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3. Provenance 5. Inventory 6. Subjects |
Taft-Peirce Manufacturing Company Records Machine tool manufacturers, Woonsocket, R.I. Records, 1895-1982 Size: 5 linear feet Catalog number: MSS 867 Processed by: Harold Kemble, August 1985 Revised by Rick Stattler, May 1998 ©Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Division |
Historical note:
The Taft-Peirce Manufacturing Company prospered for over a hundred years as a completely integrated engineering, tooling and manufacturing institution in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1875 as the Hautin Sewing Machine Company and became the Wardwell Sewing Machine Company in 1886 under the ownership of Samuel W. Wardwell. Wardwell continued the business of manufacturing industrial sewing machines, and with the supervision of his plant foreman Edwin J. Peirce expanded into the area of contract manufacturing of machines. In partnership with Daniel W. Taft, Peirce bought the assets of the company in 1895, at which time the present corporate name was adopted. In its early years, Taft-Peirce manufactured sewing machines, typewriters and the elements of a punched card cost system. In 1903, the company went into receivership, and was taken over by a syndicate in 1905. The syndicate, led by appointed receiver Frederick Steele Blackall, has retained ownership of the firm through recent times. As late as 1982, F. Steele Blackall III was the company's president.
Bibliography:
Blackall, F. Steele Jr. "A History of the Taft-Peirce Manufacturing Company and its Predecessor Corporations...From April 2 1875 to the Close of World War II"
Hall, Joseph Jr., ed. Biographical History of the Manufacturers and Businessmen of Rhode Island... (Providence: J.D. Hall, 1901), 76-77.
Scope and content:
The bulk of the records of Taft-Peirce remain in the hands of the company. The collection donated to the library consists of catalogues, memorabilia, and other information accumulated by F.S. Blackall Jr. and F.S. Blackall III while writing and updating the corporate history.
Provenance:
This collection arrived in several gifts from Frederick Steele Blackall III from 1982 to 1998. The bulk arrived in 1985.
Inventory:
Box 1, folder 1. Sales prospectus for Woonsocket plant, undated
Box 1, folder 2. Planning guide, 1982-1987
Box 1, folder 3. Annual report, 1981
Box 1, folder 4. Annual report, 1980
Box 1, folder 5. Annual report, 1979
Box 1, folder 6. Annual report, 1978
Box 1, folder 7. Annual report, 1977
Box 1, folder 8. Annual report, 1976
Box 1, folder 9. Annual report, 1975
Box 1, folder 10. Annual report, 1974
Box 1, folder 11. Annual report, 1973
Box 1, folder 12. Annual report, 1972
Box 1, folder 13. Annual report, 1971
Box 1, folder 14. Annual report, 1970
Box 1, folder 15. Annual report, 1969
Box 1, folder 16. Annual report, 1968
Box 1, folder 17. Annual report, 1967
Box 1, folder 18. Annual report, 1966
Box 1, folder 19. Annual report, 1965
Box 1, folder 20. Annual report, 1964
Box 1, folder 21. Annual report, 1963
Box 1, folder 22. Annual report, 1982
Box 1, folder 23. "A Report on Continuance of Operation", by Frederick Steele Blackall Jr.,m 6/25/1925, with supplement, inventory and related correspondence.
Box 1, folder 24. Contents of unlabeled ring binder, dating between 1935 and 1961.
Box 2. "Catalog Files": Dicing, gaging, machine tools
Box 3. "Catalog Files": Magnetic chucks, manufacturing facilities, microstoning equipment, production and inspection equipment
Box 4. "Taft-Peirce History File", "A" through "O".
Subject files, arranged in alphabetical order, circa 1895-1969.
Director's minutes, 1954-1981 (5 folders, accn. #1995.127)
Product literature (accn. #1995.127)
Box 5. "Taft-Peirce History File", "P" through "W".
Subject files, arranged in alphabetical order, circa 1895-1969.
Box 6. Publications and company history
Wardwell Sewing Machine Company payroll books, 1886-1893 (accn. #1982.133.1-2)
Time and payroll book, 1907 (#1982.133.3)
Box 7. Publications and company history
Annual report, 1957
Box 8. Annual reports, 1958, 1959 (accn. #1998.18)
Subjects:
Hautin Sewing Machine Company
Machine tool industry - Rhode Island - Woonsocket
Sewing-machine industry - Rhode Island - Woonsocket
Wardwell Sewing Machine Company
Woonsocket, R.I. - Business records
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RIHS1822