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A Comparative History of the Founding and Early Development of Four Significant American Manuscript Repositories of Business, Industry, and Technology

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A Comparative History of the Founding and Early Development of Four Significant American Manuscript Repositories of Business, Industry, and Technology CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Michigan Technological University Michigan Technological University Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports 2017 Personality over Policy: A Comparative History of the Founding and Early Development of Four Significant American Manuscript Repositories of Business, Industry, and Technology Erik Nordberg Michigan Technological University, [email protected] Copyright 2017 Erik Nordberg Recommended Citation Nordberg, Erik, "Personality over Policy: A Comparative History of the Founding and Early Development of Four Significant American Manuscript Repositories of Business, Industry, and Technology", Open Access Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2017. https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etdr/527 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etdr Part of the History Commons PERSONALITY OVER POLICY: A COMPARATIVE HISTORY OF THE FOUNDING AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF FOUR SIGNIFICANT AMERICAN MANUSCRIPT REPOSITORIES OF BUSINESS, INDUSTRY, AND TECHNOLOGY By Erik C. Nordberg A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In Industrial Heritage and Archaeology MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2017 Copyright Erik C. Nordberg 2017 This dissertation has been approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology. Department of Social Sciences Dissertation Advisor: Terry S. Reynolds Committee Member: Susan R. Martin Committee Member: Steven A. Walton Committee Member: Robert R. Johnson Department Chair: Hugh S. Gorman TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1 Opening ................................................................................................................1 A Brief History of Manuscript Collecting Practices ............................................4 A Brief History of the Emergence of Business History and Manuscript Collections in Business, History, and Technology .............13 Literature Review...............................................................................................23 Scope of this Study ............................................................................................29 Selection of Case Study Repositories ............................................................29 Structure and Temporal Limits ......................................................................33 Methodology and Comparative Themes ........................................................34 Comment on Source Material ........................................................................35 CHAPTER 2. FOUNDING AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS AT BAKER LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1908-1980 ..................38 Introduction ........................................................................................................38 Creation of the Baker Library, 1908-1927 .........................................................42 Rapid Expansion of Manuscript Collections, 1927-1956 ..................................51 Maturity and Stabilization, 1956-1980 ..............................................................75 Commentary and Conclusions ...........................................................................89 CHAPTER 3. FOUNDING AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS AT HAGLEY LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, 1953-1982 ..........................96 Introduction ........................................................................................................96 Creation of The Longwood Library and The Hagley Museum, 1953-1961 ......97 The Longwood Library ..................................................................................98 The Hagley Museum and Records of the DuPont Company .......................107 Non-DuPont Business and Industrial Manuscripts Before Consolidation ...114 Consolidation of The Longwood Library and The Hagley Museum ...........121 Rapid Expansion of Manuscript Collections, 1961-1982 ................................129 Maturity and Stabilization, 1982 to Present .....................................................161 Commentary and Conclusions .........................................................................165 Page i CHAPTER 4. FOUNDING AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, D.C., 1954-1983..........................................................168 Introduction ......................................................................................................168 Creation of Collections at the Smithsonian Institution, 1846-1954 .................170 Rapid Expansion of Manuscript Collections, 1954-1983 ................................175 Indecision, 1967-1983......................................................................................197 Maturity and Stabilization, 1983 to Present .....................................................211 Commentary and Conclusions .........................................................................220 CHAPTER 5. FOUNDING AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS AT THE BENSON FORD RESEARCH CENTER, THE HENRY FORD DEARBORN, MICHIGAN, 1905-1983 .......................225 Introduction ......................................................................................................225 Creation of Manuscript Collections at the Edison Institute, 1905-1964 ..........227 Creation and Rapid Expansion of the Ford Motor Company Archives, 1950-1954 ..................................................................................237 Disinterest, Disinvestment, and Disposal of the Ford Motor Company Archives, 1954-1964 .................................................................266 Combined Collections at the Henry Ford Museum, 1964-1983 ......................282 Commentary and Conclusion ...........................................................................297 CHAPTER 6. COMMENTARY AND CONCLUSIONS ..................................304 Introduction ......................................................................................................304 Institutional Type and Mission ........................................................................305 Models Used ....................................................................................................311 Organizational Structures and Staffing ............................................................316 Collection Policies and Appraisal/Acquisition Systems ..................................324 Facilities and Space..........................................................................................326 Lessons Learned...............................................................................................328 Closing Comments ...........................................................................................332 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................336 Page ii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 Overview of Case Study Repositories ...............................................31 Table 2.1 Growth of Collections, Baker Library, 1932-2017 ............................84 Table 3.1 Growth of Collections, Hagley Library, 1955-2017 ........................162 Table 4.1 Tabulations of Collections Held in MHT Divisions and Departments, 1978 ...................................................................202 Table 4.2 Growth of Collections, MHT, 1965-2011 .......................................219 Table 5.1 Growth of Collections, Ford Archives, 1951-2017 .........................295 Page iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project is the culmination of a long journey. Certainly the last nine years, through my doctoral coursework, examinations, research, and writing. But my inspiration came in many forms at many moments. Some from my childhood, when my engineer father instilled an interest in history, historical places, and mechanical things. I recall our visit to the Quincy Mine in Hancock during my teenage years and our mutual amazement upon finding our family name forged into joists of the giant steam hoisting engine constructed by the Nordberg Manufacturing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My route back to the Keweenaw wasn’t through industrial history, but as an archivist charged with selecting and preserving historical records. And it was while working at the Michigan Tech Archives that I found its collection of blueprints from the Nordberg Manufacturing Company. Over time, I learned that these materials were once part of a larger collection of records created and held by the company, that they had been surveyed by curators from Smithsonian Institution, and that the collection had been broken into pieces and transferred to repositories around the country. This was the original kernel for this project: Which are the most important archival repositories collecting records of business, industry, and technology? How and why did they begin collecting manuscripts? What influenced what they collected? What did they turn down (and what happened to that stuff)?
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