Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Police

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Police
Creators:
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
Dates:
1836-1962
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.27 Cubic feet
consisting of .5 box, 1 folder, 1 oversize folder.
Repository:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Police 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 materials relating to law enforcement.
Police Departments and Related Organizations consists of materials related to police departments and related fraternal, professional, and civic institutions. It consists of correspondence; invitations and other items related to fundraising or other police-related social events; announcements of new laws and regulations; receipts; and annual and financial reports. The span dates for the series are 1836-1962, with the bulk of the documents dating from circa 1870-circa 1900. Locations represented are mainly Eastern cities, with a few examples from other regions of the United States or foreign countries. The series is arranged alphabetically by city name.
Manufacturers and Distributors of Police Uniforms and Equipment includes police uniform and equipment catalogs, invoices for purchased police supplies, and newspaper clippings related to uniforms. The span dates are 1857-1927, though much of the series is undated. The series is a single folder.
Related Services consists of materials related to companies engaged in business ancillary or related to police activity. The documents cover watchmen services as well as private investigation and bounty-hunting. The span dates of the collection are 1856-1896, with the majority dating from circa 1856-circa 1870. The businesses originate from Eastern cities such as New York and Boston. The series consists of a single folder.
Police Images consists of images of police officers. These include advertising cards for various products which feature policemen, souvenir photographs of New York City police officials, caricatures of police figures, and an image of the New York City police headquarters. The material is undated, but is mainly from the latter part of the 19th century and early years of the 20th.

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
Police 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

Conditions Governing Access note
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Preferred Citation note
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Police, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
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


Archives Center, National Museum of American History
P.O. Box 37012
Suite 1100, MRC 601
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
Business Number: Phone: 202-633-3270
Fax Number: Fax: 202-786-2453
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