Early Office Museum
Vintage Office Photographs
~ 1908-1909 ~
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.
Please do not use the Museum's photos without permission. When we see our
photos used elsewhere 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..
| Click Image to Enlarge | Description | Source |
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Man operating a Burroughs adding machine in front of a walk-in vault, Bank of Hickman, Hickman, NE. According to the website of First State Bank, the "Bank of Hickman conducted business in the Hickman area from approximately 1891-1912. In 1912 a state charter was granted to the bank and it became First State Bank." | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office at Wisconsin Traction, Light, Heat & Power Co., 1908. The office was probably in Appleton, WI. The company was formed in 1900 by the acquisition of Fox River Valley Electric Co. and Appleton Electric Light & Power Co., and operated intraurban and interurban electric railways serving Neenah, Appleton, and Kaukauna. The intraurban Appleton streetcar system had begun in 1886. The interurban system had begun in 1898 with service between Neenah and Appleton. In 1927, Wisconsin Traction was renamed Wisconsin-Michigan Power Co., and in 1928 Interurban services ended.. 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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Bank with two men, a US Automatic pencil sharpener (introduced in 1907) and a Protectograph check protector on the counter at the left, a Burroughs adding machine in the center of the room, and a Cary Safe Co. vault in the rear. Internet references to Cary Safe Co. as a seller of safes date primarily to 1902-07. | 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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Office with five men, two of whom are wearing sleeve protectors, 1908. This photograph, which is dated by the wall calendar, may show a railroad office, because through the window in the door one can see what might be a waiting room, and behind the man wearing the bowler hat is what might be a ticket cabinet. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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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 |
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"Interior of the Peoples Bank, Woodhull, Ill.," postcard, postmarked 1909. Photograph includes Oliver typewriter, Burroughs adding machine, date stamp, seal press, and coin machine. | Private collection |
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Farmers and Merchants Deposit Co., Charles Town, WV, postmarked 1909. | Early Office Museum Archives |
| 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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Office with four women and three typewriters, Berlin, Germany, 1909. The typewriter on the left is a Caligraph. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office, Berlin, Germany. | Private collection |
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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. Internet references to Cary Safe Co. as a seller of safes date primarily to 1902-07. 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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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, Pressed Steel Car Co., Pittsburgh, PA. The Pressed Steel Car Company produced steel hopper railroad cars, which were used, for example, to transport coal. The company was founded in 1899 and went out of business in the mid-1950s. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office, perhaps at a railroad station, with three men, telegraph keys along shelf below windows, Smith Premier typewriter, candlestick and wall telephones, and roll-top desk. | 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 |
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Office of First National Bank, probably in or near Rockwell City, IA. From left to right, office contains a Protectograph check protector on counter, a Burroughs adding machine on stand, a Smith Premier upstrike typewriter next to a frontstrike typewriter on table, a candlestick telephone, a roll-top desk, and another frontstrike typewriter. Above the vault door is the name "First National Bank." | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office with 2 men and 3 women. From left there is a roll-top desk, an electric fan, an autographic register, a Protectograph check protector, a candlestick telephone, a Dalton adding machine, two more roll-top desks, and another candlestick telephone. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Top: Office with six men, five of whom are African American, and one woman, who is using an upstrike typewriter. Bottom: Office with two African American men. These magic lantern slides show offices at the interdenominational American Bible Society (ABS), New York, NY, which still exists. Its web site states: "From the American Bible Society's founding in 1816, we have been focused on translation, publication and the distribution of Bibles to as many people as possible. Our mission today is to make the Bible available to every person in a language and format each can understand and afford,..." John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was elected ABS president in 1821. | Early Office Museum Archives. |
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Office with a large letter copying press and a basin and wringer for preparing copying pads. In the rear a man is using a wall telephone. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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On the left, Hazel Kitt is using a book typewriter, probably one made by Elliott-Fisher, to make entries in a large bound ledger. On the right, Geary L. Foote is reading another large ledger. This photo is a postally unused divided back postcard. | 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.