Early Office Museum
Antique Office Photographs
~ 1900-1903 ~
Armour & Co.'s General Office, Chicago, 1900. ~ Click
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"Panoramic Picture of Armour & Co.'s General Office, Union Stock Yards, Chicago," Ill., by Geo. R. Lawrence Co., copyright 1900. Philip D. Armour opened a hog packing plant in Milwaukee in 1860 and the Union Stock Yards in Chicago in 1864. The Armour meat packing company shipped meat from Chicago to markets in the eastern US. This image provides a 270-degree panorama. When downloading of enlarged image is complete, scroll right to view the entire image. | Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Panoramic Photographs, LC-USZ62-52759/60 |
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General Office, Swift & Co., Chicago, Ill., postcard, undivided back. This photo may date from a few years after the photo immediately above, but we placed it here to facilitate comparison. Swift & Co., a meat packing company, was incorporated in 1875. Over 100 people are working in this office. In 1905, "Swift's Chicago headquarters employed a clerical force of over a thousand." (Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., The Visible Hand, 1977, p. 392) | Early Office Museum Archive |
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Sales Department, General Office, Swift & Co., Chicago, Ill., postcard, postmarked 1910. While the postmark is 1910, we have placed this photo here because it is similar to the two photos immediately above. | Early Office Museum Archive |
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Office of the American Hoist and Derrick Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1900. The American Manufacturing Co. began to produce hoisting equipment in 1883. The company changed its name to American Hoist and Derrick Co. in 1892. The company manufactured derricks, cranes, and other heavy equipment. | Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 31697 |
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Judge of Probate Edmund W. Bazille in his office in the courthouse, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1900. Photograph shows a roll-top desk, revolving bookcase, letter copying press, and Star paper fastener on the table at left. | Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 33066 |
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Harry Jones in office at 923 Lumber Exchange, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1900 | Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 01429-9a |
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Four men at book-keeping desks in railroad office, Illinois, 1900. On the walls are a 1900 calendar advertising the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Co., an advertisement for the Burlington Route, and Maps of the Illinois Central and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul railroads. The Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Co. was active in the US as early as 1848. The Illinois Central Railroad connected Chicago to Louisiana and Alabama. The office name of the Burlington Route was the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, which served an area from Chicago to Montana to Texas. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with a man dictating to a woman. At the top of the photo is a sign that says "A Full Dinner Pail." This was a slogan used by William McKinley during his successful 1900 campaign for the US Presidency. "A Full Dinner Pail" was a symbol of prosperity. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Main Office, Champion Harvesting Machines,
Chicago." Champion harvesting machines were manufactured by
Warder, Bushnell & Glessner Co., in Springfield, OH. The company
was founded in 1879, although Warder had produced agricultural machines in
Springfield since 1850. In 1902, the two largest US harvester
manufacturers, McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. and Deering Harvesting
Co., merged with three smaller harvesting machine manufacturers, Warder,
Bushnell & Glessner Co., Plano Manufacturing Co., and Milwaukee
Harvester Co., to form International Harvester Co., which then accounted
for the vast majority of harvesting machines manufactured in the US. The original photograph is too large for our scanner. We are providing two scans that together show virtually the entire image, with some overlap. |
Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office, Standard Oil of Ohio. Notice the very large copying press in the center of the room. | Early Office Museum Archives |
| Click on link at right to see photo. When finished, click the "Back" button on your browser to return here. | Chief Clerk Frank Gass with Washington Adams in Office, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. There is a vertical filing cabinet in the background and a letter copying press in the foreground. | Smithsonian Institution Archives |
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Insurance agent's office, Salida, Colorado, by Meigs, c.1901. Roll-top desk, check protector, typewriter, glass paperweights, telegraph key, display case with mineral samples, 1900 and 1901 Colorado business directories, safe, signs reading Insurance Company of North America, Incorporated 1794, Pennsylvania Fire Insurance of Philadelphia, and Providence Washington Insurance Company of Providence R.I., and letters on transom that read Jones & Craig. | Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, #10013330 |
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"Uncles Carroll & Neal Bills, Denver Attorneys at Law," Denver, Colorado, 1901. Roll-top desk, safe, letter copying press. | Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, #10024243 |
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La Grande Salle des Francais au Bureau Central des Telegraphes, Paris, 1901. | L'Illustration, 23 Nov 1901 |
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Typewriting Department, National Cash Register Co., Dayton, Ohio, by William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), c. 1902? The National Cash Register Co., which was founded in 1884, manufactured the first mechanical cash registers. It introduced electric cash registers in 1906. | Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Detroit Publishing Co. Collection, LC-D4-42930 DLC |
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Daniels & Fisher, Denver, Colorado, c. 1902. Daniels & Fisher, a Denver department store, was founded before 1875. Photo shows an office with roll-top desk, telephone, and spittoon. | Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, #10022906 |
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Rocky Mountain News, Tabor Building, Denver, Colorado, by Harry H. Buckwalter, c. 1902. African American man at roll-top desk with candlestick telephone. | Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, #20030388 |
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Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado, by Harry H. Buckwalter, 1902. Woman at roll-top desk, Smith Premier No. 1 typewriter and case. |
Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, #20031205 |
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Richmond & Backus Co., Detroit, Michigan, 1902. Date from wall calendar. Richmond & Backus, which had an exhibit at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, advertised itself as "Account Book Makers, Office Outfitters, Stationers & Printers." | Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Detroit Publishing Co. Collection, LC-D4-42748 DLC |
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Richmond & Backus Co., Detroit, Michigan, c.1902. | Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Detroit Publishing Co. Collection, LC-D4-42747 DLC |
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Office with skylight. Front center left is a rapid roller damp-leaf copier. In 1886, Schlicht & Field, Rochester, NY, introduced the Rapid Roller Damp-Leaf Copier, which used pressure supplied by rollers to copy letters onto a roll of dampened paper. After copies were pressed onto the paper, the paper entered the cabinet under the copier, where it dried on a large roller. An attachment was used to cut dried copies off the roll. This machine, including a black walnut base, was $50. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Large office with a man at a roll-top desk with two candlestick telephones. No date. |
Early Office Museum Archive |
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Man writing in a ledger at a high desk. No date. | Early Office Museum Archive |
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"No, your typewriter isn't pretty, John, but you had better try and like her," stereoview, Underwood & Underwood, copyright 1902. Staged office scene. There is an Automatic Bank Punch on the typist's desk and a scale and lion head seal press on top of the roll-top desk. | Early Office Museum Archive |
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Accounting Department, Manufacturers Light & Heat Co., Farmers Deposit National Bank Building, Pittsburgh, PA, 1903. Manufacturers Light & Heat produced and distributed natural gas in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and was the largest exclusive gas company in the world. It occupied 12 office rooms in the 24 story office building, which had 598 office rooms occupied by approximately 200 companies. | "Farmers Bank Building," High Tide, Pittsburgh, 1903 |
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Office, Beatty and Jones, Farmers Deposit National Bank Building, Pittsburgh, PA, 1903. Beatty and Jones was a real estate company; it occupied one room in the office building. | "Farmers Bank Building," High Tide, Pittsburgh, 1903 |
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Business Office, Press-Novelty Co., Farmers Deposit National Bank Building, Pittsburgh, PA, 1903. Press-Novelty supplied advertising novelties, such as calendars, thermometers, paper weights, pencils, and matches; it occupied one room in the office building. | "Farmers Bank Building," High Tide, Pittsburgh, 1903 |
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Accounting and Stenographic Department, Flint, Erving & Stoner, Farmers Deposit National Bank Building, Pittsburgh, PA, 1903. Flint, Erving & Stoner was a lumber company; it occupied four rooms in the office building. | "Farmers Bank Building," High Tide, Pittsburgh, 1903 |
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General office, Leland & Falconer Manufacturing Co., Detroit, Michigan, 1903? Leland & Falconer was a machine shop founded by Henry Leland in the early 1890s. The company built engines for Oldsmobile and Cadillac (1902) automobiles. In 1904-05, the company merged into the Cadillac Motor Car Co., which was headed by Henry Leland. | Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Detroit Publishing Co. Collection, LC-D4-43030 DLC |
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Stenographers' room, Leland & Falconer Manufacturing Co., Detroit, Michigan, 1903. | Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Detroit Publishing Co. Collection, LC-D4-43033 DLC |
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Three men in office, 1903. Photograph dated based on wall calendar. Office has a letter copying press and a kerosene lamp in addition to electric lights. Front left are four speaking tubes used to talk to people elsewhere in the company. Speaking tubes that ran inside walls were common in mansions and other large buildings constructed during second half of the 19th century. We have seen speaking tubes in only three photos. One of the others shows the counting room at the Riverside Press in Cambridge, MA, c. 1895-1905. See P. A. Rodgers et al., A Photographic History of Cambridge, 1984, p. 77. | Early Office Museum Archive |
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"Portrait of Prof. C. W. Roush, principal of the Broken Bow Business College, and his stenographer, Miss Mable Holcomb," photograph by Solomon D. Butcher (1856-1927), 1903. Broken Bow is in Nebraska. Photograph includes two Remington typewriters and cases, a wall telephone, and several seal presses. | Nebraska State Historical Society, Digital ID nbhips 13647 (compare nbhips 13651) |
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Office with letter copying press, stuffed owl, and gas heater. | Available from Ron Beck www.centuryimages.com |
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Naval Committee Room, House of Representatives, US Capitol, Washington, DC, 1903. Room includes an electric fan on top of a document filing cabinet, a dictionary on a stand, and two K Diamond pen racks (patented 1886) on the table. | Glenn Brown, History of the United States Capitol, Vol. II, Washington, DC, 1903. |
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Office with man at roll-top desk and woman working at typewriter. c. 1903. | Library of
Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C., ID: cph
3b46786 Repro. No: LC-USZ62-54771. |
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"U.D. Office Force, Middle Trick, Union Station, Pennsylvania Railroad, Harrisburg, PA, 1903." Railroad station operation was divided into three tricks or shifts: first trick (daytime), middle trick, and third trick (night or graveyard shift). Employees often worked the same trick for many years. The most senior employees often worked the first trick. Some stations were manned only during one or two tricks, e.g., where complicated train movements occurred only at night, some small stations were manned only during the third trick. The office has three upstrike typewriters and has telegraph equipment. | Early Office Museum Archive |
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Man at roll-top desk in private office, 1903. On the desk is an 1899 $5 silver certificate. | Early Office Museum Archive |
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Office with eight men and one woman, likely at the Wabash Railroad. A map of the Wabash Railroad, which operated in the Midwest of the US, is on the back wall. The name Wabash Railroad was used from 1889 and 1931 and from 1941 to 1964. This railroad operated as parts of systems with other names from 1865 to the present. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office of W. T. Whitlock, with two men, double sloped desk, large ledgers, safe, case on top of safe labeled "Fisher Book and Letter Typewriter," seal press, sign reading "Deed and Mortgage Blanks for Sale at Reduced Prices. By Recorder." The name "W. T. Whitlock" is painted across the top front of the safe. Fisher Typewriters were sold for only a few years, ending with the 1903 merger between Elliott & Hatch and Fisher to form Elliott-Fisher. (Someone named W. T. Whitlock was a clerk in the court system in Weakley County, TN, in 1904. This may or may not be a man in this picture.) | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with 43 men, all wearing suits, and one woman with a typewriter. At the left of the top photo, a sign on the wall reads "Women." Under the sign is a woman with a typewriter. There is also a U.S. map on the wall. The lower photo is an enlargement of a portion of the top photo. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with two men and a woman. This office is equipped with two document filing cabinets, one with 60 files and the other with 40. On the side of the filing cabinet on the right, one can read that the filing cabinets were supplied by Geo. D. Barnard, St. Louis, MO. Geo. D. Barnard supplied a full range of office equipment and furniture. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Abstract company office of John T Oto with two men, one working at an upstrike typewriter. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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