- About Archives
- About SAA
- Careers
- Education
- Publications
- Advocacy
- Membership
In this issue:
Stocks, Bonds and Broadsides
by Ann Gibson, Chase Archives
As part of the many events highlighting New York Archives Week last fall, the Business Archives Section in conjunction with the South Street Seaport Museum, presented a slide lecture at the Museum Gallery. The lecture, "Stocks, Bonds and Broadsides," described the job printing industry in New York City in the nineteenth century and was given by Irene Tichenor, Printing Historian and Head Librarian at the Brooklyn Historical Society. An exhibit shown in the gallery displayed an assortment of nineteenth century New York Harbor views, including many prints utilizing processes described by the lecturer.
In the nineteenth century, three basic printing processes were used to create receipts, tickets, handbills, stocks and other transient items called "ephemera" today. Job printers used different processes in producing this material, depending on how much the client was willing to pay and how the item was to be used. Engraving permitted the printing of intricate lines and was used as a hedge against counterfeit in the creation of securities. For the production of eye-catching advertising trade cards, lithography was preferred. Relief printing, a less expensive process, was common for handbills and receipts. In some cases print shops used a combination of these processes.
By focusing on the manufacture of printed material, this lecture underscored how production of seemingly superficial items could affect nineteenth century business. Vivid examples chosen to illustrate the printing industry, and the economic and technological changes that occurred in it as the century progressed, included the tremendous expansion from the early to mid- 1800s in the different type sizes and fonts available.
The lecture was followed by a demonstration at Bowne & Co., a recreated nineteenth century print shop which is part of the South Street Museum complex. The demonstration permitted participants to sample, using a small hand powered job press, one of the presses discussed in the lecture.
This presentation provided an engaging look at the background of the variety of nineteenth century printed ephemera that so many of us, as business archivists, maintain in our collections.
CIGNA Celebrates 200 Years
by N. Claudette John, CIGNA Corporation
A company anniversary can be a time of unification and renewal if its makes the most of the opportunity and its archives can fill a vital role in achieving this goal. CIGNA Corporation, which observed its 200th anniversary in 1992, is an interesting case in point. Extensive historical materials are preserved for the corporation and three of its old companies and adequate historical information exists for two others. CIGNA also employs three archivists, who were able to help company managers use the archival resources to meet their goals and expectations for the bicentennial observance.
CIGNA Corporation, an insurance and financial services holding company, was formed in 1982 by the combination of INA Corporation and Connecticut General Corporation, each of which had as its major subsidiary an historic insurance company: the Insurance Company of North America (INA) and Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (CG). These two old companies, formed respectively in 1792 and 1865, are the major operating subsidiaries of CIGNA Corporation today. The Insurance Company of North America, which is the oldest of the CIGNA companies, was formed in the Pennsylvania State House just sixteen years after the Declaration of Independence was signed there, and was the inspiration for CIGNA's bicentennial celebration.
The staff of the CIGNA Archives was very much involved in planning and participating in the bicentennial celebrations. During the early preparation for this anniversary, the archivist proposed that the chronicle of CIGNA be written as one story, beginning in 1792 and including the histories of Connecticut General and several other old companies that had, over time, become part of the CIGNA family. That concept was accepted, but the Company elected not to pursue her additional proposal for the writing of a formal history by an independent scholar. The head of the anniversary project, a Vice President of Corporate Communications, formed a large task force which varied in membership over the course of the project, but which always included the archivist. A consulting firm was brought in to do some project direction and creative work. Understandably, the consultant and most members of the task force were totally unfamiliar with the histories of the old companies that had become a part of CIGNA.
The archivist realized that in order to plan the 200th anniversary celebration, the task force members needed historical information and guidance and therefore proposed that the Archives staff prepare a concise historical overview. The project head approved and helped to fund the work, which resulted in the "CIGNA Historical Background Report" and a companion volume of historical photographs keyed to the text.
These two volumes (which documented historical facts and anecdotes highlighting values that the predecessor companies held in common) were distributed to task force members and committee heads to supply them with information on which to base bicentennial projects. The volumes also indicated what kinds of additional information and materials were available from the Archives "only a 'phone call away".
Projects using archival materials and services included:
’ a permanent exhibit of historical art and artifacts installed by the CIGNA Museum and an elaborate tradeshow display designed by the Marketing Department;
’ a video presentation used extensively by the operating companies, especially in the field, for marketing and public relations;
’ the central ad of a prize-winning, national campaign for the Property Casualty Division, which ran in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and other widely circulated periodicals: "For 200 Years, It's been One Disaster After Another";
’ a short, beautifully illustrated historical booklet entitled CIGNA, 200 Years of Results, as well as various articles in Company newsletters and speeches; and
’ last, but most importantly, a spectacular two-day public festival held on Philadelphia's Independence Mall.
The festival was a giant birthday party for CIGNA employees to which the entire city was invited. It featured a speech by a "Benjamin Franklin", a fife-and-drum corps parade, dances of Native Americans and demonstrations of 18th century crafts. A juried craft fair, food stands and other special events raised $80,000 that was donated to a fund for the preservation of Independence Hall.
Three hundred employee volunteers and Company funds made the festival possible. The archivist had her own special project for the festival; she researched and developed a walking tour brochure which featured fifteen sites in the Independence Park area, among which five 18th century Company locations were highlighted.
The "CIGNA Historical Background Report", never intended for general distribution, was requested by thousands of employees in the U.S. and abroad once they realized that it was available. It is still requested by individual employees and is currently being used in training classes, orientation packets, and by the Law Division as a source of general background information.
King Ranch: A South Texas Tradition
by Bruce S. Cheeseman, Archivist
The King Ranch, Founded in 1853 by steamboat captain Richard King (1824-1885), sprawls across 825,000 acres of South Texas, in the grasslands between Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande. The land varies from fertile black soil to low-lying coastal marshes and to mesquite-infested pastures that mark the beginning of the great Texas brush country. King Ranch, a registered national historic landmark recognized as the birthplace of the American Ranching industry, has been and continues to be a pioneer in livestock and wildlife management. It is the founder of the first American breed of beef cattle, a producer of top running and performance horses, and a source of technology that has led to many significant advances in ranch and range management.1
More importantly, King Ranch is a family. It is still privately owned by Captain King's heirs and many of the people who work at King Ranch are descendants of the men and women who rode with Captain and Mrs. King. Moreover, King Ranch is their home, and its character is derived from all the people who live upon it. Working together, the families of King Ranch have sustained it in a harsh, unyielding country through six generations, forging a tradition and culture that sets King Ranch apart from the other great ranches of America.
When Richard King first arrived at the Nueces Strip of South Texas, it was then known picturesquely as "Wild Horse Desert" or El Desierto de los Muertos, the "Desert of the Dead". To help him tame this area, he looked across the Rio Grande to the tradition of the vaquero, the centuries-old culture of horsemen and cattle that had begun on the central plateau of Spain, to the Mexican hacienda and to its smaller cousin, el rancho, as models for his ranch.
All "the King's Men"
His first cattle came from drought-stricken Mexican ranchos, and so did his first hands. In 1854 King journeyed into Mexico and persuaded an entire village -- approximately 120 men, women and children with donkeys, livestock, chickens and carts loaded with possessions -- to come northward to Texas with him to his fledgling rancho on the banks of the Santa Gertrudis Creek. The families that accompanied him are the ancestors of many of the people who work today at King Ranch. From the beginning, they have been known as Los Kineøos, literally "the people of King Ranch".
At Rancho Santa Gertrudis, working side-by-side with the Kings, los Kineøos survived the chaos of the Civil War (during which time the ranch was raided and looted by Union Troops), suffered the hardships of droughts and bandit raids, and exalted in the successes of trail drives and the development of the ranch. Between 1869 and 1884, more than 100,000 of the ranch's cattle were driven up trails to railheads in Kansas at Abilene, Dodge City and Elsworth. In time, Santa Gertrudis became the most famous ranch in the American West. Moreover, in the desert of the Nueces Strip, the Kineøo culture has created an "oasis" of civilization.
A Modern Business Emerges
Today, King Ranch is a multinational agribusiness and energy exploration corporation, controlling more than one million acres across the southern United States and in Brazil. It is a large-scale producer of beef cattle, championship thoroughbreds and quarterhorses, sugar cane, cotton, alfalfa, grain sorghum, rice, turf grass and wildflower sod. Its energy operations, begun in 1933, produce natural and crude oil, are concentrated in Oklahoma and states bordering the Gulf of Mexico.
The King Ranch Archives, established in 1988, preserve the heritage of this unique cultural and business institution, documenting the transition from Mexican hacienda to more traditional, South Texas cattle operation, and into a modern multinational agribusiness corporation. It is an institutional business archives, whose mission is to furnish King Ranch's management and leaders with a workable record of their predecessors' activities.
The Archival Collections
The collections, spanning from 1792 to present, consist of approximately 400 cubic feet of papers. Included are the papers of Richard King (1824-1885) and his wife Henrietta M. (Chamberlain) (1832-1925); also Hiram Chamberlain (1797-1866); business partner, friend and mentor, Mifflin Kenedy (1818-95); Robert J. Kleberg (1853-1952), who married King's daughter Alice, and the Kleberg family. Business collections consist of the records of the King Ranch, Inc. and its subsidiaries from 1934 to present. Also included are papers documenting the numerous diversified interests of the King-Kleberg business throughout South Texas and over 400 maps, land surveys and architectural drawings. The photographic collection contains approximately 10,000 images, spanning from an 1848 daguerreotype of the Chamberlain family to the present, and includes Toni Frissell's award winning photographic essay The King Ranch, 1939-1944.
The archives also maintains the records of some past business, such as the steamship firms M. Kenedy & Co. (1850-66) and King, Kenedy & Co. (1866-74); the cattle companies R. King & Co. (1860-67), Kenedy Pasture Co. (1882-1961) and Texas Land and Cattle Co., Ltd. (1882-1907); the Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. (1875-81) and the Saint Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railroad (1903-09).
Areas of importance in the collections are South Texas history in general (and in particular, navigation on the Rio Grande), the Civil War (cotton and blockade running via Brownsville and Matamoros, Mexico), cattle rustling and bandit wars during Reconstruction, and town development and politics in 20th-century South Texas (especially the congressional papers of Richard Mifflin Kleberg, 1931-44).
Both King Ranch's Records Management Dept. and Archives are creating database management programs utilizing STAR/Alpha Micro telecommunications software, a C-language product of Cuadra Associates. Outside research requests number 10-15 per month and are handled on an individual basis. For additional information contact Bruce S. Cheeseman, Archivist, King Ranch, Kingsville, Texas, 78364-1090, (512) 592-0408.
1 The Santa Gertrudis breed, developed during the 1920's from English shorthorns and Indian brahmin cattle, was recognized by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture as the first beef breed developed in the United States. Additionally, the first registered quarterhorse was a King Ranch horse.
200 Years New York Stock Exchange Observes Bicentennial
by Steven Wheeler, NYSE
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has just wrapped up a year of special events celebrating its 200th birthday -- a swirl of events, products and programs ranging from a commemorative U.S. postage stamp to a good old New York City street fair for employees and their families.
The bicentennial year (1992) began with a kick-off media breakfast in the NYSE's sumptuous Board Room that featured speeches and special guests, an exhibition of archival documents and artifacts, and some old-time songs played by "The Upticks", a group of musical employees. Mayor David N. Dinkins who rang the opening bell inaugurated trading on the first day of the bicentennial year.
Throughout the year, a number of products reminded people near and far that this was a big year for the NYSE. Local lampposts were hung with banners bearing a special bicentennial logo. The columned facade of the NYSE building was awash with light every night. Special newspaper and television advertisements featured a gallery of historic business leaders ranging from Thomas Edison to Jenny Craig to emphasize the NYSE's contributions to American business development. Finally a special edition of Life magazine gave readers an inside look at "The Big Board".
More than 1,500 guests attended the fundraising "Bicentennial Ball" which featured dinner on the trading floor and dancing under tents on Wall Street, to initiate a special foundation to benefit public education in New York City. Additionally, NYSE Chairman William H. Donaldson traveled to cities across the nation speaking to community and school groups about the role of the NYSE in the world economy.
The bicentennial project closest to my heart (and office) was a full-color, illustrated history book titled The New York Stock Exchange: The First 200 Years that was drawn largely from materials in the NYSE Archives. Weighing in at seven pounds, this handsome volume (known in some quarters as a "coffee table book"), explores the rich lore, colorful characters, traditions and culture of the NYSE and Wall Street over the past two centuries. Now that these twelve months of birthday festivities are finally concluded and I've had a moment to reflect on them, I'd like to share a few of my observations over the past year.
1. An anniversary celebration isn't so much about the past as it is about the future. Your public relations staff will use the anniversary as an occasion to talk about the company's current innovations and future goals. If you can present the company's history in a context that explains and supports current corporate concerns, your anniversary celebration will be all the more effective and meaningful.
2. A centennial celebration requires years of planning--years that you very likely will NOT have. Too often corporate managers, preoccupied with business concerns, ignore pleas for an early start on the company anniversary. As the magic date nears, approvals from top managers finally come pouring forth and anniversary events are hurried to fruition. Because you may not have ample time to plan and execute your anniversary celebration, it pays to do some quiet and thoughtful advance preparation on your own. Start pitching your ideas early and pitch them often. Try to anticipate projects that will be approved. Know what you can accomplish. Resign yourself to working late nights and weekends for a while.
3. Everyone has a part to play in the anniversary celebration. Anniversary celebrations quickly become incredibly complex operations that can and should involve virtually every division, department and employee within your corporation. Broad participation is often necessary simply to get the job done, but also gives employees a stake in making the birthday celebration a success. On projects like these, the custodial crew is just as crucial (and perhaps more so) as the archivist.
4. Try to be a popular scholar. Most of your audience (employees, media, stockholders, the general public) will not be interested in an academic history of your company. Instead, give them what they want -- a quick story of how the company began, major historical highlights and achievements, interesting milestones, entertaining trivia -- while remaining true to your principles as an archivist and historian. Prepare historical materials, whether a time line, exhibition or book-length history, with sound facts and historical interpretation presented in an informative and entertaining style.
Birthday parties, after all, should be fun!
TIAA-CREF 75th Anniversary Preparations in Progress
by Carolyn Kopp, TIAA-CREF
TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund), currently the largest pension system in total assets in the U.S., will celebrate its 75th anniversary in May 1993. As TIAA-CREF consists of non-profit companies serving the education and research communities, its celebration will focus on its policy-holders and participating institutions.
The Historical Archives, established in 1989, is the primary source for corporate historical information and records. More than a year ago, the Archives began compiling ideas and copies of documents and images. Having a reference file available that anticipates a variety of needs and projects has been helpful.
Another indispensable tool is the Archives' "Chronology of TIAA and CREF", a detailed list of key dates which is continually updated and which now extends to nine pages.
Archival materials are being used by various departments for corporate publications and in a special exhibit, planned for next May, focusing on the staff. The Archives is also in the process of developing a series of historical exhibits on TIAA-CREF to be displayed in the TIAA Business Library. For further details, contact Carolyn Kopp, Archivist.