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Traverse City, Michigan manufacturer of the fireless "wonder cooker and baker" and a line of iceboxes, 1909-1919; records, including general office files, advertising,. minutes and reports, document the firms business activities.

The Traverse City Refrigerator Company's records are divided into two series: General Office Files and Minutes and Reports. The collection documents the company's administrative and business activities from 1909 to 1919.

The Ulster Iron Works records consist of documentation of the financial, management, and technical aspects of iron production during the 1830s and 1840s, and correspondence between the owners of the company and John Simmons, the on-site manager.

The Ulster Iron Works records consist of two parts, a bound volume that includes retained copies of out-going correspondence, and a series of approximately 100 miscellaneous items, mostly consisting of correspondence between the owners of the company and John Simmons, the on-site manager. The collection provides documentation of the financial, management, and technical aspects of iron production during the 1830s and 40s, with particularly interesting information on governmental contracting and on technology transfer from English and Welsh mills.

Both the bound volume and loose manuscripts include sets of technical specifications, and some plans and figures for various aspects of refining and iron production. The owners of the iron works were keen on importing the latest English and Welsh technology to make Ulster more efficient in production, with a specific interest in improving the rolling operations, furnace technology, steam power, and -- as might be expected for a works situated not far from the coal regions of Pennsylvania -- integrating anthracite into the operation as a fuel source. Among the miscellaneous manuscripts at the end of the collection are yield estimates and statements of production costs for various manufacturing processes, some production records, price comparisons with products from other works in the United States and Britain, and tests and specifications for various iron products.

The collection contains a number of items relating to labor and labor relations at the Saugerties mills. Scattered throughout the collection is correspondence relating to the hiring of both skilled and unskilled hands, with some particularly items relating to efforts to locate highly skilled English and Welsh workers and persuade them to emigrate, both to fill labor needs and to bring workers experienced with new technologies. In 1839, when William Young was traveling in Britain to examine iron works, Simmons argued that compared to English mills, Ulster could offer higher wages for several positions for boys, and argued that this might be an effective tool for luring emigrants in the face of an expected shortage of labor. There are also a number of items relating to workmen's wages, including some vouchers, receipts, and labor contracts for individual workers. Of a more personal nature, the collection includes a subscription list forwarded by John Simmons to provide relief to the widow of a mill hand (1830 August 25), and a letter from a former mill employee, Walter Kearny, requesting a loan to help purchase the business of a deceased partner. There are several references, though none terribly substantive, to "disturbance and dissatisfaction" among the employees of the mill in 1831. An 1842 letter relating to the New Jersey Iron Works, another operation managed by the owners of the Ulster Iron Works, contains even greater evidence of labor unrest. The unidentified writer insists that the workers accept a 25% reduction in wages without negotiation, and concludes, "we have orders on hand to execute, which may take another month to complete. We shall then stop, until the Workmen submit to our terms" (1842 January 16). A few letters relate to Simmons' own dissatisfaction with his position at the iron works and his feeling that his authority was being undermined by the actions of the owners.

Like many "business" collections from the early Republic, the Ulster Iron Works Records contain some personal correspondence of the mill owners and executives, particularly of the supervisor, John Simmons. Among the most poignant letters in the collection is a letter from Simmons to a bar owner, Samuel Oaks, in which Simmons writes that his father had been frequenting Oaks' "works" and been seen "in Places and in Condition highly Discreditable to the humane race" (1834 August 8). Simmons professed to finding the situation "mortifying" and pleaded with Oaks to persuade his father to return home.

The West family papers are comprised of approximately 1,400 letters, letter books, documents, and financial records pertaining to Reverend Samuel West and his two sons, Benjamin and Nathan P., of Boston. The bulk of the collection (approximately 900 items) relates to business concerns, particularly to Benjamin West's sugar refining firm.

The West family papers are comprised of approximately 1,400 letters, letter books, documents, and financial records pertaining to Reverend Samuel West and his two sons, Benjamin and Nathan P., of Boston. The bulk of the collection (approximately 900 items) relates to business concerns, particularly to Benjamin West's sugar refining firm.

The Correspondence and documents series consists of approximately 150 items, dating from 1679 to 1880; the bulk of these are dated between 1759 and 1826. Though the majority of the material within the series pertains to business affairs, several groups of letters relate to other topics. One early group of letters concerns Samuel West's move from Needham, Massachusetts, to Boston's Hollis Street Church, and another group to a Boston committee's proposal to alter the municipal government in 1815, which includes its lengthy report [September 25, 1815]. In addition, the series contains personal and family correspondence, though to a lesser extent. Primary correspondents within the series include Caleb and Joshua Davis, Benjamin West, Enoch H. West, Samuel West, Richards Child, Mills Olcott, Samuel and Ephraim May, Sarah Plimpton, George Cheyne Shattuck, and Elisha and Elizabeth Ticknor.

The collection's two Letter books belonged to Benjamin West, and hold copies of 166 outgoing letters, dated 1803-1827, related to his various business affairs and the settlement of his uncle's estate, as well as personal matters.

The Financial records series contains three subseries: Bills and receipts, Sugarhouse accounts, and Account and expense books. The series contains approximately 300 bills and receipts dating from 1748 to 1824, primarily pertaining to labor, repairs, and donations to various Boston societies and institutions. About 600 sugarhouse accounts (1796-1823) record financial transactions associated with Benjamin West's sugar refining business, and include accounts, bills, and receipts. The four books cover Benjamin's West's personal accounts and expenses between 1797-1799 and 1811-1827; the first of these concerns West's service in a local militia, as well as his other financial matters, including numerous accounts for clothing, tobacco, and trips to the theater.

Legal documents within the collection are divided into two subseries, covering Land and real estate (1707-1824) and other Legal documents (1738-1834). The first subseries consists of approximately 60 items, which relate to mortgages, indentures, and other agreements about land around Boston and in Charlestown, New Hampshire. The West family frequently dealt with the Wheelock and Metcalf families when purchasing land. The second subseries is comprised of approximately 75 miscellaneous documents, including material related to Samuel West's interests in Needham, Massachusetts; bills from Nathan P. West's time at Harvard College (1788-1792); and the family's additional business and legal concerns.

The Printed and miscellaneous items series consists of approximately 20 items, dated 1714 to 1825. Among these are broadsides, including programs for Samuel West's internment services and various anniversaries, and partially printed school reports. Miscellaneous manuscript items are 13 statements of Christian faith; manuscript music for several hymns; two books kept by Nathan P. West, including a copybook of mathematical problems and exercises (1792-1807) and a commonplace book (1798-1813) with medicinal recipes West used in his drugstore; and scattered quotations. The copybook also includes a small drawing of a skull next to a bottle of borax on its inside cover.

These 2 volumes contain labor records for a cotton mill in Wiccopee, New York, between 1854 and 1857. The books document male and female workers' names, their positions, and the amount of time they worked. Also included are similar records for the New York Rubber Company in 1858.

These 2 volumes contain labor records for a cotton mill in Wiccopee, New York, between 1854 and 1857. The books document male and female workers' names, their positions, and the amount of time they worked. Also included are similar records for the New York Rubber Company in 1858. Each volume is roughly 13"x12".

Volume 1 contains 39 pages of information about employee attendance in the carding room, where workers cleaned and prepared cotton fibers for processing, between June 5, 1854, and May 30, 1857. Each page documents around one month. Individual workers' names are followed by a daily record of their labor at the factory, which states the number of days and/or hours worked, and occasionally monthly totals. Many entries note the employee's specific job within the carding room.

The mill records are followed by 3 pages of similar records respecting workers in the New York Rubber Company's "grading room" (undated) and those who performed other tasks, such as carpentry and moving machinery (undated and January 20, 1858-June 5, 1858).

Volume 2 contains 40 pages of records for the Wiccopee mill's spinning room, kept between June 5, 1854, and May 2, 1857, and 39 pages of records for the weaving room, kept between June 5, 1854, and May 9, 1857. The end of the second volume includes 10 pages of accounts for additional manual laborers, such as carpenters. The title page of volume 2 contains a pencil sketch of part of a spinning mule, manufactured by the Matteawan Company.