American Bank Note Company Records
name: label: Creator
content: American Bank Note Company
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated by the AB Note Company of Fort Lee, New Jersey in 2012.
creator: label: Creator
content: American Bank Note Company
setName: label: See more items in
content: American Bank Note Company Records
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: First founded in 1795 as Murray, Draper, Fairham & Company, the American Bank Note Company developed into the United States' foremost high security engraving and printing firm in the years prior to the Civil War. It produced paper money, postage stamps, stock and bond certificates. After the Civil War, it produced paper money and stamps for foreign governments, including Canada and Haiti. In 1879, it merged with the National Bank Note and Continental Bank Note companies.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 4 Cubic feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1860-1987
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: In 2003, the American Bank Note Company contacted the National Museum of American History about surplus objects such as dies, printing plates and other three-dimensional objects, regarding a possible deaccession, and inquiring whether the National Numismatic Collection was interested in acquiring these items. NMAH volunteer Peter Huntoon surveyed the items proposed for deaccession, and acquired a large number of objects for the NNC. Along with these objects, Mr. Huntoon was also allowed access to archival materials, and brought back this collection of correspondence, business files, photographs and photograph albums, and a motion picture film.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1285
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection is unprocessed.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection includes correspondence with various banks and foreign governments, especially those of Canadian provinces, regarding their banknotes or postal stamps; client files, mostly with various companies that contracted with American Bank Note Company to engrave their stock certificates, but also including files regarding two engravers, Herman Ochs and Charles Brooks, who worked for ABNC; framed items including photographs and letters of appreciation; photographs and photograph albums, showing interior scenes of the ABNC's plants, shop floors with employees at work in various aspects of production, plant facilities such as the cafeteria and the hospital, plant expansion or renovation, and exteriors of the plants.