Early Office Museum
Antique Office Photographs
~ 1910-1911 ~
When no date is provided in the Description column below, we
do not know the date of the photograph.
We have placed undated photographs in their likely chronological order.
Please do not use the Museum's photos without permission.
Unless a photo's Source is identified as "Early Office Museum
Archives," we do not have the ability to give permission to use that
photo.
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photos used on the internet without permission, we submit a complaint to Google and other search engines, which then stop
indexing the offending web site and stop placing advertising on it.
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Click Image to Enlarge |
Description | Source |
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Nelson Durand with Edison dictating machine, West Orange, NJ. On wall top center is a 1908 photograph of Thomas A. Edison at his desk with an Edison dictating machine. That photograph of Edison is included in the Early Office Museum exhibit on office photographs for 1904-1909. | Edison National Historic Site, Image 14.225/172. |
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Office of Royal Photo Co., Grand Rapids, MI. Royal T.
Gillett operated a photography studio in Grand Rapids for nearly 40 years (c. 1904-c. 1943),
aside from five years (c. 1922-c. 1926) that he operated the Gillette Tire & Battery Co. One vintage publication identifies him as a commercial photographer. During 1905-17, his studio was the "Royal Photo Co," the name that appears in this photo. Until 1917, he spelled his surname "Gillett" without an "e" at the end; this is the spelling in the photo. During 1917 he began to spell his surname "Gillette," with an "e" at the end. During 1917-21 the name of his photography business was "Royal T. Gillette Studio." This photo includes a safe with the name "Royal Photo Co," a letter copying press, an Automatic Electric Desk Stand telephone (introduced in 1899), and a nickel-plated Oliver No. 2 typewriter (sold during 1896-1900). The telephone and typewriter were identified in an article by Peter Weil (ETCetera No. 77, Mar. 2007). Weil's article includes another photograph of this same room taken at nearly the same time. Weil's photo includes a calendar with February 1 on a Tuesday, which is consistent with 1910 or 1916. The appearance of the room, the clothing, the hair styles, and the absence of anything that had not been on the market by 1900 suggest that 1910 may be more likely than 1916. |
Early Office Museum Archives |
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Wilson and clerks in coal mine office, Trinidad, CO, 1910. Photograph by Almeron Newman (b. 1875), who had a studio in Trinidad. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"After Cotton Deal," Office, Slade & Boyer, 1910. Two tickers in front of the windows received securities and commodities prices. Prices of securities, including AT&T's, are posted on the board right rear. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Customs Division, Washington, DC, 1910. The man closest to the front of the photo on the left side is African American. The remaining workers are white. | National Archives |
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Office with two men, Cincinnati, OH, 1910. Includes typewriter, kerosene lamp, safe, letter copying press with a copying book, candlestick phone, rolltop desk, and cast iron stove. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Paymaster's Office, Master Mechanics Building, Pennsylvania Railroad, Altoona, PA, 1910. Behind the man using a Burroughs Class 1 Adding Machine is a safe labeled "Pittsburgh Safe Co., Pittsburgh, Pa." Photograph dated by wall calendar. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Office, White Brothers Hardwood Lumber, San Francisco, Cal.," 1910. Dated by wall calendar. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office of G. A. Johnson, Brownsburg, IN, 1910. Johnson advertised law, real estate, loans and insurance. Advertising postcard dated by postmark. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Business Office, Quincy Whig, Quincy IL, 1910, postcard dated by postmark. The Quincy Whig, a weekly newspaper, was founded in 1838. In 1926 it merged with the Quincy Herald, and the Quincy Herald-Whig is still published. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Metal Files in Court House, Wilmington, Delaware," from The Hoskins Company, Catalog, Philadelphia, c. 1910. Room with metal document files and ledger cases furnished by the William H. Hoskins Company, office outfitters, a company that sold office furniture, equipment and supplies. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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General Office, Noyes Brothers and Cutler, St. Paul, MN, 1910. Noyes Brothers & Cutler, a wholesale drug company, was in business by 1870 and still in business in 1924. Its 1887 catalog indicates that the company was an importer and wholesaler of drugs, chemicals, patent medicines, paints and oils, varnishes, window glass, druggists' sundries, etc. | Private Collection |
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Office of Janney, Semple, Hill and Co., Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1910. Janney, Semple, Hill and Co., which was founded in 1866, was a wholesale hardware company. | Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 10430. |
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Railroad office with a regulator clock on the wall and a large letter copying press on a safe. |
Early Office Museum Archives |
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County Recorder, Court House. |
Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with two men, roll-top desk, cast iron stove, typewriter, Burroughs adding machine, Protectograph check protector. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Western Freight traffic office, 1911. Dalton adding machine, front-strike typewriter, safe. | Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 4709-B. |
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Interior of L. L. May Company, Como Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1911. | Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 19333. |
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Interior of L. L. May Company, Como Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1911. At left a woman is operating a small telephone switchboard. | Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 19345. |
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Office with man at roll-top desk, 1911. There is a Strowger pot belly telephone (Automatic Electric Co., Chicago, IL, 1905) on the right side of the photograph. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Bruce Johnson in Factory Office, 1911. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Teller's office, 1911. There are two men, a teller's cage, a Burroughs adding machine, letter filing cabinets, vertical filing cabinets, a candlestick telephone, and a 1911 calendar advertising Singer Sewing Machines. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with two men, Salida, CO, 1911. May be a railway office because the 1911 calendar advertises locomotive parts. Office has an Underwood typewriter, letter copying press, candlestick phone. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Office Room, York Foundry," York, NE, postcard, postmarked 1911. Wales adding machine, probably Model 10. The York Foundry was established in 1882. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Three men in office, Iowa, 1911. Location based on map of Iowa on the wall. Date based on wall calendar. Through the window a two-horse buggy is visible. | Available from Ron Beck www.centuryimages.com |
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Man at roll-top desk with 1911 Royal No. 5 flatbed typewriter, combination filing cabinet with two document files and many legal blank files, electric fan and stuffed bird. | Available from Ron Beck www.centuryimages.com |
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"Auditing and Book-Keeping Department, Head Consul's Office, Modern Woodmen of America, Lincoln, Nebr.," postcard, postmarked 1911. Photograph includes Burroughs adding machine and a combination filing cabinet. Modern Woodmen of America is a fraternal organization that was founded in 1883. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Office of Assistant Head Clerk James McNamara," Modern Woodmen of American Building, Rock Island, IL, postmarked 1910. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Syke's, Reynoldsville, PA, 1911. Office contains a safe made by Cary Safe Co., Buffalo, NY, and a 1911 wall calendar advertising the Reed Harness & Mill Supply Co., Allentown, PA. Most dated internet references to Cary Safe Co. (other than this photo) date from between 1902 and 1907. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Branch Office, William A. Winter Coal Co., New York, NY, 1911. William Winter Sr. is seated while William Winter Jr. is standing. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Banking Room, Security Savings Bank, Los Angeles, California," postmarked 1911. | Private collection |
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Office, postmarked Hartford, CT, 1911. Although the office is not identified, it is presumably in a large insurance company. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with roll-top desk, safe, and letter copying press, 1911. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office at insurance company, 1911. This office has a mechanical messenger system; notice the metal rails and lines in the right portion of the photo. The words "Fire Insurance" are on the spine of a book. There is a "Penn Mutual" sign and a Burroughs (or similar) adding machine. The women are wearing long black dresses with long sleeves and white bibs or collars. We do not have an explanation for this attire in an office after 1900. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Clerks Woldseth and Wist in the office of the Cunard Steam Ship Co. Ltd., Sřndre Gate, Trondheim, Norway. Trondheim is Norwegian port. The Cunard Line was a British transatlantic passenger steamship company. During the early 1900s, it operated luxury liners like those pictured in the painting on the office wall. One of its most famous ships of that era was the Lusitania, which was built in 1906 and sunk in 1915 by a torpedo launched by a German submarine, with a loss of 1,198 lives.. | Courtesy of NorwayHeritage.com. |
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Bureau de Contrôle des Services Administratifs, Le Petit Journal, France. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Sante Fe Railroad office with two wood-cased dictating machines. This photograph was taken by G. M. Hamilton, Official Photographer, Sante Fe Employees' Magazine, Chicago, IL. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Employment Desk, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12. The Employment Department of the college placed graduates with employers. | Annual Catalogue, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1912. |
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Office with seven men, probably in Montana. On the wall are maps of Montana and the Union Pacific Railroad's Overland Route. Front right is a Gammeter Multigraph. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with seven men and one woman. This office was probably at a railroad, because the pictures on the wall show locomotives. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with 25 young women and one man. The calendar on the wall shows this to have been taken on Friday June 2, which is consistent with a date of 1911. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office, Vienna, Austria. Secretary at left is using a typewriter, which may be an Ideal Model A. The Ideal was made in Germany by Siedel & Naumann and introduced in 1900. Office also has a letter copying press. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Credit Department, Woodhull, Goodale & Bull, Syracuse, NY. The company was a clothing manufacturer and wholesaler in Syracuse. It was in operation by 1887 and was still in operation in 1917. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office, Swift & Co., Marion, IN. There is a map of Illinois on the wall. Swift has turned cows into beef since 1855. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Bank with three men, two women, and a Burroughs Adding Machine (class 3) or, possibly, a Pike Adding Machine. | Early Office Museum Archives |
Photographs are copyrighted. All rights are reserved by the copyright holder, the owner of the photograph, and the Early Office Museum.