, "Over There" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy."
4.73 COLUMBO, RUSS -- (1908-9/2/1934). Composer; primarily a singer, featured in Gus Arnheims band. Theme song for own band was "You Call It Madness." Also wrote "Too Beautiful for Words."
4.74 CONFREY, ZEZ -- (4/3/1895-11/22/1971). Pianist, bandleader, composer. Cut many piano rolls. Solo piano pieces have become standards: "Dizzy Fingers" and "Kitten on the Keys."
4.75 CONN, CHESTER -- (4/14/1896- 4/4/1973). Composer. Manager of publishing companies before owning own firm of Bregman, Vocco & Conn. Hits include "Don't Mind the Rain."
4.76 CONRAD, CON -- (6/18/1891-9/28/1938). Composer, pianist. Worked as theater pianist and in vaudeville; wrote for stage and movies. Had publishing firm. Wrote "The Continental," first film song awarded an Oscar; also wrote "Ma" and "Margie."
4.77 CONVERSE, CHARLES CROZAT -- (10/7/1832-4/8/1918). Composer. Studied in Europe; practiced law upon return. Composed partriotic overtures and cantatas, vocal quartettes. Wrote on philosophical and philological subjects under pen name Karl Redan. Wrote "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."
4.78 COOTS, J. FRED -- (5/2/1897-4/8/1985). Composer, pianist. Accompanied vaudeville acts; worked as song plugger; composed for Schuberts shows but returned to club dates in composing independently. Wrote "Love Letters in the Sand" and "You Go to My Head."
4.79 COSLOW, SAM -- (12/27/1902). Composer, lyricist, vocalist. Wrote for Broadway and movies; co-partner in music publishing; co-founded Soundies, song-movie shorts for coin machines. Hits include "Cocktails for Two" and "Was It a Dream?"
4.80 COWAN, LYNN -- (6/8/1888- ). Composer, actor, director, vocalist, pianist. Worked in vaudeville and as a film actor. Composed background scores for early sound film, and songs for LADIES MUST LOVE. Manager of Castle Terrace Club in Okinawa. Wrote "Kisses."
4.80 COWAN, RUBEY -- (2/27/1891-7/28/1957). Composer. Pianist in film theaters at age 13. Co-founded publishing company; wrote first show for Paramount Theater in New York; headed NBCs radio talent dept. then Paramounts radio dept. Wrote "You Can Expect Kisses from Me."
4.80 COWAN, STANLEY -- (2/3/1918- 12/13/1991). Composer, author, director, publicist. Wrote special material for orchestras, musicals, films; Produced shows for USAF during WWII. Joined father's (Rubey Cowan) firm, Rogers and Cowan. Wrote "Do I Worry."
4.81 COWARD, NOEL -- (12/16/1899-3/26/1973). Composer, lyricist, actor, playwright, producer. Born in England; began professional career at age 11. Best known of many popular songs are "I'll Follow My Secret Heart" and "I'll See You Again."
4.82 CRUMIT, FRANK -- (9/26/1889-9/7/1943). Composer, author, singer, actor. Vaudeville and stage performer. Had radio series with Julia Sanderson. Known for novelty numbers such as "Abdul Abulbul Amir."
4.83 CUGAT, XAVIER -- (1/1/1900- 10/27/1990). Bandleader, composer. Born in Spain; moved to Cuba when young; studied in Berlin; gave concert tours. Worked as a caricaturist for the LA Times. Led orchestra specializing in Spanish and Latin American music. Wrote "My Shawl," his theme song.
4.84 DANIELS, CHARLES N. -- (4/12/1878-1/21/1943). Composer, publisher. Pseudonym: Neil Moret. One of most significant ragtime entrepreneurs. Wrote first motion picture title song: "Mickey." Other songs include "You Tell Me Your Dream," "Moonlight and Roses," and "Chloe."
4.85 DANKS, HART PEASE -- (4/16/1834-11/20/1903). Composer. Singer and conductor in New York churches and concert stages. Published sacred and choral works; collaborated on three operettas. Best known for popular songs such as "Silver Threads Among the Gold."
4.86 DAVIS, BENNY -- (8/21/1895- 12/20/1979). Lyricist, vocalist. Performed in vaudeville as a child. Toured with Benny Fields as accompanist to Blossom Seeley. Hits include "Baby Face" and "Margie."
4.87 DEKOVEN, REGINALD -- (4/3/1859-1/16/1920). Composer, conductor, music critic. America's first significant composer of operetta: ROBIN HOOD the first American operetta to be performed in London. Founded the Philharmonic Orchestra in Washington, D.C. in 1902. Best known song is "Oh Promise Me."
4.88 DELEATH, VAUGHN -- (9/26/1896-5/28/1943). Vocalist, pianist, composer, lyricist. Reportedly the first woman on radio, sometimes credited with originating crooning. Played vaudeville, performed on Broadway, and recorded frequently. Hits include "At Eventide" and "Ducklings on Parade."
4.89 DEMING, MRS. L. L. -- (may be wife of Legrand L. Deming, born in Connecticut 10/29/1812.
4.7 DeROSE, PETER -- (3/10/1900-4/24/1953). Composer. Formed a radio team, The Sweethearts of the Air, with May Singhi Breen, whom he subsequently married. His most famous piece, "Deep Purple," became a commercial hit when lyrics were added.
4.3 DeSYLVA, BUDDY -- (1/27/1895-7/11/1950). Lyricist. Produced a number of hit songs with George Gershwin and particularly for the singer, Al Jolson. Also worked with Jerome Kern, Victor Herbert, and later as member of the Ray Henderson-Lew Brown songwriting partnership.
4.90 DILLON, HARRY -- (1866- 2/5/1916). Brother of John and Will. Started performing career on minstrel shows.
4.90 DILLON, JOHN -- (12/5/1882-9/2/1953). Brother of Will and Harry. Followed brother Harry into ministrel shows; first vaudeville engagement was at Tony Pastor's; toured. Operated grocery store in hometown, Cortland, NY, after retirement.
4.90 DILLON, WILLIAM AUSTIN -- (11/6/1877-2/10/1966). Composer, author, actor, businessman. Worked in vaudeville, medicine and minstrel shows; toured with Harry Lauder. Successes include "All Alone" and "I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad."
4.91 DIXON, HAROLD -- ...
4.8 DONALDSON, WALTER -- (2/15/1893-7/15/1947). Composer. Hired in 1919 as staff writer for Irving Berlin Inc. Wrote songs throughout the 1920s that made him one of the most popular composers of the decade. Had many collaborations, the most successful with Gus Kahn.
4.9 DRESSER, PAUL -- (4/22/1858-1/30/1906). Composer, lyricist, performer and publisher. One of the first American performers to enter the music publishing trade. Wrote songs for burlesque and vaudeville stage shows. Considered the leading American writer of sentimental ballads of the late 19th century. Best-known song: "My Gal Sal."
4.92 DUBIN, AL -- (6/10/1891-2/11/1945). Lyricist. Served overseas in entertainment unit in WWI. Biggest song successes when teamed with Harry Warren. Hits include "I Only Have Eyes for You" and "Tiptoe Through the Tulips."
4.10 EDWARDS, GUS -- (8/18/1879-11/7/1945). Composer, lyricist, impresario, and singer. Collaborated with lyricist Will D. Cobb producing several hit songs introduced in Broadway reviews, notably Ziegfeld's Follies of 1907 and 1910. Best-known songs include "School Days" and "By The Light Of The Silvery Moon."
4.93 EDWARDS, LEO -- (2/22/1886-7/12/1978). Composer, author, producer. Brother of Gus Edwards. Worked in vaudeville; was staff writer for music publishing firms; cabaret producer. Hit songs include "Isle d'Amour," "Inspiration," and the official Boy Scout song "Tomorrow's America."
4.94 EMMET, JOSEPH KLINE -- (3/13/1841-1892). Actor, composer. Performed in a minstrel company using a broken German dialect that made him famous. Several plays starring his 'Fritz' character were written for him. Successful songs were "Emmet's Lullaby" and "Sweet Violets."
4.95 ERDMAN, ERNIE -- (10/23/1879-11/1/1946). Composer. Was pianist in the Original New Orleans Jazz Band. Worked on professional staff of Chicago music publishers. Songs hits include "Nobody's Sweetheart" and "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye."
4.96 FAIN, SAMMY -- (6/17/1902- 12/6/1989). Composer, vocalist, pianist. Was a self-taught pianist; began composing songs while in grammar school. Very successful partnership with Irving Kahal writing songs for movies. Hits include "Dear Hearts and Gentle People," "I'll Be Seeing You," and "That Old Feeling." Nominated for the Oscar 10 times; won twice.
4.97 FEIST, FELIX -- (Wrote "Can't You See Im Lonely."
4.97 FEIST, LEO -- (1/3/1869-6/1/1930). Publisher, lyricist. When early songs didnt sell well Feist partnered with Joe Frankenthaler to start what became one of the leading publishing firms. His successes include "Those Lost Happy Days" and "Smokey Mokes."
4.98 FIELD, EUGENE -- (9/3/1950-11/4/1895). Author. Newspaper columnist for Chicago Morning News. His poems were set to music.
4.99 FIELDS, DOROTHY -- (7/15/1905-3/28/1974). Author, lyricist. At age 15 sang in an amateur show by Rodgers and Hart; worked with brother Herbert as co-librettist on several Broadway shows. Most successful collaboration was with Jimmy McHugh. Wrote "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "I'm in the Mood for Love." Won an Oscar with Jerome Kern for "The Way You Look Tonight."
4.100 FIORITO, TED -- (12/20/1900-7/22/1971). Composer, conductor, pianist. Began as a song demonstrator. First hit song was "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye." Formed band in early 20's and continued to lead an orchestra in the 60's. Other hits include "Alone at Last" and "Charley, My Boy."
4.101 FISHER, FRED -- (9/30/1875-1/14/1942). Composer, lyricist. Immigrated from Germany at age 25 but soon assimilated popular music idioms. Early success was "Come, Josephine, in My Flying Machine." Started composing for films in late 20's. Hits include "Dardanella" and "Your Feets Too Big."
4.11 FOSTER, STEPHEN -- (7/4/1826-1/13/1864). Composer and lyricist of popular household, plantation, and minstrel songs of the 19th century. Produced over 200 songs of two main types: sentimental ballads of hearth and home, and songs for the famous Christy's Minstrels.
4.102 FRANKLIN, DAVE -- (9/28/1895-2/3/1970). Composer, lyricist, pianist. Pianist in publishing house at age 13; vaudeville accompanist; played nightclubs in New York and European cities. Hits include "The Anniversary Waltz" and "When My Dream Boat Comes Home."
4.62 FREED, ARTHUR -- (9/9/1894-4/12/1973). Lyricist, producer. Wrote for vaudeville; managed theater in Los Angeles; produced shows. Began writing for movie musicals in 1929. Many hits include "After Sundown," "All I Do Is Dream of You," and "Singin' in the Rain."
4.103 FRIEDMAN, LEO -- (7/16/1869-3/7/1927). Composer. Studied in Chicago and Berlin. Two biggest hits were "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland."
4.104 FRIEND, CLIFF -- (10/1/1893-6/27/74). Composer, lyricist, pianist. Wrote for Broadway and movies; was a pianist for vaudeville performers in US and England. Also worked as a test pilot. Hits include "Give Me a Night in June" and "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down."
4.12 FRIML, RUDOLF -- (12/7/1879-11/12/1972). Composer and pianist. One of the principal exponents of traditional operetta and early musical comedy in the United States. Collaborated with Oscar Hammerstein II and others to produce the most popular American musicals of the 1920s.
4.105 FROST, JACK -- (11/25/1893-10/21/1959). Composer, lyricist. Writer with Chicago music company; wrote special material for Eva Tanguay and Trixie Friganza; worked in advertising. Hits include "When You and I Were Young Maggie Blues."
4.106 GARBER, JAN -- (11/5/1897-10/4/1977). Violinist, bandleader, composer. Played violin in Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra; formed dance band in early 20's; still conducting into the 60's. Wrote his theme song, "My Dear."
4.107 GAY, BYRON -- (8/28/1886-12/23/1945). Composer, author, explorer. Educated at US Navel Academy and was on 1933 Byrd Expedition. Successful songs include "The Little Ford Rambled Right Along" and "The Vamp."
4.108 GILBERT, L. WOLFE -- (8/31/1886-7/12/1970). Lyricist. Started as a singer in New York clubs, writing parodies of popular songs for entertainers such as Al Jolson. Moved to Hollywood where he wrote for films and the Eddie Cantor radio show. Had his own publishing firm. Hits include "Lucky Lindy" and "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee."
4.13 GERSHWIN, IRA -- (12/6/1896-8/17/1983). Lyricist. Collaborated with various composers throughout his life, at times using pseudonym, Arthur Francis. He collaborated with brother George from 1924 until the latter's death in 1937. Their first musical comedy together was LADY, BE GOOD.
4.13 GERSHWIN, GEORGE -- (9/26/1898-7/11/1937). Composer, conductor, and pianist. Composer of Broadway shows and one of America's most famous composers of popular concert music. Brought jazz and classical styles together in concert pieces, African American folk music and opera, e.g. PORGY AND BESS.
4.109 GILLESPIE, HAVEN -- (2/6/1888-3/14/1975). Lyricist. Left job as journeyman printer and began writing songs in the mid-20's. Wrote for film, theater and radio. Awarded Freedoms Foundation Award for "God's Country." Hits include "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" and "You Go to My Head."
4.110 GLOVER, CHARLES W -- (1806-3/23/1863). Composer. English. Violinist in orchestras of Drury Lane and Covent Garden; musical director of Queen's Theatre. "Do They Think of Me at Home" was one of his greatest successes in the USA.
4.111 GLOVER, STEPHEN -- (mid 1812-1870). Composer. English. One of his most popular songs was "What Are the Wild Waves Saying?"
4.112 GOETZ, E. RAY -- (6/12/1886-6/12/1954). Composer, lyricist, producer. Contributed to many Broadway musicals. Hits include "For Me and My Gal" and "Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula."
4.113 GOODHART, AL -- (1/26/1905-11/30/1955). Composer, pianist. Early career as radio announcer, vaudeville pianist, special material writer. With USO during WWII. Hits include "Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear," "I Apologize," and "Who Walks in When I Walk Out?"
4.114 GORDON, MACK -- (6/21/1904-3/1/1959). Lyricist, vocalist. Boy soprano in minstrel shows; comedian and singer in vaudeville. Hits include "Chatanooga Choo-Choo," "Time on My Hands," and "You'll Never Know" which won an Academy Award.
4.115 GREEN, JOHN W. -- (10/10/1908- 5/15/1989 ). Composer, arranger, pianist, ` bandleader. Accompanied various singers; formed own band. On many radio shows in New York then moved to Hollywood. MGM musical director for many years. Scored and conducted three Academy Award films. Hits include "Body and Soul" and "I Cover the Waterfront."
4.116 GUEST, EDGAR -- ( 8/20/1881-8/5/1959). Poet, Newspaperman for Detroit Free Press. Poems Syndicated in nearly 300 papers; 17 volumes of poetry published. Apeared on national radio for many years.
4.117 GUMBLE, ALBERT -- (9/10/1883-11/30/1946). Composer, pianist for publishers. Entertained troops during WWII. Hits include "Are You Sincere?" and "How's Every Little Thing in Dixie?"
4.118 HALL, WENDELL WOODS -- (8/23/1896-4/2/1969). Composer, author, singer, ukelele player. Known as "The Red-Headed Music Maker." Played the ukelele on radio and in vaudeville; made world radio tour in 20's. Worked as advertizing executive. Successful songs include "Underneath the Mellow Moon" and "Whispering Trees."
4.14 HAMMERSTEIN, OSCAR, II -- (7/12/1895-8/23/1960). Lyricist, librettist, producer, and publisher. Produced and wrote some of the most successful Broadway musicals in collaboration with composer Richard Rodgers and Jerome Kern. Many of his works later appeared in Hollywood films.
4.14 HAMMERSTEIN, OSCAR, I -- (5/8/1846-8/1/1919). Composer. An impresario who wrote several works, including orchestral pieces for use before or as intermezzi in his productions, a ballet, MARGUERITE (1896), and the operettas, SANTA MARIA (1896) and THE KOHINOOR (1893).
4.119 HANLEY, JAMES F. -- (2/17/1892-2/8/1942). Composer, pianist. Accompanist in vaudeville. Produced WWI army show TOOT SWEET. Wrote for early sound movie shorts. Hits include "Second Hand Rose" and "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart."
4.57 HARRIGAN, EDWARD -- ...
4.15 HARRIS, CHARLES K. -- (5/1/1865-12/22/1930). Composer, lyricist, and music publisher. Known principally as a successful publisher of popular music. First publisher to use an illustration of a performer on a song sheet cover. Most successful song: "After the Ball." Cofounder of ASCAP.
4.120 HARRISON, ANNIE FORTESQUE -- (Lady Arthur Hill)(1851-1944). Composer. Best known songs include "In the Gloaming."
4.14 HART, LORENZ -- (5/2/1845-11/22/1913). Lyricist and librettist. Collaborated with composer Richard Rodgers on the scores of several successful Broadway musicals and Hollywood productions.
4.121 HAYS, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. -- (7/19/1837-7/22/1907). Began writing songs at age 19. Very popular because of charming melodies, easy execution of music, and lyrics that projected authentic feelings.
4.122 HEMANS, MRS FELICIA DOROTHEA -- (1794-1835). Very prolific and popular English poet. Composer for some of the songs was her younger sister Harriet Mary Browne.
4.3 HENDERSON, RAY -- (12/1/1896-12/31/1970). Composer. Collaborated extensively with lyricists Lew Brown and Buddy DeSylva. Wrote many of the hit tunes of the 1920s and 1930s. Produced music of wide popular appeal performed by Al Jolson and others on stage and in films.
4.16 HERBERT, VICTOR -- (2/1/1859-5/26/1924). Composer, cellist, and conductor. Successful particularly as composer of American operettas, of which forty (40) were written between 1894 and 1924, mostly romantic and having happy endings.
4.123 HILL, DEDETTE LEE -- (11/2/1900-6/5/1950). Collaborated with her husband, Billy Hill, and later with Johnny Marks.
4.123 HILL, BILLY -- (7/14/1899-12/24/1940). Also used nom de plume George Brown. Composer, author, pianist, violinist, conductor. Worked as a cowboy and surveyors assistant in the west. Led first jazz band in Salt Lake City. Best known songs include "In the Chapel in the Moonlight" and "The Last Roundup."
4.124 HILLIARD, BOB -- (1/28/1918-2/1/1971). Lyricist. Wrote scores for Broadway. Successes include "Our Day Will Come" and "They've Got an Awful Lot of Coffee in Brazil."
4.113 HOFFMAN, AL -- (9/25/1902-7/21/1960). Composer, lyricist, drummer. Bandleader in hometown, Seattle; drummer in NY night clubs; songwriter early 30's through 50's. Hits include "Black Coffee" and "Mairzy Doats."
4.125 HOWARD, JOSEPH E. -- (2/12/1878-5/19/1961). Composer, author, actor, singer, producer, director. Boy soprano in vaudeville; wrote Broadway stage scores; also produced and directed on Broadway. Entertainer in night clubs, radio, TV. Hits include "Goodbye, My Lady Love" and "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now."
4.126 INGRAHAM, HERBERT -- (7/7/1883-8/24/1910) Music Director of touring theater companies. Led own orchestra. Staff composer for Shapiro Bernstein Publishing Co. Brother of Roy.
4.126 INGRAHAM, ROY -- (12/6/1893-?) Composer, author, singer. First song published at age 17. Had own orchestra; toured in vaudeville. Wrote for several motion pictures; radio broadcaster. Wrote special material for Sophie Tucher and others. Brother of Herbert.
4.17 JACOBS-BOND, CARRIE -- (8/1861-12/1946). Composer, lyricist, and music publisher. Called "the Riley of the Music World," her songs, such as "A Perfect Day," and "I Love You Truly," are beloved by many.
4.127 JENKINS, GORDON -- (5/12/1910-5/1/1984). Composer, author, conductor, arranger. Played organ in movie theater at age 10; quit high school to play piano in speakeasy. Pianist, arranger for leading bands; Broadway radio conductor. Grammy Award for arrangement of "It Was a Very Good Year" as recorded by Frank Sinatra. Hits include "P.S. I Love You" and "When a Woman Loves a Man."
4.128 JENTES, HARRY -- (8/28/1897-1/19/1958). Composer, pianist. Successes include "He May Be Old But He Has Young Ideas" and "Put Me to Sleep with an Old-Fashioned Melody."
4.18 JOHNSON, CHARLES L. -- (12/3/1876-12/28/1950). Composer and ragtime pianist. Known for his most popular ragtime piece, "Dill Pickles" (1906); also, piano pieces that evoked American Indian culture.
4.129 JONES, ISHAM -- (1/31/1894-10/19/1956). Composer, bandleader, pianist. Formed and led outstanding dance band, touring U.S. and Europe. Many radio appearances and recordings. Equally well known as composer. Two standards are "It Had to Be You" and "I'll See You in My Dreams."
4.19 KAHN, GUS -- (11/6/1886-10/8/1941). Lyricist. Writer of lyrical material for vaudeville performances and Hollywood film musicals. Collaborated with such leading composers as Donaldson, Gershwin, Romberg, Whiting, and Van Alstyne.
4.130 KALMAR, BERT -- (2/16/1884-9/18/1947). Lyricist, publisher. Worked in tent shows and vaudeville as a child. Wrote scores for Broadway and songs for movies; wrote screenplays. Hits include "I Wanna Be Loved by You," "Three Little Words," and "Who's Sorry Now?"
4.131 KASSEL, ART -- (1/18/1896-2/3/1965). Composer, author, vocalist, saxophonist, lyricist and bandleader. Early radio and TV appearances as bandleader after service in World War I. Composed his two theme songs, "Doodle Doo Doo" and "Hells Bells."
4.132 KENNEDY, HARRY -- (circa 1800-1894). Minstrel; ventriloquist who used two dummies simultaneously. Brother William H. Kennedy was his publisher and occassional collaborator.
4.133 KENNY, NICK -- (2/3/1895- ? ). Lyricist, newspaper reporter, produced early amateur radio show; radio editor of New York Daily Mirror. Successes include "Love Letters in the Sand" and "Gone Fishin'."
4.133 KENNY, CHARLES -- (6/23/1898- ? ). Composer, violinist, author. Collaborated with brother Nick.
4.20 KERN, JEROME -- (1/27/1885-11/11/1945). Composer. Considered the most prolific composer of Broadway musicals. He extended the popularity of the musical play form by introducing songs and themes, avoiding operatic styles, and using jazz rhythms and chords instead to characterize the dramatic demands of plot.
4.134 KING, ROBERT A. -- (9/20/1862-4/14/1932). Composer. Wrote under several noms de plume including Mary Earl ("Beautiful Ohio"), R. A. Wilson, and Mrs. Ravenhall. Staff composer for music publishers. Appeared in vaudeville. Hits include "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream."
4.135 KIPLING, RUDYARD -- (12/30/1865-1/18/1936). Author, poet. Best remembered for his celebrations of British imperialism, his tales and poems of British soldiers in India and Burma, and his children's stories. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.
4.136 KLICKMANN, F. HENRI -- (2/4/1885- ? ). Composer, pianist, violinist; arranger for Broadway musicals, music publishers, dance bands, and performers. Professional violinist, pianist, and accordianist. Successes include "Sing Me the Rosary" and "Sweet Hawaiian Moonlight."
4.137 KOEHLER, TED -- (7/14/1894-1/17/1973). Lyricist. Began music career as pianist for nickelodeon, silent film theaters. Wrote for Cotton Club, other stage shows, and films. Most successful collaboration with Harold Arlen ("Stormy Weather"). Also wrote "I Love a Parade" and "I've Got the World on a String."
4.138 KRAMER, ALEX -- (9/13/1893-8/25/1955). Composer, arranger; cellist in theater orchestras; arranger for vaudeville and muscial comedy singers. Compiled and arranged many music folios. Collaborated with wife, Joan Whitney. Hits include "High on a Windy Hill" and "Candy."
4.139 KUMMER, CLARE (Clare Rodman Beecher) -- (1/9/1888-4/21/1958). Composer, playwright. Wrote scores and librettos for Broadway. Successes include "Bluebird."
4.140 LAWNHURST, VEE -- (11/24/1905- 5/16/1992). Pianist, singer, composer. Arranged piano rolls. Original member of Roxy's Radio Gang. Successful songs include "Sunday Go to Meetin' Time."
4.141 LAWRENCE, JACK -- (4/7/1912- ? ). Composer, lyricist. Organized bands for the armed services. Wrote "Tenderly," and English Lyrics for "Ay, Ay, Ay" and "Cielito Lindo."
4.142 LEONARD, EDDIE, -- (10/18/1875-7/29/1941). Composer, author, singer, actor; professional baseball player. Performed in minstrel shows, sang in variety shows. Fought in the Spanish American War. Wrote "Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider."
4.143 LESLIE, EDGAR -- (12/31/1885-1/20/1976). Lyricist, author, publisher. Wrote special material for performers and films. Hits include "For Me and My Gal" and "Moon over Miami."
4.144 LEWIS, AL -- (4/18/1901-4/4/1967). Composer, lyricist; became a music publisher later in career. Hits include "Now's the Time to Fall in Love."
4.145 LEWIS, SAM M. -- (10/25/1885-11/22/1959). Lyricist. Started as runner in a brokerage house. Sang in cafes; wrote material for self and other performers, also for stage and movies. Hits include "Dinah," "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue," and "How Ya Gonna Keep' Em Down on the Farm?"
4.146 LIEBER, JERRY -- (4/25/1933- ). Lyricist. Grew up in Baltimore hearing R&B. Struggled with acting in Hollywood when met and teamed with Mike Stoller to write many hits, including "Searching."
4.147 LITTLE, JACK -- (5/28/1900-4/9/1956). Pianist, composer, lyricist, vocalist, bandleader. Had a popular radio porgram in 20's. Led a band in the 30's. Successes include "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town."
4.148 LOESSER, FRANK -- (6/29/1910-7/28/1969). Composer, lyricist, publisher. Wrote songs for college shows and later for Army shows. Worked as newspaper reporter and caricaturist in vaudeville. Became leading writer for Broadway and Hollywood musicals. Founded own publishing company. Won Oscar and Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize. Among many hits are "Two Sleepy People" and "On a Slow Boat to China."
4.149 LOGAN, FREDERICK KNIGHT -- (10/15/1871-6/11/1928). Composer. Wrote sentimental ballads in collaboration with his mother, Viginia. Wrote "Missouri Waltz."
4.149 LOGAN, VIRGINIA K. -- (1800's). Mother of Frederick Knight Logan.
4.150 LOMBARDO, CARMEN -- (7/16/1903-4/17/71). Arranger and composer in brother Guy Lombardo's dance band for forty years. Played sax with heavy vibrato and sang most vocals.
4.151 LYMAN, ABE -- (8/4/1897-10/23/1957). Composer, author, singer. Led own dance orchestra, The Californians.
4.69 MacDONALD, BALLARD -- (10/15/1882-11/17/1935). Lyricist. Began writing material for vaudeville after attending Princeton. Lyricist, librettist for Broadway musicals.
4.152 MANCINI, HENRY -- (4/16/1924-). Composer. Very popular composer of songs and themes for film ("Moon River" and "The Days of Wine and Roses") and TV ("Peter Gunn" and "Mr Lucky"). Began career in Pittsburgh dance bands pre-WWII.
4.153 MARKS, EDWARD B. -- (11/28/1865-12/17/1945). Publisher. Started company with focus on popular music but added the more serious composers. Bought the Cohan Publishing Company; and was the agent for Polish and English companies. His own early song success was "The Little Lost Child."
4.154 MASTERS, FRANKIE -- (4/12/1904- ). Composer, bandleader. Led hotel and ballroom bands in New York and Chicago; on the West Coast circuit in 30's and 40's; TV shows in the 50's. Active in the midwest into the 70's.
4.155 McGLENNON, FELIX -- ...
4.156 McHUGH, JIMMY -- (7/10/1894-5/23/69 ). Composer. Early fame with score for BLACKBIRDS OF 1928. Popular composer for movies during 30's-40's. Important collaboration with many songwriters, especially Dorothy Fields. Hits include "I'm in the Mood for Love" and "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street."
4.157 McKINLEY, MABEL -- (1879?-6/7/1937) Pseudonym: Vivian Grey. Daughter of President McKinley's youngest brother, Abner. Married Dr. Hermanus Baer of Reading, PA.
4.21 MERCER, JOHNNY -- (11/18/1909-6/25/1976). Composer and lyricist with a gift for incorporating southern vernacular speech and images of country settings into songs. Wrote lyrics for Broadway musicals and words and music to many popular songs.
4.158 MERRILL, BLANCHE -- (7/23/1895-10/5/1966). Author, lyricist. Wrote special material for Eva Tanguay, Fanny Brice, and other prominent singers; also wrote for musicals. Successes include "Jazz Baby."
4.159 MERRILL, BOB -- (5/17/1921- 2/17/1998). Composer, lyricist. Leading writer of novelty songs in the 50's, including "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window" and "If I Knew You Were Comin' Id've Baked a Cake."
4.145 MEYER, GEORGE W. -- (1/1/1884-8/28/1959). Composer of many popular songs during the first half of the 20th Century, including "For Me and My Gal," "Tuck Me to Sleep in My Old Tucky Home," and "Sittin in the Corner."
4.160 MILLARD, HARRISON -- (11/27/1829-9/10/1895). Composer. Singer early in career, studied in Italy and toured England and the Continent. Returned to U.S.; wounded in the Civil War. Wrote about 350 songs and many church works. Set UNCLE TOM'S CABIN to music.
4.161 MILLARD, MRS. P. -- ...
4.73 MILLER, NED -- (8/2/1899-1/26/1990)
4.22 MILLS, KERRY -- (2/1/1869-12/5/1948). Composer and music publisher. Specialized in ragtime songs and instrumental pieces. His ragtime cakewalks and the non-ragtime piece, "Meet Me in St. Louis," popularized by Judy Garland, were particularly successful.
4.162 MOHR, HALSEY -- ...
4.163 MOORE, THOMAS -- (6/28/1779-2/26/1852). Irish poet, composer, lyricist, musician.Provided words and music to a selection of Irish songs and did much to kindle an interest in little known Irish tunes. As poet, he appealed to a wide range of tastes.
4.23 MONACO, JAMES V. -- (1/13/1885-12/17/1945). Composer. Earned reputation as a Tin Pan Alley composer playing rag music in cabarets and nightclubs. Contributed several song hits to Broadway and Hollywood musical productions, among which is the song, "You Made Me Love You," made famous by Judy Garland in 1937.
4.164 MORGAN, CAREY -- (12/25/1885-1/6/1960). Composer. Wrote special material for vaudeville and scores for Broadway. Hits include "Rain" and "My Own Iona."
4.165 MORGAN, RUSS -- (4/19/1904-8/8/1969). Bandleader, composer. Arranger for Victor Herbert, Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong, Chick Webb, among many others. Developed muted wha-wha trombone style with Freddy Martin. Wrote songs for Cotton Club Revues. Musical driector for Brunswick Records.
4.166 MORSE, THEODORA -- (7/11/1890-11/10/1953). Lyricist. Wrote under pseudonyms D. A. Esrom, Dorothy Terriss, and Dolly Morse. Most famous songs written in collaboration with husband Theodore Morse: "Three O'Clock in the Morning" and "My Wonderful One."
4.167 MORSE, THEODORE -- (4/13/1873-5/24/1924). Composer. Collaborated with several lyricists including his wife, Theodora. Successes include "M-O-T-H-E-R" and "Blue Bell."
4.168 MUIR, LEWIS F. -- (1884-1/19/1950). Composer. Ragtime pianist. Hits include "Take Me to That Swanee Shore" and "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee."
4.169 NELSON, STEVE -- ( ? ). Hits include "Frosty the Snowman."
4.169 NELSON, EDWARD G. -- (3/18/1885-3/30/1969). Composer, conductor; pianist in nightclubs and cabarets; orchestra leader. Wrote material for vaudeville and songs for movies. Successes include "Peggy O'Neil."
4.169 NELSON, EDWARD G., JR. -- (3/26/1916-). Composer, author. Served with Special Services during WWII.
4.24 NEVIN, ETHELBERT -- (11/25/1862-2/17/1901). Composer. Wrote songs and short piano pieces, sometimes overly sentimental but expressive of gentler and amorous moods.
4.170 NOBLE, RAY -- (12/17/1903- ). Composer, pianist, bandleader. Established as outstanding leader of dance bands in England and then in USA after emigrating. Radio work including Burns & Allen show. Successes include "Good Night Sweetheart" and "The Very Thought of You."
4.54 NORWORTH, JACK -- (1/5/1879-9/1/1959). Vocalist, Composer, lyricist. Entertainer in vaudeville and Broadway; blackface comedian in minstrel shows. Performed and collaborated with wife Nora Bayes. Their most famous song "Shine on Harvest Moon." Wrote lyrics to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."
4.171 OLMAN, ABE -- (12/20/1888-1/4/1984). Composer, publisher. Started as a song demonstrator; established LaSalle Music Company. Wrote for early movie musicals. Hits include "Oh, Johnny Oh" and "Down Among the Sheltering Palms."
4.172 PALEY, HERMAN -- (5/5/1879-11/4/1955). Composer, publisher, radio executive. Studied music professionally. Worked as staff composer, then executive with music publishing companies. Director of New York Stage Door Canteen shows; talent scout and composer for Fox Films.
4.173 PARISH, MITCHELL -- (7/10/1900-4/2/1993). Lyricist. Attended Columbia and NYU. Staff writer for music publisher; began writing lyrics in 20's. Among the most famous songs are "Deep Purple," "Moonlight Serenade," and "Star Dust."
4.174 PETRIE, H. W. -- (3/4/1857-5/25/1925). Composer, vocalist. Performed in minstrel shows. Successes include "Asleep in the Deep" and "I Dont Want to Play in Your Yard."
4.175 PIANTADOSI, AL -- (7/18/1884-4/8/1955). Composer, pianist; accompanist in vaudeville. Popularized ragtime when touring US, Europe, and Australia. Worked for NY publishing house. Hits include "Pal of My Cradle Days."
4.25 PORTER, COLE A. -- (6/9/1891-10/15/1964). Composer and lyricist. One of the most thoroughly trained popular songwriters, whose theatrically elegant, sophisticated, and musically complex songs contributed to America's most popular music of the 20th century.
4.176 POWELL, W. C. -- (Pseudonym: Polla)
4.114 REVEL, HARRY -- (12/21/1905-11/3/1958). Composer and pianist. Born in London, had early classical piano training. Moved to USA and accompanied Mack Gordon in vaudeville. They started writing for Ziegfeld but were in Hollywood by 1933. The team broke up in 1939. He founded Realm Music Co., a publishing house, in 1949. Successes include "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?"
4.177 ROBERTS, LEE S. -- (11/12/1884-9/10/1949). Composer, pianist. Worked in piano manufacturing business. Developed QRS artist-recorded music rolls and catalogs. Pianist on radio. Hits include "A Little Birch Canoe and You" and "Patches."
4.178 ROBINSON, J. RUSSEL -- (7/8/1892-9/30/1963). Composer, lyricist, pianist. Began performing and composing as a teenager. Played with Original Dixieland Band; wrote songs for London revues; made piano rolls; accompanied singers. Pianist and vocal coach for radio show CHILDRENS HOUR. Hits include "Margie."
4.179 ROBISON, WILLARD -- (9/18/1894-6/24/1968). Composer, lyricist, pianist, vocalist, bandleader. Radio performer most active in 20's and 30's. Formed Deep River Orchestra; often featured African American folk music and spirituals. Radio shows "Deep River Music" and "Plantation Echoes." Hits include "Cottage for Sale."
4.14 RODGERS, RICHARD -- (6/26/1902-12/30/1979). Composer. Collaborated with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II, whose partnership led to a series of musicals that enjoyed unprecedented artistic, critical, and financial success in both Hollywood and Broadway in the 1930's and 1940's.
4.26 ROMBERG, SIGMUND -- (7/29/1887-11/9/1951). Composer and conductor. Composed musical scores in the traditional style of the operetta of the 1920s. Proved to be more flexible than rival Rudolph Friml in adapting to the new tastes and musical styles emerging in American music of the 1930's.
4.180 ROONEY, PAT -- (7/4/1880-9/9/1962). Composer, vocalist. Dancer-singer in vaudeville and on Broadway, first with sister, then with wife Marion Brent. Successes include "You Be My Ootsie, I'll Be Your Tootsie."
4.27 ROOT, FREDERICK W. -- (6/13/1846-?). Composer and music teacher. He was the son of George Frederick Root. One of the country's most active and successful singing teachers, F. W. Root's School of Singing describes the first of his many singing methods.
4.27 ROOT, GEORGE F. -- (8/30/1820-8/6/1895). Composer and music educator. Pseudonym: G. Friedrich Wurzel. Best known for his songs of sentiment and patriotism published during the Civil War era. Also composed over 30 hymns and gospel songs rivaling Stephen Foster in number and popular success.
4.28 ROSE, BILLY -- (9/6/1899-2/10/1966). Lyricist and producer. Provided the lyrics to some of the most successful popular songs of the 1930's and 1940's. Also produced several Broadway musicals and perhaps known more for his editing, polishing, and promoting of songs than as a lyricist.
4.181 ROSE, VINCENT -- (6/13/1880-5/20/1944). Composer, pianist, vocalist, bandleader. Early training in Italy. Formed orchestra 1904. Successes include "Whispering."
4.182 ROSENFELD, MONROE H. -- (1861-12/13/1918). Pseudonyms: F. Heiser and F. Belasco. Composer, journalist. Credited with coining the term 'Tin Pan Alley.' Wrote more than 1,000 songs.
4.183 ROSSITER, WILL -- (3/15/1867-6/10/1954). Composer, publisher. Pseudonyms: Cleve Williams and W. R. Williams. Immigrated to USA from England in 1881. Appeared at Tony Pastor's. Very successful publisher of popular music; initiated innovative marketing techniques for sheet music. Wrote "I'd Love to Live in Loveland with a Girl Like You."
4.130 RUBY, HARRY -- (1/27/1895-2/23/1974). Composer. Professional pianist at age 16; song plugger for Tin Pan Alley publishers; vaudeville performer. Had many collaborators; partnership with Bert Kalmar produced many hits including score for Marx Brothers' ANIMAL CRACKERS; wrote theme for TV series THE REAL McCOYS.
4.130 RUBY, HERMAN -- (3/15/1891-7/31/1959). Composer. Older brother of Harry Ruby. Hits include "My Sunny Tennessee" and "Cecelia."
4.184 RUSSELL, HENRY -- (12/24/1812-12/8/1900). English. Composer, pianist; sang with children's opera troupe; studied composition in Italy. Came to US, worked as organist and choirmaster, then toured as one of the few major singers of his time to present unassisted entertainment. Wrote "The Old Arm Chair" and "Woodman! Spare That Tree!"
4.185 SANDERS, JOE -- (10/15/1896-5/15/1965). Composer, pianist, vocalist, arranger, bandleader. Co-leader of the Coon-Sanders Orchestra in 20's and 30's. Known as The Old Lefthander from early days as amateur baseball pitcher. Hits include "Got a Great Big Date with a Little Bitta Girl."
4.186 SCHWARTZ, JEAN -- (11/4/1878-11/30/1956). Composer, pianist. Prolific leading composer from turn of century. Pianist in cafes, publishing houses. Teamed with William Jerome on Broadway shows and performed with him in vaudeville. Successes include "Hello Central, Give Me No Man's Land."
4.140 SEYMOUR, TOT -- ( 10/23/1889-8/31/1966). Lyricist of the 30's. Worked for New York publishing house. Wrote special material for Fanny Brice, Belle Baker, Sophie Tucker, Mae West; also songs and scripts for raido shows.
4.187 SHAND, TERRY -- (10/1/1904- 11/11/1988). Composer, lyricist. Pianist in silent movie theaters early in career. Pianist/vocalist in 30's; later had own band. Hits include "Dance with a Dolly."
4.188 SHAY, LARRY -- (10/10/1897- 2/22/1988). Composer, arranger, pianist. WWI military service. Musical director for MGM; program director for NBC radio in New York. Hits include "Get Out and Get Under the Moon."
4.144 SHERMAN, AL -- (9/7/1897-9/15/1973). Composer, lyricst. As pianist provided mood music for silent movies; pianist for publishing house. Successes include "On a Dew-Dew-Dewy Day."
4.144 SILVER, ABNER -- (12/28/1899- 11/24/1966). Composer, lyricist, pianist. Dance band pianist; worked for publishing house. Song publisher. Composed many popular songs from 1920 into 60's, including songs for Elvis Presley movies JAILHOUSE ROCK, KING CREOLE, and G.I. BLUES.
4.189 SIMONS, SEYMOUR B. -- (1/14/1896-2/12/1949). Composer, lyricist, bandleader. Wrote Michigan Union operas while attending the University. In AAF during WWI, and with USO in WWII. Wrote material for revues in London and Paris early 20's, then led dance band in US. Later record company executive. Hits include "Breezin Along with the Breeze" and "All of Me."
4.190 SKYLAR, SUNNY -- (11/11/1913- ). Composer, lyricist, author; band singer with Abe Lyman, Paul Whiteman, and others; also worked as a single act. Wrote band material for Betty Hutton and others. Hits include "Besame Mucho."
4.191 SMITH, HARRY B. -- (12/28/1860-1/2/1936). Lyricist. Librettist-lyricist of Broadway musicals 1887-1932, one of most prolific. Brother of Robert B. Smith. Collaborated with DeKoven on first American comic opera. Music and drama critic for Chicago newspapers. Adaptations of French and German operettas. Successes include "The Sheik of Araby."
4.192 SMITH, LEE OREAN -- (1874-?)
4.191 SMITH, ROBERT B. -- (6/4/1875-11/6/1951). Lyricist. Reporter for Brooklyn Eagle. Publicity for Casino Theater, wrote material for shows there. Collaborated with brother Robert B. Smith in Broadway shows. Adapted some stage shows to musicals. Successes include "All the World Loves a Lover."
4.193 SNYDER, TED -- (8/15/1881-7/16/1965). Composer, lyricst, pianist. Early career pianist in cafes and publishing houses. Hired Irving Berlin as staff pianist for his publishing company; collaborated in early songs; Berlin later became partner. Successes include "Whos Sorry Now?"
4.194 SOLMAN, ALFRED -- (5/6/1868-11/15/1937)
4.29 SOUSA, JOHN PHILIP -- (11/6/1854-3/6/1932). Composer, bandleader, and writer. Known as the "March King" and as the most important figure in the history of American bands and band music. His contributions to band brass instrumentation includes the sousaphone and a bass tuba with bells, built in the 1890's.
4.195 SPENCER, HERBERT -- (5/27/1878-8/26/1944). Composer, arranger, singer. Studied voice with Enrico Caruso. In vaudeville for 12 years. Accompanist and arranger for prominent singers. Successes include "There's Egypt in Your Dreamy Eyes."
4.196 SPINA, HAROLD -- (6/21/1906-7/18/1997). Composer, lyricist. Pianist, arranger for publishing house; wrote special material. Founder-President of Telefilm. Director and producer for record companies. Hits include "Annie Doesnt Live Here Anymore."
4.197 STEPT, SAM -- (9/18/1897-12/1/1964). Composer, lyricist, bandleader. Pianist for publishing house. Vaudevile accompanist for Mae West and Jack Norworth among others. Led dance band in early 20's. Songwriting mainly in 30's and 40's. Hits include "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" and "That's My Weakness Now."
4.30 STERLING, ANDREW B. -- (1874-1955). Composer and lyricist. Collaborated extensively with the popular Tin Pan Alley songwriter, Harry Von Tilzer, providing the lyrics to some of the most popular songs, including so-called coon songs of the early 1900's as "One Sunday Afternoon" and "Down Where The Cotton Blossoms Grow."
4.153 STERN, JOSEPH W. -- (1/11/1870-3/31/1934)
4.146 STOLLER, MIKE -- (3/13/1933-). Composer. Early piano lessons in New York. Moved to Los Angeles and met Jerry Lieber. First hits were "Kansas City" and "Hound Dog."
4.198 STRAIGHT, CHARLEY -- (1/16/1891-9/21/ or 10/17/1940). Composer, lyricist, pianist, bandleader. Early career in vaudeville. Leader of band in 30's. Musical director of company producing player-piano rolls. Hits include "Funny, Dear, What Love Can Do."
4.31 STYNE, JULE K. -- (12/31/1905- ). Composer. Collaborated with Sammy Cahn on several Broadway musicals. Became one of the most prolific theatrical composers of the post-WWII era, creating scores for over 20 musicals performed by such artists as Carol Channing, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, and Barbra Streisand.
4.32 SULLIVAN, SIR ARTHUR S. -- (5/13/1842-11/22/1900). English composer and conductor. Composed comic operas whose music, written to librettos by W.S. Gilbert, represents a peculiarly English style of operetta that achieved exceptional renown in both England and the United States. One of the most widely popular of all British composers.
4.199 TAYLOR, TELL -- ...
4.200 THORNTON, JAMES -- (12/5/1861-7/27/1938). Composer, performer. Worked as a singing waiter, then toured in vaudeville, often performing with wife, Bonnie. Successes include "When You Were Sweet Sixteen."
4.201 TIERNEY, HARRY -- (5/21/1890-3/22/1965). Composer, pianist. Toured US and abroad as concert pianist. Worked for Remick publishing house. Wrote scores for several Broadway shows. Hits include "Alice Blue Gown."
4.202 TOBIAS, CHARLES -- (8/15/1898-7/7/1970). Lyricist, composer, vocalist. Prolific songwriter mid-20's into 50's. Collaborated with brothers Harry and Henry. Early career sang in vaudeville, for publishing houses, and on radio. Formed publishing company in 1923. Hits include "Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer."
4.202 TOBIAS, FRED -- (3/25/1928-). Lyricist. Son of Charles Tobias. Wrote special material for Carol Burnett and Julius Monk, among others. Made Broadway debut as co-lyricist of Ellington's POUSSE CAFE. Wrote lyrics for TV specials THE GIFT OF THE MAGI and QUINCY. Songs recorded by Patti Page, Tony Bennett, Steve Lawrence, Elvis Presley and others.
4.202 TOBIAS, HARRY -- (9/11/1895-12/15/1994). Lyricist. Brother Charles among several collaborators; most songwriting in 30's and 40's. Wrote special material for movies. Hits include "It's a Lonesome Old Town."
2.202 TOBIAS, HENRY -- (4/23/1905 - 12/5/1997). Lyricist, composer pianist, vocalist. Wrote for vaudeville and night club performers and for radio. Pianist, singer and disc jockey; TV producer for CBS. Collaborated with brothers Charles and Harry. Directed and produced shows for summer stock and resort hotels. Hits include "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?"
4.33 VAN ALSTYNE, EGBERT -- (3/5/1878-7/9/1951). Composer and lyricist. Best known for his collaboration with lyricist Harry H. Williams, with whom he wrote songs exploiting Indian themes and the popular "In The Shade of the Old Apple Tree." Later joined forces with lyricist Gus Kahn.
4.203 VINCENT, NAT -- (11/6/1889-6/6/1979). Pianist on vaudeville circuit. One of radio's "Happy Chappies." Remained active in later years despite total blindness. Wrote "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles."
4.34 VON TILZER, ALBERT -- (3/29/1878-10/1/1956). Composer, lyricist, and publisher. Wrote some of the most popular songs of the early 20th century, and contributed songs to a number of films and Broadway productions. Like brother Harry, Albert's songs incorporate dance rhythms and slang idioms typical of Tin Pan Alley that have since become standards.
4.35 VON TILZER, HARRY -- (7/8/1872-1/10/1946). Composer, lyricist, performer, and publisher. Wrote and published over 2,000 of his own songs and other sentimental and moralistic ballads. Also wrote so-called coon songs for blackfaced minstrels and vaudeville acts of the period. Plugged and published many of the Gershwin and Berlin songs that later became famous.
4.204 WALLACE, WILLIAM VINCENT -- (3/11/1812-10/12/1865). Irish composer, pianist, violinist. Debuted as composer at age 22. Moved to Australia, then various North and South American cities; finally settled in London where he had his great success with MARITANA.
4.36 WARREN, HARRY -- (12/24/1893-9/22/1951). Composer, lyricist. Wrote songs for Broadway reviews, including several co-authored and produced with Billy Rose. Considered one of the most successful composers of American films. The wide dissemination of his music through the film medium made him one of the most influential of all 20th-century songwriters.
4.205 WASHINGTON, NED -- (8/15/1901- 12/20/1996). Lyricist. Early career in vaudeville as M.C. and agent, and writing special material. Popular lyricist from late 20's into 60's; wrote for Broadway shows and movies, including title songs. Hits include "High Noo n" and "When You Wish Upon a Star."
4.206 WAYNE, BERNIE -- ( ? ). Composed "There She Is," the Miss America Pageant Theme Song.
4.207 WAYNE, SID -- (1/26/1923-). Composer, author. Wrote songs and comedy material for TV. Popular songs include "Nintey- nine Years" and "Two Different Worlds."
4.208 WEBSTER, JOSEPH PHILBRICK -- (2/18/1819-1/18/1875). Composer and performer. Toured in concerts of popular music. Managed a Connecticut troupe, The Euphonians, and composed many of their successful songs. Public opposition to slavery forced several moves. Published over 400 songs, ballads, patriotic songs and hymns.
4.209 WEBSTER, PAUL FRANCIS -- (12/20/1907- 3/22/1984). Lyricist. After college became seaman, dancing instructor. To Hollywood mid-30's for movie work. In 50's and 60's wrote many movie and title songs; had several Academy Award nominations and awards. Hits include "Giant" and "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing."
4.210 WEIL, KURT -- (3/2/1900-4/3/1950). German. Composer, arranger, pianist. Very successful career in Germany; left in 1933 with wife Lotte Lenya, first to Paris then to US in 1935. Composed many Broadway musicals in the 40's including KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY ("September Song") and THE THREEPENNY OPERA, first produced in Germany.
4.37 WENDLING, PETER -- (6/6/1888-4/8/1974). Composer, lyricist, and pianist. Wrote several hit songs of the post-WWII era in partnership with Bert Kalman and Edgar Leslie. Most popular song: "Oh, What a Pal Was Mary."
4.38 WENRICK, PERCY -- (1/23/1887-3/17/1952). Composer, lyricist, pianist, and singer. Best known for his pre-WWII popular songs such as "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet," "Moonlight Bay," and others, that became favorites of barbershop quartets and sing-alongs. Known in Tin Pan Alley as "The Joplin Kid".
4.39 WHITING, RICHARD A. -- (11/12/1892-2/10/1938). Composer and lyricist. Among the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1920s and 1930s. He was one of the first important Hollywood composers to began writing music for silent film and later for sound productions such as the very successful movie, HOLLYWOOD HOTEL.
4.138 WHITNEY, JOAN -- (6/26/1914-7/12/1990). Composer, lyricist, vocalist. Own radio show; sang in clubs and hotels. Formed publishing firm with husband Alex Kramer. Hits include "Candy" and "High on a Windy Hill."
4.211 WILLIAMS, GUS -- (7/19/1847-1/16/1915). Composer, actor, singer. Performed at Tony Pastor's before playing legitimate leading roles. Toured in vaudeville.
4.212 WOOODBURY, ISAAC BAKER -- (10/23/1819-10/26/1858). Composer. Studied in London, Paris. Taught music; was conductor, editor, writer. Compiled music collections. Popular songs include "Be Kind to the Loved Ones at Home."
4.213 WOODS, HARRY -- (11/4/1896-1/14/1970). Composer, lyricist. Pianist and singer while student at Harvard. Wrote for English movies mid-30's. Hits include "When the Red, Red Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along" and "Side by Side."
4.214 WRUBEL, ALLIE -- (1/15/1905-12/13/1973). Coposer, lyricist, bandleader. Saxman in bands; led own band; theater manager. Wrote for Warner Brothers, then Disney. Hits include "Gone with the Wind" and "Zip-a Dee-Doo-Dah."
4.40 YELLEN, JACK -- (7/6/1892-4/17/1991 ). Lyricist. Permanent lyricist for Tin Pan Alley songwriter, Milton Ager. Also wrote special material for entertainer Sophie Tucker for over 20 years. A famous song by the Yellen/Ager combination was "I Wonder What's Become of Sally." "Happy Days Are Here Again" was another great hit.
4.41 YOUMANS, VINCENT M. -- (9/27/1898-4/5/1946). Composer. Wrote and produced three successful Broadway musicals. Published fewer than 100 songs, but 18 of these were considered standards by ASCAP, including "Tea For Two," "Take A Chance," and "I Want To Be Happy."
4.145 YOUNG, JOE -- ...
4.215 YOUNG, VICTOR -- (b. Chicago, 8/8/1900-11/11/1956). Composer, violinist, conductor. Worked in radio and theater as violinist, arranger, conductor. Wrote over 200 scores for movies, including SHANE. Song hits include "Stella by Starlight" and "Sweet Sue."
4.216 YOUNG, VICTOR -- (b. Bristol, Tennessee, 4/9/1889-9/2/1968). Pianist and composer. Studied and toured in Europe. Accompanist to prominent singers. Music director in Thomas A. Edison's Experimental Laboratory. Composed for about 300 movies including some of the earliest sound productions.
4.217 ZAMECNIK, JOHN S. -- (5/14/1872-6/13/1953). Composer. Classical training included time under Antonin Dvorak. Violinist in Pittsburgh Orchestra under Victor Herbert. Wrote operettas.
Materials in Other Organizations:
Sam DeVincent Collection of American Sheet Music, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
This collection contains duplicates of materials in the Smithsonian collection, as well as materials acquired by Mr. DeVincent after the donation to the Smithsonian. The phonograph records described above were transferred to the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History:
Donald J. Stubblebine Collection of Musical Theater and Motion Picture Sheet Music and Reference Material, 1843-2010 (AC1211)
Forms Part Of:
Series 4: Songwriters forms part of the
Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music
.
An ongoing, updated list of DeVincent topical series is available via the Smithsonian finding aid portal.
Provenance:
This collection was purchased by the Smithsonian Institution in 1988 from Sam and Nancy Lee DeVincent.
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.
Citation:
The Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Medical, Psychological, and Psychiatric Publications, 1941-1942.
Collection Creator:
Knez, Eugene I. (Eugene Irving), 1916-2010 Search this
Container:
Box 134
Type:
Archival materials
Scope and Contents note:
Includes "Factors in Adjustment to Army Life," 1944; "Service to the Family of the Soldier," 1943; "Physical Treatments of Acute Psychiatric States of War," 1943; "Medical Aspects of Accidents and Mistakes in the Industrial Army and in the Armed Forces," 1943; "Etiologic Factors in the Adjustment of Men in the Armed Forces," 1943; "The Unique Structure and Function of the Mental-Hygiene Unit in the Army," 1943; "Psychosomatic Casualties in the Middle East," 1944; "The Psychoneuroses of War," 1944; "Psychiatric Aspects of Aviation Medicine," 1944; "The British-American-Canadian Surgical Mission to the U.S.S.R.," 1943; "A Year's Service in a Psychiatric Unit of the American Red Cross" (St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, D.C.) 1944; "War Neuroses," 1941; "The Adviser System-Prophylactic Psychiatry on a Mass Scale," 1943; "The Leaven of Psychosomatic Medicine," 1943; "Some Physiological Principles Underlying Variability of Response," 1943; "Causes of Rejection and the Incidence of Defects," 1943.
Collection Restrictions:
The Eugene Irving Knez papers are open for research.
Access to the Eugene Irving Knez papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Eugene Irving Knez papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The papers document the life and work of William R. Hutton, a civil engineer during the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Materials include diaries, notebooks, correspondence, letterpress copy book, printed materials, publications, specifications, photographs, drawings, and maps that document the construction of several architectural and engineering projects during this period. Most notable are the records containing information related to the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Hudson River Tunnel, the Washington Aqueduct, the Kanawha River Canal, and the Washington/Harlem River Bridge. There are also several records about railroads in the state of Maryland, the District of Columbia and elsewhere, including the Western Maryland Railroad, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Colorado Midlands Railway, Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad, the Northern Adirondack Railroad, and the Pittsfield and Williamstown Railroad. The records can be used to track the progression of these projects, and engineering innovation during the late 1800s to the early 1900s.
Scope and Contents:
These papers document William R. Hutton's professional career as a civil engineer and his personal affairs. Although the personal materials in the collection provide insight into a man and a family that have been largely forgotten by biographers, it is the professional materials that are perhaps the most interesting to researchers. They provide a compelling narrative of the push to the West that occurred in 19th century America and the internal improvements movement typified by the American System plan proposed by Henry Clay. Perhaps best remembered for the high tariffs that accompanied it, the American System plan was also concerned with the advancement of internal improvements, such as canals, that would unite the East and West in communication, travel, and trade. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal can be seen as one of the products of this movement (1) and was in fact initially heralded as the first great work of national improvement (2).
The papers in this collection that are related to the construction and maintenance of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal are an invaluable documentation of efforts during this turbulent time to unite the eastern and western United States. They provide details of the canal from its initial construction to its decline with the incline at Georgetown project. The canal also serves as an example, or perhaps a warning against, federal involvement in state improvement efforts as it was the first project to be directly funded and staffed by the federal government (3). The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by then President John Quincy Adams whose toast, "to the canal: perseverance," (4) became an ironic omen, as construction of the canal took over twenty-two years to be completed. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal materials can be used as a case study for the problems encountered during canal building (5). These problems are best typified in the collection by the papers relating to the Georgetown incline. This project was headed by Hutton and was plagued with construction problems, boating accidents, and obsolescence from the moment of its completion. Despite these issues, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal remains a structure of historical significance in America. As the third and last effort to construct an all-water route to the West (6), the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal is an important artifact of 19th century attitudes and efforts towards commerce, trade, travel, and communication between the eastern and western United States. Other significant canals and water structures represented in the collection are the Kanawha Canal, the Washington Aqueduct, and a large collection of materials relating to the Kingston Water Supply (New York).
One of the most significant internal improvements made during this time was the railroad. The legal conflicts that arose between the canal companies and railroads is also represented in the materials relating to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. These materials specifically deal with the legal conflict's between the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The development and construction of the railroads is also represented in the materials documenting the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad, the Northern Adirondack Railroad, the Western Maryland Railroad, the Mexican National Railroad, the Colorado Midlands Railroad, and the Columbia Railroad.
The collection also demonstrates the spirit of innovation and invention that was prevalent in the engineering field in the nineteenth century. Joseph Gies writes, "...one of the distinctive characteristics of the great nineteenth century engineering adventurers was their readiness to gamble on the translation of theory into practice" (7). In this quote, he is speaking of the civil engineer Dewitt Clinton Haskins and a project that truly encapsulates engineering invention in the nineteenth century, the Hudson River Tunnel. Responding to the increase in the population of the City of New York in the late nineteenth century from sixty thousand to three and a half million, the Hudson River Tunnel was originally devised as a way to alleviate traffic and to transport train passengers directly across the Hudson River (8). Beginning with records dating from 1881 to 1901, the Hutton papers can be used to document not only the advances in engineering during this time but also the costs of progress. Haskins' initial efforts to build the tunnel using submerged air pressurized caissons were marked by failure and in some cases fatalities. Workers on the tunnel often suffered from what came to be known as "caisson disease" or "the bends," caused by the immense forces of compression and decompression experienced while working in the tunnels (9). This problem was so prevalent that as construction progressed the rate of worker deaths caused by "the bends" rose to twenty-five percent (10). Materials in the collection document worker complaints and deaths resulting from this disease as well as providing a technical record of the construction of the tunnel. The highlight of the materials relating to the Hudson River Tunnel is an album that contains photographs of workers in the tunnel and a detailed daily report of the construction progress on the tunnel that was maintained by Hutton's assistant, Walton Aims. The first hand account in these reports provides insight not only into the construction of the tunnel, but also the problems encountered.
Another project featured in the Hutton collection that was devised in response to the population explosion in the City of New York in the nineteenth century is the Harlem River Bridge, or as it is now known, the Washington Bridge. Known as one of the longest steel arch bridges of its time, the Harlem River Bridge also represents that spirit of invention and innovation that was prevalent in the civil engineering field during the nineteenth century. The collection provides an invaluable resource for those wishing to track the construction of the bridge from early concept drawings and proposals to finalized plans. Also present are photographs of the construction and workers. Societal response to the bridge in the form of newspaper and magazine clippings help to create the narrative of the Washington Bridge, and these are supplemented by correspondence from the builders, suppliers, and planners.
This collection also includes diaries, 1866-1901; letterpress copybooks, 1858-1901; correspondence on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Hudson River Tunnel, Washington Bridge over the Harlem River, and Maryland and Colorado railroads, 1861-1901, and on Hutton's financial and real estate affairs, 1835-1921; construction photographs of the Harlem River, Cairo, Poughkeepsie, Niagara bridges and the Hudson River Tunnel, Washington Aqueduct, and Capitol Dome (in the form of albumen, cyanotype, salted paper print); data and drawings; rolled land profile drawings; canal notes, 1828-1892; Hudson River Tunnel construction reports, 1889-1891; publications, drawings, and maps of railroad routes; pamphlets and reprints on hydraulic works and water supply; road, railway, bridge, and hydraulic construction specifications, 1870-1900; drawings (linen, oil cloth, and heavy drawing paper), and blueprints; account books, 1891-1899; and plans, drawings, field notebooks, and publications on American and European construction projects, especially in Maryland, New York, and France; personal correspondence detailing his role as executor for the estates of Benjamin H. Hutton, Joseph Hutton, Annie Theller, and the Countess H. De Moltke-Hvitfeldt and his relationships with his children, siblings, cousins, and colleagues, 1850-1942.
Materials are handwritten, typed, and printed.
Special note should be made that any materials dated after the year 1901 were added to the collection by another creator who is unidentified. It can be speculated that professional materials added after this date were contributed by his brother and colleague Nathanial Hutton or his son Frank Hutton. Personal materials contributed after this date may have been added by his wife, daughters, or other members of his extended family.
Series 1, Letterpress Copybooks, 1858-1901, consists of twenty seven letterpress copybooks containing correspondence between Hutton and other engineers, architects, and building suppliers. The letterpress copybooks in this series have been arranged chronologically. The books involve a process by which ink is transferred through direct contact with the original using moisture and pressure in a copy press. The majority of the correspondence is business- related. Some letterpress copybooks are devoted to specific projects such as the Washington/Harlem River Bridge, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad, Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The letterpress copybooks provide a record of correspondence written by Hutton, which makes it distinctive from the other correspondence in the collection. Most of the other correspondence has Hutton as recipient.
The letterpress copybooks also document Hutton's various residences throughout his life and provide a glimpse into the civil engineering profession at the time by demonstrating how engineers shared ideas and comments about projects. This can be supplemented with the printed materials in the collection as many of the authors also appear in the correspondence. Other topics covered in the letterpress copybooks include business reports (specifically the report of the president and directors of the Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad), records of people and companies involved in projects, pasted in engineering sketches, engineering specifications and notes, travel expenses and estimates, construction histories and progress, legal issues with family estates, tax information, Colorado Railroad, payment certificate schedules, St. Paul Railroad, personal correspondence, title guarantees, Hudson River Tunnel, financial matters, real estate matters, insurance information, sketches and drawings, supply lists, cost estimates, the Memorial Bridge, Coffin Valve Company, engineering expenses, engineering calculations, payroll notes for Kingston Water Supply, proposals, account information, Hutton Park, reservoirs, contract drafts, French Society of Civil Engineers, inspection results (specifically Piedmont Bridge), land descriptions, damage reports, Morse Bridge, Illinois Central Railroad, North Sea Canal, moveable dams, iron works, site histories, Potomac Lock and Dock Company, Kanawha River canal (lock quantities, specifications, payroll information), Pennsylvania Canal, and bills for services.
Series 2, Professional Correspondence, 1861-1901, consists of correspondence that relates to Hutton's architectural and engineering projects. This series is further subdivided into two subseries: Project Correspondence and General Correspondence. Subseries 1, Project Correspondence, 1876-1899, correspondence is divided by project and arranged alphabetically. Subseries 2, General Correspondence, 1861-1901, is arranged chronologically. Both series contain handwritten and typed letters. Some letters are on letterpress copybook pages and are most likely copies. Some materials are in French and Spanish. Special note should be made that this series does not contain all of the professional correspondence in the collection. Some correspondence has been separated according to project and placed in Series 8, Professional Projects, 1830-1965, in order to make it easier for researchers to access materials related to those subjects.
Subseries 1, professional correspondence topics include comparisons between construction projects (specifically comparisons of the Kanawha River Canal to other canals), supply lists, location recommendations, sketches, construction plans and modifications, bills for supplies and works, leaks in the gates, cost estimates, Brooklyn Water Supply, use of lake storage (Ramapo Water Supply), water supply to states and counties, damages to water supply pipes, estimates of water quantities, responses to construction reports, legal issues related to projects, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and payment for services.
Subseries 2, general correspondence topics include employment opportunities, committee meetings and elections, land surveys, sketches, engineering plans and ideas, work on projects, dismissal from projects, notes on supplies, Washington Aqueduct, construction progress, land purchases, Civil War, Jones Falls, cost of water pumps, steam drills, lots divisions and prices, repairs, report of the engineering bureau, tidewater connection at Annapolis, bridge construction, construction costs, statement of vessels that entered and cleared Baltimore, technical questions from colleagues, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, supply costs, letters of introduction, requests for reference, changes to plans and designs, survey reports, St. Andrew's lot, Canal Coal Company, publication process, American Society of Civil Engineers and its members, responses to project inquiries, Graving Dock gross revenue, job offers, specifications, trade figures, contracts, water levels, appointment dates and times, moveable dams, proposals for membership, salaries, Piedmont Coal Lands, maps, land profiles, Washington Bridge, board payments, Nicaragua Canal, Grant Coal Company, statistics, engineering notes, Hartford Bridge, water pressures, coal deposits, Colorado Coal, pipe lines, reservoirs, boat costs for canals, floods, bridges, letters of resignation, engines, Ruxton Viaduct, Colorado and Midland Railroad, Morse Bridge, share values, railroad locations, membership invitations, call for submissions, structural tests, record of accounts for room and board, appointments, water rights (Putnam County), publications, blueprints, visitation programs, cotton compresses, street trenches, pressures in dams, level tests, Portland Transportation bureau, trade information, concrete steel, Chicago drainage canal, ship canals, Augusta Cotton and Compress Company, Sooysmith case, Consolidated Gas Company, masonry, book binding, Columbia Railway Company, jetties, land grades, Chesapeake and Delaware canal, water wheels, pneumatic lock, tunnel arches, rifton power, Hutton's health, elevators, Brooklyn Bridge Terminals, girder weights, legal issues and their results, rating table for the Potomac, land profiles, transmission lines, transformers, water turbines, and water power on the Potomac River.
Correspondents for this series include the following: Captain Montgomery C. Meigs, Captain T.W. Symons, William Bryan, Ernest Flagg, John Hurd, Jake Wolfe, J.C. Saunders, J.H. Dolph, Charles J. Allen, G.H. Mendell, Virgil S. Bogue, B.A. Mounnerlyn, Edward Burr, H.G. Prout, R. William, H. Dodge, C.R. Suter, M. Mink, W.R. King, John Lyons, Alex Brown and Sons, John G. Butler, D. Condon, Bernard Carter, R.P. McCormick, D.R. Magruder, Andrew Banks, Isaac Solomon, C.J. Mayer, C.W. Kern, John Herring, James S. Mackie, D.R. Magunde, D. Rittaguide, R.S. Stevens, J.L. Raudolph (Baltimore and Ohio Railroad), J.M. Lane, W.D. Stuart, W.G.P. Palmer (Committee Church of the Ascension), C. Crozet, General W. Hughes, V.R. Maus, J.M. Hood (Western Maryland Railroad Company), Ernest Pontzen, M. Haus, William F. Craighill, Harry Hutton, John W. Pearce, Reverend James A. Harrald, William Watson, A.L. Rives, Thomas Monro, A.F. Croswan (Commander United States Navy), H.R. Garden, William McAlpine, James Forrest, Wm. Bloomsfield, Daniel Ammen, Linel Wells, A. and Otto Sibeth, Alfred Noble, Clemens Hershel, Sidney Warner, E.H. de Rheville, Theodore Cooper, William Findlay Shunk, Lewis S. Wolfe, Rufus Mead, Theodore F. Taylor, John Bogart, J. Whaler, B. Williamson, Colonel F.V. Greene, Robert H. Sayre (Lehigh Valley Railroad Company), Charles W. Pussey, Louis Q. Rissel, V.C. Bogue, H.C. Eckenberger, Melville E.G. Leston, Edwin Parson, Rudolph Hering, R.S. Hale, F.M. Turner, Thosl Martindale, Justus C. Strawbridge, William M. Ayresm, R.L. Austin, A.M. Miller, P. Livingston Dunn, T.J. Cleaver, C.S. Dutton, H.A. Carson, William Bainbridge Jaudon, H.A. Presset, Thomas H. McCann, Russel Sturgis, H.G. Prout, Alexis H. French, John K. Cowen, F.W. Williams, J. Waldorf, B.H. Byrant, B.H. Jones, M.H. Rogers, J.W. Ogden, General W. Cashing, William Longhudge, A.J. Cameron, T.L. Patterson, J.J. Hagerman, H. Wigglesworth, Charles B. Rowland, E. Bantz, W.G. Lathrop, Clarence King, George Rowland, George A. Tibbals (Continental Iron Works), George N. Vanderbilt, Eugene C. Lewis, F.P. Burt, Colonel John C. Clarke, Lieutenant Thomas Turtle, W.S.M. Scott, E. Bates Dorsey, Bernard Carter, George M. Shriver (Baltimore and Ohio Railroad), Russel Sturgis, Macmillan Publishing, James Abernethy, B. Baker, J.G.W. Fynje, A. Mallet, Jean Hersuy, L.F. Vernon Horcourt, Robert Lilley, A.J. Johnson, F.M. Colby, Henry D. Loney, A.S. Cameron, James A. Harrald, William Watson, John B. Lervis, A.L. Rives, Edwin F. Bidell, Frank H. Stockett, E. McMahon, C.F. Elgin, Enrique Budge, G. Clayton Gardiner, Dwight Porter, William A. Chapman, T.E. Sickels, Theodore Cooper, C.J. Warner, Institution of Civil Engineers, Robert Gordon, United States Coast of Geodetic Survey Office, C.P. Pattun, J.N. Putnam, Sidney B. Warner, H.D. Fisher, Union Pacific Railway Company, Lewis S. Wolle, George E. Waring Junior, The American Exhibition, G.F. Swain, American Society of Civil Engineers, N.H. Whitten, U.S. Engineer Office, Government Works Committee, J.J. Hagerman, D. Jackson, Sterling Iron and Railway Company, E.P. Alexander, E. Williamson, Central Railway Company of New Jersey, William A. Underwood, F. Collingwood, James Dun (Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company), Henry F. Kilburn, Louis A. Bissell, Virgil G. Boque, H.C. Eckenberger, Melville Egleston, Charles Parson, George Swain, Continental Iron Works, Rudolph Hering, J.B. Gordon, Mayor's Office (Baltimore), Harry Robinson, Pennsylvania Railway Company, W.H. Gahagan, L. Luiggi, B.H. Bryant, T.J. Cleaver (Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company), H.A. Carson, H.A. Presset (Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey), John K. Cowen, Vernon H. Brown, J. Waldorf, B.H. Bryant, L.F. Root, P.W. White, Metropolitan Railroad Company, Charles F. Mayer (Consolidated Coal Company, Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company), J.M. Lane (Western Maryland Railroad), Dr. R.S. Stewart (Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad), Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad (John Lyons, John G. Butler, D. Candon, R.P. McCormick, Andrew Banks), Thomas F. Rowland, J.A. Bensel, Walton Aims, S.D. Coykendall, H.C. Rogers, John F. Ward, T.B. Jewell, H.A. Pressey, C.S. Armstrong, J. Nennett, V.G. Bague.
Series 3, Personal Correspondence, 1850-1942, contains correspondence with immediate and extended family, specifically the heirs to the Benjamin H. Hutton and Joseph Hutton estates and Adele Gorman. Correspondence is primarily arranged chronologically, but some files have been divided based on subject or author (the Deer Park and Adele Gorman files), or by form (the Telegrams, and Cablegrams file). Special note is made of the posthumous correspondence file, which includes correspondence both relating to Hutton's death and correspondence that was written by family members after the years of his death. The series contains both hand written and typed letters. Some correspondence is in French. The correspondence demonstrates his relationship with his children specifically Elizabeth (Bessie) Hutton, and illuminates his role in his family. This series also provides details about nineteenth century upper class society and activities. Special note should be made that this folder does not contain all of the personal correspondence contained in the collection. Some correspondence has been separated according to recipient, or subject in order to make researching these recipients or subjects easier.
Series 3 correspondence topics include: estate payments, distribution of assets, funds transfers, estate lines, conflicts with tenants, sketches, lot maintenance, real estate sales, deeds, real estate sales negotiations, congratulations wishes on new babies, family illnesses, family affairs and travels, traveling directions, personal investments, invitations for social occasions, family debts, professional interests, professional and personal appointments, family issues, requests for money, sketches, advice to children (specifically Frank Hutton), life insurance, books, letters of introduction, legal issues, funeral expenses, charity donations, advertisements, minutes from professional organizations, army enlistment, deaths of friends and family, recipes, estimates of personal expenses, renovations, stock certificates (Great Northern Railway Company, New York), food, social activities, the weather, marriages, real estate and construction plans, and loan agreements.
Correspondents include the following: Frank Hutton, Thomas B. Brookes, J.L. Marcauley, C.M. Matthews, Edward J. Hancy, John M. Wilson, H.A. Carson, William H. Wiley (of John Wiley and Sons Scientific Publishers, New York), Georgina Hutton, Pierre and Jane Casson, George McNaughlin, Henrietta Hutton, Aaron Pennington Whitehead, J.B. Wheeler, B. Williamson, Robert De Forest, Elizabeth (Bessie) Hutton, Grace Beukard, J.C. Saunders, Mary Hutton, William J. Pennington, C.S. Hurd, Henry C. Cooper, Henry J. Segers, S.F. Miller, Annie Theller, Alfred Noble, Maria Burton, Joseph Hobson, E. Lennon, F. Hulberg, Charles Gordon Hutton, Edward C. Ebert, A. William Lewin, E.R. Dunn, William P. Craighill, Theodore Cooper, P.I. Chapelle, Anita McAlpine, Clarence King, Victoria Raymond, and Adele Gorman.
Series 4, Personal Materials, 1835-1946, contains documentation about Hutton's personal finances, role as executor of the Benjamin H. Hutton, Joseph Hutton, Annie Theller, and Countess H. De Moltke-Hvitfeldt estates, Mary Augusta Hutton (wife), Mary Hutton (daughter), Frank Hutton, John Caulfield (son-in-law), and B.F. and C.H. Hutton. The series has been divided into four subseries: Financial Records, 1876-1901, Estate and Real Estate Records, 1835-1921, Other Huttons, 1876-1936, and Personal Material, 1878-1946. Subseries 2, Estate and Real Estate Records, 1835-1921, contains correspondence relating to specific family estates and family members. This correspondence was separated from Series 3, Personal Correspondence, 1850-1942, to make it easier for researchers to access all records relating to the family estates. This series includes hand written, typed, and printed materials. Some materials are in French. All material dated after 1901 has been added to the collection by other creators such as Hutton's wife and children.
Subseries 1, Financial Records, 1876-1901, includes account books, account records, correspondence related to bank accounts, bank statements, financial notes, bills and proofs of payment, rent receipts, tax bills (New York, Flatbush, Montgomery County), checks, money exchanges, receipts for tax payments, real estate receipts, stock and bond certificates, loan agreements, executor accounts, rebate calculation sheet, and tax and insurance payments.
Subseries 2, Estate and Real Estate Records, 1835-1921, includes property maps and information (rent, mortgage costs, deeds), correspondence, notes on estate distribution, estate assets, value of estate and estate payments, account records, loan agreements, receipts, proof of payments, checks, financial records, legal documents, insurance documents, tax bills, auction receipts, and wills relating to the estates of Benjamin H. Hutton, Joseph Hutton, Countess H. de Moltke-Hivtfeldt, Annie Theller, and William R. Hutton. Also included are correspondence, property maps and information, and deeds and mortgages on Hutton properties.
Subseries 2, the estate and real estate records correspondence topics include: Virginia state building codes, construction costs, construction notices, purchasing offers for property, real estate prices, receipts of payments, property lines, real estate purchases and sales, real estate sales negotiations, deeds insurance estimates and costs, loan costs, property estimates, renovation costs, mortgages, property damages and repairs, property tax payments, insurance rates and payments, rent payments, telephone installation, building permits, rental agreements, reports on property condition, contracts of sale, conflicts with tenants, changes of address, deeds, distribution of estate monies, details about the Countess' illness, estate arrangements, changes of address, problems arising out of estate distribution, payment of debts, will details, selling of mortgage shares, accounts, estate settlement, money cables and transfers, dealings with lawyers, rent on Hutton Park property, legal and accounting fees, power of attorney transfer, investments, property security, land appraisals, lists of assets, legacy taxes, mortgages transfers, property management, Flatbush property, property rent and values, and physicians bills.
Correspondents include the following: A.C. Weeks, Walter I. Green, John D. Probsh, A.G. Darwin, Thomas H. McCann, Allan Farguhar, Thomas Dawson, Potter and Crandall Real Estate and Insurance Brokers, George C. Tilyou, H.D. Olephant, F. Winston, Richard E. Calbraith, Frank P. Martin, Henry DeForest, Henry C. Cooper, Metropolitan Telephone and Telegraph Company, John Ecker, C.K. Avevill, Georgina Hutton, Edward J. Hancy, Robert Graham, W.M. Bennett, Willis E. Merriman, Nathan L. Miller, Harry Hutton, Marquise de Portes (Adele Gorman), Annie Theller, Samuel L. Theller, Mrs. R. Locke, Frank Z. Adams, John Palmer (Secretary of State, New York), J.T. Cammeyer, Frank P. Martin, Florence Theller, Francis H. Seger, Henry C. Cooper, D.W.G. Cammeyer, Campbell W. Adams, Jane Casson, Elizabeth Hutton, Rene de Portes, H.G. Atkins, Grace Beukard, Aaron Pennington Muikhead, J.E. Delapalme, T.H. Powers, Egerton L. Winthrop Junior, George B. Glover, William Jay and Robert W. Candler, B. Williamson, J.E. Knaff, Cornelius C. Vermeule, S.V. Hayden, Charles G. Landon[?], H.A. Hurlbert, F.A. Black, John L. Calwalder, the Health Department of New York, A.G. Darwin, William Laue, Frederick Frelinghuysen, Charles S. Brown, Henrietta Hutton, Edward Gelon.
Subseries 3, Other Huttons, 1874-1936, includes professional drawings and proposals, checks, insurance information, correspondence, tax information, medical information, tax bills, relating to Mary Augusta Hutton (wife), Mary Hutton (daughter), Henry and Harry Hutton, Frank Hutton (son), John Caulfield (son-in-law), B.F. Hutton, and C.H. Hutton.
Subseries 4, Personal Materials, 1878-1946, contains handwritten property notes, school notes, sermons, travel documents, menus, Christmas cards, jewelry box, postal guide, typed religious materials and flyers.
Series 5, Diaries, 1866-1901, contains twenty nine diary books that document both Hutton's personal and professional life. These diaries provide not only a record of Hutton's life, but were also used by Hutton himself as a reference tool. When working on projects he would refer to notes and observations he made in his diary (as evidenced by notes made in his diaries). The first pages of the diaries often list his height, weight and clothing sizes as they varied from year to year. A researcher could probably use the cashbooks (see Series 7) and the diaries in conjunction as both detail the purchases made by Hutton. Many of the diaries also include a short record of accounts in the back. The diaries are arranged chronologically.
Topics found in the diaries include short form accounts of daily activities and appointments, records of the weather, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal project, construction progress on projects, steam pumps, sketches and calculations, extension of Washington railroads, cost of food, work supplies, travel costs, costs of goods and food, work deadlines, home renovations, visits to family, cash accounts, accounts of household duties, produce on Woodlands property, records of deaths, debts owed, account of clearing Woodlands property, church visits, Hancock and Tonoloway Aqueduct, canals, Drum Point Railroad, Montgomery C. Meigs, Washington Aqueduct, Annapolis Water Works, telegram costs, wages for Chesapeake and Ohio Canal project, William Craighill, Morris Canal, Annapolis Railroad and Canal, professional duties (inspections), Kanawha River Canal, travel schedules, professional expenses, cash received from Chesapeake and Ohio Canal project, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, John's Dam, cathedral construction (St. Patricks?), Piedmont Bridge, Cumberland, account of farm property belonging to Major Campbell Bruns, Cunard Pier, Marquise de Portes, rent costs, Baltimore Canal, Kingston Water Supply, Croton Orange Estate, Pierre Casson, Hudson River Tunnel, Washington/Harlem River Bridge, entertainment costs, Greenwood cemetery, train schedule, notes on illness, real estate sales, Hutton Park, Benjamin H. Hutton estate and heirs, estimates, accounts of correspondence received and sent, Central Railroad, rent on Orange properties, addresses, contracts and building supplies for projects, personal finances, Joseph Hutton property on Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, amounts paid and received, medical appointments, Ramapo Water Company, drawing progress of maps and diagrams, Harbor Board (New York), property repairs, inspection and test reports, reservoirs, lists of birthdays, Boston Tunnel, family financial issues, tax payments, and prayers.
Series 6, Notebooks, 1860-1900, document the engineering and architectural projects worked on by Hutton. The series has been divided into three subseries: Subseries 1, Engineering and Survey Field Notes, 1860-1899; Subseries 2, Notebooks, 1871-1886; and Subseries 3, Notes, 1863-1900. Subseries 1, Engineering and Survey Field Notes, 1860-1899, contains sixteen field notebooks used by Hutton. Subseries 2, Notebooks, 1871-1886, contains seven notebooks. Subseries three, Notes, 1863-1900, contains four documents.
Some notebooks correspond to specific projects such as the Kanawha River Canal (lockgate and Phoenix Waterline), Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Buffalo Reservoir, Potomac Lock and Dock Company, Northern Adirondack Railroad account, Washington Aqueduct, Little Rock Bridge, Wilson-Adam Dock, Croten Brick Works, Hutton Park, Centennial Iron Works, Cumberland Canal, Williamsport Aqueduct, Catoctin Aqueduct, Alexandria Canal, Miller's Saw Mill, Seneca Dam, Union Tunnel, Cumberland Waterworks, Victoria Bridge, Welland Canal, North Sea Canal, Ramapo Water Company, Annapolis Water Company, Antietam Aqueduct, Interoceanic Canal, San Quentin Canal, Suez Canal, Amsterdam Canal, Harlem Bulkhead, Morris Canal, Blue Lake Canal, and Nicaragua Canal.
These notebooks should be used in conjunction with the other materials in the collection related to professional projects, as they often provide more detailed accounts of the construction and land surveys. Some of the notebooks contain entries from several different sources. The notebooks were probably shared among the engineers working on these projects. The notebooks also contain looseleaf ephemera such as hand written calculations, newspaper clippings, and blueprints. Languages found in this series are English and French.
Notebook topics include construction projects, supply needs, costs for labor, sketches (Woodland Mills, landscapes, dams, railway cars, Noland Tunnel), costs of crops, survey measurements, cost of livestock, aqueducts, inspections, canal bridges, seed prices, dams, measurements, coffer dam, canal maintenance, worker salaries, calculations, towpath sketches and measurements, shipping rates, worker accidents, water and coal used, geometrical sketches (Washington Aqueduct), locks, damage reports, interactions with other engineers (William Reading), coal shipments on the canal, travel expenses, land survey notes, drafts for correspondence, William Craighill, Victoria docks, lists of personal supplies used, construction time estimates, surveying expenses, telegram costs, sand pump, canal from Sherling to Tuxedo Bay, analysis of several artificial lakes and reservoirs, distances of reservoirs to main pipes, calculations for the Austin Wheel, engine construction, bridges, gauging water depth, results and observations of tests and performance, problems with construction, to-do lists, cost of land surrounding towpaths, Fawcett's Lock, Tarman's Lock, comparison of costs in transporting coal by water and by rail, inspection notes, iron work, drainages, leaks, cost of supplies, watergates, harbor ferries, railroad station distances, flood protection, Panama Canal via the Nicaraguan route, cost of jetties, water levels, pressure of steam, boilers, steam and water cycle, water depth, cement, Great Falls, Virginia, waterflow, soundings, time of floats, flow of currents, rain fall measurements, tunnel measurements, cost of trenching San Francisco water supply, record of livestock, cost of food, rates of sawing woods and mills, preliminary railroad line measurements, profile of final line, and railroad line profiles.
Series 7, Cash Books, 1856-1899, contains seven cashbooks which list prices for personal items purchased by Hutton. Topics include groceries, church dues, clothes, hygiene products, cigars, some short journal entries about his work (Williamstown), concerts, dinners, family addresses, cakes, meals, cars, stamps, office supplies (pencils and papers), valentines, glasses, gloves, fabric, medicine, needles, diapers, tobacco, shoes (adult and childrens), travel expenses, telegrams, candles, newspapers, liquor, coal oil, jewelry, allowances given to family members, bank deposits, monies paid and received, taxes, subscriptions, tailoring costs, deposits and payments into estate trusts, and notes about payments to Benjamin H. Hutton heirs. The cashbooks also contain some personal loose leaf ephemera such as prayers, sketches, and engineering notes collected by Hutton.
Series 8, Professional Projects, 1830-1965, contains documents about engineering and architectural projects throughout Hutton's career, including information about the professional organizations and the legal issues in which he was involved. This series has been divided into eight subseries based on project, document form, and document subject. Some materials are in French and Italian.
Series 8, Professional Projects, also includes correspondence related to specific projects, primarily the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the Hudson River Tunnel, the Washington/Harlem River Bridge, and the Georgetown Incline.
Topics include construction and repair to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, engineering and use of Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, worker contracts, supply and labor purchases, design plans and proposals, construction and repair costs, supply notes and costs of supplies, water pressure and power, shipping materials and routes (specifically the shipping of coal), inspections and their findings, condition of canal dam and locks, water supply, drainage, sketches, board proceedings, business meetings, deeds, cost comparisons to other shipping methods, hiring processes, wages, cost estimates, Hutton's consulting fees, measurements and calculations, funding issues, worker conflicts, negotiations with municipal governments, payment schedules, bills for services, air pressure in Hudson River Tunnel, permission for construction, specifications, mortality rate among workers on the Hudson River Tunnel, construction reports, outlet incline, proposals for construction, letters of introduction, railroad versus water for trade, controversy with Tiersey, construction contracts, construction schedules, construction issues, construction progress, construction damage, basis for estimates, supply requests, internal politics, changes to construction plans, contract and price adjustments, issues with suppliers, construction delays, work permits, bills, worker issues, engineering notes, construction excavations, expenses, construction instructions, Union Bridge Company, lighting installations, construction processes, hiring practices, electrical conductors, water proofing, hydraulics, cement, concrete, payment of contributors, processes of approval for construction, meeting dates of the Harlem River Bridge Commission, and contract restrictions.
Correspondents include the following: W.W.M. Kaig, Henry Dodge, E. Mulvany, John Shay, James Clarke, H.D. Whitcomb, Horace Benton, J. Rellan, J.R. Maus, W.E. Merrill, A.P. Gorman, J.H. Staats, Vernon H. Brown, Charles H. Fisher (New York Central and Hudson River Railway Company), B. Baker, John Fowler, Benjamin and John Dos Passos, Charles B. Colby, Charles B. Brush, S. Pearson, Stanford White, Horace E. Golding, R.H. Smith, Daniel Lord, A. Fteley, Herbert Hinds, J.R. Bartlett, D.M. Hirsch, M.H. Bartholomew, Thomas O. Driscoll, W.E. Porter, Thomas F. Rowland, George Edward Harding, R.H. Dames, William Watson, James B. Eads, J.D. Bright, H. Aston, Charles Suley, A.M. Maynard, W.R. Henton, G. Geddes, H.P. Gilbut, Malcolm W. Niver (Secretary of the Harlem River Bridge Commission), J.D. Patterson, George Devin (Assistant Engineer Washington/ Harlem River Bridge), J.B. Wheeler, John Bogart, Charles Burns, J. McClellon, Rob Bassee, B. Williamson, Theodore Cooper, Lewis Cass Ledyard, R.M. Hunt, John Cooper, Henry Wilson, A.A. Caille, Myles Tierney, W. Pentzen, L.B. Cantfield, George Q. Grumstaid Junior, M.J. Funton, George Pierce, W.O. Fayerweather, Noah S. Belthen, Herbert Steward, W.M. Habirsham.
Subseries 1, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 1828-1965, consists of plans, blueprints, land profiles, drawings, boat rates, contract forms, order forms, descriptions of the canal, design information, engineering data, sketches, cost estimates, land titles, microfilm, business papers, supply bills, patent bills, news clippings, reports, specifications, stockholder's reports, receipts, water leases, printed materials, and correspondence.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal project was started in 1828 and completed twenty two years later in 1850. The canal's main objective was to connect Georgetown to the coal banks above Cumberland, Maryland, providing a short and cheap trade route between the eastern and western United States. It was also hoped that the canal would provide greater communication and travel between these two regions. Plagued by natural disasters, and construction setbacks, the canal was never completed in time to be useful and became obsolete shortly after its completion. Canal trade was eventually put out of business by the increase of railroads. Although it was an important development in engineering at its inception, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal is no longer in use and has become what locals affectionately refer to as "the old ditch." The canal was designated a National Historical Park in 1971 and consists of 184.5 miles of hiking and biking trails.
Subseries 2, Hudson River Tunnel, 1887-1901, consists of agreements for construction, certificates, contracts, and cost estimates, construction reports, engineering notebooks, engineering notes, sketches, land profiles, maps, progress profiles, plans, proposals, printed material, statements of expenses, and correspondence.
The Hudson River Tunnel project was started in 1874, and the final tubes were opened in 1910 after several construction setbacks. The tunnel connects Weehawken, New Jersey and Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, New York City. Today the Hudson River Tunnel, known as the North River Tunnels is used by Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and New Jersey Transit rail lines.
Subseries 3, Harlem River Bridge, 1878-1982, consists of blueprints, printed materials, photographs, engineer's estimates, schedules, costs, reports, proposals, contracts, specifications, and correspondence.
The Harlem River Bridge project was started in 1885 and was completed in 1889. It spans the Harlem River in New York City, New York and connects the Washington Heights section of Manhattan with the Bronx. It was later named and is still known as the Washington Bridge and has been adapted over time to carry highway traffic. These adaptations have allowed the bridge to remain in use today.
Subseries 4, Other Projects, 1858-1832, consists of drawings, maps, blueprints, plans, proposals, cost estimates, bills, correspondence, sketches, land profiles, dimensions, engineering notes, account records, photostats, supply lists, calculations, legal documents, surveys, inspection reports, financial data, and measurements on architectural and engineering projects. Highlights of this subseries include: Western Maryland Railroad, Washington Aqueduct, Panama Canal, Ramapo Water Company, Piedmont Bridge, Northern Adirondack Railroad, Columbia Railroad, Morris Canal, Pittsfield and Williamstown Railroad, Suez Canal, St. Gothard Canal, Tansa Dam, Colorado Midland Railroad Company, Memorial Bridge, Mersey Tunnel, Little Rock Bridge, Kingston Water Supply, Kanawha River Canal, Florida Ship Canal, East Jersey Water Company, Consolidated Coal Company, Dismal Swamp Canal, Boston and Baltimore Tunnels, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Annapolis Water Company, Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad Company, and the Baltimore Beltline.
Subseries 5, Unidentified Project Files, 1872-1900, consists of bills of sale, engineering forms and regulations, cement test results and methods, census bulletin, contracts, cost estimates, correspondence, notes on publications, engineering data and notes, drawings, surveys, sketches, payrolls, photographs, and reports.
Subseries 6, Specifications, 1870-1900, consists of documents related to some of Hutton's projects, including specifications for bridges, reservoirs, canals, viaducts, docks, buildings, water works, and tunnels. Some specifications are more general, and some are blank proposal/specification forms. There are also proposals for estimates and a "call" or advertisement to contractors to bid on certain projects. Many of the specifications deal with projects in New York State, but projects in Pennsylvania, the City of Baltimore, and Europe are represented. The materials are arranged alphabetically by project name. There is one folder of documentation for the Potomac River Bridge (Arlington Memorial Bridge) in Washington, D.C. The Arlington Memorial Bridge was part of the 1901 McMillan Commission's plan for restoring Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's original plan for the capital. Two decades passed before construction was initiated by the architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White. The documentation for the Memorial Bridge consists of calculations and monetary figures for materials such as granite.
Subseries 7, Legal Documents, 1886, contains documents related to a patent infringement suit for moveable dams involving Alfred Pasqueau vs. the United States. This file contains both a printed version of the case and a handwritten statement from Hutton.
Subseries 8, Professional Organizations, 1870-1902, contains documents related to professional organizations where Hutton held membership. Specific organizations represented are American Institute of Architects, American Society of Civil Engineers, Institution of Civil Engineers, Boston Society of Civil Engineers, Societe des Ingenieurs Civils de France, Librarie Polytechnique, American Agency of "Engineering" in London, Imperial Institute, League of Associated Engineers, Railroad Corporation, American Institute of Mining Engineers, and the Century Association. Material in the subseries includes correspondence, candidates for membership, membership payments, membership lists, meeting minutes, schedule of terms, professional practices, charges, articles of association, invitations for membership, and election notes. Some materials are in French.
Series 9, Printed Materials, 1850-1913, contains a variety of printed materials relating to engineering and architectural projects written by Hutton and fellow engineers. This series can be used to examine not only professional developments of the period and responses to those developments, but also to track how ideas were transferred between engineers across countries and continents. This series should be used in conjunction with the professional correspondence found in this collection, as many of the authors also appear there. Some materials are in French, German, Spanish, and Italian.
Subseries 1, Printed Materials by Hutton, 1852-1900, includes printed papers on the Missouri flood wave, the Ravine du Sud, the Potomac waterfront, the Colorado midlands, and the application of water supply machinery.
Subseries 2, Printed Materials by Others, 1826-1913, includes printed materials on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canals, Tehuantec Ship Railway, Interoceanic canals and railways, jetties, Nicaragua Canal, uses of cements, mortars, concretes, steam power, harbors, Niagara Falls, Kanawha River canal, Mississippi River, Hudson River Bridge, sewage disposal, Washington Aqueduct, specifications, construction progress reports, hydraulic experiments, water supply, drainage, road surfacing, sea walls, water-cooling apparatus, pollution reports, bridges, pipes, channels, reservoirs, irrigation, water power, and sewers.
Subseries 2 contains an issue of The North American Review in which Hutton has specifically highlighted an article entitled, "The Inter-Oceanic Canal." Please see the container list for names of authors.
Subseries 3, Printed Materials with No Author, 1852-1903, includes printed materials on harbor reports, Annapolis Water Company, Ramapo Water Company, water departments and boards, maps, engineer's reports, sea walls, preservation of structures, annual reports, Coal and Iron Railway Company, sewers, Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad, contract specifications, proposals, social club life, Croton Water Supply, law suits, water supplies, moveable dams, reservoirs, East River Bridge, Eastern Canal, water filtration, Kingston New Water Supply, water pipes, locks, docks, contracts, construction reports, Croton Water Supply, and surveys. Also included are issues of journals such as Le Correspondant, Circular of the Office of Chief Engineers, The Club, VIII Congres International de Navigation, Journal of the Association of Engineering Studies, and Journal of the Franklin Institute.
Subseries 4, Newspaper, Journals and Magazine Clippings, 1873-1900, contains clippings from a variety of newspapers such as Scientific American, andRailroad Gazette. Subjects included are the Union Tunnel opening in Baltimore, Drum Point Railroad, railroad company conflicts, Washington/Harlem River Bridge, Metropolitan Railroad, Western Maryland Railroad, crop prospects, lumber trade, North Avenue Bridge, Nicaraguan Canal, harbors, river improvements, reactions to engineering projects, Belt tunnel, city transit, Washington, D.C. flood in 1880, tunnel shields, Springfield Bridge, railroad patents, Panama Canal, jetties, Hudson Tunnel, steel boilers, composition and use of cement, and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Subseries 5, Oversized Printed Materials, 1889-1892, contains large printed materials related to the Washington Aqueduct, General Post Office Building, subway arches, cornices, Warwick's Castle, Neuschwanstein Castle, Renaissance paintings, botanical drawings, school buildings, church architecture, the Hospital for the Insane of the Army and Navy and the District of Columbia, the Panama Canal, Morningside Park, and the Mississippi Jetties. Also includes engravings of Hutton, T.N. Talfound, and F. Jeffrey and photographs of Montgomery C. Meigs, and Hutton. Some materials are in German and French.
References:
1. Ward, George Washington, "The Early Development of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Project," Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science Series XVII, no. 9-11 (1899): 8.
2. Ibid., 88.
3. Ibid., 55.
4. Ibid., 90.
5. Sanderlin, Walter S., "The Great National Project: A History of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal," Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science Series LXIV, no. 1 (1946): 21.
6. Ibid., 282.
7. Gies, Joseph, Adventure Underground (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company Inc., 1962): 134.
8. Ibid., 131-132.
9. Ibid., 135-136.
10. Ibid., 145.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into ten series.
Series 1: Letterpress Copybooks, 1858-1901
Series 2: Professional Correspondence, 1861-1901
Subseries 2.1: Project Correspondence, 1876-1899
Subseries 2.2: General Correspondence, 1861-1901
Series 3: Personal Correspondence, 1850-1942
Series 4: Personal Materials, 1835-1946
Subseries 4.1: Financial Records, 1876-1901
Subseries 4.2: Estate and Real Estate Records, 1835-1921
Subseries 4.3: Other Huttons, 1874-1936
Subseries 4.4: Personal Materials, 1878-1946
Series 5: Diaries, 1866-1901
Series 6: Notebooks, 1860-1900
Subseries 6.1: Engineering and Survey Field Notes, 1860-1899
Subseries 6.2: Notebooks, 1871-1886
Subseries 6.3: Notes, 1863-1900
Series 7: Cashbooks, 1856-1899
Series 8: Professional Projects, 1830-1965
Subseries 8.1: Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 1828-1965
Not much is known about the history of William Rich Hutton outside of his role in architectural and engineering projects of the late 1800s and early 1900s. In many cases, he is spoken of only in reference to his projects, and the short biographies that have been written read more like a resume than a life story. Because of this lack of information, this note will focus on Hutton's professional accomplishments, but will attempt to make some comments on his personal life.
William Rich Hutton was born on March 21, 1826 in Washington, D.C., the eldest son of James Hutton (died 1843) and his wife, the former Salome Rich (1). He was educated at the Western Academy (Washington, D.C.) from 1837-1840 under George J. Abbot and then at Benjamin Hallowell's School in Alexandria, Virginia, where he received special training in mathematics, drawing, and surveying (2). Hutton began his professional career in California when he, along with his younger brother James, accompanied their uncle William Rich to work for the United States Army. His uncle was a paymaster for the army and Hutton became his clerk. They traveled around the new state paying the various platoons stationed there, but Hutton also occupied his time by drawing the landscapes and structures he saw in the settlements of Los Angeles, San Francisco, La Paz, Mazatlan, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Pedro, San Diego, and Cape San Lucas (3). These drawings are now held by the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Hutton held the position of clerk until the spring of 1849, and in July of that year he began working with Lieutenant Edward O.C. Ord and completed the first survey of Los Angeles and its surrounding pueblo lands and islands. Hutton continued surveying in California from 1850-1851. He was hired by William G. Dana to survey the Nipomo Ranch in San Luis Obispo County and also surveyed the ranches Santa Manuela and Huer-Huero, both owned by Francis Z. Branch. After his employment with Dana, he became the county surveyor for San Luis Obispo County, where he prepared the first survey and map of the region. He also continued to survey ranches for Captain John Wilson during this time. In August 1851, he resigned from his position as county surveyor and moved to Monterey where he worked as an assistant to Captain (later General) Henry W. Hallack, superintendent of the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine in Santa Clara County (4). He remained in this position until March, 1853 when he returned to Washington, D.C. by way of Mexico (5).
Hutton began his career as a civil engineer in Washington, D.C. He was first assigned to the position of assistant engineer on a survey of the projected Metropolitan Railroad in 1853, which was chartered to connect Washington, D.C. with the mainline of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In 1855 he began his professional relationship with Montgomery C. Meigs when he was appointed to the position of assistant engineer on the Washington Aqueduct. He also served as division engineer on this project until construction was shut down in 1861 because of the outbreak of the Civil War. Fortunately for Hutton, the construction on the Aqueduct was resumed in 1862, and when Congress transferred the supervision of the aqueduct project from the War Department to the Department of the Interior, Hutton was made chief engineer. By the end of the Civil War, Hutton's reputation as a civil engineer was established (6).
During this decade Hutton also served as the chief engineer for the Annapolis Water Works (1866) and as chief engineer for one of his most famous projects, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (1869-1871). Although some historians minimize Hutton as just one of many engineers to work on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, he did make one major contribution to its construction: the Georgetown Canal Incline. Perhaps the final effort of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal company to compete with the emerging and fast expanding railroad, the Georgetown Incline was designed to allow canal boats to travel through the canal with low water levels and to alleviate canal congestion. Unfortunately, by the time the incline was completed use of the canal had decreased so significantly that it was no longer needed to help control traffic (7). Despite this, Hutton continued to work as a consulting engineer for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company until 1881, when he was let go because of the dwindling fortunes of the company (7).
In the 1870s and 1880s Hutton was busy with several engineering projects. During 1871-1873, he was the chief engineer in the completion of the Western Maryland Railroad to Hagerstown and Williamsport (9). He also practiced as an architect with his brother, the prominent Baltimore architect Nathanial Henry Hutton, during the years 1873-1880. He relocated to New York in 1880, serving as chief engineer for the Washington Bridge in 1888 and 1889 and the Hudson River Tunnel from 1889 to 1891. In 1886, he became the consulting engineer for the New Croton Aqueduct and served in the same position for the Colorado Midland Railway between the years of 1886-1889 (10).
As his personal and professional correspondence shows, Hutton continued to work on various engineering and architectural projects until his death on December 11, 1901. In addition to these projects, he also invented the innovative system of locks and moveable dams used in the Kanawha River Canal. He was awarded the Diplome d'Honneur for this featat the Paris Exposition in 1878 (11). His correspondence also demonstrates how Hutton was respected within his professional community. These letters refer to the accuracy of his work, his willingness to help other colleagues and supply them with reference materials and information, and, in addition to all this, his politeness. It seems that these qualities defined not only his personality but also his ideology. In one of the cashbooks in the collection, dated 1899, a hand written note contains a religious parable of "The Straw." The phrase in this parable that speaks most to Hutton's work ethic, and to the spirit of inventors everywhere, is this: "Even so however lowly may be the act, however little opportunities we may have of assisting others, we may still do something. Let us beg to fulfil our duty in this regards by making ourselves useful to others by some little act of thoughtful charity..." (12). Hutton, in his dedication to civil engineering, seems to have lived up to this virtue, and in his work he changed the landscape of Washington, D.C. and New York.
The Fairy Godfather: Hutton's Personal History
His professional records reveal a man who was fiercely dedicated to his work. His obituary references his professional life more than his personal life (13). Despite his reputation in the professional engineering community, his personal records demonstrate that Hutton was also dedicated to his family and children. In 1855, he married Montgomery County native Mary Augusta Clopper (died 1915). Together they lived on her family's estate known as the Woodlands, and had five children: Frank C. Hutton, Mary Hutton, Elizabeth Hutton (later Caulfield), Rosa Hutton, and Annie Salome Hutton (14). It is at this estate that Hutton died and was buried. The personal letters to his wife found in the Woodlands Collection held at the Montgomery County Historical Society show a man in love and willing to take time from his work to write to his wife. His letters to his children show a similar interest and compassion. In the many letters found in this collection from his daughter Elizabeth (Bessie) one can see a father who is interested in not only his daughter's activities abroad, but also in her opinion. This interest also extends to his son Frank Hutton, as their correspondence shows Hutton offering his son advice on his own engineering projects.
Hutton also served as executor to many of his extended family's estates. Many letters show the conflicts that Hutton had to mediate and the dependence of his cousins on him for advice and money. Although his family was wealthy (his cousin was Benjamin H. Hutton whose daughters married into the court of Napoleon III), they were volatile, and his records seem to indicate that he served as a mediator for many of their disputes. In addition to this, as his nickname of Fairy Godfather suggests, Hutton was always willing to lend his family either financial or moral support when needed. Unfortunately, little other documentation concerning Hutton's personal life exists outside of this collection and the one held at the Montgomery County Historical Society.
References:
1. Waters, Willard O., "Introduction," California 1847-1852 (San Marino: The Huntington Library, 1942).
2. Waters, Willard O., "Memoir," Glances at California 1847-1853 (San Marino: The Huntington Library, 1942): ix.
3. Waters, Willard O., "Introduction," California 1847-1852 (San Marino: The Huntington Library, 1942). and Waters, Willard O., "Memoir," Glances at California 1847-1853 (San Marino: The Huntington Library, 1942): x-xi.
4. Waters, Willard O., "Introduction," California 1847-1852 (San Marino: The Huntington Library, 1942).
5. Waters, Willard O., "Memoir," Glances at California 1847-1853 (San Marino: The Huntington Library, 1942): xvii.
6. Waters, Willard O., "Memoir," Glances at California 1847-1853 (San Marino: The Huntington Library, 1942): xvii-xviii.
7. Skramstad, Harold, "The Georgetown Canal Incline," Technology and Culture, Vol. 10, no. 4 (Oct. 1969): 555.
8. Business Correspondence, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 22 February 1881, William R. Hutton Papers, 1830-1965, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, box number 27, folder number 29.
9. "William Rich Hutton," The Club: A Journal of Club Life for Men and Women,(July 1894):37
12. Cashbook, 1899, William R. Hutton Papers, 1830-1965, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, box number 23, folder number 5.
13. The Woodlands Collection, Montgomery County Historical Society.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
The Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, 1870-1890, (AC0987). Contains materials relating to the construction of the Washington Aqueduct including a book of drawings illustrating reservoirs, tunnels, culverts, and other structural elements, a Government Senate Document relating to construction progress, scrapbooks created by Meigs that include newspaper clippings about the Washington Aqueduct project, water supply, engineering projects, building construction, architecture and other subjects. Collection is currently unprocessed, but is available for research.
Materials in Other Organizations:
The William Rich Hutton Papers, 1840-1961, are located at the Huntington Library in California (see http://catalog.huntington.org).
The collection contains 95 drawings, 13 letters, and 39 facsimile copies of letters and manuscripts. The illustrative material includes both watercolor and pencil drawings of California (including Los Angeles, Monterey, San Francisco, the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine, and the California missions), Baja California, Mexico, and Peru. There are also five pieces in the collection related to the author MarÃa Amparo Ruiz de Burton. In 1942, the Huntington Library published Glances at California 1847--853: Diaries and Letters of William Rich Hutton, Surveyor and California 1847--852: Drawings by William Rich Hutton.
The Hutton family papers are located at the Montgomery County Historical Society, Sween Library (see http://www.montgomeryhistory.org/sites/default/files/Family_Files.pdf).
The collection contains account books from the Woodlands estate, recipe books, livestock records, records of Mary Augusta Hutton (wife), Mary and Rose Hutton (daughters), newspaper clippings (including his obituary), correspondence, record books, deeds, bills and receipts, engineering papers, religious momentos (funeral service cards), and insurance papers.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Mr. and Mrs. James J. Madine, a relative of Hutton's and last owners of the Woodlands estate; the Department of Forests and Parks, Maryland; Louis Fischer; and Mr. and Mrs. Mayo S. Stuntz, 1965-1966, 1974.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
The papers of art historian and World War II Monuments Man Walter W. Horn measure 2.7 linear feet and date from 1908 to 1992, with the bulk of material dating from 1943 to 1950. Walter Horn taught art history at the University of California, Berkeley from 1938 to his retirement in 1974. During World War II, Horn served as Head of the U. S. Army Intelligence Unit of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section (MFAA.) The papers contain biographical materials; professional correspondence; records documenting his service in the MFAA; administrative files relating to his work at the University of California, Berkeley; and scattered photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian and World War II Monuments Man Walter W. Horn measure 2.7 linear feet and date from 1908 to 1992, with the bulk of material dating from 1943 to 1950. Walter Horn taught art history at the University of California, Berkeley from 1938 to his retirement in 1974. During World War II, Horn served as Head of the U. S. Army Intelligence Unit of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section (MFAA.) The papers contain biographical materials; professional correspondence; records documenting his service in the MFAA; administrative files relating to his work at the University of California, Berkeley; and scattered photographs.
Biographical materials include certificates, transcripts, registration books, and diplomas, immigration papers and supporting documentation, birth certificate, passports, and Horn's application for U.S. citizenship. Also found here are papers relating to Horn's academic work, such as bibliographies, curriculum vitae and a few other miscellaneous materials.
The bulk of the papers consist of professional correspondence between Horn and his colleagues. Many of the letters relate to Horn's scholarly publications and projects, especially his seminal work The Plan of St. Gall: A Plan of the Architecture and Economy of, and Life in a Paradigmatic Carolingian Monastery (1979). Prominent correspondents include Meyer Schapiro, Wilhelm Koehler, Fred Charles, Christopher Eggenbacher, Johannes Duft, Hunter Dupree, Peter Harbison, H.R. Sennhauser, and John T. Smith.
Papers and records documenting Horn's World War II service in the the U. S. Army Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives Section have been arranged in one series. There are scattered letters, including ones from Erwin Panofsky, Charles J. Kunzelman, and Helmuth and Edeltraut von Hummel. There are also letters of inquiry about the recovery of the crown jewels of The Holy Roman Empire. Also found in this series are official Army documents, including a directory and inventory of recovered gold coins; receipts for transporting recovered artwork; art looting investigation, interrogation, and arrest reports; and reports on Horn's investigation and recovery of the crown jewels and the gold coin investigation. There is scattered printed material and photographs of the recovered gold coins and of Helmuth and Edeltraut von Hummel.
Horn's papers also contain a few administrative files from his tenure at the University of California, Berkeley, and one folder of color photographs of Horn's papers being prepared for shipment to the Archives of American Art.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 5 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1908-1989 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1, 4)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1937, 1949-1992 (1.2 linear feet; Box 1-2, 4, OV 5)
Series 3: U.S. Army Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives Section Files, circa 1938-1989 (0.6 linear feet; Box 2-4, OV 5-6)
Series 4: University of California, Berkeley Administrative Files, 1938-1976 (0.1 linear feet; Box 3)
Series 5: Photographs, 1989 (1 folder; Box 3)
Biographical / Historical:
Walter William Horn (1908-1995) was a professor of art history at the University of California, Berkeley. During World War II, he served in the Army Intelligence Unit of the Monument, Fine Arts and Archives Section (MFAA.)
Walter Horn was born in Waldangelloch, Germany and graduated from the Gymnasium in Heidelberg in 1926. He studied at the Universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Hamburg. In 1934 he received his Ph.D. in art history from the University of Hamburg, studying under Erwin Panofsky. His dissertation on the facade of the Church of St. Gilles was published in 1937. Horn fled Nazism in Germany and immigrated to the United States.
In 1938 Horn accepted a position at the University of California at Berkeley as a lecturer in art history, becoming the first state sponsored teacher of art history within California. He quickly became a professor and co-founded the university's Department of Art History.
Horn married twice. His first wife was Ann Binkley Rand. His second marriage was to Alberta West Parker, a physician. They had three children, Michael Peters, Peter Matthew, and Rebecca Ann.
In 1943, Horn became a naturalized American citizen and was soon inducted into the U.S. Army. He was assigned to the Detailed Interrogation Center, and by 1945 was serving as a lieutenant in the Third Army Intelligence Center. His German language skills were put to use interrogating prisoners of war and personnel of the Gestapo and S.S. Horn later continued his interrogation work in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). After the war, Horn was assigned to the Army Intelligence Unit of the Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives Section (MFAA) and became one of the Monuments Men responsible for tracking and recovering art works and other cultural heritage objects that had been systematically looted and hidden by the Nazis.
Horn led the team of Monuments Men who recovered the stolen Crown Jewels or Imperial Regalia of the Holy Roman Empire. The Crown Jewels, including a crown and sceptre, were discovered walled up in a passage in Nuremburg. Horn also recovered a collection of gold coins valued at $2,000,000 in 1946. He tracked the coins primarily through interrogations of Edeltraut von Hummel. Edeltraut's husband Helmuth von Hummel served as the chief secretary to Martin Bormann, leader of the Nazi Party Chancellery.
After the war, Horn resumed teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as Chairman of the Department of Art History until his retirement in 1974. He also helped establish the University Art Museum. In 1949, the school implemented a requirement that all employees must sign a loyalty oath to affirm their allegiance to the state constitution and disavow any intent to overthrow the government. There was substantial outcry among the university faculty and several professors who refused to sign were fired. Horn signed the loyalty oath under protest in 1950. He wrote a letter to the press explaining his decision and expressing his concerns.
In 1979, a decades long collaboration with distinguished architect Ernest Born resulted in The Plan of St. Gall, a three volume work on medieval architecture. The book was praised as a monumental undertaking by the scholarly community upon its publication.
Walter Horn died of pneumonia in 1995.
Related Materials:
Walter Horn papers, 1917-1989, are located at The Getty Research Institution Special Collections.
Provenance:
Walter Horn donated his papers to the Archives of American Art in 1989. Additional papers were donated by his wife Dr. Alberta Parker Horn in 1998 and 2002.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Art historians -- California -- Berkeley Search this
Topic:
World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war Search this
Art thefts -- Germany -- History -- 20th century Search this
United States of America -- Maryland -- Carroll County -- Westminster
United States of America -- Maryland -- Carroll County -- Marston
United States of America -- Maryland -- Carroll County -- New Windsor
Date:
1838-2023, undated
bulk 1872-1985
Summary:
Papers documenting the farming and family life of the Robinson family of Prince George's County and after 1975, Charles County, Maryland. Papers documenting the farming and family of the Via family of Greene County, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Prince George's by 1949, and Calvert Counties by 1956, Maryland.
Scope and Contents:
An extensive and comprehensive collection of papers relating to family, farming, and the Southern Maryland tobacco culture, the Robinson and Via Family Papers cover many aspects of family and farm life. The papers are particularly important in regard to the tobacco culture that defined Southern Maryland for generations. The papers concern two distinct family groups, the Robinson and Via families who are connected through the marriage of Franklin A. Robinson and Adina Mae Via. The papers consist of material generated by the Robinson and Via families in their personal and working lives and as farm owners and operators.
The papers are especially strong in 20th century material. They consist of various types of farm records: account books, bills, receipts, tenant farming agreements, ephemera, land rental and purchase agreements, insurance policies, photographs and 8mm and 16mm films of farming practices and procedures, equipment and landscapes, related to the farming of tobacco, small grains, and livestock. The personal records include diaries, letters both personal and business, greeting cards, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, high school yearbooks, baby books, house plans, recipe books, photographs and 8mm films of birthdays, holidays, weddings, baptisms, family occasions, and family travel, oral histories, and funeral ephemera including photographs, and transcription discs. Of particular interest are the "Serenity Farm Tobacco Production Photographs" documenting the crop year 1999-2000 and the films detailing agricultural practices. There is a memorandum book for Black Walnut Thicket, 1885-1901, the Baden farm in Baden, Prince George's County.
This collection includes a comprehensive range of 8mm and 16mm films and photographs documenting farming practices and landscapes as well as family gatherings, birthdays, holidays, and vacations. The researcher is alerted to the fact that in some cases with the memorandum and account books, books printed for a given year were often saved and used for subsequent years, some were dated, some were not.
The collection is divided into seven series arranged by subject and most often chronologically at folder level within each series.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into seven series:
Series 1: Ferndale Farm (Potomac Landing), Prince George's County, Maryland, 1861-1973, undated
Subseries 1.1: Farm papers, bill, and receipts, and publications, 1861-1973, undated
Subseries 1.2: Farm papers, bill, and receipts, 1945-1960, undated
Subseries 1.3: Farm papers, bills, and receipts, 1960-1965, undated
Series 2: Robinson Family, 1845-2017, undated
Subseries 2.1: Family Papers and Publications, 1845-1993, undated
The Robinson family is thought to be of Scottish origin and appear in the records of Prince George's County, Maryland by the early 18th century. The line has been definitively traced to James Robinson (?-1849). James' father was probably Benjamin Robinson (?-1810), of Prince George's County, Maryland. (Will Book TT1, pg. 15, Records of Prince George's County, Maryland, Maryland State Archives (MSA))
James Robinson and Sarah Wynn were issued a marriage license on February 28, 1802 in Prince George's County, Maryland. (Marriage Records of Prince George's County, Maryland) Eleven children lived to maturity (not listed in birth order); Thomas Wells (1803-1869), Ann, Priscilla, James Monroe, Benjamin (1813-1882), John C. (1819-1895), Mary Sophia, Thomas Stanley (1800-1874), Alfred, Sarah Ann, Matilda, and Rebecca Maria.
James worked as a farm manager for Benjamin Oden near Upper Marlborough, Prince George's County. (Oden Papers, Maryland Historical Society) The Robinsons and their children, moved to Wood County, Virginia (now West Virginia) by April 18, 1818 where James acted as Oden's land agent (Deed Book 6, pg. 123, Land Records of Wood County, West Virginia). They brought with them three enslaved described in the above reference as, "Kate a woman 45 years of age very black; Colonel a boy aged 8 years yellow complexion: and George a boy aged six years of a dark brown complexion." They settled on part of what was known as the "Burnt Mill" tract in the general area where the Hughes River meets the Little Kanawha River. (Deed Book 9, pg. 110 and Deed Book 14, pg. 40, Land Records of Wood County)
Thomas Wells Robinson may not have accompanied his family to Virginia as he has a presence in Prince George's County prior to 1822 and was employed as a farm manager for Benjamin Oden at least until 1832. He married Elizabeth J. Richards on December 15, 1829 (Robinson Family Bible). They had nine children; Richard Thomas (1831 1906), Rebecca Maria (1832-1895), Mary Wynn (1834-1916), James George (1835-1883), Virlinda Victoria (1837-1838), Elizabeth Ann (1839-1916), Sarah Ann Sophia (1840-1874), Franklin Alexander (1841-1905) and John Alfred (1843); seven lived to maturity. (Robinson Family Bible) Elizabeth died on August 17, 1843 from complications in childbirth. She was buried in the graveyard of Page's Chapel (later known as St. Thomas Episcopal Church), Croom, Prince George's County.
In 1843, Thomas purchased the plantation of Dr. Benjamin B. Hodges for $10,000 or approximately $15 an acre. Hodges was a brother-in-law of Benjamin Oden. The deed dated September 7, 1843 describes the parcel as containing, "Six hundred and twenty nine acres of land more or less and constitute that plantation or Estate of the said Benjamin Oden heretofore commonly called "Brown's Quarter Place" being the Land tracts and parcels of land sold by the said Benjamin Oden to the said Benjamin B. Hodges and by deed bearing date the tenth day of December eighteen hundred and thirty five and recorded in Liber AB no. 10 folio 162 also one of the land Records of the County aforesaid". (JBB no. 3 pgs. 312 314, Land Records of Prince George's County) The land was level to rolling bordered on the north by a tributary of Piscataway Creek and generally termed "white oak land". Underlying the whole property was a large strata of gravel and sand. The entire parcel went by the name, Potomac Landing.
Thomas supplemented his land holdings with later purchases. With the exception of twenty acres purchased from Sarah Talbert in 1844, (JBB no. 3 pg. 475, Land Records of Prince George's County) and the purchase of lot #3 consisting of 195 acres, part of the estate of John Townshend in 1856, these purchases were not contiguous to Potomac Landing. By the time of his death in 1869 these non-contiguous parcels had been sold. Thomas sold eighty-six acres of Potomac Landing and Jeffries to Edward Eversfield in October of 1843. (JBB no. 3, pg. 198, Land Records of Prince George's County) On January 13, 1846 Thomas married the widow Martha Ann Walls, daughter of George and Martha Naylor Walls. They had two sons; Benjamin Wells (1848-1849) and Robert Henry (1851-1937).
In addition to his sons, Thomas owned enslaved. The number varied from six in 1849 (JBB 6, folio 186, Land Records of Prince Georges' County) to eleven as noted in the census for 1850, and finally six as noted in the census of 1860. The 1867 Maryland Slave Statistics noted that, "at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of Maryland, in the year 1864, . . ." Thomas owned six enslaved, their names and ages being; Isaac Franklin age 31, Alfred West age 19, Susan West age 17, Margaret Franklin age 14, Fannie Franklin age 12, and Peter Franklin age 9. All were noted as being in good physical condition. (Prince Georges' County Slave Statistics 1867 1869, C 1307 1, MdHR:6198, page 185, MSA)
Thomas's financial problems began in the mid-1800s when Deeds of Trust appear in the county records securing outstanding loans. In 1856 and 1857 Thomas joined with others as bondsman for his son, Richard who was serving as "Collector of the State and County Taxes" for the 4th collection district, making he and the other signatories liable for any uncollected taxes. This, coupled with poor investments, led to his almost being "sold out" in 1859-1860 by J.W. & E. Reynolds of Baltimore to pay his debts. He executed three drafts on Penn & Mitchell, also of Baltimore, to pay off J.W. & E. Reynolds. (Equity Case #597, Prince Georges' County) Thomas was in poor health and his son James managed the farm in 1857 and 1858, and again from 1861 to October of 1862 (Equity Case #873, Prince Georges' County)
In October of 1862 Thomas' two sons, James and Franklin, traveled to Richmond to join the Confederate States Army. James enrolled in the 5th Battalion, Local Defense Arsenal and Franklin enrolled in the 5th Virginia Infantry, the Stonewall Brigade. (CSA Military Records, National Archives) James visited home frequently but was captured by the Union Army in St. Mary's County, Maryland on May 15, 1864 and spent the remainder of the war in Point Lookout Prison Camp. He was released on May 14, 1865. Franklin was not able to visit home at all during the war but survived to return home in 1865.
In 1865, Thomas surveyed a parcel of 172 acres for his daughter Rebecca Maria. Rebecca had married her second cousin, William B. Robertson, on November 18, 1855. He made a gift of fifty acres, and Rebecca agreed to purchase the remainder. The Robertsons named this parcel Holly Grove. In Equity Case #849 (1872) filed after Thomas' death, his widow Martha and Samuel H. Berry, as executrix and executor, sought to recover payment for this land. At that time, William B. Robertson described this 172 acres of Potomac Landing: "There was no fences on the line which separated this land from the old gentleman's land, but he was to put a fence on it which he agreed to do before we agreed to come there. The land was thin, unimproved, with gullies and scrubby pine. If witness had been a judge of land he would not have given five dollars for it. All the improvements were one comfortable quarter the other indifferent with a poor oak shingle roof, worn out which made it not tenantable." Further along in his testimony, William gave an account of a conversation, "In a few days my father in law Thos. W. Robinson came to Washington and told me there his children had returned from the South, his two sons, that his debts were small and he was a happy man." Rebecca and William built a house on the property, a side-hall, double parlor plan that most likely her brother James was builder. They also built accompanying farm structures. (Records of Prince George's County, Maryland, Equity Case #849, MSA)
Thomas' son, Franklin, managed the farm after the War. In December 1868 Thomas entered into a sharecropping agreement with Edward Hanson, an African-American. After about a year-long illness, on May 16, 1869, Thomas died, deeply in debt. He was buried beside Elizabeth in the graveyard at St. Thomas' Church. He named as executrix his wife, Martha, and his friend and lawyer, Samuel H. Berry, as executor. His will divided the farm into thirds, one third going to his wife and their son Robert Henry, one third to his son James, and one third to his son Franklin. The land was surveyed according to the will. His personal property was sold but not enough profit was realized to pay off his creditors. The Commissioners of Prince George's County sued the estate on behalf of Thomas' creditors. The outcome was that in 1876 the property was sold at public auction. The Notice of Sale dated September 1, 1876 in the local county newspaper, The Prince Georgian, describes the farm as, "containing 514 2/3 acres More or less. The Improvements consist of a SMALL DWELLING, Three Barns, Stabling, and other necessary outbuildings. It is well wooded and watered, and the soil of fair quality. It has recently been divided into three lots and will be offered in lots, a description of which will be given at the time of sale." The sale was held on September 27, 1876, Lot No. 1 was purchased by Robert for $6.00 an acre, Lot #2 was purchased by Franklin for $5.00 an acre and Lot #3 was purchased by James for $4.00 per acre. Robert and Franklin eventually paid off their mortgage, but James defaulted on his purchase and later moved to St. Mary's County, Maryland. His portion later came to be owned by the Hawkins family, some members who had worked on the Robinson farm. (Equity Case #873, Prince Georges' County, MSA)
Lot #1, purchased by Robert from his fathers' estate, consisted of 177-1/3 acres, including the dwelling and farm buildings. On July 24, 1872, he married Amanda Malvina Baden (1849-1940), daughter of Robert W. G. and Margaret Caroline Early Baden. The Baden and Early families were both prominent south county families. Robert and Amanda had eight children; Caroline Early (1873 1967), Lucy Tennent (1875 1958), Albert Henry (1878 1914), Martha Perry (1880 1961), Robert Gover (1882 1882), Frank Alexander (1883 1970), Margaret Baden (1886 1956) and Grace Malvina (1889 1965).
By 1880 Robert had paid off his debt on the property and was fully engaged in farming. Unlike his father, or perhaps because of his father, Robert did not add to his land holdings, choosing to remain relatively debt free for his lifetime. The only land transactions he participated in were the sales of 79-3/4 acres in 1921 of Amanda's inheritance from her father and her interest in two smaller parcels of her father's land sold in 1894 and 1928 respectively. In 1928 he transferred 3.09 acres to his son Frank.
As late as the Federal census of 1880, Franklin was living with Robert and his household, both men engaged in farming. Sometime after 1880, Franklin took up residence on his part of Potomac Landing. His brother James most likely built the side-hall double parlor house that copied the main house at Potomac Landing. On February 18, 1897, Martha Robinson, died at the age of ninety. She was buried in the graveyyard of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Baden, Prince George's County.
Robert continued cultivation of tobacco and small grains as his father before him. The first reference to the farm being named Ferndale is found in the "Communion Record" of Robert's daughter, Martha Perry "Pattie", dated 1896. (Robinson and Via Family Papers) The exact origin or reason for this new name is lost but perhaps the name Potomac Landing held such bitter memories of debt and hardship that, as a symbolic break with the past, a new name was found. It also may have simply been a way to distinguish this portion of Potomac Landing from the others. The farm continued to be listed on tax bills as Potomac Landing well into the 20th century, but was known to the general public and businesses as the Ferndale Farm. (Robinson and Via Family Papers)
Robert served as deputy inspector at the State Tobacco Warehouse in Baltimore for eight years under W.B. Bowie. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Bank of Brandywine. In July of 1905, Franklin died, a bachelor farmer. He was buried facing south in the graveyard of the Church of the Atonement, Cheltenham, (a chapel in St. Thomas' Episcopal Parish) where he had served as vestryman, treasurer, and cemetery custodian. Franklin died intestate and a lengthy process of dividing his estate began. This resulted in the sale of his part of Potomac Landing (Lot #2) in July 1908 to William E. Boswell. The court declared Robert ineligible for any inheritance due to his being " . . . a brother of the half blood." The Boswell family later sold the property to the Billingsley family of St. Mary's County. (Equity Case 3209, Prince George's County)
In 1910, after living in the farm's original home for approximately sixty seven years, the Robinson family built a new home. It was described in a 1956 insurance policy as, "2 story, frame, metal roof, 16x43, wing 14x28, 9 rooms." (Robinson and Via Family Papers) The house design was a simple Victorian with plastered walls, and lit by carbide gas. Electrical lighting was installed in 1951. The house was built with monies from Robert and Amanda, and their son Frank, who served as builder and contractor.
On Tuesday March 9, 1937, "During a celebration in honor of his wifes birthday anniversary, Mr. Robinson collapsed at the table and died immediately without a word or a sigh." (Robinson and Via Family Papers) Robert was buried beside his mother in the cemetery at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Baden.
At Robert's death, Ferndale Farm was valued at $30.00 an acre, the total acreage, 174 acres, being valued in the whole at $5,220.00. Robert died intestate, again the fate of the land was in question. He left eight heirs, his widow, Amanda, six of his children and his son Albert Henry's only surviving child, R. Henry Robinson. Rather than have the farm sold and his mother's life disrupted, Frank purchased the estate and personal property from the heirs. Before this could take place, a deed had to be granted the heirs for the property since one had never been recorded after the 1876 sale. Equity case 873 was reopened sixty-two years after its supposed resolution. Frank testified, "over a period of about thirty years I would on a number of occasions, talk about the fact that he had purchased and paid for this property and that a deed had never been executed to him and [he] kept saying he was going to have someone straighten this matter out for him." It was discovered that Robert had fully paid for his part of Potomac Landing. On February 14, 1938 the farm was deeded from Amanda along with Robert''s heirs to Frank. (Book 499, page 334, Land Records of Prince George's County) According to the deed and a 1937 fire insurance policy the farm consisted of 177 1/3 acres, "1 two story dwelling, one tenant house, 1 barrack, 1 tobacco barn, 1 corn house & cow stable, 1 Stable, and 1 Granary & Stable." (Robinson and Via Family Papers)
Frank A. Robinson, now the sole owner of Ferndale Farm, was born August 17, 1883. He learned farming and in addition took up the trade of builder and contractor. As a young man, he worked in the general store of his uncle Robert Baden. He was the contractor for the first Bank of Brandywine and many homes in and around the town of Brandywine, including the home of his cousin Robert E. Baden, DDS. He was secretary of the Building Committee for construction of the Chapel of the Incarnation in Brandywine, a mission chapel for St. Thomas' Episcopal Parish. His success in the building trade gave him disposable income that he invested in land. His first purchase was in August, 1915 of a 2-9/100 acre of land in Brandywine that was being sold by the Board of County School Commissioners; the purchase price was $300. In March 1916 he purchased 38.09 acres of his Uncle Franklin's farm. This property adjoined Ferndale Farm.
Over the next fifty-four years of his life, Frank bought and sold many pieces of real estate. Perhaps his most significant purchases were: 18-1/3 acres purchased from The German American Colonization Land Company of Maryland in October 1915 (Book 115, pg. 140, Land Records of Prince George's County); 147.99 acres purchased from August and Wilhelmina Noltensmeir in December 1917 (Book 129, pg. 263, Land Records of Prince George's County) and 320 acres called the Vineyard purchased from William M. Wilson in March 1928. Frank used these three parcels as collateral for other purchases. Never once did he mortgage Ferndale Farm, insuring that no matter what financial stormy seas might blow, his home was secure. Over the course of his life, especially in the case of the Noltensmeir farm, when cash was needed a parcel of land would be surveyed off and sold. He inherited his grandfather Thomas' love of land but had fortunately developed a shrewd business sense to go along with it.
The booming economy and suburbanization of the Washington metropolitan area in the early 1960's led to the high quality gravel lying beneath Ferndale into becoming a valuable commodity. In October 1962, Franklin and his parents granted a three-year lease to William C. Nolte for mining sand and gravel on the Ferndale Farm at .174 per yard. (Book 2747, pg. 11, Land Records of Prince George's County) From now until 1975 when the property was sold, gravel would be mined from under the farm by various companies. In November 1962, Elizabeth and Frank transferred to Franklin the 38.09 acres Frank had purchased from Fitzhugh Billingsley in 1916. (Book 2754, pg. 99, Land Records of Prince George's County) That same year they transferred 6.754 acres, part of the Vineyard, to son Robert and his wife Lois, (Book 2765, pg. 201, Land Records of Prince George's County)
On December 28, 1965, Frank and Elizabeth participated in a land exchange/purchase of the farm of Ralph W. and Cordelia H. Brown located along the Patuxent River in Benedict, Charles County, Maryland. Franklin had rented this farm the year before and was impressed enough by its location and arability to work out a purchase. Frank and Elizabeth traded 65.9920 acres that would eventually become Franklin's under Frank's will. On February 21, 1966 they deeded the Charles County farm to Franklin and Adina. Adina named this property Serenity Farm. The property consisted of 480.66 acres. (Liber 179, page 708 etc., Land Records of Charles County)
On February 5, 1970, after a short illness, Frank died at Cafritz Memorial Hospital. He was buried at St. Paul's Episcopal Church near his parents. In his will, probated March 4, 1970 he left thirty acres of the property purchased from the German American Land Company and A. Noltensmeir to Elizabeth. He willed forty acres of the same parcel to daughter Mary Robinson Conner. The remainder of Ferndale Farm was willed to Franklin and the remaining acreage of the Vineyard was left to Robert Lee.
Franklin Alexander Robinson was born August 13, 1932 at the Garfield Hospital in Washington, D.C.. He received his schooling in the public school system of Prince George's County, graduating from Gwynn Park High School in June 1951. He was a charter member of Gwynn Park's chapter of The Future Farmers of America. He was extremely active in FFA, achieving the Degree of Maryland Farmer in 1950 and their highest award, the Degree of American Farmer at their convention in Kansas City, Missouri in October 1953. He obtained his private pilots license in 1954. He entered the United States Army in February 1955 and went through basic training at Camp Gordon, Augusta, Georgia. After basic training he was transferred to Camp Hanford, Washington State. There he worked part time on the farm of Dick and Theresa Laurent during his off duty hours and began a lifelong friendship with them. He returned home to farming on an agricultural discharge in October of 1956. On July 27, 1958 he married his high school sweetheart, Adina Mae Via, daughter of Robert Milton and Virginia Woods Via. They had three children: Franklin Alexander (1959), Robert David (1962), and Adina Theresa (1963).
Franklin continued expanding and improving the farming operation by modern methods and means. At times, he farmed over one thousand acres, both owned and rented. On February 21, 1966, his parents deeded their purchase of the Ralph W. and Cordelia H. Brown farm in Benedict to he and Adina, later known as Serenity Farm Franklin and Adina engaged an architect to draft house plans for an anticipated new residence. A small A frame vacation home was built on the property so the family could spend weekends there.
On December 14, 1966, after a long illness, Adina died from complications associated with Hodgkin's Disease. She was buried in Trinity Memorial Gardens, Waldorf, Charles County. Franklin married Margaret Walker Lennox (nee Tallen, known as Rita) on August 21, 1970 (Marriage Records of Prince George's County, Maryland). This marriage ended in divorce in 1977. There were no children from this marriage.
On July 14, 1975 the Robinson family, Franklin, his second wife, Margaret, her daughter Margaret W. Lennox, Franklin, Jr., R. David, A. Theresa and Elizabeth B. Robinson, moved to Serenity Farm. On July 17, 1975 Franklin and Elizabeth sold the remaining acreage of Ferndale Farm to Brandywine Sand and Gravel, thus ending 131 years of ownership by the Robinson family. Elizabeth Bourne Robinson died on July 15, 1976 and was buried beside her husband at St. Paul's Church, Baden. Franklin married Hiltrud (Ceddie) Harris (nee Sedlacek) on July 15, 1978. (Robinson Family Bible) This marriage ended in divorce in 1986. There were no children from this marriage. Franklin married Diedre Gale Merhiage on April 19, 1989; this marriage ended in divorce in 1997. There were no children from this marriage. He married Remelda Henega Buenavista on January 13, 2007.
The Robinson family continue day-to-day operations of Serenity Farm. The land is well suited to the growing of tobacco and small grains, which crops, (with the exception of tobacco) along with a flock of sheep, are cultivated there to the present time. After the crop year 2001 the Robinson family took the tobacco buyout program offered by the state of Maryland and ceased growing tobacco. Franklin is active in farming and community affairs having served on the vestry of St. Thomas Episcopal Parish, the Board of Directors of the Maryland Tobacco Growers Association (MTGA), the Board of the Production Credit Association, the Boards of three schools, Holy Trinity Day School, Queen Anne School, and Calverton School, and numerous other organizations. Currently the farm consists of approximately 275 acres. In 1981 a state agricultural land preservation district of 222.755 acres was created. This was the first such district in Charles County and one of the first in the state of Maryland.
Via Family
The Via family traces its origins to the colony of Virginia, where the probable progenitor of the line, Amer Via, a French Huguenot, settled in Manakin Town, Albemarle County between 1670-1700. It is impossible to trace the Via line definitively due to the loss of Virginia county records during the Civil War.
The Via family line covered in this collection can be definitively traced to William Via of Fredericksville Parish, Louisa (later Albemarle) County, Virginia. The William Via family lived west of the present day town of Whitehall at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, an area commonly known as Sugar Hollow. William Via III served in the Virginia Line during the Revolutionary War. He married Mary Craig, daughter of Thomas Craig and Jane Jameson, on March 17, 1784. William died on June 27, 1836, in Albemarle County (Rev. War Pension Appl. 6363, National Archives). His son Thomas married Sally, widow Griffin, on January 1, 1811 (Albemarle County Marriage Records). Their son, Hiram Karl Via (1812-1893), married Harriet Ardenia Naylor by license dated March 7, 1836 (Albemarle County Marriage Records).
Hiram and Harriet's son, Robert St. Clair Via (1844-1925), served as a private in Company I, 7th Virginia Infantry of the Confederate States Army (CSA Military Service Records, National Archives). After the war he married his first cousin, Mary Frances Naylor, daughter of Samuel Chapman Naylor and Eliza Jane Gardner, on April 3, 1866 in Rockingham County (Rockingham County, Virginia, Marriage Records). Sometime between 1870 and 1872, they moved to Linn County, Missouri, and settled about seven miles from the town of Bucklin. Their son, Hiram Chapman Via (1872-1933), was born there. In 1893, the family returned to Virginia, and settled on a farm in Greene County near the town of Stanardsville.
Hiram Chapman Via operated a mill as well as a farm. On March 15, 1899, he married Adina Eleanor Eusebia Runkle, daughter of Milton D. L. Runkle and Roberta A. Beadles (Greene County, Virginia, Marriage Records). They had three children: Bernice Olive (1902-1999), Robert Milton (1906-1983), and Deward Daniel (1909-1977).
Robert moved to Washington, D.C.. In December 1927 he began employment with the Capitol Traction Company as a streetcar conductor (Robinson and Via Family Papers). During the early 1930s, Robert rented a townhouse at 715 A St., SE, where he lived with his sister Bernice V. McMullan and her son, William C. McMullan; his brother and sister in law, and his parents. Next door, at 717, lived the Moses Albright family, including Moses's stepdaughter Ida Virginia Woods (1914-2010), daughter of Jesse Lee Woods (1894-1918) and Donna Mae Barker (1896-1928) of Frederick County, Maryland. Robert and Virginia began a courtship and on September 3, 1932 were married in Frederick, Frederick County, Maryland (Frederick County, Maryland, Marriage Records).
After their marriage, Robert and Virginia lived in various locations in the Washington metropolitan area. Their first child, Robert Delano, was born on March 24, 1933, and their second child, Adina Mae, was born on April 12, 1937. Virginia was employed outside the home while her children were in school. Her first job before her marriage had been with Woolworth's in Martinsburg, WV working the candy counter and then before the birth of her son at The Hecht Company on F St. in Washington, D.C.. After her marriage she worked briefly for the United States Postal Service in Capitol Heights, Maryland. Beginning in the 1950s, she worked first at the Hecht Company department store on 7th Street in the District and later for Charles of the Ritz as a receptionist in their beauty salon located in Woodward & Lothrop's F Street store in Washington, D.C.. She also worked as salon manager at the Charles of the Ritz salons in the Woodward & Lothrop stores in Seven Corners, Virginia, and Chevy Chase, Maryland. She retired due to health reasons in 1973.
On September 10, 1941, Robert and Virginia purchased Lot #43 in Woodlane subdivision in Prince George's County. (Book 619, pg. 12, Land Records of Prince George's County) A house was designed for them for this lot by Clyde E. Phillips. They did not construct a home on this property due to the outbreak of World War II. Robert, due to his employment in public transportation, did not serve with the Armed Services in World War II. On October 18, 1946, they purchased approximately thirty acres bordering on Burch's Creek near the towns of Clinton, also know as Surrattsville, and T.B. in Prince George's County from Joseph H. and M. Pauline Blandford. (Book 873, pg. 483, Land Records of Prince George's County) Over the next three years, hiring private contractors, doing work themselves, and with the help of Robert's brother Deward, they built the two story house designed by Phillips in 1941. They moved to the farm from Capitol Heights in 1949. Robert raised hogs, small grains and a crop of tobacco yearly on this farm and also maintained his job with Capitol Transit (formerly Capitol Traction).
In 1954, Robert and Virginia purchased a farm of approximately 150 acres in Island Creek, Calvert County, Maryland. The intention was for Robert and his son to enter into a full time farming operation on expanded acreage. Robert D. Via, known as Delano, graduated from Gwynn Park High School in June 1951. Delano was a part-time farmer and pursued a career as a country and western singer with Bashful Bob and the Rhythm Rangers, he being Bashful Bob. He was employed in various jobs, and began a tour in the Army in 1953. By the time the Via family moved to Calvert County in 1956, he decided to pursue careers other than farming. He eventually traveled and worked in various parts of the United States. He married first Delores Cooper, second Gloria J. Irick, and finally Candice Marinelli in December 1974, they had two children, Robert Marin (1975) and Kirstin Marin (1976).
On June 1, 1956 Robert resigned from his position at Capitol Transit due to health reasons. He and his family moved to the farm in Island Creek, Calvert County where he began full time farming. He and Virginia sold the thirty-acre farm in Prince George's County on June 21, 1956 to Melvin C. and Geraldine H. Rardia. (Book 2003, pg. 564, Land Records of Prince George's County) Virginia continued her employment with Charles of the Ritz. Adina, now a graduate of Gwynn Park High School, was employed by the USAF at Andrews Air Force Base in Camp Springs, Maryland. They both commuted daily from Calvert County to their places of employment.
Robert farmed in Calvert County, raising hogs, cattle, small grains and tobacco. Over the course of the next twenty-seven years, Robert and Virginia sold smaller parcels off the farm. In 1974, Robert and Virginia built a small retirement home designed for them by Calvert Masonry Contractors. Robert died on December 22, 1983. He was buried beside his daughter Adina in Trinity Memorial Gardens. At the time of Robert's death, the farm consisted of 28.694 acres. In 1998, Virginia deeded the remainder of the farm, then less than six acres, to her grandson, Franklin A. Robinson, Jr. who sold all but a one-acre lot in April 1999.
Virginia continued to live on the farm in Calvert County, maintaining a small herd of cattle. In the fall of 1989 Franklin, Jr. went to live with her. In 1993, the onset of Alzheimer's Disease required her to move to Serenity Farm and take up residence with her granddaughter A. Theresa. Virginia participated in various studies on Alzheimer's Disease conducted by the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland beginning in 1992. She was profiled in the September 1997 issue of Washingtonian Magazine. In October of 1998 she moved to All American Senior Care in Brandywine, Maryland and in 1999 she moved to Morningside, an elderly care facility in Waldorf, Maryland. In 2002, she moved to St. Mary's Nursing Center in Leonardtown, Maryland. The remainder of the farm was sold in 1999 and 2002. She died January 14, 2010 and was buried at Trinity Memorial Gardens in Waldorf.
Adina Mae Via was born April 12, 1937 at the Homeopathic Hospital in Washington, D.C.. Adina grew up in Washington, D.C. attending public schools. She moved with her family to the Burch's Creek farm, Prince George's County, in 1949. She enrolled in the Prince George's County school system, and graduated from Gwynn Park High School in June of 1955. After graduation, she was employed by the USAF at Andrews Air Force Base in Camp Springs.
In July of 1956, she moved with her family to the Via farm in Island Creek, Calvert County. On July 27, 1958 she married Franklin A. Robinson at the Chapel of the Incarnation. They had three children: Franklin Alexander (1959), Robert David (1962) and Adina Theresa (1963). In the fall of 1958, she and Franklin took up residence in the home they had built on Ferndale Farm. She resigned from her position with the USAF in 1959.
On December 14, 1966, at Providence Hospital in Washington, DC, Adina died from complications due to Hodgkin's Disease. She had been battling this disease for many years prior to her death. She was buried in Trinity Memorial Gardens, Charles County.
Related Materials:
Materials at Other Organizations
The Maryland Center for History and Culture holds items (costume, farming related implements) related to the Robinson and Via families.
The Maryland State Archives (MSA) Special Collections holds the Robinson and Conner Family Papers, MSA SC 6402.
Separated Materials:
Materials at the National Museum of American History
The Division of Work and Industry (Agriculture Collection) holds agricultural implements and artifacts associated with both the Robinson farms and the Via farm; the Division of Home and Community Life holds clothing, textiles (crib quilt), jewelry, cosmetics and Adina M. Robinson's sewing box and dress patterns; (Costume and Textiles Collection). See accession numbers: 1989.0688, 1990.0394, 1991.0010; 1991.0722, 1992.0184, 1992.0283, 1992.0321, 1992.0474, 1992.3106, 1994.0064, 1994.0304, 1997.0327, 1998.0038, 1998.0129, 2001.0196, 2002.0087, 2003.0015, 2005.0009.
Division of Armed Forces History (now Division of Olitical and Military History, National Numismatics Collection) holds the Robert M. Via Trolley Token Collection.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the National Museum of American History, Archives Center, by Franklin A. Robinson, Jr., in November 1993.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but negatives and audiovisuial materials are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Some papers of living persons are restricted. Access to restricted portions may be arranged by request to the donor. Gloves required for unprotected photographs. Viewing film portions of the collection and listening to LP recording requires special appointment. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
The Archives Center does not own exclusive rights to these materials. Copyright for all materials is retained by the donor, Franklin A. Robinson, Jr.; permission for commercial use and/or publication may be requested from the donor through the Archives Center. Military Records for Franklin A. Robinson (b. 1932) and correspondence from Richard I. Damalouji (1961-2014) are restricted; written permission is needed to research these files. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
United States. Armed Forces -- Supplies and stores Search this
United States. Army -- Supplies and stores Search this
Extent:
12 Cubic feet (34 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Patents
Trademarks
Slides (photographs)
Advertisements
Sales records
Photographs
Photographic prints
Filmstrips
Design drawings
Date:
1925 - 1998
Summary:
The Brannock Device Company began with the 1925 invention of the Brannock Device, a tool to measure foot length and width at the same time, by inventor and businessman Charles F. Brannock. Early in his career Brannock worked as a shoe salesman at the Park-Brannock shoe store, and in 1962 he became the CEO of the company. This collection documents both the Park-Brannock store and the Brannock Device. Materials in The Brannock Device Company Records, 1925-1998, include of correspondence, design drawings, United States and foreign patents and trademarks, advertisements, product information, sales records, photographs, and a film strip documenting the invention, promotion, and sale of the Brannock Device as well as the concurrent development of Park-Brannock as a leading shoe store in Syracuse, N.Y.
Scope and Contents:
The Brannock Device Company Records, 1925-1998, consist of correspondence, design drawings, United States and foreign patents and trademarks, advertisements, product information, sales records, photographs, and a film strip documenting the invention, promotion, and sale of the Brannock Device as well as the concurrent development of Park-Brannock as a leading shoe store in Syracuse, NY. The collection is useful to researchers for its stories of invention and entrepreneurship and its exemplification of the patent and trademark process in the United States and internationally in the early 20th century. The process of manufacturing and marketing in the shoe industry, and manufacturing of military supplies during World War II is also highlighted.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into two subgroups.
Subgroup 1, The Brannock Device Company, 1925-1998
Series 1: Historical Background, 1928-1995
Series 2: Operational Records, 1926-1980
Subseries 1: Book for Recording Devices on Hand, 1927-1929
Subseries 2: Correspondence, 1926-1951
Subseries 3: Census, 1947-1980
Subseries 4: Insurance Inventory, 1956
Subseries 5: Royalties Accrued, 1946-1951
Subseries 6: Time Records, 1952-1958
Subseries 7: Notes, undated
Series 3: Product Development Records, 1925-1981
Subseries 1: Competitors' Devices and Other Products, c. 1928-1981
Subseries 2: Fitting Stool, 1936-1947
Subseries 3: Design, 1925-1975
Subseries 4: Manufacture, 1927-1959
Series 4: Advertising and Marketing Records, 1926-1998
Subseries 1: Correspondence, 1926-1998
Subseries 2: Mailing Lists, 1947-1950
Subseries 3: Ideas and Copy, undated
Subseries 4: Printed Materials with the Brannock Device Name (stationery, business cards, leases), undated
Subseries 5: Advertisements and Product Information, 1934-1980
The Brannock Device Company began with the 1925 invention of the Brannock Device by Charles F. Brannock. Charles Brannock was working as a salesman in the Park-Brannock shoe store, co-owned by his father Otis C. Brannock and Ernest N. Park, in Syracuse, New York when he saw the need for an improved foot-measuring device. The Brannock Device soon gained favor over size-sticks because it measured foot length and width at the same time. Additionally, it measured heel-to-ball length, a feature which aided in fitting heeled shoes.
Charles F. Brannock (1903-1992) was an inventor and businessman. He began tinkering with the idea of a new foot-measuring device while attending Syracuse University, where he would get up in the middle of the night and work on sketches and calculations. Brannock obtained a patent for the device on August 28, 1928, but by then manufacture and sale of the device was already underway. Brannock assembled the device in the Park-Brannock shoe store and gave the device a trial on the sales floor. In 1926, Charles Brannock began offering the device to shoe retailers first on a rental basis and then by sale through the use of salesmen who lived throughout the country and each covered a geographic area. By 1929, the company began to phase out salesmen because it offered quantity discounts to shoe companies which distributed the devices to their stores at a lower price than salesmen could offer.
Brannock sold his device internationally beginning in 1929 through Mr. I. Singer of London, England. In 1936 distribution rights transferred to Henry Maitland Marler of Feature Shoes Limited of London, an affiliate of the Selby Shoe Company. Renewing and protecting foreign trademarks proved to be a legal challenge. Due to some confusion, Brannock's British patent was allowed to lapse. In order to prevent other companies from using the Brannock name in England, H.M. Marler set up Brannock Fitting Device Limited in October 1937. The company began manufacturing Brannock Devices in January 1946, but royalties accrued through European sale by 1951 did not even cover a third of the cost of trademarks, patents, and designs.
Fortunately for the Brannock Device Company, these costs were absorbed by the Selby Shoe Company, with whom it had entered into agreements about foreign distribution in November 1941. Selby had exclusive rights to distribute the Brannock Device in South America, South Africa, and other countries, and assisted Brannock in securing trademarks in many foreign countries.
In 1933 a United States Navy captain asked a shoe salesman to find the source of many sailors' foot problems. The salesman, after measuring sailors' feet with the Brannock device, declared that the Navy shoe was not the cause of the problem; the sailors were simply wearing the wrong size shoes. The captain was so happy that he would not have to order special shoes for his men that he wrote an article in the July 1933 issue of United States Naval Institute Proceedings which described how the Brannock Device had eliminated foot troubles aboard the ship. This gave Brannock an opportunity to promote his device in the Navy by sending the article to other ships. He calibrated his device for use in other branches of the military and by World War II the Brannock Device was being used by most of the armed forces. Several articles were written about the greater foot comfort enjoyed by the military after the introduction of the device. Charles Brannock was proud of his small but widespread role in the war effort and in the comfort of America's enlisted men and women.
Through the years Charles Brannock developed many different models of his device, including the women's, men's, junior, growing girl's, athletic, ski-boot, and military models. In 1947, Brannock moved the device company to a machine shop at 509 East Fayette Street in Syracuse, where it remained for 50 years.
Brannock advertised both the store and the device in local papers, and the device in trade literature such as Boot and Shoe Recorder. He encouraged other shoe stores to promote themselves by using the device in their advertising. He also attended the annual National Shoe Fair in Chicago from 1938 to 1968 in order to promote the device as well as learn about shoe-fashion trends for the Park-Brannock shoe store.
Concurrently, Charles Brannock also played a significant role in the Park-Brannock shoe store. His father, Otis C. Brannock and Ernest N. Park founded Park-Brannock in 1906 in a small store at 321 South Salina Street, focusing on women's shoes. In February 1937, they moved to a three-story building at 427 South Salina Street. Finally, in 1946, a six-story store was built at 473-475 South Salina Street through 129 East Onondaga Street. While waiting for the newest store to be built, Park-Brannock temporarily moved to the Chimes Building at 510-512 South Salina Street and 113 West Onondaga Street. Park-Brannock gained fame in Syracuse for a wide selection of men's, women's and children's shoes, handbags, millinery, hose, and accessories. In an advertisement, the store declared itself "one of America's finest shoe stores." The design of the two newer stores was state-of-the-art, and Park-Brannock was featured in shoe magazine articles. For example, the men's department was designed to look like a great room inside a ship. Charles Brannock became the CEO of Park-Brannock after both his father and Ernest Park died in 1962. Park-Brannock closed its doors in 1981, after the Hotel Syracuse offered to purchase the property for its new Hilton Tower.
Charles Brannock died on November 22, 1992, at the age of 89. The company was purchased in 1993 from the Brannock Estate by Salvatore Leonardi. Leonardi continues to manufacture Brannock devices in a small factory in Liverpool, New York. Over a million Brannock Devices have been manufactured, and it remains the shoe industry standard
Related Materials:
Materials at the National Museum of American History
Artifacts (several Brannock Devices and competitors' devices) are in the Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life) and the Division of Armed Forces History (now Division of Political and Military History).
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the National Museum of American History by Salvatore Leonardi on November 4, 1998.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
World War, 1939-1945 -- Equipment and supplies Search this
This collection consists of 84 cubic feet of negatives and 22 cubic feet of photographs chronicling the history of the Martin Company, including the following subjects: aircraft plants; historical themes; people; aircraft programs: historic, US Army, US Navy, civilian export; experimental or projected designs; research and development programs; structures and materials; manufacturing processes; space tools; nuclear power programs; missile programs; and space programs. The collection also contains photograph log books which have information about the images.
Biographical / Historical:
The Martin Company was founded by aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin during World War I. Martin was mainly a producer of military airplanes for the US Army, Air Force, and Navy. Martin has also built several commercial types, including the model M130 Clipper, with which Pan American Airways opened transpacific commercial air service. Since the 1950s, Martin has been active in the development and production of a wide variety of rocket, missile and space programs, including lifting-body vehicles. Martin was also a pioneer in nuclear power units for remote sites.
General:
This collection also contains 26 photo logs and tech manuals.
Provenance:
Martin Marietta Aero and Naval Systems, 1989, 1989-0141, Unknown
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
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transfer from the National Museum of American History; transfer from the Veterans Administration Center, Dayton, OH, 1957
