Skip to main content
Notice: The Library is open for research by appointment only, please visit our research services page for more information.

C. Robert Werle collection of visual materials

Creation: 1920-1930
 Collection
Accession: 1996-236

Abstract

C. Robert Werle (1893-1990) was an industrial engineer who worked for Cooley & Marvin Company of Boston conducting time studies, as well as analysis of accounting and plant methods for a variety of clients, mostly in the textile, leather, woodworking and metalworking industries. This collection consists of images, advertisements, and sales flyers, for various clients of Werle, specifically a metal packaging company, a cedar chest manufacturer, duplex homes for sale.

Dates

  • Creation: 1920-1930

Creator

Extent

19 item(s)

General Physical Description note

12 photomechanical reproductions : halftones, 4 colors ; 7 x 9 in. 6 items : ephemera, multiple processes ; 11 x 17 in. or smaller. 1 print (poster) : color ; 12 x 33.75 in. image on sheet 16.5 x 38 in.

Biographical Note

C. Robert Werle (1893-1990) was an industrial engineer who worked for Cooley & Marvin Company of Boston conducting time studies, as well as analysis of accounting and plant methods for a variety of clients, mostly in the textile, leather, woodworking and metalworking industries. In 1924, Werle followed Cooley & Marvin's chief engineer, Carle M. Bigelow, who established his own firm of Bigelow, Kent, Willard & Company with other Cooley & Marvin employees. Bigelow had developed the Bigelow Bonus Plan, a modification of the Emerson Plan that involved a system of graduated bonuses for increased productivity. Werle left Bigelow in October 1927 and became vice president and works manager of the Watsontown (Pennsylvania) Door & Sash Company, a client of both the Cooley and Bigelow firms. He left Watsontown in 1929 to join the Real Estate, Land Title & Trust Company of Philadelphia, where he stayed until being thrown out of work in the Depression in 1931. The details of his subsequent career are unknown, although he seems to have stayed in the Delaware Valley. He died in Florida on May 27, 1990.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of images, advertisements, and sales flyers, for various clients of Werle, specifically a metal packaging company, a cedar chest manufacturer, duplex homes for sale. There are twelve halftone images of metal packaging produced by the Passaic Metal Ware Company, Inc.; these are containers designed for food (candy, coffee, cookies, spices, tea); toiletries (cream, henna, talc); households (anti-freeze, paint, oil, shoe polish). Three advertisements for cedar chests made by Lane Co. and Standard Red Cedar Chest Co. and for a Griswold meat and food chopper made by Griswold Mfg. Co.; three sales flyers for duplex homes on Serrill Ave. and Block Holly Road in Yeadon, Pennsylvania. There is one oversize item: a bird's eye view of the Victor Talking Machine Co. factory site in Camden, New Jersey labeled, "Bird's-Eye View of the Victor Talking Machine Company's main plant at Camden, N.J. where Victrolas and Victor records are made. The largest factory in the world devoted exclusively to the manufacturing of musical instruments."

Location

GL Box 1. Drawer A-33.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Separated Materials

C. Robert Werle papers (Accession 1885), Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title:
C. Robert Werle collection of visual materials
Date:
2014
Description rules:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description:
English
Script of description:
Latin

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Audiovisual Collections Repository

Contact:
PO Box 3630
Wilmington Delaware 19807 USA
302-658-2400