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Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Guide to the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Building and Construction
Summary
- Collection ID:
- NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Building
- Creators:
-
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
- Dates:
-
1828-1957
- Languages:
-
English.
- Physical Description:
-
0.94 Cubic feetconsisting of 2 boxes, 2 oversize folders, plus digital images of some collection material.
- Repository:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Building and Construction forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana
Scope and Contents
Scope and Contents
This collection consists primarily of scattered correspondence on letterhead stationery, bills and receipts, trade cards, building specifications, publications, periodicals, contracts, stocks, expense schedules and building permits. Most of these materials are from manufacturers of, and dealers in building products. These include terra cotta tile, lumber, doors, sashes, moldings, balusters, stairs and cornices. There are also materials from builders, carpenters, joiners, stone cutters, masons, plasterers, stucco workers, bricklayers, house painters, decorators and architects.
Most of the buildings are for public use; however there are companies such as Sears, Roebuck & Company that produced specifications and products for private use including homes, summer cottages, garages, and shelters. Public buildings represented include those for use by railroads and their passengers, power plants, storage facilities, work shops, municipal voting houses, telephone booths, hunting lodges, boat houses, bath houses, docks, film projection booths, bunkhouses, and portable school houses. The buildings are mostly stone, brick, iron and steel structures. Some of these are fire-proof.
Other materials include periodicals and publications relating to the building trades. Included is a 1913 book of plans for a model fire-proof farm house. A group of general materials includes building permits, contracts, specifications and caricatures of builders.
Arrangement
Arrangement
This series is arranged into 3 subseries:
- Subseries 1: Builders, Carpenters, and Manufacturers and Distributors of Building Products, circa 1860-1920
- Subseries 2: Publications, 1887-1928
- Subseries 3: General Information, circa 1835-1910
Administration
Author
Vanessa Broussard-Simmons and Nicole Blechynden
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Building and Construction is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Processing Information
In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections. A large portion of stored material from the original acquisition received minimal level processing, which resulted in additions to this Subject category. This effort included basic arrangement and replacement of non-archival housing for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed. Revisions to the encoded finding aid were made to reflect the added content in context to the previously processed material.
Minimal level processing and enhancement of the machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechynden, September 2017.
Using the Collection
Preferred Citation note
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Building and Construction, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Conditions Governing Access note
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Conditions Governing Use note
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.
Materials in the Archives Center
Materials in the Archives Center
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
Forms Part Of
Forms Part Of
Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
Keywords
| Keyword Terms | Keyword Types | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ephemera | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Business ephemera | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Building | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Construction | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
Repository Contact
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
P.O. Box 37012
Suite 1100, MRC 601
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
archivescenter@si.edu
