Scope and Contents

The collection contains photographs of the presses, factory and employees; a scrapbook of presses, 1915; drawings; trade literature and catalogs; the Harris Impressions newsletter; blueprints of the presses; and histories of the company.

Arrangement

Collection is arranged into three series.

Series 1: Background Materials, 1889-1995

Series 2: Drawings, 1896-1929

Series 3: Photographs, 1921-1968; 2003

Biographical / Historical

In 1890 jewelers and tinkerers Alfred and Charles G. Harris developed a new printing press with an automatic feeder. Their first press was a revolutionary breakthrough, delivering ten times what a pressman could feed by hand. The Harris Automatic Press Company was responsible for many printing innovations during the early 1900s including the first commercially successful offset lithographic press and the first two-color offset press. The company became one of the world's largest and most successful manufacturers of printing equipment.

Harris-Seybold Company (later Harris Intertype) of Cleveland, Ohio manufactured high-quality sheetfed offset lithographic printing presses. The Harris Automatic Press Co. of Niles, Ohio (the original company name) designed and built the first commercially successful sheetfed offset lithographic printing press in 1906. It was sold to the Republic Banknote Company (later became part of U.S. Banknote Corporation) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, shipped on July 26, 1906. This printing press was retired in August 1940, rebuilt by Harris and donated to the Smithsonian Institution. From 1906 to 1976, Harris manufactured thousands of lithographic printing presses in various models and sizes along with various designs of bindery equipment. They were leaders in offset lithography technology. Many of the sheetfed offset lithographic presses presently being manufactured use some form of the early Harris innovations. In 1957, the company name was changed to Harris Intertype Corporation and in 1974 the name was changed to Harris Corporation. At this time the company was comprised of several electronic divisions in addition to the printing equipment divisions. The company stopped production of sheetfed lithographic printing presses in 1976. The corporate offices moved from Cleveland, Ohio to Melbourne, Florida in 1978 where Harris Corporation is still located. Harris Corporation disposed of its printing equipment plants in 1984 in a leverage buyout. Heidelberg (Germany) purchased some of the printing manufacturing plants in the late 1990s.