Guide to Max Holland Numerical Control Collection

Scope and Contents note

The collection consists of numerous documents, promotional materials, correspondence, press clippings, trade journals and reports relating to the machine tool industry and one of its major components, the Houdaille Corporation. The first two series of the collection focus on the Burgmaster Corporation, a machine tool producer founded in 1944 by Fred Burg, a Czech immigrant. Series one consists of hand-written notebooks, 1985-1990, containing Mr. Holland's records of interviews with major figures involved in running Burgmaster. In 1965, Burgmaster became one of the divisions of the conglomerate Houdaille Corporation; materials relating to the latter company comprise Series 3 of the collection. Reports and press clippings dealing with the machine tool industry and its trade association, the National Machine Tool Builders Association (NMTBA), are included in Series 4; documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding formation of IDEX Corporation, a division of Houdaille, are in Series 5. Numerous reports published by government agencies and private foundations relating to high-technology industries, the U. S. industrial base, national defense issues and related matters make up Series 6.

Arrangement

Divided into 6 series.

Biographical/Historical note

Max Holland was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1950 and raised in Los Angeles. He received a BA in philosophy from Antioch College (Ohio) in 1972 and was employed as a journalist, first by the Lincoln, Nebraska "Star" newspaper in 1975. In 1976 he joined the Voice of America; in 1982 he became a correspondent for The Nation magazine.. He continues to be a contributing editor of that journal. His interest in the Houdaille Corporation resulted from his father's employment in that company from 1953 to 1982. His first published book, When the Machine Stopped (1989) was on Houdaille, its divisions and the machine tool industry.