Uncovered from within a large box named “Industries”, and removed from folders just long enough to be properly cataloged within our database, were a group of 16 New Bedford Cordage Company photographs (Mss 1). The full collection, housed both in the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library and the Adaline H. Perkins Rand Photographic and Digital Archives, includes much more than this small group of photographs.
A stage in the manufacturing of rope. "Feed end of Spreader" (Photo by Joseph G. Tirrell)
Records of company directors and stockholders (1848-1958) including correspondence, minutes, reports, deeds and bills of sale for land or ships purchased by the firm, tax appraisals, and proposals relating to the company’s physical plant; correspondence, general accounts, employee’s wage book, and production and sales records reflecting the firm’s manufacture of binder twine, transmission rope, rope cables, and nylon rope for U.S. and world markets; product catalogs and advertisements (ca. 1911-1958); articles of organization of Cordage Institute, a national trade organization; and memoir and newspaper clippings concerning the history of the company. Includes information relating to National Cordage Company and Travers Brothers Company, both in New York, N.Y. Persons represented include Francis A. Bryant and Martin Walter, Jr., presidents of the company.
Original funds for processing this collection were provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Coach with two large rolls of cordage in front of the New Bedford Cordage Company. (Photo by Joseph G. Tirrell)
Visit our flickr set to view all photos in this collection.
