Sust collection of William Sellers & Co. graphic materials
Creation: circa 1930s-1940sAbstract
Charles William Feil Sust (1885-1947) and his son Carl William Sust (1914-1996) were employees at William Sellers & Co. Both worked as sheet metal workers in the 1930s and 1940s. William Sellers & Co. was an iron works that manufactured machine tools used for turning, planing, shaping, drilling, boring, or cutting metal or wood. This small collection is primarily photographs of machine tools manufactured by the William Sellers & Co. in the 1930s and 1940s. There are several photographs of various rooms and shops at the company, three include Charles Sust. There are a few publications and blueprints, as well as employee pins.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1930s-1940s
Creator
- Sust, Carl William, 1914-1996 (Person)
- Sust, Charles William Feil, 1885-1947 (Person)
- William Sellers & Co. (Philadelphia, Pa.) (Organization)
Extent
0.5 Linear Feet
General Physical Description
51 photographic prints : b&w ; 8 x 10 in. 9 photographic print : b&w ; 3.5 x 5 in. or smaller. 2 cyanotypes : 8 x 10 in. 12 booklets. 6 pins. 5 blueprints. 2 employee badges (reproductions). 2 letters (reproductions).
Historical Note
Charles William Feil Sust (1885-1947) and his son Carl William Sust (1914-1996) were employees at William Sellers & Co. Both worked as sheet metal workers in the 1930s and 1940s. William Sellers & Co. was an iron works that manufactured machine tools used for turning, planing, shaping, drilling, boring, or cutting metal or wood. The company was founded in 1848 as Bancroft & Sellers by Edward Bancroft (1811-1855) and William Sellers (1824-1905). Upon Bancroft's death in 1855, the firm was reorganized as William Sellers & Co., including his brother, John Sellers, Jr. (1826-1906), and his cousin, Coleman Sellers (1827-1887). The Sellers firm was one of the foremost American machine shops. Sellers himself obtained over ninty patents, covering machine tools, including the spiral geared planer, rifling machines, and injectors for steam locomotives and boilers.
The Sellers firm was incorporated in 1886. It continued to function until April 9, 1947, when the machine tool division was sold to the Consolidated Machine Tool Corporation and relocated to Rochester, New York.
Scope and Content
This small collection is primarily photographs of machine tools manufactured by the William Sellers & Co. in the 1930s and 1940s. There are several photographs of various rooms and shops at the company, three include Charles Sust. There are a few publications and blueprints, as well as employee pins.
Many of the images of the machine tools are identified, however, there are some that are unidentified. Images of equipment include driving box boring and facing machines, tool grinding and shaping machines, driving wheel lathe, boring and turning mills, radial drills, car wheel lathes, and planer milling machines. There is one set of photographs of machinery that appears to have once been in an album or binder. The blueprints are for specific machine tools.
The publications are catalogs of machinery, and four issues of the employee magazine called "The Sellers Diamond." There is also a policy and procedure manual and a program from a dinner celebrating employees with the company for more than twenty years.
Access Restrictions
This collection is open for research.
Language of Materials
English
Finding Aid & Administrative Information
- Title:
- Sust collection of William Sellers & Co. graphic materials
- Author:
- Laurie Sather
- Date:
- 2019.
- 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
