Early Office Museum
Vintage Office Photographs
~ 1904-1909 ~
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.
| Click Image to Enlarge | Description | Source |
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Office with letter copying press, stuffed owl, and gas heater. | Ronald Beck |
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President Joseph F. Smith (left), 2nd Counselor Anthon H. Lund (center), and 1st Counselor John R. Winder, Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stereoview, copyright Underwood & Underwood 1904. Aside from the copyright date, the photo must date from 1901-1910. All three men were appointed to these positions in 1901 and held these positions until 1910, when Winder died. The machine in the foreground is an American dating stamp, which was patented in 1871-76 and sold until at least 1913. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Four women in office with document files. | Private Collection |
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Five employees using Multigraph machines, 1905. Gammeter Multigraphs, introduced by the American Multigraph Sales Co. in 1902, were used to produce form letters. | Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 7636. |
| Click on link at right to see photo. Click the "Back" button on your browser to return here. | Office of Pope Manufacturing Co., Hartford, CT, c. 1905. Pope Manufacturing made Columbia bicycles and, around 1890, also made World index typewriters. | Connecticut History Online |
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"A Negro Magazine Editor's Office in Philadelphia," c. 1904-07. Writing about employment conditions in Northern cities, the author states "A good many Negro printers, pressmen, and the like are now found in Negro offices (over 200 newspapers and magazines are published by Negroes in this country). I know of several girls (all mulattoes) who occupy responsible positions in offices in New York and Chicago." | Ray Stannard Baker, Following the Color Line, 1908, p. 138. |
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Larkin Administration Building, Buffalo, NY. The building's architect was Frank Lloyd Wright. The Larkin Company
was a mail-order house that sold soap and other household products.
The top photograph shows the atrium c. 1906. The bottom photo shows a room beside the atrium c. 1930. The building was demolished in 1950. |
Private collections (top two) and Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society (bottom) |
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"Jennie Kelso, Uncle John Higbee, His Office in Pitts," Pennsylvania, 1906. Date from wall calendars. The company's glass products are visible on the table in the foreground and on top of the desk in the background. A city map on the wall is labeled "Homestead." A letter copying press rests on a stool. | Early Office Museum Archive |
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Large office, photograph created by the Lawrence Co., Chicago, IL, 1906. Someone has written on the back: "W. D. McAllister, BUKA DEPT." [Rescan and replace] | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Making a Record of the Customer's Order," No. 23 in a boxed set of 50 stereographs entitled "A Trip Through Sears, Roebuck & Co.," Chicago, Ill., 1906. The set of stereographs is advertised with a 1906 date in the 1908 Sears, Roebuck catalog. Sears, Roebuck employed nearly 2,500 clerical workers in its administration building. The stereograph card reverse states, "During the busy season of the year, six hundred young women are employed in this room, the picture showing only a portion of this great office. The work of transcribing customers' orders to merchandise order tickets is performed on special typewriters, four hundred of these typewriters being in use at the present time." | Early Office Museum Archive |
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"Stenographic Department," No. 26 in a boxed set of 50 stereographs entitled "A Trip Through Sears, Roebuck & Co.," Chicago, Ill., 1906. Reverse states, "In this room between one hundred and fifty and two hundred young women are engaged in transcribing letters dictated by correspondents throughout the institution. This dictation is received by two methods. By one method the typist goes directly to the correspondent and takes his dictation in shorthand. By the other method the correspondents dictate their letters to a graphophone. The cylinders are then sent by messenger to the graphophone division of the Stenographic Department, where each operator has a graphophone and typewriter." Typists are using Oliver typewriters. | Early Office Museum Archive |
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Workers Using Edison Business Phonographs in Mr. Broyles's Office, 1906. | Edison National Historic Site 29320054 |
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Two large offices at the same company. These office may be at an architectural, construction, or engineering firm, because a third photograph (not shown here) of another office at the same company shows 15 men working on large sheets of paper at tilt-top desks of the types used by architects. The top photo here includes a calendar advertising engines and boilers made by the Wm. Powell Co. A company with that name, located in Cincinnati, OH, has manufactured valves since 1846. The bottom photo includes a calendar advertising Massachusetts Mutual. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. was founded in Massachusetts in 1851; in 1868 it opened its first West Coast office, and it was a national firm when this photo was taken. The women's clothing and hair styles, and the presence of vertical file cabinets, are consistent with a date in the very early 1900s. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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James M. Brickhouse, Little Rock, AR. Brickhouse was a politician. Photo shows a Smith Premier typewriter. | Private collection |
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"Private Office of Advertising Manager." At the right, under a metal hood, is a Card Index Addressograph of a type that we have seen in 1907-10 advertisements. A wall calendar advertises the American Bonding Co. of Baltimore. Until 1901, the latter company was named the American Bonding & Trust Co. of Baltimore. Around 1902, the name was changed to American Bonding Co. of Baltimore. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office of the Northwestern Farmer, a periodical publication, probably Menominee, MI. Publication years for the Northwestern Farmer included 1907-08. Menominee is on the Michigan-Wisconsin border. A Wisconsin Telephone Company directory and upstrike typewriters are visible in the photograph. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Employee at desk in railroad terminal, King Street Station, Seattle, WA, by photographer James P. Lee, 1907. King Street Station was built during 1904-06. Dated by wall calendar. Photograph shows an upstrike typewriter and two candlestick telephones. | Manuscripts, Special Collections, University Archives Div., University of Washington Libraries, James P. Lee Collection, No. 294 |
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Actuarial Division, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, NY, postmarked 1907. | Early
Office Museum Archives |
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Filing Section, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, NY, postmarked 1907. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Card Cabinets Containing Records of the Ordinary Insurance Department, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, NY. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Filing Section, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, NY. | Museum of the City of New York, Byron Collection (93.1.1.6910) |
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Man at roll-top desk in office with safe and letter filing cabinet. A calendar advertises the National Carbon Company, which existed from 1886 to 1917. The content of the photo suggests a date during the early 1900s. Because a calendar shows that March began on Tuesday, the photo must date from 1904 or 1910. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office, Germany. |
Early Office Museum Archives |
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Four men in office with two typewriters and candlestick phone. The typewriter on the right is a Remington upstrike. On the wall is an advertisement for The Lake Shore Route, which was the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Co. This railway was formed in 1869 by the consolidation of existing railways and was controlled by Cornelius Vanderbilt and then William Vanderbilt. This railway was consolidated with the New York Central in 1914. |
Ronald Beck |
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Office in tire store. Typewriter, candlestick telephone, Star pen rack, pennant advertising Stronghold Tires. | Ronald Beck |
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Stenographer taking dictation in an executive's office, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York, NY. Candlestick phone and electric fan. | MetLife Archives |
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Office with accounting machines, B-logo Business Systems Dept., 1907. Photo shows a Burroughs adding machine and a dictating machine. | Charles
Babbage Institute, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Burroughs Corp. Collection, cb000184. |
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"The Accounting Department, E. & J. Burke, Ltd., Times Building, Times Square, New York," NY, postmarked 1907. E. & J. Burke was an Irish brewery and a New York distributor of alcoholic beverages. All employees in the photo are men. See the photo immediately below for the company's Correspondence Department, where all the employees are women. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"The Correspondence Department, E. & J. Burke, Ltd., Times Building, Times Square, New York," NY. See discussion of preceding photograph. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Hospital office with Miss Brady at the telephone switchboard and Superintendent Taul at his desk. Behind Mr. Taul is a sectional filing cabinet and an upstrike typewriter. There are two candlestick telephones. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with Brunsviga pinwheel calculating machine and Remington No. 7 upstrike typewriter. No location or date. Probably taken in continental Europe. Brunsviga pinwheel calculators were introduced in 1892 and sold for decades. The Remington No. 7 was introduced c. 1897. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with five Addressograph addressing machines and a Multigraph for printing form letters, probably New York, NY. Eight female workers are operating the machines and a man is standing in the background. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with two women and four men, 1908. Another photograph of this office shows that it contained a Burroughs adding machine. Dated by wall calendar. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Bank with three men, an Oliver typewriter, a Burroughs adding machine, and a kerosene lamp. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Edison at his desk in the West Orange Library," West Orange, NJ, photograph by Pach Bros., New York, copyright 1908. Pach Bros. was operating as a New York photography company by 1886. | Edison National Historic Site, Image 14.220/2 |
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Thomas A. Edison with dictating machine, presumably West Orange, NJ. | Edison National Historic Site |
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"The Boss and 'Me' in Office," Cohocton, NY, 1908. Photo shows Joe & Fran Burns. Date from wall calendar. Candlestick and wall telephones, Bell Telephone directory, Oliver typewriter, pigeon-hole filing. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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W. M'Calla & Co. Emigration and Tourist Agents, Belfast, Ireland, 1908. | Private Collection |
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General Offices, C. M. McClung & Co., Knoxville, TN, 1908. Female stenographers worked next to male employees. | Private Collection |
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Office of Woodward & Chandlee, Washington, DC, 1908. The firm specialized in patents. In front of the man is a wood-cased dictating machine. To his right are cylinders for the dictating machine. | Historical Society of Washington DC |
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This appears to be an accounting office. Seven women on the left are working with ledgers. Two women on the right are typing on book typewriters, most likely made by Elliot-Fisher. In the back of the office are three men and a boy. There is one more man at the right edge of the photo. A candlestick telephone is visible in front of the third woman on the left. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office in South Dakota, 1909. | Private collection |
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Typing department, 1909. | Charles
Babbage Institute, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Burroughs Corp. Collection, cb000551. |
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Office with nine men, five women, and two office boys, photograph by George R. Lawrence Co., New York & Chicago, 1909. This office includes an Automatic check punch, an adding-listing machine, a typewriter, and candlestick telephones. The George R. Lawrence Co. was a prominent Chicago commercial photography firm during the first decade of the 1900s. The company produced many panoramic photographs that are now in the Library of Congress collection. Some of these photos (e.g., a 1906 series of San Francisco after the earthquake and fire) were taken using cameras carried by kites, balloons, and airplanes, and soon after 1910 George R. Lawrence (1869-1938) switched from photography to design and construction of aircraft. The George R. Lawrence Co. also produced indoor photographs, sometimes using an innovative flash lighting system, of very large groups of people, e.g., the Chicago Board of Trade in session, legislatures in session, and large banquets. To see a panoramic photo of Armour's offices in 1900 taken by Geo R. Lawrence Co., click the "Back" button at the top of this page (not the back button on your browser) and look at the photograph at the top of the page of photos from 1900-1903. | Early Office Museum Archive |
| Click on link at right to see photo. Click the "Back" button on your browser to return here. | Office of "General Sales Agent for the H.O. Company's Algrane Feed," photograph by J. C. Dexter Photo Co., Hartford, CT, 1909. At left is a Gammeter Multigraph printing machine. At center is a front-strike typewriter. | Connecticut History Online |
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Interior of Highland Bank, Highland, WI. The bank that is now named the Highland State Bank was established in 1903. These two photos were taken from opposite ends of the same room, but not on the same day because a number of items show in the two photos are different. The same man appears on the left of the top photo and the right of the bottom photo. The room contained a Cary walk-in vault, an adding-listing machine, and gas lighting. On the counter front right in the bottom photo are a Safety Check Protector (patented 1907-1909) and a Planetary Pencil Pointer (patented 1896 and sold through 1915). | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Woman at a desk with a candlestick telephone, McGill fastener press, and electric ceiling fan. | Early Office Museum Archive |
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Office, Berlin, Germany. | Private collection |
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Three offices at the Bank of Peru and London, Lima, Peru. The top photo shows an Oliver typewriter and a Model A Comptometer. The Model A Comptometer was made during 1904-06. The bottom photo shows a front-strike typewriter. | Private collection |
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Office in Portland, OR, by the Pacific Photo Co., Portland, OR. This appears to be an accounting office. There are five men and five women. In the foreground are two Model A Comptometers. This model was manufactured during 1904-06. In the background is a Burroughs adding-listing machine. The photograph is by the Pacific Photo Company, Portland, OR. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with four men and one woman. The woman appears to be working at a frontstrike typewriter. Near three of the men are what appear to be upstrike typewriters, including at least one Remington. This is a divided back postcard and hence dates from 1907 or later. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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While men and women are working at similar desks in the center of the office, the women are using typewriters and the men are not. To the immediate left of the column near the front of the photo are a letter copying press and a copying bath. The latter was used to moisten pads used in the letter copying press. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office of Royal Photo Co., Grand Rapids, MI. Royal T. Gillett operated a photography studio in Grand Rapids between1904 and 1940. Between 1904 and 1920, his studio was the Royal Photo Co. Later it was the Royal Gillett Photo Studio Co. This photo includes a safe, a letter copying press, an interesting candlestick telephone, and an interesting typewriter. | 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.
We are interested in purchasing interesting vintage photographs of office
interiors of the types displayed above.