Maryland Steel Company

Frederick William Wood (1857-1943) was an executive and engineer in the steel and shipbuilding industries. The Frederick W. Wood photographs document the career of Frederick W. Wood in the steel and shipbuilding industries, most notably his time working for Pennsylvania Steel Company at Steelton, Pennsylvania, Maryland Steel Company and Bethlehem Steel Company at Sparrows Point, Maryland, and the American International Shipbuilding Corporation at Hog Island Shipyard, located in Pennsylvania on the Delaware River. Researchers interested in the steel and iron industries, the shipbuilding industry, company towns, and the regional history of the greater Philadelphia and Baltimore areas would find this collection useful.

Maryland Steel Company was a steel-works and shipyard operated from 1891 until 1916, when Bethlehem Steel acquired the Pennsylvania Steel Company and its subsidiary, Maryland Steel. This collection consists of 3 albums containing 204 cyanotype photographs taken at the Maryland Steel Company's steel plant and shipyard between 1890 and 1894. The photographs show steel buildings, steel workers, shipyard buildings, ship construction, tugs and steamships.

The records of the Maryland Steel Company of Baltimore County collected by the Bethlehem Steel archives were limited to those of the Marine Department and a few corporate papers. There is substantial coverage of the steel works and company town in Accession 884, the Frederick W. Wood Papers.

The Marine Department records include cost books, specification books, and job files. The cost books contain the accounting for materials and labor by individual vessel contract. The specification books are printed specifications giving material standards and dimensions. The job files contain mostly routine correspondence relative to individual contracts.

There is a run of minutes and related papers for the company's annual meeting of stockholders following its transferal to the Pennsylvania Steel Company of New Jersey in 1901. Minutes for a special meeting of stockholders and directors from June to July 1919 cover the dissolution of the company.