Holley Manufacturing Company Records

Collection

Identifier: 1980-0028

Staff Only

Scope and Content

The Holley Manufacturing Company records provide detailed information about this important pocket cutlery firm. The bulk of this collection consists of correspondence with customers, hardware dealers, other manufacturing companies, sales agents, the Manufacturers Association of Connecticut, and credit and collecting agencies. The records also include substantial information about employees, sales, and production, and finances.

Dates

undated, 1847-1933

Access

The collection is open and available for research.

Restrictions on Use

Permission to publish from these Papers must be obtained in writing from the owner(s) of the copyright.

History

The Holley Manufacturing Company of Lakeville (Salisbury), Connecticut, produced pocket cutlery and related products, from 1844 until 1946. Founded in 1844 by Alexander Hamilton Holley and George Merwin as Holley and Merwin, the Company claimed to be the oldest manufacturer of pocket cutlery in the United States. The company name was later changed to Holley & Company. In 1854, it was incorporated as the Holley Manufacturing Company, with Alexander H. Holley as president, George B. Burrall, treasurer, and William B. Rudd, secretary. William Rudd's son, Malcolm D. Rudd, succeeded him as treasurer and general manager, serving in that position until 1942. Its customers were retailers and small jobbers, mostly in New England, Pennsylvania, and upper New York State. Total annual sales of the company probably did not exceed $50,000 from 1844 to 1925, or $10,000 from 1925 to 1933. Holley Manufacturing Company's sales and production declined after 1933 and the firm was dissolved in 1946.

Extent

75 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Holley Manufacturing Company of Lakeville (Salisbury), Connecticut, produced pocket cutlery and related products, from 1844 until 1946. Holley Manufacturing Company's sales and production declined after 1933 and the firm was dissolved in 1946.

Arrangement

Series I: Correspondence (undated, 1854-1933) consists of incoming correspondence (1854-1933), letters from the agents (1887-1933), select correspondence from R.G. Dun Company, hardware dealers, the Manufacturers Association of Connecticut, and the firm of Kemble and Mills; and outgoing correspondence (1847-1933).

Series II: Administrative Records (undated, 1852-1920) contains contracts, legal and semi-legal documents, insurance policies, patents, personnel policies, reports, tax records, blueprints, and notebooks.

Series III: General Accounts (undated, 1847-1928) consists of daybooks, journals, ledgers, accounting statements, and other general account records.

Series IV: Labor Records (undated, 1854-1920) consists of records related to payroll and employee's accounts.

Series V: Production Records (undated, 1853-1927) consists of inventory books, cost estimates, records of raw material used, and material samples.

Series VI: Sales Records (undated, 1850-1938) consists of catalog and price lists (1850-1934), salesmen's reports and trip books (1853-1869), customer credit ratings (1856-1858), customer lists (1904-1920), Boyd's City Dispatch Credit reports (1911-1932), R.G. Dun and Company reports (1869-1876), sales summaries (1901-1914), photographs of Holley pocket knives, and price lists and catalogs from other cutlery and silver manufacturing companies.

Series VII: Griggs & Chapin Company (undated, 1882-1887) contains business records of Griggs & Chapin Company, a general store evidently used by the Holley Company to pay employees in kind.

Acquisition Information

The collection was donated by Yale University Libraries in 1979.

Subjects

Administrative records Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Catalogs Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Collection agencies Subject Source: Fast
Connecticut (state) Subject Source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
Correspondence Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Cutlery Subject Source: Fast
Cutlery trade Subject Source: Fast
Financial records Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Hardware stores Subject Source: Fast
Industrial relations Subject Source: Fast
Insurance policies Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Inventories Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Labor union meetings Subject Source: Fast
Labor unions Subject Source: Fast
Lakeville (inhabited place) Subject Source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
Manufactures Subject Source: Fast
Sales records Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Silver-plated flatware Subject Source: Fast
Torrington (inhabited place) Subject Source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
Trade associations Subject Source: Fast
United States (nation) Subject Source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names