The Leeds & Northrup Company traces its origins to Morris E. Leeds & Company, established by Morris E. Leeds (1869-1952) in 1899 to develop and manufacture precision instruments. Their records consists of minutes from the Development and Executive Committes and the Cooperative Association.

The Open Shop Department was created to advocate for open shop labor policies. The material in this series documents NAM views, articles, publications, and meetings relating to the open shop movement from 1904 to 1947, with the bulk from the 1920s to the early 1930s. This series should be considered in conjunction with the Industrial Relations Department (Series XVII) and the much later Human Resources Policy Department (Series XV). These departments are successors to the Open Shop Department.