Finding Aids

Cooper & Hewitt partners were iron businessmen who purchased ironworks, property, and iron mines. In 1845, a rolling mill complex was incorporated as the Trenton Iron Company, and in 1847 iron mines at Andover, New Jersey, were purchased. The records consist of two payroll sheets from 1848, as well as eighty-two inbound letters, mostly from 1849 to 1850. The letters are primarily operating reports from the superintendent of the Andover mine.

David Thomas (1794-1882) was a Pennsylvania iron manufacturer who introduced into the United States the use of anthracite coal in the manufacture of pig iron. The papers consist of twenty-eight letters received by Thomas between May 1839 and 1842. They contain important new information on one of the textbook examples of nineteenth century technology transfer.

The Phoenix Iron Company began in the late eighteenth century as a manufacturer of cut nails. It later became a major producer of railroad rails and iron and steel structural members. This small collection of records includes incoming correspondence chiefly relating to orders for and deliveries of iron for railroads.