Rust Craft Company Permanent Files
name: label: Collection Collector
content: Norcross, Arthur Dickinson, d. 1968
label: Collection Designer
content: Tuck, Raphael, fl. 1880s
label: Collection Manufacturer
content: Norcross Greeting Card Company (New York (N.Y.))
label: Collection Manufacturer
content: Rust Craft Publishers (Boston, Mass.)
label: Collection Collector
content: Rust, Fred Winslow, 1877?-1949
label: Collection Designer
content: Prang, Louis, fl. 1880-1900
label: Collection Designer
content: Chase, Ernest Dudley, fl. 1920s
label: Collection Collector
content: Rust Craft Greeting Card Company (Dedham (Mass.))
setName: label: See more items in
content: Norcross Greeting Card Collection
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1927 - 1981
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0058, Series 6
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This series contains 506 cubic feet stored off-site. In contrast to the Norcross Company's permanent files, Rustcraft established and practiced a different system of organizing its permanent files by placing cards into scrapbook volumes.  As scrapbooks were filled, at a rate tied to the company's production schedule, they were assigned a volume number and placed in the Rustcraft library.  A borrower's card within each volume suggests continuous reference to previous card designs and verses.  Several volumes would be filled simultaneously during a year at different rates.  As a result, the volumes for a year do not follow numerically upon each other.  For the sake of clarity, the Rustcraft library system has been discarded in favor of arranging the volumes strictly by year.  Also unlike Norcross, Rustcraft divided its permanent files of cards into two series: one based on occasion and the other on what they called "Everyday" cards.  The latter include such topics as birthdays and anniversary.

This series also includes the permanent files of several different card manufacturing companies which were acquired by the Rustcraft Company at some point during its existence.

This series is organized according to the following outline.  Listed are the companies and categories into which the materials are arranged, with the inclusive date range for each.  Numbers in parentheses are the box numbers in which the material is found.
is the records of each card produced by Rustcraft and the several companies which it acquired.  The materials consist of 506 cubic feet.

The first four series in this collection are organized to the sub series level.  Within each sub series, there is only minimal folder levels arrangement.  Many of these cards and materials within each series were sorted by the donor, and inconsistencies in filing exist.  For instance, a few Christmas cards may be misfiled in a group of Easter cards.  In some cases, similar cards may be found under several different headings, e.g., in the antique card series Louis Prang cards may be under "Prang materials" or "Christmas cards  designer, manufacturer."  There are also a number of groups of unsorted cards in each series.

Greeting cards in each of the first four series may be arranged in one of several categories:  by date, season or occasion, physical characteristic, visual image, designer or manufacturer, and others.  The cards arranged by physical characteristic and visual image often break down into more specific categories such as lithographed, embossed, lace paper, or handmade cards, and cards with images of animals, nature scenes, flowers, or birds.  Designer and manufacturer cards are sometimes sorted by the name of the individual or firm.  Additional minimal folder level arrangement for all series is apparent from the box listings that follow.  Greeting cards in the Norcross Company Permanent Files are arranged by occasion or topic and then by serial number.  Those in the Rustcraft Company Permanent Files are arranged by occasion and then by year.