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Hendrick Manufacturing Company records

Creation: 1861-1980 Creation: Majority of material found within 1870-1920
 Collection
Accession: 2409

Abstract

The Hendrick Manufacturing Company was the nation's largest manufacturer of perforated screens. The company was founded by an inventor and entrepreneur, Eli E. Hendrick (1832-1909) in 1885 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania and remained in the hands of Hendrick's descendants until the 1980s, when it was sold. Hendrick's business ventures also included refining lubricating oils and cold storage refridgeration for argricultural produce. This collection consists of records detailing businesses founded by Hendrick and his descendants, including lubricating oil, refrigeration, and metal perforation, especially the Hendrick Manufacturing Company.

Dates

  • Creation: 1861-1980
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1870-1920

Creator

Extent

3 Linear Feet

Historical Note

The Hendrick Manufacturing Company was the nation's largest manufacturer of perforated screens. The company was founded by Eli E. Hendrick (1832-1909) in 1885 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. Eli Emory Hendrick, an inventor and entrepreneur, was born on May 9, 1832, at Plymouth, Michigan, and trained as a wood turner. By 1861, he was living at Franklin in the Pennsylvania Oil Region and experimenting with the manufacture of lubricating oils. He moved to Carbondale in the early 1860s continuing to operating his refining business. In 1879, Hendrick sold part of his refining business to the Standard Oil Company and signed a ten-year management and consulting contract with them. This contract allowed Hendrick to develop other businesses.

In 1876, he had begun manufacturing punched metal screens at Carbondale. This business was organized as the Hendrick Manufacturing Company in 1885, first as a limited partnership and in 1901 as a family-owned corporation. The company developed a wide array of punched or perforated sheet metal and steel products, including screens used in refining oil and sizing coal and grated metal walkways for sewers and ships.

In addition to running the Hendrick Manufacturing Company, Hendrick continued to invent and experiment. Throughout the late nineteenth century, Hendrick patented a number of processes including drying gunpowder, refrigeration, and recovering paraffin. Hendrick supported many local Pennsylvania businesses and was an early investor in the Klots Throwing Company, a large silk manufacturing company. In 1893, Hendrick was elected Mayor of Carbondale and served a single term. In his later years, Hendrick also engaged in large-scale farming and fruit growing in southern California and invested in cold storage warehouses in Los Angeles. Hendrick died at Carbondale on October 25, 1909.

By the end of World War II, the Hendrick Manufacturing Company was the nation's largest manufacturer of perforated screens. The company remained in the hands of Hendrick's descendants until the 1980s, when it was sold. Like many specialty companies, it has continued to prosper by adapting to a changing customer base, producing decorative and architectural perforated metals as well as its traditional industrial products.

Arrangement

The collection was assembled by the last family president of the Hendrick Manufacturing Company.

Arranged alphabetically by file title.

Scope and Content

This collection documents both the history of the company and Eli E. Hendrick's career as a businessman and inventor. Orders for oil, stockholder notes, plant blueprints, insurance appraisals, letter books and issues of the employee magazine are included as well as Hendrick's patents for lubricating oil, refrigeration, metal perforation and sheet metal fabrication. The colletion also includes minutes of the Hendrick Manufacturing Company as a limited partnership (1885-1901) and of the Hendrick Light and Power Co. Of particular note is a 1913 report on work practices at the company's factory by efficiency engineers Miller, Franklin & Company.

Related Material

Hendrick Manufacturing Company Letterpress Copybook (Accession 2528), Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

Hendrick Manufacturing Company Photographs (Accession 2009.224), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

Hendrick Manufacturing Company photograph album (Accession 2010.268), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

Publications from this collection are housed in the Published Collections Department. View the item records in Hagley's Catalog.

Additional Description

Provenance

Gift of Benjamin G. Dann, Jr.

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title:
Hendrick Manufacturing Company records
Author:
Jason Sylvestre
Date:
2009
Description rules:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description:
English
Script of description:
Latin

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository

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