Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: Widener, P. A. B. (Peter Arrell Brown), 1834-1915
| title | August Jaccaci papers, 1889-1935 (bulk 1904-1914). | repository | Archives of American Art |
| description | Letters, mostly concerning Jaccaci's joint editorship with John La Farge of the book, Noteworthy Paintings in American Collections; typescript pages of research material relating to the book and photographs (unmicrofilmed) of works of art. The papers cover the one published volume as well as the unrealized volumes. Also included are photographs of early American wall stencils. The collection documents Jaccaci's work as an art historian, writer, and editor, primarily during the period he researched, compiled, and published his book, "Noteworthy Paintings in Private American Collections." More than one-half of the collection consists of extensive correspondence to and from many notable artists, collectors, and art historians, including John La Farge, Kenyon Cox, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Bernard Sickert concerning the research and publication of the book. The papers also house legal files, writings and notes, art collection research files, and photographs of artwork. Correspondents include art historians, critic, artists, and art collectors, as well as publishers, photographers, printers, and agents. These letters discuss the research of famous American art collections, writing of essays for the book, and the book production and publication. There is extensive correspondence with his co-editor John La Farge, and with his employee Carl Snyder who was working in Europe. Other correspondence is with magazines, art associations, academic institutions, and French service organizations. Also included is a small amount of personal correspondence with friends and colleagues. Correspondents, many of whom were contributors, include Samuel H. Adams, American Academy in Rome, R. B. Angus, Sir Walter Armstrong, John W. Beatty, Cecilia Beaux, Bernard Berenson, Ernest L. Blumenschein, Wilhelm Bode, Louis De Monvel Boutet, James Britton, George De Forest Brush, Bryson Burroughs, Charles H. Caffin, Alexis Carrel, Mary Cassatt, Willa Cather, John Jay Chapman, Sir Martin Conway, Kenyon Cox, Eyre Crowe, Elsie De Wolfe, William H. Downes, Charles L. Freer, Daniel C. French, Max Friedlander, Roger Fry, Isabella Gardner, Jules Guiffrey, Jay Hambidge, Charles Henry Hart, James J. Hill, Lewis C. Hind, Sir Charles J. Holmes, Elbert Hubbard, James Huneker, Samuel Isham, Thayer Jaccaci, Bettina E. Johnson, John La Farge, Oliver La Farge, Ernest Lawson, Will H. Low, Frank J. Mather, Henry McCarter, Samuel McClure, Francis D. Millet, Paul E. More, George F. Of, Ivan Olinsky, Walter Pach, Ernest Peixotto, Elizabeth Pennell, Michael I. Pupin, Jean F. Raffaelli, Salomon Reinach, Henry Reuterdahl, Corrado Ricci, Jean P. Richter, Gisela M. Richter, Frederic Sherman, Bernhard Sickert, Osvald Siren, Joseph L. Steffens, Ida Tarbell, Anne Taylor, Carl Taylor, Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, Wilhelm Valentiner, John C. Van Dyke, Adolfo Venturi, J. Alden Weir, John F. Weir, William A. White, Helen H. Whitney, and Rufus Zogbaum. Research material includes information on the following collections: R. B. Angus, George Baker, Charles T. Barney, August Belmont, Chauney J. Blair, Cleveland Burke, A. M. Byers, Thomas M. Davis, G. A. Drummond, William L. Elkins, James W. Ellsworth, Henry Clay Frick, Isabella S. Gardner, J. W. Gates, George Jay Gould, L. C. Hanna, Henry O.Havemeyer, John Hay, James J. Hill, Charles L Hutchinson, Hyers, John J. Johnson, Mr. Lodge, Frank G. Logan, Cyrus Hall and R. Hall McCormick, James H. McFadden, Emerson McMillan, Samuel Mather, Frank G. Morgan, Horace Morison, Ada Brooks Pope, James Ross, Martin A. Ryerson, Albert A. Sprague, Charles W. Taft, Herbert L. Terrell, Edward R. Thomas, William H. Vanderbilt, William Van Horne, J. H. Wade, Harris Whittemore and P. A. B. Widener. Also included (reel D126) are photographs of early American wall stencils. Forty-eight unmicrofilmed photographs of works of art are from the Henry C. Frick, William Van Horne, and P. A. B. Widener files. Legal files include contracts and legal agreements for the August F. Jaccaci Company, as well as legal agreements with John La Farge concerning the research and publication of their joint book. Writings and notes include Jaccaci's lists and notes pertaining to the Noteworthy Paintings project, as well as other miscellaneous notes. Also found are writings by John La Farge that include drafts of a book, lectures, and notes about his artwork. Writings by others in this series also include draft essays by many art historians for Jaccaci's book. For the Noteworthy Paintings project, Jaccaci created numerous research files for American art collections and collectors that would be included. These research files include lists of works of art, essays and other notes about the collection written by prominent art historians. Photographs are of works of art supporting the research files. Also found in this collection are photographs of and notes about New England stencil designs. It is unclear what the connection is between Jaccaci and the stencil designs. Author(s): Jaccaci, Augusto Floriano, 1857-1930. Beaux, Cecilia,; 1855-1942. Berenson, Bernard,; 1865-1959. Blumenschein, Ernest Leonard,; 1874-1960. Bode, Wilhelm von,; 1845-1929. Boutet de Monvel, Louis-Maurice,; 1851-1913. Britton, James,; 1878-1936. Brush, George de Forest,; 1855-1941. Burroughs, Bryson,; 1869-1934. Caffin, Charles Henry,; 1854-1918. Carrel, Alexis,; 1873-1944. Cassatt, Mary,; 1844-1926. Cather, Willa,; 1873-1947. Chapman, John Jay,; 1862-1933. Conway, William Martin,; Sir,; 1856-1937. Cox, Kenyon,; 1856-1919. Crowe, Eyre,; Sir,; 1864-1925. De Wolfe, Elsie,; 1865-1950. Downes, William Howe,; 1854-1941. Freer, Charles Lang,; 1856-1919. French, Daniel Chester,; 1850-1931. Friedländer, Max J.,; 1867-1958. Fry, Roger Eliot,; 1866-1934. Gardner, Isabella Stewart,; 1840-1924. Guiffrey, Jules,; 1840-1918. Hambidge, Jay,; 1867-1924. Hart, Charles Henry,; 1847-1918. Hill, James Jerome,; 1838-1916. Hind, C. Lewis; 1862-1927. ; (Charles Lewis), Holmes, C. J.; 1868-1936. ; (Charles John), Hubbard, Elbert,; 1856-1915. Huneker, James,; 1857-1921. Isham, Samuel,; 1855-1914. Jaccaci, Thayer. Johnson, Bettina Eastman. La Farge, John,; 1835-1910. La Farge, Oliver,; 1901-1963. Lawson, Ernest,; 1873-1939. Low, Will Hicok,; 1853-1932. Mather, Frank Jewett,; 1868-1953. McCarter, Henry,; 1866-1942. McClure, S. S.; 1857-1949. ; (Samuel Sidney), Millet, Francis Davis,; 1846-1912. More, Paul Elmer,; 1864-1937. Of, George F.; b. 1876. ; (George Ferdinand), Olinsky, Ivan G.; 1878-1962. ; (Ivan Gregorewitch), Pach, Walter,; 1883-1958. Peixotto, Ernest,; b. 1869. Pennell, Elizabeth Robins,; 1855-1936. Pupin, Michael Idvorsky,; 1858-1935. Raffaëlli, Jean François,; 1850-1924. Reinach, Salomon,; 1858-1932. Reuterdahl, Henry,; 1871-1925. Ricci, Corrado,; 1858-1934. Richter, Gisela Marie Augusta,; 1882-1972. Richter, Jean Paul,; 1847-1937. Sherman, Frederic Fairchild,; 1874-1940. Sickert, Bernard,; 1862-1932. Sirén, Osvald,; 1879- Steffens, Lincoln,; 1866-1936. Tarbell, Ida M.; 1857-1944. ; (Ida Minerva), Taylor, Anne. Taylor, Carl. Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander,; 1865-1921. Valentiner, Wilhelm Reinhold,; 1880-1958. Van Dyke, John Charles,; 1856-1932. Venturi, Adolfo,; 1856-1941. Weir, Julian Alden,; 1852-1919. Weir, John F.; b. 1841. ; (John Ferguson), White, William Allen,; 1868-1944. Whitney, Helen Hay,; 1875-1944. Zogbaum, Rufus F.,; 1849-1925. Adams, Samuel Hopkins,; 1871-1958. Angus, R. B. Armstrong, Walter,; Sir,; 1850-1918. Beatty, John W.; 1851-1924. ; (John Wesley) Bio / His Notes: Jaccaci, a mural painter and writer, was born in France and came to the United States in the 1880s. He and painter John La Farge were editors for what they hoped would be a multi-volume series to be called Noteworthy Paintings in Private Collections. The first volume was published in 1907, but with the untimely death of La Farge, Jaccaci abandoned the project. |
| extent | 7.2 linear ft. (partially microfilmed on 9 reels) |
| formats | Correspondence Photographs Research Files Notes Legal Files |
| access | Patrons must use microfilm copy. Use of unmicrofilmed portion requires an appointment. |
| record link | https://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/AAA.jaccaugu.pdf |
| record source | https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/august-jaccaci-papers-6877 |
| finding aid | Finding Aid Online |
| acquisition information | Papers were purchased from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which had acquired them for director Francis Henry Taylor's research for Taste of Angels. |
| updated | 06/09/2023 15:39:50 |
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| title | P. A. B. Widener Letter to Horace Howard Furness, 1912. | repository | University of Pennsylvania |
| description | Letter is dated 24 May 1912. In it Widener thanks Furness for offering him condolences on the death of his grandson. Biography/History: This is probably Peter A. B. Widener (1834-1915). Found In: H. H. Furness Memorial Library manuscript collection. Location: Rare Book & Ms Library Manuscripts Call Number: Furness Mss |
| extent | 1 item (1 leaf). |
| formats | Correspondence |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions. |
| record source | http://www.franklin.library.upenn.edu/ |
| acquisition information | Found In: H. H. Furness Memorial Library manuscript collection. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:54 |
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| title | Residence for PAB Widener Esq Ashbourne PA. | repository | The Historical Society of Pennsylvania |
| description | Contains floorplans, elevations, sections, roofplans, iron work plans, and stress diagrams for the residence of P.A.B. Widener in Ashbourne (now Elkins Park), Pa. Also includes plans for the low pressure steam heat plant. Shows alterations and additions to the residence including plans to convert the stable into a residence. Note(s): Forms part of the Horace Trumbauer Collection; for general information, see collection record. Drawing # 1499, Work # 27, 2047, 2207, 2215, 2236, and 2553 Biographical Sketch: Horace Trumbauer established his own firm in 1890 beginning with mainly residential work. By the middle of his career he designed commercial buidings as well. Trumbauer died in 1938, but the firm continued under the name "Office of Horace Trumbauer" and was run by architects Julian Abele and William O. Frank. Call Number: V36:34 |
| extent | 6 architectural drawings : pencil, pen and ink on linen; rolled 3 architectural drawings : pencil on tracing paper; rolled 1 architectural drawing : pencil on paper; 68.4 x 101.4 cm. 1 architectural drawing : blueprint; rolled 34 architectural drawings : pen and ink on linen; 116.5 x 107.9 cm. or smaller |
| formats | Drawings |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions |
| record source | http://discover.hsp.org/ |
| acquisition information | Forms part of the Horace Trumbauer Collection. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:54 |
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| title | Widener Family History | repository | Widener University Archives |
| description | Box contents include: 1. Book titled "A Trust in the Blood " by David Lewis Eyson about the grants that were awarded according to the terms of a trust agreement signed by George D. Widener. 2. Viewbook of the Widener Memorial School 3. Clippings, various years including obituaries of: Peter A. B. Widener, 1948 Joseph E. Widener, 1943 Eleanor Widener Dixon, undated George D. Widener, 1971 Fitz "Eugene" Dixon, 2006 (also includes Widener University Memorandum announcing his death). Includes information about his ownership of the Philadelphia NBA basketball team the Philadelphia 76ers. 4. Articles on the Widener Family including: Peter Arrell Brown Widener George Dunton Widener Joseph E. Widener Peter A. B. Widener, 2nd. Harry Elkins Widener 5. Press release 1972 - Profile: Widener Family 6. List of books in Widener Library at Harvard University about Widener Family 1972 7. Copy of engraving of Harry E. Widener 8. Copy on CD of lecture given on April 22, 2002 by Dr. Joseph Edgette entitled "The Widener Family and the Titanic." |
| formats | Clippings Printed Materials |
| access | Open by appointment. |
| record source | http://www.widenerarchives.org/ |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:54 |
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| title | Philadelphia Electric Company Records, 1836-1953 (bulk 1890-1915) [microform]. | repository | Hagley Museum and Library |
| description | The records consist of microfilm copies of the minute books of about 150 of the predecessor companies of the Philadelphia Electric Company. However, some important firms, such as the early Brush and Edison companies, are not represented. The bulk of the companies are from the suburban and fringe area. The minute books document the consolidation and merger process that took place between 1895 and 1928. Many of the companies represented were short-lived intermediate steps in the larger merger process. More substantive coverage is available for some of the larger companies, whose minutes contain financial and statistical statements. The minutes also describe the replacement of older systems of light and power by the Westinghouse alternating current system. There are also long runs from many of the suburban gas companies. There are minutes for many of the predecessor companies involved with the early stages of the Conowingo Dam project and the companies in Harford and Cecil Counties that were acquired in connection with it. Two of these predecessors, which were acquired to eliminate conflicting charter rights, are the oldest companies represented. The Tide Water Canal Company (1836-1896) operated a canal along the west bank of the Susquehanna River from Havre de Grace to the Pennsylvania state line in connection with the Susquehanna Canal Company of Pennsylvania. The Conowingo Bridge Company (1847-1927) operated a series of toll bridges across the Susquehanna at Conowingo. The road, now U.S. 1, was relocated to the top of the Conowingo Dam. History: The Philadelphia Electric Company was incorporated under the laws of Pennsylvania on October 31, 1929, as a merger of The Philadelphia Electric Company (incorporated in Pa. on October 27, 1902), the Philadelphia Suburban-Counties Gas & Electric Company, and three other small utility companies. It is the primary gas and electric company for Philadelphia, its surrounding counties and Cecil and Harford Counties in northeastern Maryland. After the invention of electric lighting systems in the late 1870s, several companies were formed in Philadelphia. The first was the Brush Electric Light Company of Philadelphia, formed by Thomas Dolan and others for the purpose of lighting Chestnut Street in March 1881 and utilizing the Brush arc light system. The Maxim Electric Light & Power Company was formed in September 1881 by Martin Maloney, William L. Elkins, Peter A. B. Widener, William G. Warden and others to use the systems invented by Hiram S. Maxim and Edward Weston. It was soon named the United States Electric Lighting Company of Philadelphia and set up isolated plants to provide electricity to specific buildings. In 1885 the "Electric Trust" was formed for the purpose of consolidating the Brush and United States companies, and over the next ten years the Trust began to acquire some twenty small companies organized to serve specific areas of Philadelphia County. The Edison Electric Light Company of Philadelphia was organized in December 1886 by Samuel B. Huey and William D. Marks with the backing of the Edison Electric Light Company of New York. The company used the Edison system and constructed what was then the largest central generating station in the world in 1889. By 1895 the Edison company was the largest and most profitable electric company in the city. Martin Maloney organized the Pennsylvania Heat, Light & Power Company in February 1895 to promote the Siemens system. In 1896 it acquired the stock of the Edison company and then purchased the Electric Trust. In February 1898 Maloney organized the Pennsylvania Heat, Light & Power Company and proceeded to buy up the remaining independents. Another holding company, the National Electric Company, was formed in May 1899 and began buying utility companies in Philadelphia and Delaware Counties. The Philadelphia Electric Company was incorporated under the laws of New Jersey on October 5, 1899, for the purpose of merging the National and and Pennsylvania Manufacturing, Light & Power Companies. In 1901 it acquired the Kensington Electric Company, the last independent in the city. A separate "The Philadelphia Electric Company" was incorporated in Pennsylvania on October 27, 1902, to act as a single operating subsidiary. Under the presidency of Joseph B. McCall (1870-1926) it imposed uniformity on the patchwork quilt of local companies and introduced the alternating current system. It also arranged to supply power to the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, operating the city’s streetcars and subways, and the Pennsylvania Railroad electrifications beginning in 1913. In 1911 the reform mayor Rudolph L. Blankenberg appointed Morris Llewellyn Cooke as Director of Public Works. Cooke, a Progressive advocate of public ownership of utilities, began a campaign against Philadelphia Electric. Partly as a result, the New Jersey corporation was dissolved on November 19, 1917, and The Philadelphia Electric Company became the parent firm. Large central stations were built at Chester (1918), on the Delaware River near Penn Treaty Park (1920) and Richmond (1925). In 1923 the company’s bankers, Drexel & Co., purchased the Susquehanna Power Company of Maryland, which had acquired rights to build a hydroelectric dam on the Susquehanna River at Conowingo. It was turned over to the Philadelphia Electric Power Company, a Philadelphia Electric subsidiary, and the dam was completed in 1928. In 1927, Philadelphia Electric formed the Susquehanna Utilities Company to operate six local electric companies in southeastern Pennsylvania and northeastern Maryland associated with the Conowingo project. The Philadelphia Electric Company, Pennsylvania Power & Light and the Public Service Electric & Gas Company of New Jersey formed the first interconnected power grid in 1928-1931. Under McCall, Philadelphia Electric made no attempt to expand beyond its original service area. In 1928, after McCall’s death, control of the company passed to the United Gas Improvement Company, a Philadelphia-based national utility holding company long associated with Philadelphia Electric. UGI also controlled a number of gas and electric companies serving the northern and western suburbs which had been consolidated into the Philadelphia Suburban-Counties Gas & Electric Company. Philadelphia Suburban-Counties were merged into Philadelphia Electric in 1929. Under orders from the SEC, United Gas Improvment Company divested itself of Philadelphia Electric in 1941. |
| extent | 36 reels of microfilm. |
| formats | Microfilm Business Papers |
| access | Literary rights retained by Philadelphia Electric Company. |
| record source | http://38.115.62.80/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First |
| finding aid | Unpublished finding aid available at the repository. Organization: Arranged alphabetically by company. |
| acquisition information | Originals held by: Philadelphia Electric Company. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:00 |
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| title | Philadelphia Transportation Company Agency history record. | repository | Hagley Museum and Library |
| description | The records of the Philadelphia Transportation Company and predecessors are described separately and linked to this agency history. History: The Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) was incorporated in Pennsylvania on January 1, 1940, by the merger of all the bus, streetcar and subway companies in the city of Philadelphia, with suburban routes extending to Doylestown in Bucks County and Chester and Media in Delaware County. On September 30, 1968, it sold all its assets to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) a public agency and went into liquidation. Philadelphia’s first horse-drawn streetcar line went into service in 1858. There had been earlier street railroad service in the 1830s and 1840s, but these were seasonal operations by private transporters over tracks owned by the city or, when outside the city limits, by private companies. These "pleasure cars" ran only in the summer and fall to carry city residents to places of amusement along the Schuylkill River. The horse cars of the 1850s were a full-time transit service and contributed to the dispersal of population and the development of Philadelphia as a "city of homes" rather than a city of packed tenements. By 1876 there were nineteen companies operating 289 miles of track and carrying 117 million passengers annually. The street railway companies received franchises to occupy the public streets. In the early years these were granted for little more than promises to pave part of the roadways, remove snow, and maintain a five-cent fare. In later years, this produced substantial friction between city politicians and the companies. This was compounded in the 1880s, as the network reached the limits for working with animal power. Mechanization would require a huge capital investment, while at the same time, the laws usually prevented outright merger of companies. The integration and mechanization of the Philadelphia streetcar network was accomplished by a trio of entrepreneurs, P. A. B. Widener, William L. Elkins, and William Kemble, who, as they became wealthy and powerful, were resented and attacked as "transit czars." The most readily available method of combining companies for the purpose of operating efficiency was to create a pyramid of long-term leases, with generous annual dividends guaranteed to the old companies at the base of the pyramid, the so-called "underliers." The trio’s activities spurred rival imitators, who then had to be bought out at good prices, adding more layers to the pyramid, and more claims on profits. Widener, Elkins and Kemble formed the Philadelphia Traction Company in 1883. This company would provide the central power stations needed to replace some of the horse car lines with cable cars. After five years, only ten miles had been reequipped at a cost of $4 million and many technical failures. After Kemble died in 1891, Widener fixed upon electrification. The first electric trolley cars ran in 1892, and horse power was retired in 1897 after an expenditure of over $10 million. The Union Traction Company of Philadelphia was organized in 1895 as the new top company in the pyramid. To boost ridership, the company built a 100-acre amusement part at Willow Grove in the northern suburbs in 1895. Electrification had not solved the problem of street congestion, which could be met only by the construction of elevated or subway lines. During a temporary break with Widener in 1901, political boss Matt Quay awarded a series of franchises covering every desirable elevated or subway route to a rival group headed by paving contractor John Mack. After a compromise between Mack and Widener, the final step of the pyramid was put in place with the creation of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT) on May 1, 1902. The Market Street subway and elevated opened between 15th Street near City Hall and 69th Street on the city’s western boundary in March 1907. A parallel streetcar subway to give trolley cars from West Philadelphia quick access to the center of town was completed between City Hall and the Schuylkill River in 1908. The cumulative cost of electrification and the building the Market Street line nearly bankrupted the PRT. It was forced to defer service and equipment improvements, like car heaters. Its management was viewed as monopolistic and secretive and was savaged by the press. The employees were overworked and underpaid and prone to violent strikes. Finally, in 1907 a compromise was brokered by the owners of the big department stores east of 15th Street, who desperately wanted the subway at their front doors. The city eliminated its car tax and paving and street-cleaning requirements in return for representation on the PRT board. The Market Street line was completed to the Delaware River ferries in 1908. Finally, after two long and violent strikes in 1909 and 1910, the city’s leading banking firm of Drexel, Morgan & Co. agreed to refinance PRT at the price of buying out the Widener interests and installing a new management. The White Knight was Thomas E. Mitten (1864-1929), a native of Great Britain who had made his reputation on the Buffalo and Chicago systems. Mitten took over in 1911. He purchased over a thousand new streetcars of his own modern design (the so-called Nearside Car) and bought labor peace through his "Co-operative Plan" established in August 1911. Under this plan, 22 percent of the gross passenger earnings were marked for wages, pensions and benefits. Part of this fund was used to finance the Co-operative Welfare Association, which performed corporate welfare work. This was followed on November 1, 1912, by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co-operative Beneficial Association, which began as a sick-and-death benefits organization and was expanded to encompass co-op buying of food and consumer goods and, in 1918, life insurance. The Co-operative Welfare Association Saving Fund was established in October 1919. Because of these programs, employees rejected the Amalgamated Association in favor of a company union in November 1911 and successfully resisted World War I-era organizing drives. Mitten inaugurated profit-sharing in 1923 by paying a wage-dividend. A share of net profits after stockholders’ dividends was apportioned to employees up to 20 percent of wages. These payments were made into the cooperative fund and invested in PRT stock. The wage dividend was created as an operating charge rather than a bonus, but a ruling of the Superior Court in October 1924 invalidated this interpretation. In anticipation of this ruling, Mitten formed Mitten Management, Inc., in 1923, to which he transferred his 1911 management contract with PRT. Mitten then upped the management fee from 2 percent of gross earnings to 4 percent and paid the difference to the employees in lieu of the wage dividend. In 1912, the reform Mayor Rudolph Blankenberg established a Department of City Transportation, which produced a master plan for a comprehensive system of subway and elevated lines to be built by the city and leased to PRT for operation. They included a subway on Broad Street with a Center City distribution loop, a branch in Locust Street to Woodland Avenue and continuing by elevated to Darby, another subway up the Benjamin Franklin Parkway connecting with a elevated to Roxborough, and an elevated from the foot of Market Street to Frankford. The Frankford Elevated, opened on November 5, 1922, was the first to be completed. The Broad Street Subway between Olney and City Hall followed on September 2, 1928, with an extension to South Street on April 20, 1930, and the Ridge Avenue Spur to 8th and Market Streets on December 21, 1932. Further construction was halted by the Depression. As the city expanded from its traditional core into the formerly empty spaces of the Northeast, and suburban development spread along newly-paved roads, Mitten responded accordingly, aiming at a complete and fully-integrated transit system. The Philadelphia Rural Transit Company was formed on June 25, 1923, to operate buses in the city and reach out into the farther suburbs. The first rubber-tired trackless trolleys ran on Oregon Avenue on October 14, 1923. The Peoples Rapid Transit Company began interurban bus service began between Philadelphia and New York in 1924 and later extended service to Washington, D.C., and Atlantic City. The Montgomery Bus Company, Inc., and the Philadelphia Suburban Transit Company extended bus service into the western suburbs formerly the exclusive preserve of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Mitten also planned bus service to the New Jersey suburbs over the new (1926) Delaware River Bridge through the medium of the Pennjersey Rapid Transit Company. Under Mitten’s administration, PRT ridership rose from 443.2 million in 1910 to 974.9 million in 1926, the peak year for both the company and Mitten. Mitten’s approach had always required the company to grow its way out of trouble, and when growth slowed and then stopped, it became increasingly difficult to juggle the competing demands of employees, riders, and the city. On April 23, 1926, Mitten purchased the Yellow Cab Company of Philadelphia for $3 million as a new source of growth. Mitten had gambled on the 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition in South Philadelphia to showcase his system and generate business. In connection with the fair, Mitten established the "PRT Air Service" with three Fokker Tri-motors running between Philadelphia, Washington and Norfolk during the summer and fall. It was the first regularly scheduled air service in the East, but like the fair, it was not a success, and the losses fell indirectly on PRT. Mitten had broken with his erstwhile patrons at Drexel & Co. over the latter’s fiscal conservatism in 1919, so to raise capital for his expansion program, he resorted to selling shares in small lots to employees and riders. Advertising for stocks was posted in the cars and in handbills, and individuals could buy shares from conductors and ticket vendors. Mitten also ventured into the banking business. A labor bank called the Producers & Consumers Bank had been established in 1922, but after three years of mismanagement, it had failed owing debts of $1 million. Through the services of realtor Albert M. Greenfield, who was appointed receiver, the new Mitten Men and Management Bank & Trust Company was formed on March 16, 1926, and the Producers & Consumers depositors were promised sixty cents on the dollar. On January 1, 1927, it absorbed the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Title & Trust Company, another labor bank. Like many entrepreneurs of the 1920s, Mitten was able to control his empire with a small real outlay by a series of pyramiding companies and by using the holdings of the employee stock fund. To perfect his control, the Philadelphia Investment Company was formed on December 1, 1925, and renamed the Mitten Bank Securities Corporation on June 28, 1927. In October 1928, the 221,000 shares of PRT and 19.500 shares of the Mitten Men and Management Bank & Trust Company were exchanged for $14 million in the stock of the Mitten Bank Security Corporation. The Mitten Bank Security Corporation controlled 52 percent of the PRT with ownership divided at 47 percent PRT employees, 8 percent Mitten Management, and 45 percent by the general public. The Mitten Building was opened at Broad and Locust Streets on June 1, 1927, to serve as the headquarters for all of the Mitten enterprises. As ridership began to contract after 1926, and the system became more unstable, Mitten began to sell assets to raise money. A 75 percent interest in Peoples Rapid Transit Company and the western bus lines was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company late in 1928, although they remained under Mitten Management. The Pennsylvania Rapid Transit Company was sold to Public Service Co-ordinated Transport of New Jersey in 1929. Negotiations for the sale of PRT to the city commenced in 1927. In September 1929, the City of Philadelphia began a suit against Mitten and the PRT, charging Mitten Management with excessive fees and diversion of funds and demanding an independent audit. On the morning of October 1, 1929, Mitten was found drowned in a lake at his Pocono summer home. Ruling on the city’s allegations, the court ordered the appointment of trustees for PRT on April 11, 1931. On the same date, the contract with Mitten Management, Inc., was cancelled at an annual saving of $3 million, as was the lease of the Mitten Building from the Mitten Bank Securities Corporation. The independent audit revealed a number of irregularities, and accounting practices were revised. Most of Mitten’s estate was attached for the benefit of PRT. The company filed for bankruptcy on October 1, 1934. After Mitten’s death, the remaining interest in the Peoples Rapid Transit Company was sold to the PRR’s Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, Inc., in 1930, and the Yellow Cab Company of Philadelphia was sold on February 15, 1936. The Mitten Bank Securities Corporation was renamed the Transit Investment Corporation on February 9, 1938, and liquidated on July 7, 1948. The Mitten Men and Management Bank & Trust Company was renamed the Mitten Bank & Trust Company in 1934 and the Mid-City Bank & Trust Company on February 4, 1941. Some of the lightly traveled streetcar lines were replaced with buses, starting with the Doylestown line in 1931. Ridership dropped steadily during the Depresssion to 637.4 million in 1938. In the same year, the company purchased its first twenty streamlined PCC (Presidents’ Conference Committee) trolley cars. The Depression crippled the city’s plans for subway expansion. Work began on the Locust Street Subway and extending the Market Street Subway and trolley subway west of the Schuylkill, but both were discontinued without any part being brought into use and not revived until the 1950s. The PRT became the operator of the rapid transit line built on the new Delaware River (Ben Franklin) Bridge by the Delaware River Joint Commission, which opened from 8th & Market Streets to Broadway, Camden, on June 7, 1936. With the resulting decline of business on the Delaware River ferries, the elevated spur of the Market Street line on Delaware Avenue was abandoned on May 8, 1939. The Broad Street Subway was extended from South Street to Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia on September 18, 1938. During the 1930s, the city and private investors sparred over the reorganization of PRT. A particular sticking point was the disposition of the many "underlier" companies and how they should be valued in any reorganization. The city insisted that the underliers were overvalued and the generous rentals granted during the nineteenth century mergers were unjustified. By 1939, the parties had consented to a final reorganization plan that would merge the PRT and all the remaining underliers into a single company. The Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) was formed on January 1, 1940. The dominant figures were Edward Hopkinson, Jr., and realtor Albert M. Greenfield. All of the stock was placed in a ten-year voting trust. Ridership reached an all-time high of 1.1 billion in 1943 but declined steadily after the war, falling to 790.4 million in 1951 and 655 million in 1954. Wages, material costs and fares increased in an inflationary spiral. Employees deserted the old Mitten-era company union. The operating employees were organized by the Transport Workers Union (CIO) in 1944 and the office employees by the Teamsters in 1945. However, the company continued to expand and reequip its bus and car routes. The subways that had sat unfinished during the Depression and war were completed, from 8th and Market Streets to 16th and Locust on February 15, 1953, and from the Schuylkill River to 44th and Market on October 31, 1955. The subway-surface tunnels were extended from the river to 40th Street and Woodland Avenue to reduce street congestion near the University of Pennsylvania campus at the same time. The Broad Street Subway was extended from Olney to Fern Rock on September 9, 1956. In March 1955, control of PTC passed to National City Lines, a transit company organized by General Motors and the oil and rubber companies for the purpose of buying streetcar systems and equipping them with GM buses. National City Lines purchased 1,000 new buses between 1955 and 1957, retired 600 old trolleys, discontineud twenty-four car lines, and removed over 200 miles of street railway track. However, more trolleys survived than in other systems reorganized by National City Lines, primarily because of the subway-surface lines and the presence of a local faction on the PTC board of directors. A modern bus maintenance facility and office was built at 3rd and Wyoming Streets in 1957. Express bus service to City Line Avenue in Bala-Cynwyd via the new Schuylkill Expressway began in 1959, and similar services to Ardmore and King of Prussia followed in 1962. The new management also reduced the workforce and began to uproot the old PRT/PTC corporate culture. Non-transit assets were sold, including Willow Grove Park in 1955. (It closed twenty years later, and the site became a shopping mall.) The Market-Frankford line was equipped with new cars in 1961. However, despite these improvements, ridership continued to fall, to 316.5 million in 1962 and 277.4 million in 1967. The next year, National City Lines finally sold the system to SEPTA. |
| extent | Contact repository for more information. |
| formats | Administrative Records |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://38.115.62.80/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First |
| acquisition information | Relevant materials may be found in Hagley Manuscripts & Archives Dept. Accessions 2046 and 2123. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:00 |
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| title | Horace Trumbauer collection, 1898-1947. | repository | The Historical Society of Pennsylvania |
| description | This collection contains architectural drawings and blueprints, including floor plans, elevations, sections and details for dwellings, estates and other buildings located in and around Philadelphia, Pa., New Jersey, New York, Washington, D.C., and Rhode Island. Some are for buildings that were never built, like the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station that was supposed to be at 24th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There are also some photographs, prints, and negatives. Additionally, there are two boxes of manuscript material that primarily pertain to Duke University and include photographs, prints, printed materials, and floor plans. Biographical and Historical Note Horace Trumbauer was born in Philadelphia in 1898 and became one of the city's leading architects in the early middle part of the 20th century. He established his own firm in 1890 and, with a team of talented designers, began designing mostly private residences. In 1894, he completed "Gray Towers" for William Welsh Harrison in Glenside, Pennsylvania. Several years later, he designed "Chelton House" for George W. Elkins and "Lynnewood Hall" for P.A.B. Widener, both in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. He designed Philadelphia Museum of Art in Fairmount Park and parts of the Free Library. He also designed buildings for Jefferson Medical College and the Hahnemann Medical College. He designed several college and university buildings throughout the country, most notably much of Duke University's campus in Durham, North Carolina. He also designed Widener Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also created residences in other states such as New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. Trumbauer died in 1938. |
| extent | 2 boxes, 112 flat files, 6 rolled items, ( 3.6 lin. feet) |
| formats | Drawings Photographs Prints Printed Materials |
| access | The collection is open for research. |
| record link | http://www.hsp.org/files/findingaidv36trumbauer.pdf |
| record source | http://discover.hsp.org/ |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:00 |
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| title | M. Knoedler & Co. records, approximately 1848-1971 | repository | The Getty Research Institute |
| description | The records of M. Knoedler & Co. document the business of the prominent American art dealer from the mid-19th century to 1971, when the Knoedler Gallery was acquired by Armand Hammer. The archive traces the development of the once provincial American art market into one of the world's leading art centers and the formation of the private art collections that would ultimately establish many of the nation's leading art museums, such as the Frick Collection and the National Gallery of Art. It brings to the foreground the business side of dealing as artworks shuttled back and forth among Knoedler, fellow dealers, and collectors, documenting developments in art connoisseurship, shifting tastes, the changing role of art in American society, and the essential role of private collectors in the formation of public American art collections. The records provide insight into broader economic, social and cultural histories and the nation's evolving sense of place in the world. The Knoedler Gallery became one of the main suppliers of old master and post-Impressionist paintings in the United States. Financial records of the firm provide crucial provenance information on the large number of artworks in American museums that were sold by the gallery. The archive includes stock books, sales books and commission books; correspondence with collectors, artists, art dealers and other associates; photographs of the artworks sold by the gallery; records from the firm's offices in London, Paris and other cities; exhibition files; framing and restoration records, and records of the firm's Print Department. Selected portions of the archive have been digitized and made available online. Connect to selected digitized portions of the archive. Arranged in 14 series: Series I. Stock books; Series II. Sales books; Series III. Commission books; Series IV. Inventory cards; Series V. Receiving and shipping records; Series VI. Correspondence; Series VII. Photographs; Series VIII. Exhibition files; Series IX. American Department records; Series X. Framing and restoration records; Series XI. Print Department records; Series XII. Other financial records; Series XIII. Library cards, scrapbooks, and research materials; Series XIV. Knoedler family papers Biographical/Historical Note: M. Knoedler & Co. was a successor to the New York branch of Goupil & Co., an extremely dynamic print-publishing house founded in Paris in 1827. Goupil's branches in London, Berlin, Brussels, and The Hague, as well as New York, expanded the firm's market in the sale of reproductive prints. The firm's office in New York was established in 1848. In 1857, Michael Knoedler, an employee of Goupil and a manager for the firm, bought out the interests in the firm's New York branch, conducted the business under his own name, and diversified its activities to include the sale of paintings. Roland Knoedler, Michael's son, took over the firm in 1878 and with Charles Carstairs opened galleries in Paris and London. In 1928, the management of the firm passed to Roland's nephew Charles Henschel, Carman Messmore, Charles Carstairs and Carstairs' son Carroll. In 1956 Henschel died, and E. Coe Kerr and Roland Balaÿ, Michael Knoedler's grandson, took over. In 1971 the firm was sold to businessman and collector Armand Hammer. The gallery closed in November 2011. |
| extent | 3042.6 linear feet (5550 boxes, 17 flat file folders). |
| formats | Auction Catalogs Business Records Correspondence Financial Records Ephemera |
| access | Open for use by qualified researchers, with the following exceptions. Boxes 77, 262-264, 1308-1512, 1969-1974, 3592-3723 are restricted due to fragility. Box 4468 is restricted until 2075. |
| record link | http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2012m54 |
| record source | https://primo.getty.edu/permalink/f/19q6gmb/GETTY_ALMA21129976460001551 |
| contact information | Contact gallery's archivist |
| finding aid | At the Getty Research Institute and over their website. |
| acquisition information | Acquired in 2012. |
| updated | 07/28/2023 16:33:46 |
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| title | The Fototeca Berenson (Villa I Tatti Photo Archives) | repository | Biblioteca Berenson, Villa I Tatti |
| description | The collection contains about 300,000 photographs, many of them collected by Berenson himself from the 1880s until the time of his death in 1959. Many have notes on the back in his handwriting. Many show works of art before restoration, and others show images since destroyed. An important section, "Homeless paintings", contains photographs of works whose current location is unknown. The photographs are almost exclusively black and white in a variety of photographic media, such as albumen, gelatine, or carbon. About 3000 large-format photographs are stored separately. In addition, there is a considerable amount of documentary material in the form of clippings, notes and printed reproductions. The photographs are arranged according to Berenson's original scheme, by school: Florence, Siena, Central Italy, Northern Italy, Lombardy, Venice, Southern Italy. Within each school they are arranged by artist, then by topography, followed by homeless. Paintings and drawings are arranged separately. The main focus of the collection is on Italian painting and drawing from the mid-thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries. This part of the collection continues to be developed through the acquisition of new materials and through photographic campaigns. Later periods are also represented but in smaller scale, without systematic updating. There is also material on medieval painting, arranged topographically; manuscript illumination, arranged according to present location; archeology; Byzantine art and architecture, arranged both by artist and by location; and non-Italian art, arranged by country. Finally a section of 8000 photographs is devoted to the art of the Far East, India and Islam. In addition to the original Berenson nucleus, collections of prints, glass plates, negatives and transparencies have entered the Fototeca. These include the collections of Emilio Marcucci (nineteenth-century projects for the completion of various Florentine monuments), George Kaftal (representations of saints in Italian painting of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), Henry Clifford (painting thirtheenth to seventeenth centuries), Giorgio Castelfranco (Italian art thirteenth to twentieth centuries), Giannino Marchig (restoration), Frederick Hartt (Michelangelo, Giulio Romano), Giuseppe Marchini (Italian art and stained glass), and Craig H. Smyth (Renaissance painting and drawing). There is a small collection of micropublications and microfiche (162,386 frames): L=index photographique de l'art en France (95,648); Sotheby's Pictorial Archive - Old Master Paintings (45,472); Christie's Pictorial Archive Italian School (9,898); Christie's Pictorial Archive - New York 1977-95 Old Master Paintings & Drawings (11,368). The microfilm of the Bartsch Corpus comprises about 42,000 frames. Notes Most photographers not identified. |
| extent | 300,000 + photographs |
| formats | Photographs Reproductions Microfilm Artist Files |
| access | Contact Ilaria Della Monica the archivist at the Berenson Library for restrictions and appointments. |
| record link | http://via.lib.harvard.edu/via/deliver/advancedsearch?_collection=via |
| record source | http://itatti.harvard.edu/ |
| finding aid | Currently, there is no catalog of the photographs at Villa I Tatti. In some cases, Artist Files, can be found school (i.e. Venetian, Lombard, Northern Italy, Central Italy, etc. . .) and some are cataloged in Harvard's online catalog, HOLLIS. |
| acquisition information | Originally formed by Bernard Berenson the Library continues to add to the file. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:10 |
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| title | Correspondence, Palmer, Erastus - Widener, P.A.B. 1818-1847 | repository | Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives |
| description | This folder is an amalgamation of letters written and recieved by prominent figures in 19th and 20th century American art. Included in the folder are letters by Robert Reid, Hugo Robus, Thomas Prichard Rossiter, Eugene Speicher, John Greenleaf Whittier and Peter A.B. Widener. Loc. of Assoc. Material: Thomas B. Brumbaugh research material on Abbott Handerson Thayer and other artists, 1876-1994 (bulk 1960s-1994); ‡e Also located at; ‡a Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. |
| extent | 12 items |
| formats | Correspondence Photographs |
| access | Access is by appointment only, Monday through Thursday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Please contact the Archives to make an appointment: AVRreference@si.edu. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository. |
| record source | http://www.siris.si.edu/ |
| finding aid | Organized alphabetically by author. |
| acquisition information | Gift of Susan A. Hobbs. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:11 |
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| title | Edwin Atlee Barber Records, 1901-1916 | repository | Philadelphia Museum of Art |
| description | Barber's correspondence is arranged in two alphabets, 1901 to 1911 and 1912 to 1916. Some Barber correspondence with Museum people was kept separately. Extensive correspondence with John T. Morris, Board of Trustees Vice President and a collector; John Story Jenks, also a collector and a Vice President of the Board; Leslie W. Miller, Principal of the School; and James L. Allan, Assistant Treasurer make up a series. |
| extent | 19 linear feet |
| formats | Correspondence |
| access | The collection is open for research |
| record link | http://www.philamuseum.org/pma_archives/ead.php?c=BAR&p=cs |
| record source | http://www.philamuseum.org/archives/findingaids.html |
| finding aid | Available online |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:15 |
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