Historical Background Information
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: 1881 - 1989
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0320, Subseries 3.14
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: HISTORICAL & BACKGROUND MATERIAL, 1881-1989, consists primarily of news clippings and miscellaneous information about the history of Pratt, Read, the African ivory trade, the piano trade, Pratt Read's involvement in music education, and the Ivoryton area.  Especially interesting are an unpublished "History of the Pratt Read Corporation" written by Curtiss S. Johnson, A History of Pratt, Read & Company of Deep River published by the Deep River Historical Society, and news clippings about the company from 1881-1882 and 1935-1986.  The ivory trade is documented in news clippings from 1921-1989 and in two personal accounts of life in Zanzibar, one by Harriet Cheney Downing from 1942 and the other by Carlotta Welles from 1980.  News clippings about the piano trade, the adoption of plastic for keys, and other developments are also found in this subseries.  A reprinted 1899 Souvenir of Essex, Connecticut contains valuable information about the factory buildings, stores, the employees' bicycle club, and the company's central role in the community.  Other news clippings cover the Ivoryton Inn, the Ivoryton Theatre, and the Ivory Museum established by the company in 1977.