Arden Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
label: Creator
content: Arden, Juliette
label: Names
content: Girls' Club.
label: Names
content: Arden, Henry
topic: label: Topic
content: Inventors
label: Topic
content: Benefactors
label: Topic
content: Poverty
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The collection was donated by Juliette Arden.
creator: label: Creator
content: Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
label: Creator
content: Arden, Juliette
setName: label: See more items in
content: Arden Collection
bioghist: label: Biographical/Historical note
content: Henry Arden, a graduate of Cambridge, England, came to the United States in 1867 after a quarrel with his family. He went directly to Cincinnati. Observation during that trip by railroad led to his invention of the Arden Car Elevator for transferring freight from broad gauge to narrow gauge roadbeds. (U.S. Patent No. 77,706, according to Juliette Arden). The idea was developed and used by the railroads but Mr. Arden received no compensation inspite of the patent. The family shortly moved to New York where four children were born. Mr. Arden was admitted to the New York bar in 1890 and became a successful lawyer according to his daughter, Juliette.

Seven years of litigation over the railroads' use of the idea for the Arden Car Elevator resulted in defeat. In 1895 Mr. Arden became ill and moved to California for the climate. Shortly after he invented a "magnetic ore separator". This idea was allegedly stolen by the steel companies according to Juliette Arden who called it "the second great steal". She also claimed that a number of other inventions patented by her father were stolen. Henry Arden died in 1912.

There is no biographical information in the papers about Henry B. Arden and very little about Juliette Arden who signed many of her letters as "trustee" for her father's estate. She seems to have been active in church work both as a volunteer and an employee at least briefly. She wrote and had published privately a manuscript entitled "Cole 200 to 1920" which traces the family name Cole through English history and tried to have published a manuscript entitled "The Lifted Veil". It is evident from the material that Juliette Arden and her brother Henry or Harry were not compatible.

Juliette Arden was interested in preserving good in the late 19th century-early 20th century. She was the director of Girls' Club, director of the Class Department of Dr. Parkhurst's Mission as well as working with the poor. She had a talent for openly supporting persons who were taken advantage of by businesses and other commercial organizations.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1.4 Cubic feet (4 vertical boxes, 1 flat oversize box)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1884-1950
custodhist: label: Ownership and Custodial History
content: This collection was transfered from the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, September 1987.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0285
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Correspondence
label: Type
content: Photographic prints
label: Type
content: Newspapers
label: Type
content: Legal records
label: Type
content: Family papers
label: Type
content: Blueprints
label: Type
content: Business records
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: This collection is organized into 8 series. 

Series 1: Reports, telegraphs, statements, 1902-1029

Series 2: Legal papers, 1896-1938

Series 3: Correspondence, 1884-1950

Series 4: Notes, 1903-1920

Series 5: Personal artifacts, 1898-1914

Series 6: Price lists, vouchers, invoices, circa 1920s

Series 7: Blueprints, 1905-1929

Series 8: Photographs, 1907-1925
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Processed by Grace M. Angle and Stella Roberts, volunteers, March 1991, supervised by Archives Center, NMAH staff.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Correspondence -- 1950-2000
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographic prints
label: Genre/Form
content: Newspapers
label: Genre/Form
content: Legal records
label: Genre/Form
content: Family papers -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Family papers -- 19th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Correspondence -- 19th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Blueprints
label: Genre/Form
content: Business records -- 1880-1950
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: This collection includes papers that were important to Henry, Henry B. and Juliette Arden. There is some confusion caused by the names of father and son. Juliette referred to her father as Henry, never as Harry or Henry B. Early patents, granted before his death in 1912 may have been granted to the father. All documents or correspondence later than 1912 obviously relate to the son. There are a number of patents granted by the U.S. and several by Canada, a few perhaps to the father, the others to the son, and one to Juliette for a gas stove broiler. A number of legal documents, originals or copies, relate to efforts by the son to raise funds to manufacture machinery or equipment or to develop engineering ideas such as strengthening levees on the Mississippi, building a ships' canal and a channel tunnel. His correspondence relates to such projects also, there is extensive correspondence with the W.H. de Udy & Co. of Montreal, Canada in reference to the organization of a syndicate to finance the manufacture of steel from iron separated from sands. The sparse correspondence identified with his father is largely personal.

Juliette Arden's correspondence is extensive. It includes many pleas to the rich and/or famous to right the alleged wrongs done to her father in prior years. Her early correspondence is related to a broiler for gas stoves that she invented and had patented, (March 26, 1912 Patent No. 585,734) and a legal suit arising from this. Other early correspondence relates to an unsolicited welfare plan developed for the American Sugar Refining Co. The only extraordinary letter from this early period is one to Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace (November 7, 1915) about Juliette's concern for Paris during World War I.
 
Also included are a number of letters detailing attempts to sell in England an ore reduction process invented by her father. Sir John Beverly Tomlinson of Toronto, Canada and Mr. T.W. Ridley of England were involved in this.

The thirties were evidently years of real or imagined financial hardship. Numerous letters recounting the alleged wrongs done to her father by the unauthorized use of his inventions were addressed to the famous, rich or powerful. A few of these also proffered advice about cures for cancer and other physical problems. Among the people to whom such letters were addressed were Col. Charles Lindbergh, Senators Hiram Johnson, Robert Wagner and Joseph Robinson, Presidents Roosevelt and Coolidge, Col. Howe (an aide to President Roosevelt, Mr. and Mrs. William Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, William Randolph Hearst, Pierre du Pont, Henry Ford and Mrs Harry Payne Whitney. 

The remainder of the collection consists of miscellaneous notes on a variety of subjects, blue prints of machinery and equipment, a few personal artifacts (theater ticket stubs, invitations, etc.) and family photographs.

4 boxes.