Photoprints
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: cicra 1880-1989
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0320, Subseries 3.12
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The PHOTOPRINTS, ca. 1880 1989, document Pratt, Read's factory sites, its connection with the African ivory trade, its employees, and its manufacturing procedures.  While the majority of these photoprints are the originals assembled for Pratt Read's Ivory Museum, several are reproductions made from original photographs and negatives made available to the Archives Center by citizens of Ivoryton.  A few of the photoprints were taken in 1988 1989, during the acquisition of the collection.

The photoprints are arranged by topic into fifteen groups: the Deep River factory site; the Ivoryton factory site; factory tours; bleach houses; Africa/ivory; ivory working; keyboard and action production; New Key Cap Program; piano actions; employee housing; company activities and events; employees; Charles Frederick Stein (technical consultant); exhibits; and miscellaneous.  They are arranged chronologically within each group.  Each photoprint has been assigned an individual number based upon the collection number, the series, and the order of the photoprint within that series (i.e., 320/3/1, etc.).  A complete caption for most of the photoprints is provided in this finding aid.  If a negative for a photoprint is on file with the Smithsonian's Office of Printing and Photographic Services, that negative number is provided along with the caption.

Photoprints of both the Deep River and Ivoryton factory sites show external and aerial views of the various factory buildings between 1881 and 1989.  They document the changing size and shape of the Ivoryton factory especially well, as old buildings were torn down and new ones took their place.  Photoprints of factory tours and "Open Houses" provide interior views of the factory buildings and show workers explaining various stages of the manufacturing process.  Bleach house photoprints show the extent and number of bleach houses used by the company and show how the ivory was arranged for bleaching in the sun.  Pratt, Read's connection with the African ivory trade is shown in several photoprints from 1904 1911 of and by Ernst D. Moore, an ivory buyer for Arnold, Cheney & Company, which supplied Pratt, Read with most of its ivory.

Manufacturing processes are shown in several groups of photoprints.  Ivory activities include people posing with tusks, wagons, and trucks full of tusks; the ivory vault in the Ivoryton factory; the cutting and "junking" of tusks; the bleaching and matching of key "heads" and "tails"; and the laying of keys on piano keyboards.  Similiar photoprints of keyboard and action production show workers in all stages of production, from cutting wood to polishing the finished product.  Although six of these photoprints date from 1896, most date  from 1947-1955.  A series of photoprints shows the plastic keys introduced in the New Key Cap Program of 1965, while several photo albums document the company's innovative piano action designs.

Two of the many houses the company built for its employees in Deep River are shown in several photoprints taken during the archivist's 1989 site visit.  Company activities and events include annual banquets and Christmas parties for workers' children, picnics, and award ceremonies for longtime employees.  A large number of photoprints show employees, most of whom are unidentified.  There are also photoprints of Charles Frederick Stein, Pratt, Read's noted technical consultant.  The group of exhibits photoprints includes a copy of the company's sign from the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, and views of exhibits at various post World War II functions in Connecticut.  Finally, the miscellaneous group includes copies of two cartoons by Clarence D. Batchelor that satirize changes in American society, using a piano metaphor.  The PHOTONEGATIVES are of piano action models constructed for patent purposes, 1944-1945.