Back ] Home ] Up ]  


Early Office Museum

Antique Office Photographs 
~ Business College Classes ~
 


Instructional texts on penmanship and bookkeeping were available in English by the 17th century, and texts on shorthand were available by the 18th century.  However, to our knowledge it was not until the mid-19th century that people founded private business colleges to train students to be clerical workers in commercial and government offices.  These colleges, which were an American innovation, typically had courses in business practice, bookkeeping, penmanship, shorthand/stenography, and telegraphy. After 1880, they added typing courses.  Thus, in 1897, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, had a Business Department, which offered hands-on practice in a mock bank and a mock railway and express office, and also taught book-keeping; a School of Shorthand; which trained students in shorthand, typing, duplicating, and filing; a School of Penmanship, which prepared students to teach writing and pen art; and a School of Telegraphy, which trained students as telegraph operators.  Our exhibit on Gender & the Office includes a discussion of gender in business colleges. Business colleges remain important in providing educations that enable people to advance their careers.  Now, with the advent of the computer and internet, many of these institutions offer online degree programs

.
Click Image to Enlarge Description Source
1865_Commercial_College_Albany_NY_Business_Directory_z.JPG (139810 bytes) "Interior View," Bryant, Stratton & Folsom Commercial College, Albany, NY, 1865.  As of 1865, Bryant, Stratton & Folsom operated a chain of business schools in a number of US and Canadian cities. It claimed that "Young men by attending these schools will obtain a sound theoretical and practical business education." A description of this image states: "The first at the right is the Railroad, Steamboat and Freight Office.  The next is the National Mercantile College Bank.  Still on to the right is the Forwarding, Express and Commission Office.  To the extreme left appears the Exchange, Insurance and Brokerage Office. The next and last is the Jobbing, Collection and Post Office."   Albany Directory, 1865.
1875_Business_Office_Davenport_Business_College_Davenport_IA__AT_Andreas_Illustrated_Historical_Atlas_of_the_State_of_IA.jpg (186428 bytes)
1875_Practical_Bus_Training_Dept_Davenport_Bus_College_AT_Andreas_Illustrated_Historical_Atlas_of_the_State_of_IA.jpg (124170 bytes)
1875_Telegraph_Dept_Davenport_Bus_College_AT_Andreas_Illust_Hist_Atlas_of_the_State_of_IA.jpg (101260 bytes)
Business Office, Practical Business Training Department, and Telegraph Department,  Davenport Business College, Davenport, IA, 1875.  This college was founded in 1865. A.T. Andreas, Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, Andreas Atlas Co.,  Chicago, 1875; single page 168 in Early Office Museum Archives
1872_Eastman_Business_University_newspaper_detail.jpg (239792 bytes)
Eastman_Business_College_Interior_View_of_Practical...Depts._1877_or_after_OM.jpg (290490 bytes)
Eastman_Business_College_x.JPG (102127 bytes)
Eastman_Business_College_Practical_Office_Banking_Depts_Preparatory_Dept_foreground.JPG (154152 bytes)
Practical, Banking & Office Departments, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1870s.  The top image is an engraving that was published in 1872 [confirm]; the second is an engraving that was published in 1877 or later; next are two stereoview photographs that were published in 1877-78.  All show the same large double room with balconies.  These rooms were used by the Practical, Banking & Office Departments, with the area in the foreground used by the Preparatory Department.  Eastman Business College was founded in 1859.  In the 1870s, all students were men.  Over the archway between the two rooms is the inscription "Teach your BOYS that which they will PRACTICE when they become MEN."

Early Office 
Museum Archives
Eastman_Business_College_View_of_Practical_Departments_OM.jpg (147246 bytes)
Eastman_Business_College_Practical_Dept.JPG (178698 bytes)
Practical Department, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1877-78. Early Office
Museum Archives &
Private Collection 
Eastman_Business_College_View_of_Banking_and_Office_Departments_OM.jpg (209414 bytes)
Eastman_Business_College_Banking__Office_Depts.JPG (165676 bytes)
Banking & Office Departments, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1877-78. Early Office
Museum Archives &
Private Collection 
Eastman_Business_College_View_of_Preparatory_Departments_OM.jpg (191591 bytes)
Eastman_Business_College_Preparatory_Dept.JPG (151900 bytes)
Preparatory Departments, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1877-78. Early Office
Museum Archives &
Private Collection 
Eastman_Business_College_View_of_Telegraphic_Department_OM.jpg (203734 bytes)
Eastman_Business_College_Telegraphic_Dept.JPG (125740 bytes)
Eastman_Business_College_Telegraph_Dept_1877_or_after_OM.jpg (117060 bytes)
Telegraphic Department, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY.  Top image is a photograph from 1877-78. Bottom image is an engraving from 1877 or after. Early Office
Museum Archives &
Private Collection 
Eastman_Business_College_View_of_Special_Penmanship_Department_OM.jpg (173354 bytes)
Eastman_Business_College_Special_Penmanship_Dept.JPG (165747 bytes)
Eastman_Business_College_Penmanship_Dept_1877_or_after_OM.jpg (144660 bytes)
Special Penmanship Department, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY.  Top image is a photograph from 1877-78. Bottom image is an engraving from 1877 or after. Early Office
Museum Archives &
Private Collection 
1883_Spencerian_Business_College.jpg (53638 bytes) Class of 1883, Spencerian Business College, Milwaukee, WI, 1880.  The College was established as part of the Bryant & Stratton chain in 1863 by Robert C. Spencer, originator of the Spencerian system of penmanship.  While most of the students visible in the picture are men, women are seated along the right side of the table. Private Collection
1883_Interior_View_of_Practical_Dept_of_Business_College.jpg (248097 bytes) "Interior View of the Practical Department" of a business college, 1883. "In many of the commercial schools, the Practical Department has a separate, commodious hall, wherein [are located] all the equipments and arrangements for inducting the student into counting-house methods by practical experience.  Around the room are arranged various offices, each fitted up in a business like manner and provided with an appropriate set of blank books, including ledgers, journals, cash books, sales books, letter books, check, note an draft books, etc., together with bill and letter files and copying press.  One office represents a bank, another insurance, [another] a wholesale house, and so on with importing and jobbing, real estate, commission and freight offices, the books contained in each being modeled after those in use by the most reliable firms in business, thus designing to give the students exactly similar practice to that which is exacted in business life. Letters on various subjects are exchanged, drafts, notes and checks are received or issued, goods are shipped, paper discounted at the bank, real estate bought and sold, loans negotiated, brokerage and commission reckoned, losses proved and adjusted, remittances sent."  This 566 page comprehensive book on business methods does not mention typewriters or adding or calculating machines. Other than books and papers, the only specialized office equipment that is mentioned or illustrated are letter copying presses for making copies of outgoing letters, letter filing cabinets for storing incoming letters, desks, safes for protection of company books and money from fire, telegraph equipment, and stock tickers. G. L. Howe and O. M. Powers, The Secrets of Success in Business, Showing Completely and Practically How Business is Done in the Great Centers, 1883. The authors were employed at business colleges, and the book was intended for business college students and others interested in learning business methods. In Early Office Museum Archives.
1884_Classroom_Bryant__Stratton_Commercial_School_Boston_MA.jpg (248793 bytes)

1884_Counting_Room_Bryant__Stratton_Commercial_School_Boston_MA.jpg (264989 bytes)
Classroom (top) and Model Counting-Room (bottom), Bryant & Stratton Commercial School, Boston, MA, 1884.  This business college was founded in 1860.  As of 1884, it admitted both men and women. The subjects taught were Book-keeping, Penmanship, Commercial Law, Commercial Correspondence (including grammar, spelling, reading, and composition), and Commercial Arithmetic. The prospectus does not mention training to use typewriters or other types of office equipment. The college claimed to be "the largest school of its kind in the world" and to have seating capacity for several hundred students.  Twenty-Fourth Annual Prospectus of the Bryant & Stratton Commercial School, Boston, MA, 1884, pp. 35, 41.  In Early Office Museum Archives.
1891_Typing_Class_Metropolitan_Business_College_Chicago_IL_OM.jpg (616064 bytes) Typing Class, Metropolitan Business College, Chicago, IL, 1891. Eighteenth Annual Prospectus of the Metropolitan Business College, Chicago, IL, 1891. In Early Office Museum Archives.
1894 Albany Bus College Typwriting Room OM.jpg (85207 bytes) "Typewriting Room - General View," Thirty-Fifth Annual Catalogue of the Albany Business College and School of Short-Hand and Type Writing, Albany, NY, 1894. Photograph shows a room filled with Remington No. 2 typewriters, a letter copying press resting on a Caligraph typewriter stand, and electric lighting. Early Office
Museum Archives
1894 Albany Bus College Typewriting Class OM.jpg (94453 bytes) "Typewriting Room - Looking East," 1894, same as preceding but with students in the room. There are alternating rows of female and male students. Early Office
Museum Archives
1899 Typing Class Business High School Wash DC.jpg (49651 bytes) Typing Class, Business High School, Washington, DC, 1899. The student at the left of the photo has the carriage of an upstrike typewriter lifted so that she can see what she has typed. Operators of upstrike typewriters were not able to see the letters as they were being typed. The City of Washington: An Illustrated History, 1977, p. 312. 
Typewriting_Dept_Mich_Business__Noremal_College_Battle_Creek_Reorged_1898_OM.jpg (59623 bytes) "Typewriting Department," Michigan Business and Normal College, Battle Creek, MI. From an undated college annual catalog published in 1898 or later. Photo shows 14 Smith Premier upstrike typewriters. Annual Catalog, Michigan Business and Normal College, Battle Creek, MI.  In Early Office Museum Archives.
1901_Remington_typewriter_calendar_Pleasant_View_Bus_College.jpg (195853 bytes) Advertising calendar, Pleasant View Business College, Ottawa, IL, 1901, with image of a woman using a Remington typewriter. Pleasant View Business College may have been the successor to Brown's Business College, which was founded in Pleasant View in 1888.   Business colleges were often privately owned, and their names sometimes changed when ownership changed. Early Office
Museum Archives
1901 Typewriting Room Strayer's Business College Baltimore MD OM lower resolution.jpg (195853 bytes) Typewriting room, Strayer's Business College, Baltimore MD, 1901. Tenth Annual Catalogue of Strayer's Business College, Baltimore MD, 1901-1902. In Early Office Museum Archives
1903 Nebraska Typing Class 10012r.JPG (32923 bytes) "Typing class in session at Broken Bow [Business] College," Broken Bow, Nebraska, photograph by Solomon D. Butcher, 1903. Nebraska State Historical Society, nbhips 10012
1904_Stenography__Typewriting_Class_Wm_Cullen_Bryant_High_School_Queens_NY_OM.jpg (209151 bytes) Stenography and Typewriting Class, William Cullen Bryant High School, Queens, NY, 1904.   A student in the center is reading into a wood-cased dictating machine.  In front of him another student is using an identical machine in transcription mode.  Edison brand wax dictating machine cylinders are on the desks.  Students are using at least three Oliver typewriters as well as upstrike typewriters.  William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was an American poet, journalist, and co-creator of Central Park in Manhattan, NY.  The high school is still operating. Early Office
Museum Archives
1905 Catalog of Spencer's Business School Kingston NY Typewriting Dept OM.JPG (58145 bytes) "View of Typewriting Department," Catalog of Spencer's Business School, Kingston, NY, 1905. Caption states: "Twenty-One New $100 Machines. Pupils Transcribing Shorthand Notes." Pupils are using Remington upstrike typewriters. Barbara Rosenthal
1905 Remington Typewriter Co Employment Dept NY OM.jpg (47382 bytes) "Examination Section, Remington Employment Department," Remington Typewriter Co., New York,Catalog of Spencer's Business School, Kingston, NY, 1905. Caption states: "Hundreds of our graduates find excellent positions through the assistance ofStenographers_from_Remington_postcard_OM.JPG (37824 bytes) the Remington Typewriter Co." To encourage the sale of its typewriters, Remington assisted in the placement of typists. (See postcard to the right.) In 1901, Remington advertised that "Our Employment Department supplies competent stenographers and operators to users of writing machines without charge to either employer or employee. All users of Remington typewriters are invited to avail themselves of this service." Barbara Rosenthal
"Typing Department, Heald-Dixon College, Oakland, CAL."  Heald-Dixon College is listed in a 1907 San Francisco business directory. Private collection
Bliss Business College 1908.jpg (47931 bytes) "Model Office, Actual Experience, Shorthand Department, Bliss Business College, Lewiston, Maine," postcard, postmarked 1908. Image shows three students using typewriters to transcribe correspondence. Also, a letter copying press. Early Office
Museum Archives
Transcription Class vvv.JPG (120345 bytes) Transcription class, Pawtucket Business College, Pawtucket, RI.  Correspondence recorded on a cylinder is being played back on a transcribing machine. Each student has a headset. Some students are transcribing by hand while others are transcribing with typewriters. Early Office
Museum Archives
Banking Dept Dakota Business College Fargo N.D..JPG (22816 bytes) Banking Department, Dakota Business College, Fargo, ND, postcard, postmarked 1908. Early Office
Museum Archives
1908_Typing_Class_Grand_Island_Business_College_GI_NE_OM.jpg (230236 bytes) Typing class, Grand Island Business College, Grand Island, NE, postmarked 1908.  The 36 students--roughly equal numbers of men and women--who are packed into this room are using front-strike typewriters. The college was founded in 1885. For a list of graduates of the college and their occupations in 1916, click here. Early Office
Museum Archives
Adding Machine Class.jpg (69982 bytes) Adding machine class. Early Office
Museum Archives
Book-Keeping_and_Banking_Dept_Business_Univ_Abbeville_GA.jpg (94005 bytes) Book-keeping and Banking Dep't, Business University, Abbeville, GA. Private collection
1910_Typewriting_Dept_Behnke-Walker_Business_College_Portland_OR.jpg (312321 bytes) Typewriting Department, Behnke-Walker Business College, Portland, OR, postmarked 1910. Early Office
Museum Archives
"Phonograph Dictation--A Modern Feature of our Shorthand Department," Haverhill Business College, Haverhill, MA, 1909-10 college catalog. Photograph shows seven students simultaneously transcribing dictation being played back by a transcription machine. Early Office
Museum Archives
"Typewriting Department," Haverhill Business College, Haverhill, MA, 1909-10 college catalog. The Typewriting Department had twenty typewriters. The ones in the front row are Remington No. 6's, and the rest appear to be the same. Early Office
Museum Archives
"Using the Neostyle Duplicating Machine," Haverhill Business College, Haverhill, MA, 1909-10 college catalog. Early Office
Museum Archives
Bureau_Ecole_Speciale_de_Commerce_Institut_Notre-Dame_aux_Epines_Eeklo_Belgium_OM.jpg (445718 bytes) Office, Special School of Commerce, Institut Notre-Dame aux Epines, Eeklo, Belgium.  Left of center is a vertical filing cabinet and a front-strike typewriter.  At the right is a model of Roneo Copier that was advertised in 1910. Early Office
Museum Archives
The 1911-1912 year book for Wilson's Modern Business College, Seattle, WA, states that students were trained to use the "Burroughs Adding Machine, Filing Cabinets, Loose Leaf Ledgers, Card Ledgers, Draft and Check Protectors, Billing Machines, Mimeographing Machines, Edison Business Phonographs, Typewriters with Adding Attachments, Loose Leaf Sales Binders, Private Telephone Exchanges, and almost every form and ruling used in everyday bookkeeping practice."
1911_Banking_Dept_Holmes_Business_College_Portland_OR_OM.jpg (664440 bytes) "Corner of Banking Department, Holmes Business College, Portland, Oregon," postmarked 1911. Early Office
Museum Archives
To view photo, click on link to right. To return here, click on the back button on your browser. Typing Class, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, 1911. University of Puget Sound Archives
1912_Commercial_Dept_Albany_Business_College.JPG (253574 bytes) Office Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12.  "This is the finishing room where the advanced pupils are placed largely upon their own responsibility and are taught bookkeeping without the use of textbooks.  The office department has a bank, a trust company, a wholesale house, a commission house, and a transportation office.  An adding machine, a rapid-roller copying press, and a card and vertical letter file are in daily use in this room." Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue, 1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives.
1912_Typewriting_Instruction_Albany_Business_College.JPG (250081 bytes) Typewriting Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12.  "This is one of four rooms devoted to instruction in touch typewriting and office methods."  The College had 160 typewriters, all visible writing machines. Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue,  1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives.
1912_Business_Practice_Dept_Albany_Business_College.JPG (316606 bytes) Model Shorthand Business Practice Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12. Photo shows "pupils using modern office labor-saving devices, including adding machine, card filing systems, Multigraph, and typewriting machines."  The male student at the back left is using a Multigraph. Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue,  1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives.
1912_Multigraph_Instruction_Albany_Business_College.JPG (244068 bytes) "Students receiving instruction in the use of the Multigraph," Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12. The Multigraph was printing form letters that appeared to be typewritten. "We have two of these machines in daily use, one run by electricity." Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue,  1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives.
1912_Shorthand_Instruction_Albany_Business_College.JPG (351390 bytes) Shorthand Practice, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12.  Photo shows students "having speed exercises in shorthand through the use of an Edison Commercial Phonograph." Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue,  1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives.
1912_Telegraphing_Dept_Albany_Business_College.jpg (168208 bytes) Telegraphy Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12.  Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue,  1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives.
Ediphone_Transcription_Class_EHS_29320068.jpg (52620 bytes) Edison dictating machine transcription class. Edison National Historic Site 29320068
Adding_machine_STRAYERS_BUSINESS_COLLEGE_OM.jpg (29799 bytes) Strayer's Business College Student with Burroughs Adding Machine (Class 3) Library of Congress
Rotary_stencil_duplicating_machine_STRAYERS_BUSINESS_COLLEGE.jpg (44679 bytes) Strayer's Business College Student with Rotary Stencil Duplicator. Library of Congress
1914_Bryant__Stratton_Commercial_School_Typewriters_Boston_53rd_year_OM.jpg (173089 bytes) Typewriter Room, Bryant and Stratton Commercial School, Boston, MA, 1914. Private collection
1914_Bryant__Stratton_Commercial_School_Typewriters_and_Copier_Boston_53rd_year_OM.jpg (118288 bytes) Office Classroom with Typewriters and Rotary Stencil Duplicator, Bryant and Stratton Commercial School, Boston, MA, 1914. Private collection
Class_in_Stenog__Typew_Ed_Dep_US_Gen_Hosp_30_Plattsburgh_NY.jpg (152405 bytes) "Class in Stenography and Typewriting, Educational Department, U.S. General Hospital No. 30, Plattsburgh, NY."  United States Army General Hospital No. 30 was set up during World War I to treat soldiers who returned from overseas with "war neuroses."  The hospital operated during at least 1917-19 and received its first patient with war neurosis in 1918.  One soldier is using a Royal flatbed typewriter.  Another is using an Oliver typewriter.  An electric rotary stencil copier is in the room. Early Office
Museum Archives
Class_National_Training_School_for_Women__Girls_Wash_DC_c._1920_LOC.JPG (115029 bytes) African American students in classroom at the National Training School for Women and Girls, Washington, DC.  This vocational training school was founded in 1909 by Nannie Helen Burroughs, an African American. Library of Congress
Typewriter Room State Business College Tacoma WA 30 typewriters 2 Burroughs OM.jpg (139545 bytes) Typewriter Room, State Business College, Tacoma WA. There are 30 typewriters and 2 Burroughs adding machines. Early Office
Museum Archives
1918_Typewriter_Room_Elyria_Business_College.jpg (139545 bytes) Typewriter Room, Elyria Business College, Elyria, OH, 1918. Private collection
Advanced_Bookkeeping_Dept_Gem_City_Business_College_Quincy_IL.jpg (111915 bytes) Advanced Bookkeeping Dept., Gem City Business College, Quincy, IL. Private collection
Shorthand_Dept_Cedar_Rapids_Business_College_OM3.JPG (283211 bytes) "Shorthand Dept., Cedar Rapids Business College," Cedar Rapids, IA, photo by Wm. Baldridge.  This business college, which was famous for penmanship, was founded in 1879 and was still operating in the late 1930s. Early Office
Museum Archives
OSU Archives8a OM.JPG (48367 bytes) Typing class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1920. Students at right rear are typing as material is played back by a central Dictaphone transcribing machine. Other students are typing from written material. Oregon State University Archives #882.
OSU Archives7 OM.JPG (53992 bytes) Typing transcription class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1920. Students are typing as material is played back by individual Dictaphone transcribing machines. Oregon State University Archives #882.
OSU Archives6a OM.JPG (34384 bytes) Shorthand laboratory, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1920. Students are taking shorthand notes as material is played back by a central Dictaphone transcribing machine. Oregon State University Archives #882
OSU Archives5a OM.JPG (35866 bytes) Office Training class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1923. Anyone seeking a bachelor's degree in the OSU School of Commerce was required to take at least twelve credits of Office Training classes--six credits each of Typing and Office Methods & Appliances. Student in foreground is typing as material is played back on a Dictaphone transcribing machine. Student at right rear is using an electric Burroughs Bookkeeping Machine, manufactured by the Burroughs Adding Machine Co, Detroit, MI. Student at left is using an Elliott Fisher Accounting Machine, manufactured by the Elliot Fisher Division of General Office Equipment Corp., Harrisburg, PA.  Oregon State University Archives #882
OSU Archives1 OM.jpg (51805 bytes) Office Training class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 1924. The woman on the left is using an A. B. Dick Co. mimeoscope, which had a drawing table with an electrically illuminated glass top. The mimeoscope was used to trace drawings onto mimeograph stencils. The woman at the right is using a rotary mimeograph machine to make copies. Oregon State University Archives #882
1926 Minnesota Hi-Trail Office pf032100 v.JPG (37499 bytes) "Hi-Trail Office," Osseo, Minnesota, 1926. The man at the left is using an A. B. Dick Co. mimeoscope (see preceding description). The woman at the right is using a rotary mimeograph machine to make copies. Minnesota Historical Society, 
Neg. No. 46439
1925 Suffolk Public Library VA nd ng0588b Y.jpg (38758 bytes)

Suffolk High School typing class, Suffolk, Virginia.

Suffolk Public Library, 
Hamblin Studio Collection, 
Neg. 0588b
1926_Class_with_Burroughs_Calculators.JPG (29947 bytes) Class with Burroughs key-driven calculators, 1926. Private collection
Horydczak Wash School Classroom Typewriters 1923-59 5a49974r.JPG (28277 bytes) Typing class, Washington School for Secretaries, Washington, DC, photograph by Theodor Horydczak (c. 1890-1971). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Theodor Horydczak Collection, LC-H824-2208-003
Horydczak Wash School Classroom Filing Cards 1923-59 5a49975r v.JPG (32067 bytes) Classroom session with filing cards, Washington School for Secretaries, Washington, DC, photograph by Theodor Horydczak (c. 1890-1971). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Horydczak Collection, LC-H824-2208-004
Horydczak Wash. School...typewriters 1923-59 5a48374r.JPG (31322 bytes) Students using Dictaphone transcribing machine and other office equipment, Washington School for Secretaries, Washington, DC, photograph by Theodor Horydczak (c. 1890-1971). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Horydczak Collection, LC-H824-1215-003
1944  Business Machine Training Jones Business School Chicago OM.jpg (31322 bytes) "Pupils get intensive training on all types of office machines," Chicago, 1944.

This photo came from the archives of The Times, Chicago's Photo Newspaper. According to information on its back, this photo shows the interior of a classroom at "Jones Business School." It appears that this refers to Jones Commercial High School, which opened in 1938 and was operating in 1944.

The student closest to the camera in operating a Burroughs Moon-Hopkins typewriter-calculating machine.

Moon-Hopkins Billing Machine Co. marketed this typewriter-calculating machine from 1909 until 1921, when the company was acquired by Burroughs Adding Machine Co. Burroughs continued to market the machine until at least 1951. (A website indicates that this machine was produced until 1957.)

The front part of this machine was an upstrike typewriter; the rear was a direct multiplication calculating machine. The Moon-Hopkins had a conventional 4-row keyboard for the typewriter. In front of this was a 2-row keyboard with two sets of keys numbered from 0 to 9 for the calculating machine.

Early Office
Museum Archives
OSU Archives2 OM.JPG (29245 bytes) School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Students are using machines to punch cards used in the card reading, sorting, tabulating, and printing machines shown in the following photograph, probably made by IBM. Oregon State University Archives #882
OSU Archives3 OM.JPG (41634 bytes) School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Students and teacher with card reading, sorting, tabulating machines, and printing machines, probably made by IBM. Oregon State University Archives #882

Return to Top of this Page

Photographs are copyrighted. All rights are reserved by the copyright holder, the owner of the photograph, and the Early Office Museum.

 

© 2000-2016.  All material on the Early Office Museum web site is copyrighted.  All rights are reserved.

First, you must not plagiarize our material.  Plagiarism is the act of passing off as your own the words, photographs, or other work of someone else.  That is, not giving appropriate credit.  Second, you must not violate our copyright, which means you may not use any images or text from the Early Office Museum web site in publications, in direct mailing material, on web sites, in auction listings, or anywhere else without written permission from the Curator.  In some cases, images belong to someone else, and we cannot give permission.  If you make a non-infringing use of information from this web site, please cite the Early Office Museum and provide a link or our web address (www.officemuseum.com
or www.earlyofficemuseum.com).  If you believe that we have not given appropriate credit for your work or have violated your copyright, please email the curator so we can resolve the matter.