Guide to the Wurlitzer Company Records NMAH.AC.0469 Craig Orr 1994 Archives Center, National Museum of American History P.O. Box 37012 Suite 1100, MRC 601 Washington, D.C. 20013-7012 [email protected] http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives Table of Contents Collection Overview ........................................................................................................ 1 Administrative Information .............................................................................................. 1 Arrangement..................................................................................................................... 3 Scope and Contents........................................................................................................ 3 Historical Note.................................................................................................................. 2 Names and Subjects ...................................................................................................... 3 Container Listing ............................................................................................................. 6 Series 1: Wurlitzer Company Histories Company Events and General Business Materials................................................................................................................... 6 Series 2: Publications, 1910-1989; undated.......................................................... 11 Series 3: Advertising and Promotional Materials, 1911-1978................................ 16 Series 4: Product Information, 1860-1984............................................................. 21 Series 5: Photographs of Wurlitzer Manufacturing Plants, Employees, Stores, and Dealerships,, 1869-1970, undated......................................................................... 27 Series 6: Photographs of Wurlitzer Products and Product Sales Promotions, 1901-1977; undated............................................................................................... 36 Series 7: Photographs used in Wurlitzer Advertising and Public Relations, 1904-1970; undated............................................................................................... 45 Series 8: Wurlitzer Employee Records and Related Materials, 1909-1961............ 48 Series 9: Production and Shipping Records, 1905-1987....................................... 51 Series 10: Shipping and Sales Records for Wurlitzer Dealerships, Wurlitzer Retail Stores, and Rembert Wurlitzer, Incorporated, 1917-1952...................................... 58 Series 11: Records of Stock Certificates, Meeting Minutes, and Related Financial and Legal Documents, 1908-1972......................................................................... 62 Series 12: Rudolph Wurlitzer Company Financial Records, 1899-1986................. 68 Series 13: Maps and Charts, 1931-1976............................................................... 76 Series 14: Drawings, 1915-1943............................................................................ 78 Wurlitzer Company Records NMAH.AC.0469 Collection Overview Repository: Archives Center, National Museum of American History Title: Wurlitzer Company Records Identifier: NMAH.AC.0469 Date: 1860-1984 Creator: Rudolph Wurlitzer Company (Creator) Extent: 56 Cubic feet Language: English . Summary: The collection documents the history and development of the Wurlitzer Company and consists of company publications, business records, employee files, manufacturing records, sales and marketing records, product information, publicity, advertising, photographs, audiovisual materials, and organ installation drawings. Administrative Information Acquisition Information Collection donated by Northern Illinois University, and Regional History Center, 1994, November 11. Related Materials Materials in the Archives Center Steinway & Sons Records and Family Papers, 1857-1919 (AC0178) Chickering & Sons Piano Company Collection, 1864-1985 (AC0264) Sohmer & Company Records, 1872-1989 (AC0349) William J. Lenz Piano Tuning Collection, circa 1903-1955 (AC0511) Janssen Piano Company Records, 1901-1929 (AC0512) John R. Anderson Piano Trade Literature and Ephemera Collection, circa 1850-1990 (AC1257) Warshaw Collection of Business America's Piano and Organ related materials (AC0060) Processing Information Collection processed by Craig Orr, 1994 Preferred Citation Wurlitzer Company Records, 1860-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History Restrictions Collection is open for research. Page 1 of 155 Wurlitzer Company Records NMAH.AC.0469 Conditions Governing Use 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. Accruals Additional materials donated by Baldwin Piano and Organ Company, November 1997. Historical Note The Wurlitzer Company began in 1856 when Rudolph Wurlitzer, a Cincinnati bank clerk, sold seven hundred dollars worth of musical instruments he had bought from family and friends in Germany. The busi¬ness was incorporated in Ohio in 1890 under the name the Ru¬dolph Wurlitzer Company." For the first fifty years, Wurlitzer was primarily a retail instrument business operating out of its Cincinnati Store headquarters. Although fire destroyed the com¬pany's headquarters in 1904, a new building was completed in time to celebrate Wurlitzer's fiftieth anniversary in 1906. In 1908, the Wurlitzer Company bought the DeKleist Musical In¬strument Manufacturing Company in North Tonawanda, New York. The Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company continued produc¬tion of automatic musical instruments including player pianos, military bands and pianorchestras. In 1910, the Wurlitzer Company bought the Hope-Jones Organ Company and began to manufacture unit-or¬chestra pipe organs at their North Tonawanda plant. These were pipe organs equipped with bells, gongs, horns and sirens. They became known as Mighty Wurlitzers and provided the musical back¬ground in silent movie houses all over the world and were also built for churches and private homes. In 1919, Wurlitzer bought the Melville-Clark Piano Company of DeKalb, Illinois. Wurlitzer pianos were then manufactured at the DeKalb facilities under a variety of names: the Apollo Piano Company, the DeKalb Piano Company and the Wurlitzer Grand Piano Company. Each name des¬ignated a different quality, price range and style. With the decline of sales during the 1920s and 1930s, pro¬duction of automatic musical instruments ceased until the manu¬facture of the first jukebox in 1934. In 1930, the Julius Bauer Piano Company was purchased and continued to build pianos in that name until shortly before World War II. For a brief time, radios and refrigerators were made by the Wurlitzer controlled Air-Amer¬ican Mohawk Corporation. It was not a successful venture and ended in the mid-1930s. Many of the Wurlitzer retail stores were, at that time, in bad locations and needed repairs. The solutions to these problems came about with a reorganization of the company in 1935. With the reorganization, many retail stores were sold, piano manufacturing was consolidated in DeKalb and many subsidiaries were dissolved or absorbed completely into the Wurlitzer Company. During World War II, Wurlitzer halted production of musical in¬struments. The company's defense production efforts were rec¬ognized in 1943 and 1944 when it is North Tonawanda and DeKalb plants received the Army-Navy "E" Award. In 1946, peacetime production resumed and the Wurlitzer Company introduced two new instruments: the electric organ in 1947 and the electric piano in 1954. In 1956, the Wurlitzer Company celebrated its centennial. That same year a new plant at Corinth, Mississippi, was completed. Later, plants were opened in Holly Springs, Mississippi (1961), Logan, Utah (1970) and Hullhorst, West Germany, (1960). The new facilities replaced those at North Tonawanda and DeKalb. The North Tonawanda plant ceased production of jukeboxes in 1974, becoming the company's engineering and research center. In 1973, the DeKalb plant ended production of pianos maintaining only mar¬keting and administrative offices. In 1977, the Wurlitzer Com¬pany's corporate headquarters moved to DeKalb, including the en¬gineering and research center from North Tonawanda. Wurlitzer's three sons had assumed leadership of the company after his death in 1914. Each son acted as president then, chair of the board, successively. The company hired R.C. Rolfing in 1934 as vice-president and general manager. His re¬organization helped the company through the Depression years. Rolfing succeeded the last of the founder's sons in 1941 as pres¬ident of the company and in 1966 as chair of the Page 2 of 155 Wurlitzer Company Records NMAH.AC.0469 board. Farny Wurlitzer, Rudolph's youngest son, died in 1972. A.D. Arsem succeeded Rolfing in 1974 as chair of the board. George B. Howell succeeded W. N. Herleman as president of the company. Scope and Contents The collection documents the history and the development of the Wurlitzer Company. Materials include company publications, business records, employee files, manufacturing records, sales and marketing records, product information, publicity, advertising, photographs, audiovisual materials, and organ installation drawings. The material in the collection spans from 1856-1986, although information prior to 1899 is sparse. Arrangement The Collection