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The Ward M. Canaday Center began collecting historical records from Toledo’s corporations in the late 1980s as the city’s economy began to dramatically change. The first of the collections acquired was the records of Libbey-Owens-Ford Inc. (today Pilkington North America.) Subsequently, the Center collected the records of two other large glass corporations, Owens-Illinois and Owens Corning. Together, these three collections provide documentation of the most important glass corporations in the world and the most important corporations in Toledo’s history. The Center branched out from glass companies to collect the historical records of other large companies that have shaped Toledo’s economy, including the Dana Corporation, Toledo Edison, Toledo Scale, and The Andersons. In addition to these large collections, the Center has also collected materials from smaller companies such as Acklin Stamping; the Toledo, Angola, and Western Railway; Rathbun-Jones Engineering Company; the Holden Rightmyer/American Swiss Company; the Toledo Furnace Company; and Inshield Die and Stamping Company.
Since the late nineteenth century, Toledo has gone from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, from a period of growth to one of steady decline, from union to non-union, and from local company ownership to outside investor control. The story is typical of similar industrial cities of the American Midwest like Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, and Youngstown. But Toledo’s story is also unique. The business and industry leaders (and their workers) who made their lives and fortunes in Toledo shaped who we are as a city, and made us different from those other locales. If we look at our city today, we see important marks left by these individuals that continue to make for a good quality of life in spite of these trends. A first-rate art museum free to all that is the legacy of the founder of the glass industry. The commitment of a number of business-related organizations—many started over 100 years ago—that continue to give back to the city. Beautiful buildings that bear the names of their wealthy benefactors. Vital social service agencies endowed by philanthropists decades ago that continue to serve the city’s neediest. And a university—the dream of a business man in 1872—that provides top-quality education to many.
The records documenting the history of business and industry in Toledo that have been collected by the Canaday Center provide essential documentation for discovering this history. Highlighted here are but a few examples from over 1000 feet of resources available to researchers to study this area.
Many automobile manufacturers adopted Spicer parts, and the company grew substantially over the decades to include many subsidiaries and affiliates, primarily thanks to Charles A. Dana, in whose honor the company changed its name in 1946.
Full view of one of the ads
Full view of one of the ads
In 1973, Dana released a bicycle transmission that converted single speed coaster brake bikes into three-speed models, under their subsidiary, Dana Cycle Systems. Unfortunately for the company, the invention never took off, and it was quickly shelved.
Full view of one of the ads.
Full view of one of the ads.
Hubert D. Bennett commissioned a series of 14 paintings depicting Toledo Scale workers involved in various aspects of production. The paintings were intended to honor “… the craftsmanship of its builders, who with skilled hands and years of experience mould these features into the finest and most desirable weighing equipment….” This painting is one of many in the series.
"Stone and mortar, bricks and machinery can be duplicated, but the workers cannot."
The Andersons Inc. of Maumee, Ohio, that was established in 1947 by Harold and Margaret Anderson and their six children began as a truck terminal and grain elevator. It has grown to include railway and truck shipping, corn milling, grain export, and fertilizer production. This early photograph shows all of the members of the Anderson family at the truck terminal on Illinois Avenue.
An early photograph with all of the members of the Anderson family at the truck terminal on Illinois Avenue.
Because The Andersons was founded as a family partnership, the history of the family and the company are closely tied. This 1958 publication describes the company through the lens of the principles of its family partnership. In the introduction, Harold Anderson writes, “First meet the active partners, a family of whom I am naturally proud.”
The Toledo Scale Company later merged with Mettler Instrumente AG and the name changed to Mettler Toledo, Inc. before changing again to become Mettler Toledo International, Inc. Toledo Scale’s diverse product line and global reach can be seen in these advertisements and parts catalog.
The Toledo Scale Company had its beginnings in 1900 when Henry Theobald purchased the DeVilbiss Computing Scale Company. Allen DeVilbiss, Jr. had invented a scale that used gravity instead of tension springs, resulting in more accurate weight readings. The Toledo Scale Company was founded in 1901, and its scales, bearing the slogan “No Springs, Honest Weight,” became famous throughout the world.
Typical of the small businesses that fueled Toledo’s growth in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, B. A. Stevens, located at the corner of Erie, Lafayette, and Lucas streets, advertised all the latest needed to operate a butchery. Included is an early advertisement for a Toledo Scale.
Catalog of B. A. Stevens, Manufacturer and Dealer of Butchers’ Supplies and Machinery. Toledo, OH: 1900
Catalog of B. A. Stevens, Manufacturer and Dealer of Butchers’ Supplies and Machinery. Toledo, OH: 1900
Planning for Ohio’s system of canals that would lead to commercial development began in 1824. While construction would wait for more than ten years, the Miami and Erie Canal provided the impetus to found the city of Toledo in 1837.
The Rathbun-Jones Engineering Company was founded by Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones as the Acme Sucker Rod Company in 1892. Shown here are some of the workers at the company, who were accorded employment benefits and wages beyond what was typical of the time due to Jones’s belief in the dignity of labor. Also shown is an early engine of the company.
The engine side of the company was eventually spun off as the Rathbun-Jones Engineering Company, which later partnered with the Ingersoll-Rand Company to help sell its products. Shown here is an example of an Ingersoll-Rand catalog selling “Rathbun-type” engines.
Jones was elected mayor of Toledo in 1897 largely based on the reputation he had developed as owner of the Acme Sucker Rod Company, where he had only one rule, the “Golden Rule.” This book reproduces some of the lectures he gave to his workers on topics such as equality, self-governance, and education. This copy is signed by Jones.
This catalog included products of the Toledo-based Smead Company that were designed not only to warm buildings, but to do so with adequate ventilation. Because of concerns in the nineteenth century about the relationship between fresh air and good health, Smead showed how to install furnaces that provided good ventilation.
Irving Colburn began to experiment with a new way of creating flat glass in 1876 that pulled molten glass between a series of rollers to make glass of consistent size and even thickness but was unable to perfect the process in a way that was commercially viable. In 1912 the patents for the process were purchased by the Toledo Glass Company.
The October 16, 1903, minutes document the transfer of all patents and licenses involving the bottle machine to the new Owens Bottle Machine Company.
The Libbey-Owens-Ford Company was renowned for its flat glass: windshields, windows, and mirrors. Here is the first minute book of the company created by Edward Drummond Libbey and Michael Owens to exploit the technological innovations of Owens, particularly the automated process for producing bottles.
On display here are the founding documents for the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company founded in Rossford, Ohio, in 1899 by Edward Ford. In 1929, the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company merged with the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company to create Libbey-Owens-Ford.
In November 1953, King Paul and Queen Frederica of Greece visited Toledo as a part of their tour of the United States to thank the country for its help during World War II. Ward M. Canaday and his wife Mariam accompanied the monarchs as they visited local manufacturing plants and the art museum. These photographs show the King and Queen looking into a glass furnace at the Libbey-Owens-Ford plant in Rossford.
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Shown here are the articles of incorporation for the company founded by Edward Drummond Libbey and Michael Owens to produce the bottle machine invented by Owens. Also included is the notification of the public sale of stock in the company.
Owens-Corning Fiberglas was founded in 1938 to exploit the commercial development of products made with glass fibers. The wonders of cloth woven out of glass were showcased at the 1939 New York World’s Fair Glass Center exhibit that included demonstrations of the process of producing the fibers. This was the first promotion of the product on an international level.
