Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Cash Registers

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Cash
Creators:
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
Dates:
circa 1850-1954
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.49 Boxes
consisting of 1 box, 1 oversize folder, 1 map case folder, 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: Cash Registers 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 material consists primarily of printed advertisements, scattered correspondence on letterhead stationery, catalogues, annual reports, handbills, booklets, bulletins, order forms, price lists, postcards and lithographs from manufacturers and dealers of cash registers . There is quite a bit of material from the National Cash Register Company. Some of the companies sold correct posture chairs and accounting machine desks for use with cash registers and similar machinery. The cash register is advertised as a cure-all to hand posted accounting systems eliminating duplication of work, errors in mental computations and illegible records. The companies also tended to sell a variety of other office and business machinery including check writing and signing machines, analysis machines, comptometers, bookkeeping machines, adder machines, cash drawers, posting machines, bank-bookkeeping machines and postage meter machines.
A few companies issued publications for all concerned in the cash register industry . Adder Machine Company produced bulletins titled "The Wales Way" which was named after their Wales machinery. The National Cash Register Company distributed a number of publications including "The National Cash Register", a journal which showed illustrations of company operations, employees and some usual features which included a kindergarten run by the company. "The Businessmen's N. C. R." assisted retail storekeepers make more money, create good window displays, increase profits and recognize the value of modern methods and machinery. "The N C R Weekly" was published for employees as well as customers, cash register manufacturers and the general public. All of these publications heavily advertise the company's products. The National Cash Register Company also published a book on principle nations of the world and their coinage.
The bulk of the material is late nineteenth and early twentieth century. There is one folder of general images and one folder of miscellaneous items.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Materials are organized alphabetically by name of company.

Administration

Author
Vanessa Broussard-Simmons
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Cash Registers 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.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation note
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, 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


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Business ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bookkeeping Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cash registers Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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