A Century of Toledo Scale
Among the most recognized brand names of the twentieth century is Toledo Scale, a company whose headquarters and primary design and production facilities were located in its namesake. One of the greatest achievements of the Toledo's Attic Committee (especially its point man for collections, Ernest W. Weaver, Jr.) during 1998 was securing possession of the corporate papers of Toledo Scale from the Mettler Toledo Corporation. Along with many cases of documents, ledgers, photographs, and other archival materials, the Toledo Scale Collection includes a series of paintings by Georges LaChance of the skilled artisans of the company. [read the complete article]
Related resources:
A Century of Toledo Scale (slide show)
Honest Weight: The Story of Toledo Scale, by Bob Terry (catalog record)
The Toledo Scale Collection, MSS-153 (Canaday Center finding aid)
H.O and H.W. Hem Toledo Scale Papers, 1910s-1960s, MSS-176 (Canaday Center finding aid)
Faces of Steel: People and History of Acklin Stamping Plant, Toledo Ohio
The story of Acklin Stamping, and really the story of Toledo's metal working industry, begins in 1911. The world was a radically different place in those days. Brand Whitlock, as Toledo's mayor, led a rapidly growing city of 170,000 people. The city and indeed the country were on the cusp of incredible technological change. In 1911, horses still dominated transportation and the speed limit was a mere 8 miles per hour. However this was all about to change in the next several years with the arrival of affordable automobiles, brought to the market by a number of companies including Toledo's own Willys-Overland Motor Company. [read the complete article]
Related resources:
Faces of Steel: The People and History of the Acklin Stamping Company (virtual exhibit)
Acklin Stamping Company Records, 1911-1997, MSS-139 (Canaday Center finding aid)
Toledo's Early Auto Industry: 1899 - 1905
Toledo has had a long and continuous automotive history. For Toledo, the year 200 will not only mark the great roll-over of the millennial odometer, but will also be the centennial year of automobile production in the city. In the fall of 1900, the American Bicycle Company built a steam truck in a factory on Central Avenue. From that time with only a few interruptions, notably in the panic of 1907 and the Great Depression, automobiles and trucks have been built upon this same site to the present day. [read the complete article]
Related resources:
John North Willys' Office Suite (Article in The Starter By Todd Paisley, April-June 2013, No. 203)
Toledo's Industrial History: Early Auto Industry (Flash Presentation)
Toledo's Early Auto Industry: 1899 - 1905 (slide show)
Frank H. Canaday Papers, 1911-1976, MSS-031 (Canaday Center finding aid)
Ward M. Canaday Collection, 1902-1991, MSS-072 (Canaday Center finding aid)
Toledo's Gendron Wheel Company
Toledo, thanks to Peter Gendron, has become prominent throughout the world for its development of the manufacture of metal wheels and for the quantity and quality of its output of that class of products. Mr. Gendron came to the city at the age of twenty-one and found employment as a pattern maker in the Toledo Novelty Works, then conducted by Russell & Thayer. In 1871, he went to Detroit as a pattern maker for the Detroit Safe Company. As a boy, he had worked in his father's wagon shop and while in Detroit he conceived the idea of a wire wheel. In 1875, he returned to Toledo and perfected his invention, first using the wire wheel on children's carriages. [read the complete article]
Related resources:
Gendron Wheel Co. (Flash presentation)
Toledo's Gendron Wheel Company (slide show)
Toledo Metal Furniture Company
Toledo Metal Furniture Company occupied an important place in Toledo’s industrial history that most associate with glass today. Businesses like Acklin Stamping, American Bicycle Company, Gendron Wheel Company, Harris Toy Company, Toledo Scale, and others paint a more diversified industrial picture building on a strong American Steel industry (albeit surviving the steel shortage during World War I.) and the full throttle of the capitalist economic system. [read the complete article]
Related resources:
From Bicycles to Furniture: A Brief Historical Sketch of the Toledo Metal Furniture Company’s First Decade (slide presentation)
