Golding Manufacturing Co. business records and other papers
Overview
Business records of the Golding Manufacturing Co., a Massachusetts firm which produced printing presses and related equipment from 1869 to 1918. Also included are some personal papers of the Golding family, especially concerning the firm's founder, William Hughson Golding, and his son, William H. Golding, Jr.
Dates
- Creation: 1864-1944
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English,French, and German.
Conditions Governing Access
Access to the collection is restricted. Consult curator for further information.
This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
6 linear feet (12 boxes and 1 pf box)Collection includes the business records of Golding & Co. including financial ledgers, legal documents, correspondence, and other miscellaneous papers concerning the business. Financial materials include account ledgers, finances of the branch offices in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago, stockholder information and certificates, Massachusetts state income tax forms, business appraisals, and other material. Legal documents cover the areas of insurance, contracts, leases, etc..., and other papers including building plans, prospectus, sales documents and inventories, blueprints, and much more.
Design and manufacturing records consist of product documentation and technical drawings and blueprints for all products marketed by Golding & Co. There is a large series concerning patents filed in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany. Also included are photographs, cabinet photographs, prints, posters, awards (such as medals), and an extensive collection of product sales catalogs.
Finally there are items concerning the Golding family, including personal materials of founder William Hughson Golding and his son, William H. Golding, Jr. These papers include photographs, legal documents, business cards, wills, financial papers, correspondence, real estate records, certificates, as well as other items.
Biographical / Historical
Golding & Co., initially called the Printer Manufacturing Co., and later the Golding Manufacturing Company, was founded in 1869 by William Hughson Golding (1845-1916), in partnership with Edward H. Dennison (d.1903). They were a principal producer in the 19th and early 20th centuries of letter press equipment, manufacturing platen job presses and other printing equipment primarily in Boston, but later also in Franklin, Massachusetts. Their three basic printing presses were in production for fifty years: The Pearl Press, The Official Press, and The Golding Jobber, and they also marketed paper cutters, lead and rule cutters, inks, and a range of printers' supplies. Golding, Sr. died in 1916 and in 1918 the company was sold to the American Type Founders Co (ATF).
William Hughson Golding was born in St. John, New Brunswick on 24 May 1845. In 1848 the family settled in Boston. Golding worked for a time at the Chelsea Herald and later moved to a large printing house in Boston, where by age 19 he was a practical printer and foreman of the plant. After serving in an infantry company during the Civil War, he went to work for the Boston Daily Courier until 1869 when he began his business as the Printer Manufacturing Co. In 1880 Golding married Georgiana Evert Putnam Golding and they had one daughter and two sons. The sons, William H. Golding, Jr. and Gilbert Golding, both worked for the company.
Source: Steve Saxe, "A brief history of Golding & Co.," APHA Printing History No. 6 (1981).
Arrangement
Arranged into the following seven series:
- I. Golding & Co. general business records
- ___A. Business correspondence
- ___B. Financial records
- ___C. Legal documents
- ___D. Other business papers
- II. Golding & Co. design and manufacturing records
- ___A. Product documentation
- ___B. Technical drawings and blueprints
- ______1. Golding Jobber printing press
- ______2. Lead & rule tools
- ______3. Official printing press
- ______4. Paper cutters
- ______5. Pearl printing press
- ______6. Parts for several products
- III. Golding & Co. patents
- ___ A. United States Patent Office
- ___B. Great Britain Patent Office
- ______1. Complete patents (Great Britain)
- ______2. Incomplete patents (Great Britain)
- ___ C. Germany Kaiserliches Patentamt
- ___ D. Institut national de la propriété industrielle (France)
- IV. Golding & Co. photographs and other images
- V. Golding & Co. awards
- VI. Golding & Co. product sales catalogs
- ___A. General sales catalogs
- ___B. Product-specific sales catalogs
- ______1. Golding Jobber printing press
- ______2. Official printing press
- ______3. Owl Brand printing ink
- ______4. Paper cutters
- ______5. Pearl printing press
- ______6. Miscellaneous product-specific sales materials
- VII. Golding family papers
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2007MH-5. Purchased from The Veatches, Arts of the Book, P.O. Box 328, Northampton, Massachusetts 01061, with the Philip Hofer Charitable Trust, the Harmand Teplow Class of 1920 Book Fund, and the Bayard Livingston and Kate Gray Kilgour Fund; received: 2008 March 17.
General note
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
Much of the collection was received in good order and included text descriptions of many items. The order and description was retained when possible.
- Title
- Golding Manufacturing Co. Golding Manufacturing Co. business records and other papers, 1864-1944: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02049
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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