Early Office Museum

Antique Office Photographs 
~ Business College Classes ~ 

Click Image to Enlarge	Description	Source
	"Interior View," Bryant, Stratton & Folsom Commercial College, Albany, N.Y., 1865.  As of 1865, Bryant, Stratton & Folsom operated a chain of business schools in a number of US and Canadian cities. It claimed that "Young men by attending these schools will obtain a sound theoretical and practical business education." A description of this image states: "The first at the right is the Railroad, Steamboat and Freight Office.  The next is the National Mercantile College Bank.  Still on to the right is the Forwarding, Express and Commission Office.  To the extreme left appears the Exchange, Insurance and Brokerage Office. The next and last is the Jobbing, Collection and Post Office."	Albany Directory, 1865.
	Practical, Banking & Office Departments, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1870s.  The engraving published in 1872 (top, check date) and the two stereoview photographs published in 1877-78 (bottom) show the same large double room with balconies.  These rooms were used by the Practical, Banking & Office Departments, with the area in the foreground used by the Preparatory Department.  Eastman Business College was founded in 1859.  In the 1870s, all students were men.  Over the archway between the two rooms is the inscription "Teach your BOYS that which they will PRACTICE when they become MEN."	Early Office  Museum Archives & Private Collection
	Practical Department, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1877-78.	Private Collection
	Banking & Office Departments, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1877-78.	Private Collection
	Preparatory Department, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1877-78.	Private Collection
	Telegraphic Department, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1877-78.	Private Collection
	Special Penmanship Department, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1877-78.	Private Collection
	Class of 1883, Spencerian Business College, Milwaukee, WI, 1880.  The College was established as part of the Bryant & Stratton chain in 1863 by Robert C. Spencer, originator of the Spencerian system of penmanship.  While most of the students visible in the picture are men, women are seated along the right side of the table.	Private collection
	"Interior View of the Practical Department" of a business college, 1883. "In many of the commercial schools, the Practical Department has a separate, commodious hall, wherein [are located] all the equipments and arrangements for inducting the student into counting-house methods by practical experience.  Around the room are arranged various offices, each fitted up in a business like manner and provided with an appropriate set of blank books, including ledgers, journals, cash books, sales books, letter books, check, note an draft books, etc., together with bill and letter files and copying press.  One office represents a bank, another insurance, [another] a wholesale house, and so on with importing and jobbing, real estate, commission and freight offices, the books contained in each being modeled after those in use by the most reliable firms in business, thus designing to give the students exactly similar practice to that which is exacted in business life. Letters on various subjects are exchanged, drafts, notes and checks are received or issued, goods are shipped, paper discounted at the bank, real estate bought and sold, loans negotiated, brokerage and commission reckoned, losses proved and adjusted, remittances sent."  This 566 page comprehensive book on business methods does not mention typewriters or adding or calculating machines. Other than books and papers, the only specialized office equipment that is mentioned or illustrated are letter copying presses for making copies of outgoing letters, letter filing cabinets for storing incoming letters, desks, safes for protection of company books and money from fire, telegraph equipment, and stock tickers.	G. L. Howe and O. M. Powers, The Secrets of Success in Business, Showing Completely and Practically How Business is Done in the Great Centers, 1883. The authors were employed at business colleges, and the book was intended for business college students and others interested in learning business methods.
	"Typewriting Room - General View," Thirty-Fifth Annual Catalogue of the Albany Business College and School of Short-Hand and Type Writing, Albany, NY, 1894. Photograph shows a room filled with Remington No. 2 typewriters, a letter copying press resting on a Caligraph typewriter stand, and electric lighting.	Early Office Museum Archives
	"Typewriting Room - Looking East," 1894, same as preceding but with students in the room. There are alternating rows of female and male students.	Early Office Museum Archives
	Typing Class, Business High School, Washington, DC, 1899. The student at the left of the photo has the carriage of an upstrike typewriter lifted so that she can see what she has typed. Operators of upstrike typewriters were not able to see the letters as they were being typed.	The City of Washington: An Illustrated History, 1977, p. 312.
	"Typewriting Department," Michigan Business and Normal College, Battle Creek, MI. From an undated college annual catalog published in 1898 or later. Photo shows 14 Smith Premier upstrike typewriters.	Annual Catalog, Michigan Business and Normal College, Battle Creek, MI
	"Typing class in session at Broken Bow [Business] College," Broken Bow, Nebraska, photograph by Solomon D. Butcher, 1903.	Nebraska State Historical Society, nbhips 10012
	"View of Typewriting Department," Catalog of Spencer's Business School, Kingston, NY, 1905. Caption states: "Twenty-One New $100 Machines. Pupils Transcribing Shorthand Notes." Pupils are using Remington upstrike typewriters.	Barbara Rosenthal
	"Examination Section, Remington Employment Department," Remington Typewriter Co., New York, Catalog of Spencer's Business School, Kingston, NY, 1905. Caption states: "Hundreds of our graduates find excellent positions through the assistance of the Remington Typewriter Co." To encourage the sale of its typewriters, Remington assisted in the placement of typists. (See postcard to the right.) In 1901, Remington advertised that "Our Employment Department supplies competent stenographers and operators to users of writing machines without charge to either employer or employee. All users of Remington typewriters are invited to avail themselves of this service."	Barbara Rosenthal
	"Typing Department, Heald-Dixon College, Oakland, CAL."  Heald-Dixon College is listed in a 1907 San Francisco business directory.	Private collection
	"Model Office, Actual Experience, Shorthand Department, Bliss Business College, Lewiston, Maine," postcard, postmarked 1908. Image shows three students using typewriters to transcribe correspondence. Also, a letter copying press.	Early Office Museum Archives
	Transcription class, Pawtucket Business College, Pawtucket, RI.  Correspondence recorded on a cylinder is being played back on a transcribing machine. Each student has a headset. Some students are transcribing by hand while others are transcribing with typewriters.	Early Office Museum Archives
	Banking Department, Dakota Business College, Fargo, ND, postcard, postmarked 1908.	Early Office Museum Archives
	Adding machine class.	Early Office Museum Archives
	Typewriting Department, Behnke-Walker Business College, Portland, OR, postmarked 1910.	Early Office Museum Archives
	"Phonograph Dictation--A Modern Feature of our Shorthand Department," Haverhill Business College, Haverhill, MA, 1909-10 college catalog. Photograph shows seven students simultaneously transcribing dictation being played back by a transcription machine.	Early Office Museum Archives
	"Typewriting Department," Haverhill Business College, Haverhill, MA, 1909-10 college catalog. The Typewriting Department had twenty typewriters. The ones in the front row are Remington No. 6's, and the rest appear to be the same.	Early Office Museum Archives
	"Using the Neostyle Duplicating Machine," Haverhill Business College, Haverhill, MA, 1909-10 college catalog.	Early Office Museum Archives
The 1911-1912 year book for Wilson's Modern Business College, Seattle, WA, states that students were trained to use the "Burroughs Adding Machine, Filing Cabinets, Loose Leaf Ledgers, Card Ledgers, Draft and Check Protectors, Billing Machines, Mimeographing Machines, Edison Business Phonographs, Typewriters with Adding Attachments, Loose Leaf Sales Binders, Private Telephone Exchanges, and almost every form and ruling used in everyday bookkeeping practice."
To view photo, click on link to right. To return here, click on the back button on your browser.	Typing Class, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, 1911.	University of Puget Sound Archives
	Office Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12.  "This is the finishing room where the advanced pupils are placed largely upon their own responsibility and are taught bookkeeping without the use of textbooks.  The office department has a bank, a trust company, a wholesale house, a commission house, and a transportation office.  An adding machine, a rapid-roller copying press, and a card and vertical letter file are in daily use in this room."	Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue,  1912-1913.
	Typewriting Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12.  "This is one of four rooms devoted to instruction in touch typewriting and office methods."  The College had 160 typewriters, all visible writing machines.	Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue,  1912-1913.
	Model Shorthand Business Practice Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12. Photo shows "pupils using modern office labor-saving devices, including adding machine, card filing systems, Multigraph, and typewriting machines."  The male student at the back left is using a Multigraph.	Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue,  1912-1913.
	"Students receiving instruction in the use of the Multigraph," Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12. The Multigraph was printing form letters that appeared to be typewritten. "We have two of these machines in daily use, one run by electricity."	Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue,  1912-1913.
	Shorthand Practice, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12.  Photo shows students "having speed exercises in shorthand through the use of an Edison Commercial Phonograph."	Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue,  1912-1913.
	Telegraphy Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12.	Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue,  1912-1913.
	Edison dictating machine transcription class.	Edison National Historic Site 29320068
	"Class in Stenography and Typewriting, Educational Department, U.S. General Hospital No. 30, Plattsburgh, NY."  United States Army General Hospital No. 30 was set up during World War I to treat soldiers who returned from overseas with "war neuroses."  The hospital operated during at least 1917-19 and received its first patient with war neurosis in 1918.  One soldier is using a Royal flatbed typewriter.  Another is using an Oliver typewriter.  An electric rotary stencil copier is in the room.	Early Office Museum Archives
	African American students in classroom at the National Training School for Women and Girls, Washington, DC.  This vocational training school was founded in 1909 by Nannie Helen Burroughs, an African American.	Library of Congress
	Typing class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1920. Students at right rear are typing as material is played back by a central Dictaphone transcribing machine. Other students are typing from written material.	Oregon State University Archives #882.
	Typing transcription class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1920. Students are typing as material is played back by individual Dictaphone transcribing machines.	Oregon State University Archives #882.
	Shorthand laboratory, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1920. Students are taking shorthand notes as material is played back by a central Dictaphone transcribing machine.	Oregon State University Archives #882
	Office Training class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1923. Anyone seeking a bachelor's degree in the OSU School of Commerce was required to take at least twelve credits of Office Training classes--six credits each of Typing and Office Methods & Appliances. Student in foreground is typing as material is played back on a Dictaphone transcribing machine. Student at right rear is using an electric Burroughs Bookkeeping Machine, manufactured by the Burroughs Adding Machine Co, Detroit, MI. Student at left is using an Elliott Fisher Accounting Machine, manufactured by the Elliot Fisher Division of General Office Equipment Corp., Harrisburg, PA.	Oregon State University Archives #882
	Office Training class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 1924. The woman on the left is using an A. B. Dick Co. mimeoscope, which had a drawing table with an electrically illuminated glass top. The mimeoscope was used to trace drawings onto mimeograph stencils. The woman at the right is using a rotary mimeograph machine to make copies.	Oregon State University Archives #882
	"Hi-Trail Office," Osseo, Minnesota, 1926. The man at the left is using an A. B. Dick Co. mimeoscope (see preceding description). The woman at the right is using a rotary mimeograph machine to make copies.	Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 46439
	Suffolk High School typing class, Suffolk, Virginia.	Suffolk Public Library, Hamblin Studio Collection, Neg. 0588b
	Class with Burroughs key-driven calculators, 1926.	Private collection
	Typing class, Washington School for Secretaries, Washington, DC, photograph by Theodor Horydczak (c. 1890-1971).	Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Theodor Horydczak Collection, LC-H824-2208-003
	Classroom session with filing cards, Washington School for Secretaries, Washington, DC, photograph by Theodor Horydczak (c. 1890-1971).	Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Horydczak Collection, LC-H824-2208-004
	Students using Dictaphone transcribing machine and other office equipment, Washington School for Secretaries, Washington, DC, photograph by Theodor Horydczak (c. 1890-1971).	Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Horydczak Collection, LC-H824-1215-003
	School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Students are using machines to punch cards used in the card reading, sorting, tabulating, and printing machines shown in the following photograph, probably made by IBM.	Oregon State University Archives #882
	School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Students and teacher with card reading, sorting, tabulating machines, and printing machines, probably made by IBM.	Oregon State University Archives #882

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