Manufacturing and Design Records
name: label: Collection Donor
content: Nickse, Hugo
label: Collection Donor
content: Johnson, Hanford
label: Collection Creator
content: Comstock, Cheney and Co.
label: Collection Creator
content: Pratt, Read and Company
label: Collection Donor
content: Steinway, Henry Ziegler
setName: label: See more items in
content: Pratt, Read Corporation Records
label: See more items in
content: Pratt, Read Corporation Records / Series 3: Pratt, Read and Company, Pratt, Read and Company, Inc., and Pratt-Read Corporation
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1892 - 1968
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0320, Subseries 3.10
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: MANUFACTURING AND DESIGN RECORDS, 1892-1968, document the raw materials used in the manufacturing process, the output of goods produced, and the design and specification of keyboards and action components.  The oldest item in this subseries is a private inventory book written by George L. Cheney shortly after he became president of the firm in 1892.  It records on hand stocks of ivory, combs, piano keys, ebony and other woods, and real estate property.  The register of lumber received, 1936-1947  a continuation of the record begun by Comstock, Cheney & Company in 1926  is an accounting of the various types of wood ordered for use in this industry.

Ivory usage is documented in a number of records.  Two ivory purchase journals, 1936-1955, record the weight and prices of ivory tusks purchased, by lot number.  The tusk ivory receiving reports, 1946-1955 (also arranged by lot number) record the number assigned to each tusk, its quality grade, characteristics, and any defects.  The tusk ivory inventory record book, 1950-1953, provides the invoice number and weight of each lot of tusks.  Handwritten notes of ivory work done by Grace Schmelke describe one employee's daily piece rate work in the years 1955-1958.  The ivory bleaching record is a spiral bound notebook which records the movement of individual tusks into and out of the bleach houses.  Other records show the percent of wastage per lot of ivory and the number of keys produced.  The file titled "Production Procedures for Ivory and Lumber" contains a number of descriptive narratives concerning the qualities of ivory and wood used in pianos, the procedures involved in bleaching ivory and in processing ivory keyboards, and a step by step description of the ivory shop routine.  Also of interest are copies of the formulas used in dyeing piano sharps.

Piano production and design records include correspondence and news clippings from 1942-1946 that provide information on the curtailment of piano production during World War II by both Pratt, Read and the piano industry in general.  Under regulations imposed by the War Production Board and the Office of Price Administration, raw materials essential to the war effort were not available for piano production and piano prices escalated to levels that discouraged sales.  Despite these restrictions, Pratt, Read attempted to maintain a research and development program, examining the possibilities of producing other parts of the piano, such as backs, boards, ribs, and cases.  This effort is documented in the correspondence files of Peter Comstock, 1943 1945, which also contain information about the whole piano industry's attempts to cope with wartime restrictions.  Peter Calamari's files document a postwar cooperative effort with the Aeolian American Piano Company to produce a player piano.  They include correspondence, drawings, specifications, and photoprints.

Action specification books were kept by type of piano  regular, upright, and grand.  The books, dating from 1927 1968, are arranged alphabetically by customer name.  Information is provided on the style, size, specifications, and price of keys, sharps, actions, and other components sold to each company.  Oversize blueprint drawings of piano actions dating from 1924 to 1957 are also found in this subseries.  Other drawings include artists' views for several pianos designed by Benjamin J. Beck, 1944; designs for a folding keyboard, 1946; and designs for the K 4 piano assembly, 1947.