Scope and Contents:

The records of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation are a series of fragments, lacking the complete runs of corporate and executive documents that normally comprise a business archive. The surviving records give a reasonable overview of the company's history and activities, but one which is lacking in depth.

Correspondence and memorabilia of its executive officers consist largely of material collected by Robert McMath, Vice President (Finance) and Secretary. These include organization papers, directories, annual and quarterly reports to the stockholders and internal statistical reports. McMath’s correspondence deals with an assortment of subjects, including those related to the financial downturn of the 1930s and its effect on business and industry. Other letters pertain to plant visits, construction activities, destruction of securities, financial progress of competing steel companies, investments, the benefits of free enterprise over communism, and Bethlehem’s contribution to World War II. Although the bulk of the letters are addressed to McMath, some are directed to Bethlehem Steel Chairman Eugene G. Grace and Charles Schwab.

There are bound collections of documents regarding major mergers and acquisitions and the issuance of stock and bond issues, these documents are most useful in tracing the evolution of corporate structure. Also from McMath's office are scattered legal files of which the most important is a transcript of testimony from the anti-trust proceedings barring the merger with the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company in 1968.

Scope and Content: Hagley's holdings of Schwab Library material are divided among the Vertical File, Manuscripts, Publications and Microfilm.The Vertical File (15.5 cubic feet) is that part of a much larger file that deals directly with the history of Bethlehem Steel and the iron and steel industries. The file consists of equal parts of news clippings, photostats, and tear sheets of trade journal articles: historical articles from scholarly journals and historical society publications; and public and internal Bethlehem reports.Of particular interest are a series of internal plant histories, data on Bethlehem's corporate family tree, and plant and product brochures. There is a series of reports, articles, and brochures on some of the large bridges built by Bethlehem and McClintic-Marshall, and also on the Holland Tunnel and Grand Coulee Dam. Other files contain brochures and mailings on the bonus controversy of 1931, the government armor plant project of 1916, the Employee Representation Plan, and the management training "Loop Course." There are also clippings on strikes, and copies of work rules and notices from Schwab's tenure with the Carnegie Steel Company. There are historical articles on early iron and steel works in the United States and Great Britain, including the Saugus Iron Works restoration, and obituaries and biographical sketches of persons associated with Bethlehem and its predecessors.As might be expected, a large portion of the Vertical File is devoted to the life of Charles M. Schwab, including copies of his writings and speeches, cartoons, and obituaries. There is a collection of menus for testimonial dinners that Schwab attended, some autographed with the names of other famous guests. There is a similar, but smaller, collection pertaining to Eugene Grace.The Schwab Library Manuscripts consist of typescript histories of Bethlehem, a small body of non-Bethlehem original manuscripts collected by or donated to the Schwab Library.The most important item is the "Notes on Mr. Charles M. Schwab's Life," prepared by Sidney B. Whipple around 1936. Whipple, a writer for the New York World-Telegram, interviewed Schwab in 1935 for the purpose of collecting notes for a biography to be written at an unspecified time in the future. Whipple violated the terms of his arrangement by starting to write the biography himself and revealing some of the information he had collected through articles in his newspaper....

Scope and Contents:

The series has been divided into subseries pertaining to Charles Schwab, Eugene Grace, Individuals, Board of Directors, and Group photographs. In addition to portraits of these men, there are views of their estates (including Schwab's "Riverside" in Manhattan designed by architect Maurice Herbert (dates unknown) and "Immergrun," his Loretto, Pennsylvania, estate with gardens designed by Charles Wellford Leavitt (1871-1928) in 1915), travel photographs, and personal items. There is another file of ninety-five portraits of men who were related to the steel industry.