The Joy Manufacturing Company was a major manufacturer of underground mining and materials handling machinery. The photographs were collected by retired corporate secretary James Packer (1920-2008) in 1985 for the purpose of writing a company history. This small collection consists of photographs, mostly group portraits of staff. The collection dates range from the 1921 to 1988. The materials are so sporadic that there is no bulk date.

The Joy Manufacturing Company was a major manufacturer of mining and materials handling machinery built upon the invention of the first practical coal loading machine by Joseph F. Joy (1883-1957). It is a somewhat random collection of documents assembled and preserved by the former corporate secretary James Packer (1920-2008) for the purpose of writing a never-completed company history. They include the sorts of documents normally in possession of a corporate secretary, such as copies of meeting minutes, corporate family tree information, historical notes, and promotional publications.