Sandford Greeting Card Company and Family Papers
name: label: Creator
content: Gilman, Georgiana Sandford, 1887-1982
label: Creator
content: MacDowell, Helen Sandford, 1889-
label: Creator
content: Pease, L.F.
label: Creator
content: Prince, Georgiana K., 1861-1915
label: Creator
content: Sandford, Frank S., 1853-1924
label: Creator
content: Sandford Greeting Card Company
label: Creator
content: Sandford, Mary Elizabeth, 1852-1936
label: Creator
content: Sandford, Ruth, 1879-1972
label: Names
content: American Red Cross
label: Names
content: Women's Christian Temperance Union
label: Donor
content: Gilman, R. Thompson
place: label: Place
content: Panama Canal (Panama)
topic: label: Topic
content: Christmas
label: Topic
content: Family-owned business enterprises
label: Topic
content: Greeting card industry
label: Topic
content: Greeting cards -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: Health resorts
label: Topic
content: Holidays
label: Topic
content: Postcards -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: Practical jokes
label: Topic
content: Temperance
label: Topic
content: Thank-you notes
label: Topic
content: Women-owned business enterprises
label: Topic
content: Women -- Political activity
label: Topic
content: Women -- Organizations
label: Topic
content: Women's suffrage -- United States
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated to the Archives Center in 2011 by R. Thompson Gilman, Executor for the estate of Elizabeth G. Essley.
creator: label: Creator
content: Gilman, Georgiana Sandford, 1887-1982
label: Creator
content: MacDowell, Helen Sandford, 1889-
label: Creator
content: Pease, L.F.
label: Creator
content: Prince, Georgiana K., 1861-1915
label: Creator
content: Sandford, Frank S., 1853-1924
label: Creator
content: Sandford Greeting Card Company
label: Creator
content: Sandford, Mary Elizabeth, 1852-1936
label: Creator
content: Sandford, Ruth, 1879-1972
setName: label: See more items in
content: Sandford Greeting Card Company and Family Papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: Collection documents the business activities of the Sandford Card Company and include the papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford, founder of the company, and her immediate family.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Mary Elizabeth Kennedy Sandford founded the Sandford Card Company in Dansville, New York in 1907. The Sandford Card Company was intended to provide consumers a means to send messages to family and friends. Such products contained more thought out verses and images than the typical postcards that were available during this time period. Initially, Mary Elizabeth created four verses with images and had five thousand of each printed by the F. A. Owen Publishing Company. The four samples were sent to two hundred bookstores and drugstores. Sales were later made with distributors and agents in various cities throughout the country. In addition, the company also sold cards to fraternal organizations using their symbols or mottos in the design. Eventually, fraternal organizations became a big part of the company's customer base expanding to more than fifty groups. The company grew as a mail order business. All card shipments were made directly from Dansville, New York to forty-eight states and countries including Canada, Alaska, Cuba, Japan, Guam, Philippines, Hawaii, Panama, and Netherlands, West Indies, England and Scotland. Although the Sandford Card Company started as a greeting card business it eventually offered place cards, calling cards, calendars, program folders, napkins, banquet supplies, gifts and souvenirs to its product line. All printing work was contracted out to lithographic businesses in New York, Boston and Cincinnati. With the death of Mary Elizabeth Sandford and her husband Frank Sherman Sandford the company continued to be operated under the guidance of their daughter Ruth Louise Sandford. In 1948, Ruth Sandford hired John G. Holden as business manager. In 1965, the company moved from Dansville to Baldwinsville, New York under the management of the third generation of the founding family. It continued to operate as a family business until it was sold to John G. Holden. The company was later purchased by Rodney Pease the grandson of Mary Elizabeth Sandford's sister Lillian Frances Pease. Pease eventually changed the name and direction of the company.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 10 Cubic feet (37 boxes)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1831-2004, undated
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1252
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Account books
label: Type
content: Advertising
label: Type
content: Birthday cards
label: Type
content: Blotters (writing equipment)
label: Type
content: Business cards
label: Type
content: Business records
label: Type
content: Cabinet photographs
label: Type
content: Calling cards
label: Type
content: Cartes-de-visite
label: Type
content: Christmas cards
label: Type
content: Clippings
label: Type
content: Daguerreotypes
label: Type
content: Design drawings
label: Type
content: Diaries
label: Type
content: Dvds
label: Type
content: Genealogies
label: Type
content: Letters (correspondence)
label: Type
content: Memoirs
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Photograph albums
label: Type
content: Programs
label: Type
content: Trade catalogs
label: Type
content: Travel diaries
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into four series.

Series 1: Sandford Card Company Records, 1880-1967; undated 

Subseries 1.1: Correspondence, 1909-1936; undated

Subseries 1.2: Financial Records, 1880-1926; undated

Subseries 1.3: Product Designs and Samples, 1911-1941; undated

Subseries 1.4: Advertising and Marketing Materials, 1924-1967; undated

Series 2: Sandford Family Papers, 1831-2003; undated

Subseries 2.1: Frank Sherman Sandford, 1870-1925; undated

Subseries 2.2: Mary Elizabeth Kennedy Sandford, 1868-2003; undated  

Subseries 2.3: Ruth Louise Sandford, 1900-1972; undated

Subseries 2.4: John Joseph Sanford, 1900-1987; undated

Subseries 2.5: Georgiana Kennedy Sandford Gilman, 1870-1973; undated 

Subseries 2.6: Helen Louise Sandford McDowell, 1899-2000; undated 

Subseries 2.7: Family Papers, 1831-1992; undated

Subseries 2.8: Frances Rohe, 1913, 1920; undated

Series 3: Kennedy Family Papers, 1861-2003; undated

Subseries 3.1: James Frank Kennedy, 1861-1920s; undated

Subseries 3.2: Mary Jane Durkee Kennedy, 1867-1882

Subseries 3.3: Lillian Frances Kennedy Pease, 1875-2003

Subseries 3.4: Emma Jane Kennedy, 1877-1883; undated 

Subseries 3.5: Georgiana Kennedy Prince, 1878-1915; undated

Subseries 3.6: Family Papers, 1934-1992; undated

Series 4: Other Family Papers, 1840s-2004; undated

Subseries 4.1: Durkee Family, 1864-2004; undated

Subseries 4.2: Gilman Family, 1840s-1902

Subseries 4.3: Gilman Family, 1916-2004; undated

Subseries 4.4: McDowell Family, 1920; undated 

Subseries 4.5: Pease Family, 1953-1984; undated
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by Nancy Beardsley, volunteer, 2012; Anne Jones, volunteer, 2012; Ramona Williamson, volunteer, 2012;  Marian Tatum Webb, volunteer, 2012; Theresa Worden, volunteer, 2012; and Vanessa Broussard Simmons, archivist, August, 2012.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Account books -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Advertising -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Birthday cards
label: Genre/Form
content: Blotters (writing equipment)
label: Genre/Form
content: Business cards
label: Genre/Form
content: Business records -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Cabinet photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Calling cards
label: Genre/Form
content: Cartes-de-visite
label: Genre/Form
content: Christmas cards
label: Genre/Form
content: Clippings -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Daguerreotypes
label: Genre/Form
content: Design drawings -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Diaries -- 19th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Diaries -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: DVDs
label: Genre/Form
content: Genealogies
label: Genre/Form
content: Letters (correspondence) -- 19th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Letters (correspondence) -- 20th century.
label: Genre/Form
content: Memoirs
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- 19th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Photograph albums -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Programs -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Trade catalogs -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Travel diaries -- 20th century
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection documents the business activities of the Sandford Card Company primarily in the early part of the century.  It includes product designs and samples; advertising and marketing materials, as well as, correspondence and financial papers.  In addition, there are the papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford, founder of the company, and her immediate family.  These materials consist primarily of diaries, photographs, correspondence, family histories and genealogies. The collection is arranged into four series.  Series one documents the business activities of the Sandford Card Company.  Series two contains the personal papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford, her husband Frank Sherman Sandford and their children. Series three is the personal papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford's parents and siblings.  Series four is the personal papers of extended family members mostly by marriage.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Norcross Greeting Card Collection, NMAH.AC.0058

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subject Category: Cards, NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Cards

Hoffman Collection, NMAH.AC.0062

Division of Domestic Life Greeting Card Collection, NMAH.AC.0109

Burris and Byrd Family Card Sample Case, NMAH.AC.0126

Susie Paige Afro-American Greeting Card Collection, NMAH.AC.0263

Rocky Herosian Collection, NMAH.AC.0295

Olive Leavister 19th Century Handmade Valentine Collection, NMAH.AC.0396

Archives Center Scrapbook Collection, NMAH.AC.0468

Beatrice Litzinger Postcard Collection, NMAH.AC.0530

Greeting Card Collection, NMAH.AC.0579

Jean Clairmook Radio Scrapbook, NMAH.AC.0674

Ernest Dudley Chase Papers, NMAH.AC.0886


Beatrice Morgan Steyskal Greeting Card Collection, NMAH.AC.1198

Lillian Pease Card Company Records, NMAH.AC.1251

Lillian Vernon Collection, NMAH.AC.1495

 Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

American Artists Group Records, 1931-1966, AAA.amerartg

Lewis Turco and George O'Connell Christmas Card Collection, AAA.turclewi

Milton and Edith Lowenthal Papers, AAA.lowemilt

Christmas Cards Designed by Artist-Servicemen, AAA.amerartx

Christmas Cards Designed by Von Wicht for American Artists Group, AAA.vonwicj

Angna Enters Greeting Cards and Printed Material, AAA.enteangn