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1993 Newsletter Archive
ADVERTISING AS A RESOURCE
by F. Bradley Lynch, The Advertising Council, Inc.
Advertising is a national resource that has illustrated, reflected and
occasionally changed the course of lives and events. Advertisements and the
records of their creation and achievement are especially valuable for several
reasons:
Ads illustrate how people lived and animate pages of historical text. While
the records of photojournalism show how people faced rare moments of crisis,
advertising affords insights into how they ate, dressed, entertained and relaxed
and the aspirations, dreams and presumptions of their everyday lives.
Advertising is the area where the interests of business and the public meet.
Its study can generate volumes about both groups. The opinion studies conducted
by advertisers indicate changing public attitudes on hundreds of subjects.
More in America than anywhere else, advertising has affected political
campaigns. It has also created awareness and affected actions on national
issues; the uses of advertising range from enlisting citizen support to help win
a world war, to combating addictions, disease, intolerance, and ignorance.
Because advertising is essentially such a public business, we can anticipate
that as advertising moves into corporate and university archives, access to it
will be less restricted than more sensitive or confidential materials, such as
those relating to finance.
In addition, I suspect that the men and women who create advertising (and never
get to sign their names to it) will be influential supporters of archives where
their work can become part of the historical record instead of fading forever
with memories of last night's prime time broadcast or yesterday's morning
newspaper.
Advertising by its very nature is creative and generally fun. The advertising of
yesteryear not only can provide historical insights, it can breathe life into
research and help make history appealing to its students.
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CENTER FOR ADVERTISING HISTORY BEGINS 10th YEAR
by Tom Wiener, Executive Director
It seems as ubiquitous as the air that we breathe and just as ephemeral.
Advertising is everywhere: on the sides of buses, on the sleeves of tennis
players and race car drivers, pouring out of our radios, dancing across our
television screens.
The Center for Advertising History is dedicated to the proposition that
advertising is too important a part of our lives and our culture to be treated
casually - or worse, to be discarded. The cornerstone of the Center's
collections is an ongoing series of oral history and documentation projects that
focus on significant advertising campaigns of the post-World War II era, when
television provided the industry with its most effective outlet ever.
In selecting campaigns to document, the Center has been guided by a sense of
which contemporary advertising has broken ground and made a significant
contribution to the popular culture as well. To those ends it has documented the
rise of the Marlboro man, the genesis of the Pepsi generation, the long-running
appeal of Campbell's Soup, the humorous approaches to selling taken by
Alka-Seltzer and Federal Express, the evolution of Cover Girl makeup, the
amazing success story of Nike, and Kraft Foods' pioneering efforts in early
television drama.
For each project, a Center historian conducts interviews with corporate and
agency personnel, as well as commercial directors and pitchmen such as Dick
Beals, the voice of Speedy Alka-Seltzer, and John Moschitta, the fast-talking
man of the Federal Express ads. (Mr. Moschitta graciously shifted into a lower
conversational gear for the Center's microphones.)
Each project involves the full cooperation of its corporate sponsor and relevant
ad agency, which in turn donate primary materials such as print ads and
commercial reels, plus supporting material such as marketing reports and
memoranda.
The Center's collections also include the personal papers of a number of
important advertising and marketing figures, including Barton Cummings, John
Caples, and Estelle Ellis. The Center is about to publish Bernstein on
Advertising, a collection of interviews conducted by the Center with the late
Sid Bernstein, editor and columnist for over 70 years with Advertising Age.
As the Center observes its tenth anniversary in 1994, it looks forward to
recording further chapters in the story of American advertising and to serving
scholars and researchers who know, as we do, of the significant role advertising
plays in both our business and cultural history.
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DOCUMENTING CHANGE ALONG THE OHIO: BUSINESS ARCHIVES OF THE CINCINNATI
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
by Steven L. Wright, Business Archivist
The purpose of the Society's Business Archives Program is to collect, preserve
and provide access to historical material pertaining to the economic, business
and technological development of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio and the
region surrounding and affecting them, from the time of European contact to the
present. The further purpose of the Business Archives Program is to institute
and encourage historical inquiry into these areas. These goals are accomplished
through the normal donation process or through membership in the Society's
Business Archives Program.
Currently, the Society's business collection contains the records of over 290
businesses and organizations important to the region's economic development. Of
the 20,000 cubic feet of collections in the manuscript department, approximately
540 cubic feet are business collections, which are accessible, with an
additional 1,100 cubic feet yet to be processed.
Holdings range from the late 18th century (records of commission merchants and
retail stores; funeral homes and insurance companies; and personal papers of
early business leaders) to the 20th century (records of the largest iron and
chemical manufacturers and processors; banks and savings and loan associations;
and interurban and interstate transportation enterprises). About 70 percent of
these companies no longer exist, while the remaining 30 percent are active
members of Cincinnati's business community.
The records of the First National Bank, the Stearns & Foster Mattress Company
and the Hennegan Company are three important collections accessible to the
public. The First National Bank collection, which includes materials dating from
1863 to 1983, consists of 80 cubic feet of scrapbooks, minutes, financial
records, acquisition records, and papers of bank officers. The Stearns & Foster
Mattress Company collection, spanning 100 years from 1859, contains 39 cubic
feet of manufacturing records, including detailed records of work for the
government during WWI and WWII. Besides bedding, the company manufactured
numerous packing and filtering devices for explosives and gas masks. As a major
printing company, the Hennegan Company's collection contains early
correspondence and financial records, but a majority of the material consists of
trade paper inserts and posters printed for the American movie industry from
1920 to 1975. The Society has collected additional movie material printed since
1976, but which has not been processed as yet.
The desire to acquire, accession and process business records important to
Cincinnati's economic growth antedates the establishment of the Business
Archives Program. Although the Society has been collecting business records
throughout its 162 years of existence, it was evident by the 1980's that
significant gaps remained. Efforts to acquire extant records had not been
consistently organized. Furthermore, due to storage and personnel limitations,
the Society restricted its policy to collecting the records of a company only
after it had closed. Usually business records were donated by a former owner or
employee years after the company's demise.
In 1990, the Society moved into a new facility with increased storage capacity,
which enabled it to expand its business collections through a new Business
Archives Program. The Society decided to collect aggressively records of
businesses and organizations by offering, for a fee, a records management,
archival administration and/or storage program. Under the Business Archives
Program, a company or organization can retain ownership of its records until
such time as its feels that its competitive position will not be compromised;
this approach further encourages participation in the Business Archives Program
and the eventual willing donation of records to the Society. The Program
guarantees that important records will not be destroyed and allows the Society
to receive and to organize a company's records while the company is still
active.
Since the Business Archives Program began twenty-one months ago, contracts
totaling almost $70,000 have been written. While this sum does not cover all
expenses, it does defray a portion of the processing costs.
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BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY AT THE HAGLEY MUSEUM AND LIBRARY
by Michael Nash, Chief Curator
The research library at Hagley was founded by Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954) as
the Longwood Library in 1953. Eight years later, it merged with the Hagley
Museum and moved to the site of the original Du Pont Company powder works near
Wilmington, Delaware. During the next thirty years, the Hagley Museum and
Library grew in stature. In 1985 it became a member of the Independent Research
Libraries Association (IRLA).
The Hagley Museum and Library has become one of the nation's leading centers for
the study of business history and the history of technology. Its research
collections contain 20,000 linear ft. of archival material; 191,000 books,
pamphlets, and serials; and 500,000 photographs. It also provides support for a
broad spectrum of scholarly programs, including a center for advanced study,
which offers fellowships and sponsors conferences and seminars, a joint graduate
program offered in conjunction with the University of Delaware; and an outdoor
museum that interprets the birthplace of the Du Pont Company.
The library at Hagley seeks to document American business, economic, and
technological history within a broad social, cultural, and political context.
The library collects the records of all types of commercial, industrial,
service, and financial enterprises as well as the papers of the entrepreneurs
who helped build these businesses. Its collections illustrate the impact of the
business system on American society - its economic, technological, and labor
history. Hagley also collects the archives of trade associations and other
national business organizations.
Hagley's manuscript and archival collections contain the records of more than
1,000 firms, with special emphasis on the Mid-Atlantic region. The companies
represented range from the mercantile houses of the late 18th century, through
the artisan workshops of the 19th century, to the multi-national corporations of
the 20th century. The business and personal papers of the Du Pont Company and
family were the core collections around which the library developed. Hagley's
collections also include records of the northwestern railways - the Philadelphia
& Reading and significant parts of the Pennsylvania Railroad archives. Other
companies represented include Sun Oil, Westmoreland Coal, Sperry UNIVAC,
Pennsylvania Power & Light Company, Bethlehem and Lukens Steel, Philadelphia
National Bank, First Pennsylvania Bank and Provident Mutual Insurance Company.
Hagley is also the repository for the records of three of the nation's most
important national business organizations: the Chamber of Commerce of the United
States, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Conference Board.
Hagley's collections draw researchers from all over the United States and the
world. Scholars in residence for periods ranging from several days to six months
come to explore the complex relationships between business, technology, and
society. In recent years, research has focused on issues of international
competitiveness, science and corporate strategy, business and the state, worker
training, batch, mass, and flexible production, trade, technology, and
industrial policy, advertising strategies, consumerism, and productivity.
Hagley's large corporate collections support this type of interdisciplinary
research. For example, the records of the Sun Oil Company (1886-1975, 540 linear
ft.) and the papers of the firm's founding Pew Family (1875-1970, 150 linear
ft.) trace the history of the petroleum industry in Pennsylvania and Texas.
These collections date from the last quarter of the nineteenth century and
describe Sun's origins in western Pennsylvania.
The correspondence of the company founder, Joseph Newton Pew, documents early
attempts at exploration and the construction of a pipeline to connect Sun's oil
fields to the Pittsburgh market. Sun became a major producer of crude oil after
the 1901 Spindletop strike in Beaumont, Texas. This enabled it to build a large
refinery in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania and to begin to market its products in
Europe. The records show, however, that Sun's efforts to compete with Standard
Oil for domestic customers were largely unsuccessful until the 1920's and
1930's, when it developed a differentiated product line featuring "Blue Sunoco".
The company's marketing and franchising strategies are described in the records.
There are also materials documen-ting Sun's industrial research program that led
to the development of the Houdry process for the catalytic cracking of petroleum
molecules to produce high octane gasoline and aviation fuel.
Hagley welcomes research in its collections, and offers a full range of services
including inter-library loan, photocopying, microfilming, and photographic
reproduction. Grants-in-aid or other assistance are often available to qualified
scholars. Hagley is a General Member of the Research Libraries Group and its
collections are accessible through the RLIN database.
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LAIRD NORTON: TWO ARCHIVES BETTER THAN ONE?
by Mike Harrell, Consulting Archivist, The Winthrop Group
If a company donates its early records to a public archival institu-tion, should
it feel obligated to continue donating, rather than consider establishing its
own archive? In many cases, it is undoubtedly best to maintain the continuity of
the archival record by open-ended donation and, indeed, the records otherwise
may not be saved at all. What if the company decides to create a new archive?
One such example is found in the Laird Norton Company, Seattle, Washington.
Laird Norton, originally a pioneer Minnesota lumber com-pany, was founded in
Winona in 1855 and went on to thrive during the Great Lakes pine boom of the
late 19th century. After the pineries were logged out, most of the Mississippi
River lumber companies disappeared or moved west. Laird Norton, too, shut down
its manu-fac-turing operations, but remained in Winona as a fiduciary company
for the benefit of the founding families.
This meant that records continued to be generated even though the nature of the
business records had changed sub-stantially. This has resulted in the
preser-vation of 138 years of company, business and family history, although not
in one place. In 1947, the Minnesota Historical Society acquired the company's
early files (1855 to 1905), but Laird Norton retained all post-lumber company
era records. In 1955, the company, which had become a Washington corporation
with close ties to the Northwest timber industry, moved its headquarters to
Seattle. In 1984, a company archive was formally established.
Since Laird Norton business activities have been so distinctly divided in time
and place, continuity of information seems to have been little affected by
having com-pany records separ-ated between Minnesota and Washington. The early
lumber era records are a unique contribution to Minnesota history,
appro-priately open to public use in that state. By the time the records were
donated, the company had little current use for them, due to its change of
business.
Moreover, the separ-ation of Laird Norton's archives between public and private
holdings has not hindered access by researchers. While the company was still in
Winona, an extensive and scholarly history of the company's lumber years was
written. In recent years, an historian of the lumber town of Potlatch, Idaho
utilized company records in Seattle and a narrative of Laird Norton's
involvement in the settlement of South Dakota was compiled from the M.H.S.
collection.
Should a company consider establishing a new archive rather than augmenting an
existing one? The example afforded by Laird Norton demonstrates that where
records by their circum-stances can be divided into discrete categories
according to their nature, dates and function, separate archives may thrive
harmoniously.
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BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE MANUSCRIPT DIVISION OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
by Mary M. Wolfskill
The Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress has significant holdings in
the area of business records dating from the 1630's to late in the 20th century;
however, most of these collections fall in the 18th and 19th centuries. The
collecting of busi-ness records has not been a major focus of the division, and
it is not included in present collecting policies because of the space
requirements in housing such poten-tially voluminous quantities of material.
Many of the existing collections in this area are quite small, numbering only a
few items or a single account book, while others contain hundreds of thousands
of items, including ledgers, journals, daybooks, cashbooks, invoices, bills,
receipts, sales books, wastebooks, and the like. They may comprise the records
of a company or be acquired as part of the personal papers of an individual.
The financial history of the United States government is well documented in the
Manuscript Division's presidential papers, which range from the administration
of George Washington to that of Calvin Coolidge, and in the papers of the more
than twenty individuals who served as Secretaries of the Treasury. For the
pre-Revolutionary era, there are personal and business accounts for various
individuals dating from 1717, and the papers of Robert Morris contain the
records of the Department of Finance for the Continental Congress for the years
1781-1784.
Among the earliest material in the division is an unusual collection of business
items amassed by antiquarian and Shakespearean scholar J.O. Halliwell-Phillips
to illustrate the history of prices in seventeenth and eighteenth century
England. These records are primarily the accounts of two British families, who
were part of the landed gentry. For the United States, similar records are
available for prosperous plantation owners such as Robert Carter and the
Randolph family of Virginia, which serve as important sources for the study of
social and cultural history as well as documenting commercial transactions.
The business history of larger firms can be traced in the voluminous records of
John Glassford and Company, which operated a system of branch stores along the
banks of the Potomac River from l753 to l834; in the accounts of the mercantile
firms of Stephen Collins and Son of Philadelphia, dating from l701 to 1857; and
among the commercial records of the Ellis-Allan and related companies of
Richmond Virginia, which imported and sold general merchandise, and bought and
exported tobacco.
Examples of records found in personal papers of individuals are the records of
the National Negro Business League in the Booker T. Washington Papers and early
IBM material in the papers of Herman Hollerith, inventor of the key punch
tabulating machine. The papers of Averell Harriman abound in business records
related to his activities as vice-president and chairman of the board of the
Union Pacific Railroad, director of the Illinois Central Railroad, chairman of
the board of the Merchant shipbuilding Corporation and W.A. Harriman & Company,
investor in Soviet Georgian manganese concessions, and chair of the Business
Advisory Council. His dealings in financial matters for the U.S. government with
the National Recovery Administration and the European Recovery Program (Marshall
Plan) are also well documented.
These are only a few examples of the business-related material available in the
Manuscript Division. Since April 30 the Library of Congress MUMS (Multiple Use
MARC System) database has become available through INTERNET. The manuscript file
is part of that system and can be accessed by adding a file qualifier (;f=mss)
after the search request. The MUMS database is a cataloger's tool and is not a
user-friendly system. The following are examples of search commands:
find business;f=mss
find s business;f=mss
find accounts;f=mss
find merchants;f=mss
find c International Business Machines;f=mss
find p Harriman, W. A.;f=mss
Searches can be narrowed by using the following letters:
personal names = find p
corporate names = find c
titles = find t
subjects = find s
More information on gaining access to this file will soon be available.
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INTERVIEWEES/INTERVIEWERS AND LEGAL RELEASES
by John A. Neuenschwander
As practitioners of the craft of interviewing, oral historians share what
appears on the surface to be a common methodology. One of the most salient
features of this approach is the use of legal releases. No workshop or training
session worthy of its name ever leaves off before it is stressed that one must
always secure a legal release from each and every interviewee. The message that
interviews without releases are downright dangerous to use comes through loud
and clear. The term "legal release" is, however, not a very accurate term. It
unfortunately de-emphasizes the process that should surround the actual transfer
of legal rights between the program/ archives and both interviewees and
interviewers.
According to Black's Law Dictionary, a release is "The relinquishment,
concession, or giving up of a right, claim, or privilege, by a person in whom it
exists or to whom it accrues, to the person against whom it might have been
demanded or enforced." What is missing from this definition is the manner in
which the transfer or relinquishment occurs. Unlike runners and triathletes who
must sign a legal release before the sponsoring organization will allow them to
compete, interviewees and interviewers are not contestants. They are either
parties to a contract or donors. By shifting the focus from the rights that such
individuals give up to the manner in which this is done, both the legal standing
of the interviewee and/or interviewer and the importance of the legal document
conveying their rights come into clearer focus.
In the eyes of the law, legal releases from interviewees and interviewers are in
fact contracts or deeds of gift. If and when such an agreement is ever
contested, the same rules of construction that a court uses for contracts and
deeds of gift in general will be applied. In the case of a contract, the
elements necessary to make it a binding document are: agreement, consideration,
competent parties and lawful purpose. For a deed of gift to be valid it must
show donative intent, actual delivery and acceptance by the receiving party.
The point is that oral historians should not utilize agreements, which do not
contain all the necessary elements for them to qualify as a legally binding
contract or deed of gift. In the event of a lawsuit over the terms of a legal
release, a carelessly drafted agreement could cause a great legal difficulty for
the program or archive responsible for its creation. (See, Society of the
Survivors of the Riga Ghetto, Inc. v. Huttenbach, 535 N.Y.S. 2d 670 (1988).)
For business archivists, it is especially important that legal release
agreements be approached from the transferring side of things. I suspect that
the in-house nature of many oral history projects in the business sector tends
to make the transfer of rights a more sensitive issue when one is dealing with
present and/or former employees as well as former competitors. Even if this
supposition is not entirely accurate, drafting legally sound release agreements
should be given appropriate emphasis for the reasons previously noted. The
following suggestions may assist in the process:
1. Seek input from legal counsel in drafting such agreements before you initiate
your project. This input could result in a basic contract or deed of gift that
makes an effective transfer of rights but avoids unnecessary legalese and
recitals of distant contingencies, which may frighten off prospective
interviewees. Counsel should also draft special provisions that may be inserted
in the basic contact or deed of gift to deal with special requests to seal an
interview, etc.
2. There must be an explicit transfer of copyright interests in any agreement
that you use. (See, 17 U.S.C.A. Sec. 204(a), The Copyright Act of 1976.)
3. Have interviewers who are something other than full-time employees (i.e.
independent contractors) sign off on any copyright interests they may have on
the interviews they conduct. A future claim by such an interviewer that he or
she is a joint author with the interviewee in terms of copyright ownership is
more than just a remote possibility.
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"THE BEST ADVERTISING BAR NONE": LEO BURNETT, INC.
by Mary Edith Arnold
For one week in October of 1991, a 25-by-10 foot full-sized outdoor billboard
featuring three portraits of Leo Burnett, who in 1935 founded the advertising
agency that still bears his name, dominated the lobby of the Leo Burnett Company
building in Chicago. Seldom seen photos from the collection of the corporate
archives provided the images duplicated by the artist, who also has created
hand-painted Marlboro billboards for the agency for nearly twenty-five years.
Around the steel girder base were clustered six-foot-tall unzipped black
portfolios, designed to look like the big black bag Leo was often seen carrying
(and which resembles those which the Burnett employees still tote to client
meetings today). Mounted on boards framed by the portfolios were print ads,
quotations, corres-pondence, speeches and photographsΦall part of an exhibition
entitled "Where Is That Big Black Bag Going With That Little Man?" The
exhibition, tracing Leo's Burnett's life (1891-1971) from his childhood in
Michigan through his remarkable career in advertising, was mounted to mark the
100th Anniversary of Leo's birth.
Vintage images of the Jolly Green Giant, Norman Rockwell renderings on Kellogg's
cereal boxes, Tony the Tiger, and the Marlboro Man were just a few of the
graphics that stopped people short and drew them into intriguing displays
telling the stories behind the origins of these campaigns, now a permanent part
of our popular cultural heritage.
The Archives of the Leo Burnett Company, Inc., which supplied the exhibit
elements, was brought together in the late 1980's, and is a valued company
resource. The archives collections are used primarily to support the ongoing
business activities of the Leo Burnett Company and to reinforce its effective
and unique corporate culture.
Living Principles
The Burnett culture reflects the values and philosophies of its founder,
elements which were instru-mental in bringing the agency to its position today:
eleventh in the world's top fifty advertising organ-izations, with over $4.3
billion in billings. Current management actively reinforces these values and
philosophies to ensure continued growth and success.
Mr. Burnett was passionate about the role advertising plays in supporting
capitalism and free enterprise and demanded that the agency provide clients with
"the best advertising bar none." He believed in serving a limited number of
clients and becoming deeply involved in each of their businesses (fifteen of its
current major clients have been with the agency for over twenty years). As they
grew, Leo Burnett reasoned, so would the agency.
He believed that if employees focused on producing superior advertising,
finances would take care of themselves. The Burnett agency is one of the very
few that remain privately-held today, largely because Mr. Burnett felt strongly
that the business should be owned only by those actively engaged in its
day-to-day work. These are just a few examples of Mr. Burnett's beliefs that are
documented in the archives, which are a part of the Burnett corporate heritage.
As current company strategies are built upon this strong corporate heritage, the
Archives supports management in its efforts to communicate corporate philosophy
and values to clients and employees alike. Mr. Burnett was a gifted and prolific
writer and his speeches and writings are among the most highly utilized in the
collection. "Leo" quotations are sought regularly for inclusion in client
presentations, organization memoranda, employee publications, agency
advertising, and internal manuals and handbooks.
The agency's Chicago headquarters, which were completed in 1989, are home to
nearly 2,400 Burnetters. Examples of notable Burnett Company advertising are
displayed throughout the building in order to share the visual corporate
heritage with current employees and clients. Ads illustrating effective
techniques and strategies pioneered by the agency have also been utilized as
illustrations in employee yearly-planning calendars.
Chronicling Ads through History
Due to heavy internal use of the collections and to staffing limitations, the
Archives is fairly restricted in its ability to support outside research.
Occasionally, however, the Archives is able to respond to outside requests.
Such was the case when the Chicago Historical Society was planning its current
exhibition (through August 15, 1993), "Chicago goes to War - The Home Front,
1941-1945." The agency's contributions as a founding member of the Advertising
Council during World War II (then called the War Advertising Council) began a
long-standing tradition of active agency involvement in worthy pro bono projects
on both the local and national level. Mr. Burnett was extremely proud of the
advertising community's support of vital initiatives such as the campaigns for
scrap salvage and victory gardens during the war years. The Archives, with
client cooperation, was pleased, therefore, to be able to share with the Chicago
Historical Society examples of wartime advertising developed for clients during
the early 1940's. The ads vividly illustrate the messages received by the public
during those war years.
Also, in support of the agency's Corporate Affairs Department, the Archives
occasionally responds to outside requests for quotations or examples of
advertising needed to illustrate or augment articles or publications about
advertising. E.g., samples of Burnett advertising were made available for an
article which appeared in a recent issue of Lear's magazine, chronicling
advertising strategies directed at women throughout the decades since the
1920's. The ads selected by the magazine editors illustrate the fact that
advertising tells us a great deal about the values or dreams of the audience
that the advertising is attempting to reach.
The active role which the Burnett Archives plays in supporting the ongoing
business of the agency may help to ensure that the collection continues to be
developed and preserved, so that this vital segment of advertising history is
documented and available to the Leo Burnett Company and researchers in years to
come.
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FROM FUR TRADERS TO HIGH TECH: BUSINESS RECORDS AT THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
by Mark A. Greene, Curator of Manuscripts Acquisitions
The importance of commercial and financial institutions in the history of
Minnesota has been recognized by the Minnesota Historical Society since its
inception in 1849, when its founders began preserving the records of businesses
in the state. The Society now has (so far as we know) one of the largest
holdings of business records, as well as one of the single largest business
collections, in the United States (18,700 cu. ft. and 10,600 cu. ft.,
respectively). The effort continues today through the acquisition of a selective
but broad record of many commercial enter-prises and through cooperative
under-takings with businesses and business organizations to preserve and
interpret their histories. Business records constitute one of the Society's
principal manuscript strengths (and the single largest unit of our 38,000 cubic
ft. manuscript holdings), the others being public affairs, environmental
history, the Civil War, women's history, and agriculture.
The Society's manuscript holdings on Minnesota business reflect the diversity of
the economic history of the state, and run from seventeenth century fur trade
through venture capital firms in the 1980's. These business records range in
size from single items to the 15,500 cubic feet of records of the Great Northern
and Northern Pacific Railway companies. The holdings include both the records of
businesses and the papers of business people. The best of the collections
include every significant type of business record: correspondence, legal
department files, accounting volumes, minutes, reports and analyses, advertising
and public relations, photos, etc. In addition to manuscript collections, there
are records relating to business in several of the Society's other collection
units: the Minnesota State Archives, our Research Library, and our Newspaper,
Sound and Visual, Art, and Museum collections.
Virtually every type of business common or important to Minnesota history is
represented, from agriculture to high technology. However, the holdings'
greatest strengths (considering number of collections, size of collections, and
quality of collections) are in the areas of transportation, agribusiness,
lumber, and mining -- the four foundations of Minnesota's economy through the
middle of this century. (A select list of major collections follows this
article.)
The majority of business collections (in both number and size) represent defunct
companies. However, the Society does aggressively target active Minnesota
businesses whose records we feel strongly should be preserved, if the company
has taken no steps to inaugurate an archives or -- as has too often been the
case -- has recently eliminated the position of archivist. Active companies who
want advice about or a home for their historical records also approach us. We
feel ethically bound to explain to all businesses that not only is a corporate
archives an option (as a possible alternative to donation), but one which we
will assist them in creating and main-tain-ing. We have provided consulta-tion
and support to Pillsbury, General Mills, H.B. Fuller, St. Paul Companies
(insurance), 3M, and Control DataΦto name only the largest firmsΦto help them
establish corporate archives.
Certain currently active companies, especially those that choose to have or to
reinstate corporate archives, provide the Society with records of enduring
historical value. The initial transfer of material is sometimes confined to the
company's "historical files" or defunct archives; usually we work with the
company to develop thereafter a periodic transfer of archival records as they
become inactive. Public access to the records of active corporations is usually
restricted, by contract, typically for 10 to 25 years from the date of creation
of the record. Society staff will perform some reference service for the donor
beyond that generally extended to researchers. Under certain cir-cum-stances we
will for-mally loan back to the donor records which the company needs for an
exten-ded (but defined) period.
There is no charge to the corpor-ation for the Society processing, storing and
providing reference service for the records. Our benefit is owner-ship of the
records upon receipt, and the ability therefore to ensure that important records
are preserved and even-tually made publicly available.
The economy of Minnesota has changed dram-atic-ally in the last 40 years.
Lumber, mining, and railroads have receded as influential industries, to be
replaced by high technology (Cray, Control Data, Honeywell, 3M), retail sales
and services (Dayton-Hudson, Carlson Companies, Musicland), health care (Group
Health, Medtronic, Mayo Clinic, Hazelden), and airlines (Northwest). Many of
these are Fortune 500 companies, and the potential size of their historical
records is staggering. Hence the Manuscripts Section of the Society has launched
a major study to redefine and refine our goals in the area of business
documentation. We hope to have a report available for distribution by the end of
1993.
Appendix: Selected List of Major Collections
in the Minnesota Historical Society
Transportation
Great Northern Railway. Co., 1854-1970, 4,900 cu. ft.
Northern Pacific Railway Co., 1861-1970, 10,600 cu. ft.
Soo Line Railroad Co., 1870-1975, 275 cu. ft.
Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Rwy. Co., 1874-1984, 124 cu. ft.
Minnesota Transfer Railway Co., 1882-1983, 103 cu. ft.
Republic Airlines, 1946-86, 59 cu. ft.
Northwest Airlines, 1946-86, 26 cu. ft.
St. Paul Union Depot Co., 1879-1982, 72 cu. ft.
Agribusiness
American Crystal Sugar Co., 1899-1973, 192 cu. ft.
Northrup King Co., 1884-1980, 66 cu. ft.
Farmers Union Central Exch. (CENEX), 1894-1989, 32 cu. ft.
Minnesota Association of Cooperatives, 1944-89, 63 cu. ft.
Harry A. Bullis (General Mills), 1898-1965, 13 cu. ft.
Peavey Co. (flour milling), 1905-1981, 64 cu. ft.
St. Paul Union Stockyards Co., 1886-1982, 80.5 cu. ft.
Lumber
Conwed Corp., 1921-89, 37 cu. ft.
Laird, Norton Co., 1855-1905, 92 cu. ft.
T.B. Walker and Family, 1860-1951, 308 cu. ft.
Weyerhaeuser Family and Companies, 1860-1961, 166 cu. ft.
Winton Lumber Co., 1894-1962, 70 cu. ft.
John M. Musser, 1935-90, 33 cu. ft.
Mining
Adams Family Mining Co., 1850-1970, 149 cu. ft.
E.J. Longyear Co., 1885-1949, 225 cu. ft.
E.W. Davis, 1883-1973, 75 cu. ft.
Miscellaneous: Manufacturing, Land, Law, Finance
Davidson Company (real estate), 1870-1970, 108 cu. ft.
Davis, Kellogg, and Severance (law), 1900-25, 106 cu. ft.
Jason Clark Easton (banking, agriculture, real estate),
1849-1941, 221 cu. ft.
First Midwest Corp. (venture capital), 1958-90, 41 cu. ft.
Honeywell, Inc., 1890-1980, 48 cu. ft.
Munsingwear, Inc., 1887-1987, 48 cu. ft.
Norwest Corporation (banking), 1888-1985, 55 cu. ft.
Rose Bros. Fur Co., 1855-1955, 78 cu. ft.
United Power Association (utility), 1955-76, 180 cu. ft.
Magnus Wefald (law, farming), 1877-1989, 100 cu. ft.
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TALES OF THE SEA AT THE MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM
by Fred Calabretta, Oral Historian
Founded in 1929, Mystic Seaport is a non-profit maritime museum located on a
17-acre riverfront site in Mystic, Con-necticut. The museum includes historic
ships, a village area recreating 19th century coastal life and shoreside indus-tries,
a working preservation shipyard and small boat shop, formal exhibit galleries, a
planetarium, and a research library. The Museum's mission is to collect,
preserve, and interpret the materials, artifacts, vessels, and skills relating
to American maritime history. Based in the Museum's G.W. Blunt White Library,
the Oral History Program ranks among the Museum's most active and provides
valuable support to other programs and areas of activity.
The oral history process is also an excellent means of documenting the history
of maritime-related businesses, including the lives and work of nautical
tradesmen, management, and owners. Our studies of ship and boatbuilding offer a
case in point. Interviews have yielded valuable infor-mation pertaining to such
topics as the impact of national economic trends, the relationship between
management and em-ployees, operating policies and practices, sales and
marketing, how and why business decisions were made, and details about the
acquisition of lumber and other materials.
The Oral History Collection at the museum evolved gradually from the 1960's,
when interviews were conducted for occa-sional research or museum projects, to a
grant funded program in 1981 (which lapsed in 1983), and the establishment in
1986 of a full-time active program of interviewing and processing. The Oral
History Collection, which in 1983 consisted of 68 interviews, now numbers over
300 recordings. More than two-thirds of these are described in a guide to the
collection that was published in 1992.
The oral history recordings are a unique body of primary source material,
containing extensive documentation per-taining to maritime history. Subject
content reflects most of the Museum's major areas of interest, including
fisheries, whaling, ship and boat building, recreational boating and sailing,
life at sea, and life in a seaport community. The recor-dings complement the
Museum's collections of more traditional materials such as books, artifacts,
photographs and manuscripts.
People with a broad range of backgrounds and experience have been interviewed.
The Museum has, in recent years, become increasingly active in the documentation
of yachting and recreational boating. Oral history has been a major part of this
effort and interviews have been conducted with numerous individuals involved in
the design, construction, racing, and cruising of sail and power boats and
yachts. Although the lives of such people are often well documented, the
interviews provide revealing glimpses of the individuals and, as a result of
thorough preparation and research, help to answer questions and fill gaps in the
existing documentation.
A different type of oral history project is a current study of the Stonington
fishing fleet, the last commercial fleet in Connecticut. This study, which also
includes extensive photography, is another example of how oral history can be
used to document the history and current state of a local business. The region's
fishing industry is in transition and decline as a result of increased
government regulation, depleted fish stocks, and changes in the community. These
factors, and the tradi-tional impact of fishing on the economic and social
structure of the region justify, the documentation of this industry and in fact
make it imperative. Annual fish catch figures, vessel specifications and similar
information is a matter of record. The purpose of the oral history project is to
document the lives of the people involved in the business of commercial fishing.
The study is, in essence a merger of business and social history.
A recent interview with a fisherman illustrates this emphasis. The man dis-cussed
fish catching methods and his boat, but more revealing were his feelings and
thoughts about the nature of his work and its influence on his personal
relationships. For example, he described how the long hours, risks, and
financial instability of fishing create marriage hardships. He also commented on
another relationship; his eight year association with his fellow crewmember. The
longevity of this asso-ciation is unusual among fisherman, and the narrator
noted that he had probably spent more time with his fishing partner than he had
with his wife over the past eight years. The two men regard each other almost as
brothers.
The Museum plans to develop a traveling exhibit and possibly a publication using
oral histories and photographs generated by Stonington Fishing Project. But
finding a reasonable balance between the dual priorities of processing completed
interviews and ac-quiring additional recordings poses an interesting challenge
for oral history programs and managers. Although steps should be taken to make
existing interviews as useful and accessible as possible, the urgency of
conducting additional interviews, particularly with elderly narrators, also must
be taken into consideration.
This is an unpleasant but important aspect of the oral history process. More
than 20 of the individuals I have inter-viewed in the past seven years have
died. The interviews with those people added a substantial amount of
information, much of it unique, to the historical record. A less active
interviewing schedule would have resulted in the irretrievable loss of that
information.
Although such challenges must be met, an oral history program is a valuable and
practical means of collecting historically significant information. Recorded
remin-iscences help to humanize the historical record and mend gaps in existing
docu-mentation. In dealing with narrators, interviewers should remember three
key points: be prepared, be professional, and be nice. The last point, although
it may sound trite, is actually the most important. A responsible approach on
the part of the interviewer almost always results in a positive experience for
both parties involved. The interviewer gains useful information, while the
attention and interest focused on the narrator provides a renewed pride in the
experiences of a lifetime.
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CORPORATE ORAL HISTORY AT THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
by James E. Fogerty, Head, Acquisitions and Curatorial Department
The Minnesota Historical Society has been involved in the creation of oral
history interviews for many years, dating to J. Fletcher Williams' interviews
with territorial pioneers in the 1860's and 1870's. In 1949, Lucile M. Kane,
then Curator of Manuscripts, undertook a series of interviews on lumbering in
the St. Croix River Valley, which became the foundation of the modern oral
history collection.
The Society's oral history program was formally organized in 1967 with the
creation of the Oral History Office, headed by Lila Johnson Goff. Corpor-ate
oral history forms a small but increasingly important part of the business
archives at the Society. Corporate records comprise one of the Society's largest
subject groups, as noted in Mark Greene's article in the summer 1993 issue of
this newsletter. Oral history is a natural and indeed necessary part of the
documentation of any corporation. While the paper and electronic records record
facts, figures, and decisions made, they seldom chronicle motivation: the
personal and often quite idiosyncratic realities behind the statistics. The
increasing use of telephone and electronic communication has clearly
demonstrated the limit-ations and insufficiency of the written record.
Oral histories largely are produced to fill gaps in the records of companies
whose archives have been transferred to the Society. Two sets of interviews were
conducted at American Crystal Sugar Company, the nation's largest beet sugar
producer. The president and key man-agers were interviewed, as were the farmers
(and the migrant workers) who produced the raw material for the Company's
factories. At the family-owned Peavey Company, interviews with members of the
founding family and with man-agers focused on the company's growth and its
eventual sale to ConAgra, Inc. A current project with the Federal Reserve Bank
of Minneapolis concerns the Bank's evolution under its current and past four
presidents.
Graco, Inc. will be the subject of the Society's first double project.
Interviews with managers and members of the founding family were conducted in
1985; a second set of interviews gets underway in early 1994.
Future corporate projects already are being planned, and the use of oral history
to document business can only grow. Where else are executives likely to record
their real views on corporate philanthropy, government relations, and the
influences that have molded their views? Corpor-ations are, after all, made up
of people, and oral history brings the texture and color of their personalities
to the historical record.
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THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE ARCHIVES: A HERITAGE OF COAL AND STEEL
by Linda A. Ries, Head, Processing Section
The Pennsylvania State Archives has a wealth of historic documents relating to
the state's business history. Although the primary function of the Archives
(which is officially known as the Division of Archives and Manuscripts of the
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission) is to acquire, preserve, and make
available for study the permanently valuable public records of the Commonwealth,
with emphasis given to records of state government. The collections also contain
records from the private sector, especially Pennsylvania's corporations. Many of
these pertain to the coal, iron and transportation industries so significant to
the Commonwealth's heritage. (A partial list of corporate records follows this
article.)
The Archives holdings include records associated with prominent iron furnaces
and iron masters, such as the Robert Coleman Family of Lebanon County, which
operated, among others, the Cornwall Iron Works. The iron industry collections
include such items as cashbooks, daybooks, ledgers, order and payroll books.
Records of the anthracite and bituminous coal industry describe strikes and
industrial strife, as well as day-to-day operations. Such records typically
include general correspondence, minute books, account books and estate records.
Additional information about the coal industry can be found in the
correspondence of state coal mine inspectors (1903-1951, 11 cubic ft.) and
accident registers (1899-1972, 38 volumes) kept by the Department of Mines and
Minerals Industries, a state agency. The accident registers, containing
thousands of names, are particularly helpful to family historians seeking
information about coal mining ancestors.
The Archives also maintains over 7,000 cubic ft. of records of businesses
relating to the transportation industry, especially canals and railroads. The
bulk of these belong to the Pennsylvania Central Railroad Corp., largely
consisting of records of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. and its subsidiaries.
Significant record series include correspondence of the company president and
board of directors. Information about the transportation industry is augmented
by government records, including Internal Improvements Files 1777-1902 kept by
several Pennsylvania state agencies and records of the Board of Canal
Commissioners 1816-1868, the Highway Department 1706-1873, and the Port of
Philadelphia, 1727-1956.
The State Archives is not collecting corporate records at this time as its
facility is rapidly becoming full and available space is preserved primarily for
government records. Potential acquisitions are generally referred to a local
repository.
Other museums and historic sites under the administration of the Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission collect corporate records as well. Records
related to the oil industry are housed at the Drake Well Museum, whose key
collections include the papers of Ida Tarbell, Edwin Drake and the Valvoline Oil
Company. The Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum collects records relating
to the coal, silk and other industries in northeastern Pennsylvania. In
addition, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania maintains holdings including
records of the Vulcan Locomotive Works and the Baldwin Locomotive Works and an
extensive photograph collection (over 40,000 photographs) relating to railroads
all over the country.
Most of the private records mentioned in (or listed in the appendix to) this
article were received from companies which are no longer in operation. Some of
the records cited may be subject to donor-imposed restrictions. Records are
available for free on-site research in the Search Room in Harrisburg. Mail
inquiries for research by staff are subject to a modest search fee. Some
holdings are on microfilm and are available for purchase or through interlibrary
loan. For more information, contact: Reference Section, Pennsylvania State
Archives, Box 1026, Harrisburg, PA 17108-1026, tel. (717) 783-3281.
Appendix - Selected Records in the Penn. State Archives
Iron
Cornwall Iron Works, 1757-1940 (207 cu. ft.)
Pine Grove Furnace Collection, 1785-1914 (60 cu. ft.)
Curtin Family Iron Works, 1810-1914 (6 cu. ft.)
Anthracite and Bituminous Coal
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, 1792-1978 (204 cu. ft.)
Fall Brook Railroad and Coal Company, 1768-1938 (345 cu. ft.)
Pennsylv. Coal Co., 1838-1975 (125 cu. ft.)
Transportation
Penn. Central Railroad Corp., ca. 1828-1969 (4800 cu. ft.)
Schuylkill Navig. Co., 1815-1951 (90 cu. ft.)
Erie Lackawanna Railway Company, 1832-1968 (70 cu. ft.)
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, 1849-1962 (535 cu. ft.)
Baldwin Locomotive Works, ca. 1907-1950 (406 cu. ft.)
Related State Records
Dept. of Mines and Mineral Industries, 1903-1951 (11 cu. ft.)
Accident Registers, 1899-1972 (38 vols.)
Internal Improvements Files (Depts. of State, Treasury.,
Auditor Gen'l and Compt. Gen'l), 1777-1902 (20 cu. ft.)
Board of Canal Commissioners, 1816-1868 (100 cu. ft.)
Port of Philadelphia, 1727-1956 (100 cu. ft.)
Highways Dept., 1706-1873 (650 items)
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HANDS ACROSS THE WATER: SAA MONTREAL MAKES A DIFFERENCE FOR PHILLIPS PETROLEUM
by Susan Box, Corporate Archivist
Of the many opportunities afforded by the 1992 SAA meeting in Montreal, the most
important for the Corporate Archives at Phillips Petroleum Company proved to be
those provided at the Inter-national Business Archives Forum hosted by Kraft
General Foods. It was there that I met Torkel Thime, Director of the State
Archives of Norway and Hans Eyvind Naess, Director of the Norwegian
Documentation Centre for Business Archives, both in Stavanger. But first, some
background...
In 1991, Phillips established an archival repository. The initial accession or
"core collection" consisted of about 650 cubic feet of materials (including,
among other things, 65 videotaped interviews, 20,000 photo-graphic negatives,
1,000 slides and over 50 years of advertising) gathered between 1979-1982 to
write the company's 66th anniver-sary history book, which was published in 1983.
While the new facility was being organized, a policy and proce-dures manual was
written with a pro-active stance to promote the archival program throughout the
company.
The plan adopted by Phillips contemplated that over a five-year period the
archivist would visit all of the company's major offices to survey historical
records, establish guidelines, and conduct programs about the archives and its
services. Phillips' largest overseas facility is located in Stavanger, Norway,
yet E-mail and other attempts to communicate with the people there met with
little, if any, response. I went to Montreal without expectations, but hoping I
might meet a Norwegian who might know someone at Phillips Petroleum Company of
Norway (PPCoN). Torkel Thime and Han Eyvind Naess knew many people there -
especially the key people who could make something happen.
While I was in Montreal, internal over-sight for the PPCoN Archives was
reorgan-ized, which helped favor the project. By March 1993, I had written a
proposal with six objectives to be accomplished over a two-week period, among
them to conduct records surveys; determine the best loca-tion and ownership of
the materials used to write Giant Discovery: A History of Ekofisk through the
First 20 Years; begin prelimin-ary preparations with the state archivist for an
ICA petroleum archives conference for 1994; and meet with the archivist at
Statoil (Norwegian state run oil company) to discuss possible projects of mutual
benefit.
PPCoN approved the proposal and provided funding. PPCoN later agreed, however,
to slightly alter and condense my ambi-tious two-week project into one week so
that I could accept an invitation to join 11 Norwegian petroleum archivists (inclu-ding
Naess, Thime and another NDNO staff mem-ber) on an investi-gative trip to
England during the week preceding my visit to Norway.
The trip to England included a preliminary site visit to PPCo U.K. in Woking;
visits to the U.K. public records offices on Chancery Lane and at Kew (which
included a roundtable discussion with Michael Roper about records management and
archives in Third World countries); the BP/UK archives at the University of
Warwick in Coventry and the Esso/UK records management group in Leatherhead.
I spent three days in Stavanger in scheduled interviews with the managers of
each of PPCo's divisions. Another day was spent with Thime and Naess vis-iting
their facilities and learning about Norwegian laws, records and archives
practices, etc. The last day was used in Oslo in PPCoN's government affairs
office, which holds all of the company's most valu-able historical records,
including 17 filing cabinets filled with the licenses, contracts and the vital
records that allow PPCoN to operate. Nothing had been thrown away.
I will be returning to Oslo for 2-3 weeks in August 1994 to inventory and
process these records for permanent retention in Stavanger. I will also be
returning to Norway for a week to present a lecture at the ICA Conference on
Petro-leum Archives, sponsored by the ICA Business and Labor Section. My
assigned topic is "Access to Information: Practices and Future Trends at
Phillips". In addition I will be attending the Offshore North Sea Conference (ONS)
and following up on work which started there in 1993.
Although the events outlined above would have happened eventually, there is no
question that meeting Thime and Naess in Montreal has made a difference in the
work of the Corporate Archives and created even more opportunities - what a
difference a meeting makes!
to top of 1993
VIDEOTAPING ORAL HISTORY
by Carol Harper and Bettye Pruitt
In an oral history project, cost may preclude recording everyone on video, but
for key individuals the advantages can justify added expense.
Advantages/ Opportunities in the Video Medium
Video captures the "whole" person, not just words and ideas, but personality and
style expressed through voice, facial expressions and body language. Far more
than "talking heads" (waist-up shots of people speaking), a creative video can
enhance the audience's understanding of a subject.
Ideas to Consider
Try shooting "on location" - touring a plant or other business site, taping the
interview as you go. Add artifacts to the interview, for example by having an
inventor hold or demonstrate a new product or process as he or she speaks. Try
taping a facilitated discussion of a firm's founders or key personnel, their
dynamic interactions would not be captured well on audio alone.
Planning
Before shooting, determine the end use of the videotape. For an archival oral
history, the interview style can be conversational. If the tape is to be edited
into a video presentation, however, your interviewee must keep his or her
answers short and to the point. This will require careful planning of the
interview questions and style, and you may want to have a producer/ director
working with you to ensure the quality and usefulness of the final product.
Cost
For one day of shooting, one can expect to spend $1,250 for a camera person,
grip, and Betacam equipment. Lighting and set-up take about one and one-half
hours, packing up another hour. Two separate one hour interviews can be shot in
one day if travel time is minimal. Crews do not generally operate for a
half-day, and if crew members belong to the are union, specific time constraints
may apply.
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TALKING PICTURES: ORAL HISTORIES AT THE WALT DISNEY ARCHIVES
by David R. Smith, Archives Director
During the 23 years that the Walt Disney Archives has been in existence, there
has been no formal oral history pro-gram. Nevertheless, the collection includes
a wealth of oral histories. Through the years, an extensive collection of
interviews with key Disney employees and Disney family members has been
accumulated.
Many of the interviews in the Archives came to us from authors who were writing
books about Walt Disney and The Walt Disney Company. During the research stages
for their books, these authors would tape record interviews with employees,
retirees and family members. Generally, transcripts have been made of the
inter-views as an aid to the authors. At the conclusion of their projects, they
have generously turned over their interviews and transcripts to the Archives.
Having the transcripts has simplified the use of the interviews; almost none of
our researchers ever want to listen to the original tape recordings.
Walt Disney himself was interviewed in great detail by his daughter, Diane
Disney Miller and her ghost writer, Pete Martin, when she was preparing a
biography of her father in the mid-1950's. These some 20 hours of taped
interviews provide great insight into Walt Disney's life. There is also a
25-minute filmed interview of Walt Disney done by Fletcher Marble for the
Canadian Broadcasting Company in 1964. People who knew the man feel that this
interview shows the real Walt Disney, unlike the lead-ins for his television
shows, in which he was essentially performing as an actor.
The Walt Disney Imagineering Division, which plans our parks such as Disneyland
and Walt Disney World, at one time had a Key Employee Documentation Program. A
number of designers, engineers and artists who developed attractions at
Disneyland and other parks were interviewed on video-tape and corrected
transcripts were prepared. These interviews have been deposited in the Archives.
In addition, I have personally interviewed a few key employees on specific
topics or on the occasion of their respective retirements. Interviewees include
Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney's first animator and designer of Mickey Mouse, and Floyd
Gottfredson, who drew the Mickey Mouse comic strip for newspapers. My interview
with Gottfredson was utilized for a chapter in Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in
Color, published in 1988. The book contains early comic strips and information
about the artists who worked on them.
All of these materials combine to make up a collection of several hundred
interviews in the Walt Disney Archives. These interviews are extensively used by
company personnel and by accredited students and writers who have made
appointments to use the Archives.
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ORAL HISTORY AT THE WEYERHAEUSER ARCHIVES
by Donnie Crespo, Archivist
The preservation of recorded interviews is one method being used at Weyerhaeuser
to document the key events, figures, and practices that shaped the company into
a Fortune 100 corporation. In many cases, the information gleaned from the
Archives' oral histories cannot be effectively used as part of the company's
factual record. These recordings do, however, provide insight into people's
perceptions of events and these in turn provide an invaluable supplement to the
company's written record.
The first oral his-tories that recorded Weyerhaeuser operations were conducted
by Columbia University. In 1956, University staff inter-viewed 64 people for
Timber & Men, a company history subsequently published in 1963. These
interviews, which also included some with representatives of com-peting
companies, focused on industry lumbering practices and daily life in the forests
of the Pacific Northwest and Midwest.
Fifty-seven interviews, which were held in the late 1960εs and early 1970εs,
formed the basis for a Weyerhaeuser-commissioned book, From Jamestown to Coffin
Rock, a history of company operations in southwest Washington State. This book
detailed the growth of the Longview operation, which ranks as one of the world's
largest wood products complexes, through the exper-iences and accomplishments of
employees working in the mills and surrounding forests.
When the Weyerhaeuser Archives were established in 1974, the transcripts from
the Columbia University interviews, together with the tapes and transcripts used
in writing the history of Longview, were incorporated into the Archives
collection. Augmenting the oral history collection was an immediate priority.
The Archives staff then began to interview long-term em-ployees in positions
ranging from mill and forest workers to the company's top executives.
Today, the Archive's oral history collection consists of over 500 interviews.
These include recordings of a broad range of personalities chosen for the roles
they played in the company's history plus interviews related to specific company
operations. For example, 126 interviews have been collected that document Far
East operations.
The Archives staff and a consultant continue to develop the collection,
inter-viewing retired executives. In each case the recordings are transcribed
and the participant is allowed to review the written transcriptions. Changes
made to the hard copy are preserved as well as the original tapes. Releases are
obtained for both the transcripts and the tapes.
Oral history can be a time consuming and expensive way to supplement a company's
historical record. But it remains a unique and engaging form of historical
documen-tation with varied applications. The Archives staff has used oral
history tapes and accompanying transcripts for research projects, exhibit
development, and written company histories.
As Weyerhaeuser approaches its 100th anniversary and develops materials to
support that celebration, the oral history collection will provide an important
personal dimension to the events that shaped the company and its growth over the
last century.
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