The records of the American Iron and Steel Institute and its predecessors provide an overview of the American iron and steel industries from their roots in the mid-eighteenth century to the early 1980s. The bulk of the archive consists of the Institute's library. Most of the Institute's own publications, plus a large collection of steel industry annual reports, are cataloged individually and stored in the general Imprints Department stacks.

This album documents a fire test conducted by the Bureau of Standards concerning the effect of fire on steel furniture, possibly among other things. The Bureau of Standards, now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is a non-regulatory federal agency under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Its mission is "to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life."

The Ferracute Machine Company was a press and die business founded by inventor Oberlin Smith (1840-1926) in Bridgeton, New Jersey, in 1863. It was incorporated in 1877, and ceased operations in 1968. This group of Ferracute Machine Company records is a small fragment preserved by an employee that primarily contains legal files and financial statements.

Gordon M. Kline (1903-1996) was highly involved in the plastics industry, beginning in its infancy. He worked in the plastics section of the National Bureau of Standards, editor of Modern Plastics, and with the U.S. government on preservation of significant historical items. The papers document his professional career with the National Bureau of Standards, along with material describing his work with the Society of the Plastics Industry, the American Society for Testing Materials, and the International Standards Organization.

The records of the Steel Industry Wage Bureau document the process of establishing wage rates and job descriptions in the U.S. steel industry.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) fully adopted federal grading standards for food and other agricultural products during the Second World War. In 1939, the Agricultural Marketing Service, a USDA agency, began administering commodity standardization, grading, and inspections of several programs, including cotton and tobacco. This small collection mostly includes USDA issued publications and reports regarding developments in cotton standards, specifications, and classification in the mid-twentieth century.