Early Office Museum

Antique Office Photographs 
~ 1910-1914 ~ 

Click Image to Enlarge	Description	Source
	Sales Department, General Office, Swift & Co., Chicago, Ill., postcard, postmarked 1910. 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
	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.
	"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
	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
	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
	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
	"Office, White Brothers Hardwood Lumber, San Francisco, Cal," 1910.  Dated by wall calendar.	Early Office Museum Archives
	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
	"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
	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
	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.
	Western Freight traffic office, 1911. Dalton adding machine, front-strike typewriter, safe.	Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 4709-B.
	Interior of L. L. May Company, Como Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1911.	Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 19333.
	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.
	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
	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
	"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
	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.	Ronald Beck
	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. No date.	Ronald Beck
	"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
	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
	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
	"Banking Room, Security Savings Bank, Los Angeles, California," postmarked 1911.	Private collection
	Office with roll-top desk, safe, and letter copying press, 1911.	Early Office Museum Archives
	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
	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.
	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
	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
	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
	Office with eleven typists using Bar-Lock typewriters, England, 1912. Dated by wall calendar.	Early Office Museum Archives
	Correspondence Division, Circulation Department, Curtis Publishing Co., Philadelphia, PA, postcard, postmarked 1912. Cyrus H. K. Curtis began a publishing business in Philadelphia in 1876 and started publishing The Ladies Home Journal in 1883. In 1890, Curtis formed the Curtis Publishing Co. and took over publication of The Saturday Evening Post. On left, workers, virtually all male, are using dictating machines. On right, other workers, all female, are using transcription machines and typewriters.	Early Office  Museum Archives
	Order Entry Department, Sears, Roebuck & Co., Chicago, IL, c. 1913. Workers are using Oliver typewriters.	Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History
	Office of the Statesman Journal, Salem, OR, c.1913. Co-owner Carl Abrams reads at desk on far right while Mrs. Abrams types at a roll-top desk center and O.K. DeWitt, smoking a cigar, reads copy.	Salem Public Library Historic Photograph Database, Salem Public Library, Salem, Oregon, Record No. SJ790.
	Office of Gaint Clothes Store, Muskegon, MI, photograph by Ladd & Son. There is a Comptometer Model A calculating machine (sold 1904-06) in front of the woman on the left. The man behind her is working on a Burroughs Class 1 Adding Machine.	Early Office Museum Archives
	Office interior, Denver, Colorado. 1914. Photograph includes a letter copying press and a safe with the lettering "The Colorado Mattress Factory" and "The Sharpiot Safe Co., Denver, Colo."	Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, William W. Cecil Collection, codhawp 10001445.
	Office at agricultural business, Ewing, MO, 1914. Large sign on desk reads "W. K. Boudreau, Ewing, MO." Date is from wall calendar advertising a St. Louis, MO, grain merchant. Other advertisements on wall are for seed and a livestock merchant. There are two wall telephones.	Early Office Museum Archives
	County Commissioners' office in Court House, probably Cincinnati, OH, 1914. Date and location are from a wall calendar advertising a Cincinnati, OH, business.	Early Office Museum Archives
	Office at Sedalia Music Store, Sedalia, MO, 1914. Office contains a roll-top desk, safe, Oliver typewriter, and letter copying press. Ragtime pianist Scott Joplin was active in Sedalia around 1900.	Early Office Museum Archives
	Barber County Tax Office, Medicine Lodge, KS, 1914.  Barber County is located in southcentral Kansas, near the border with Oklahoma.  Three ledgers on the counter have the title "Tax Roll 1914 Barber County."  A Baby Defiance Check Protector, which was advertised during 1902-15, is on the counter in front of the woman.  A Burroughs adding-listing machine is on a stand front right in the photo..	Early Office Museum Archives
	Office with two women working at a long desk, 1914.  There is a Hotchkiss No. 1 stapler on the desk, an interesting file cabinet, and a set of three glass front sectional bookcases.	Early Office Museum Archives
	Two women in office. The woman at the right is using a manual adding machine, perhaps a Burroughs Class 3. Above the elbow of the woman at the left is a Universal check protector manufactured by the Universal Manufacturing Co., Boston, MA. On a post on the right edge of the image is a Dexter Pencil Sharpener, a machine that was introduced in 1914 by the Automatic Pencil Sharpener Co., Chicago, IL.	Early Office Museum Archives
	"Interior of the Peoples Bank, Woodhull, Ill.," postcard. Photograph includes Oliver typewriter, adding machine, date stamp, seal press, and coin machine.	Early Office Museum Archives
	Office with three men and lots of papers.	Early Office Museum Archives
	General Offices, Franco-American Hygienic Company, Chicago, IL.  The company manufactured and distributed perfumes and toilet articles.  There is a Burroughs adding machine front right in the photo.	Early Office Museum Archives
	"Bookkeeping Department, National Benefit Association, Washington, DC," c. 1911-1916.	Kelly Miller & Joseph R. Gay. Progress and Achievements of the Colored People, 1913, 1917.
	"Stenography in a Well Equipped Office," c. 1911-1916.  The two typists are using Oliver typewriters.	Kelly Miller & Joseph R. Gay. Progress and Achievements of the Colored People, 1913, 1917.
	"A Prominent Lawyer Presenting his Case to Judge R. H. Terrell, who is a Colored Judge of a Municipal Court in Washington, DC," 1911 or 1916.  Assuming the photograph was taken in the 1910s, it was taken in 1911 or 1916 because a wall calendar shows that September began on Friday.	Kelly Miller & Joseph R. Gay. Progress and Achievements of the Colored People, 1913, 1917.
	Offices, "Railroad Station, Worcester."  These two photos show different areas in which the desks, light fixtures, and paneling match.  The two photos show 23 men, most of whom are working at large partner desks, and 3 women, one of whom is at a typewriter. The top photo contains a map of the New York Central Lines.  The bottom photo contains a calendar advertising Northwestern Mutual.	Early Office Museum Archives
General Office Service Department Statistics Department File Room	Interiors of four offices at the Alexander Hamilton Institute (AHI), New York, NY.  The AHI, which was founded in 1906, sold books designed to enable businessmen to study business subjects at their homes and offices without going to a college.  The books were also used in some business colleges.  AHI advertisements had a motivational, self-help message. Three of the photographs include APSCO Dexter Pencil Sharpeners, which were introduced in 1914. The AHI still exists, but its orientation has changed.  It now sells to employers services relating to labor relations.	Early Office Museum Archives

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