OUR OWN HARDWARE COMPANY (MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.):

An Inventory of Its Records at the Minnesota Historical Society

Manuscripts Collection

OVERVIEW


	Creator:	Our Own Hardware Company (Minneapolis, Minn.), creator.
	Title:	Our Own Hardware Company records.
	Dates:	1913-1998.
	Abstract:	Records of a Minneapolis-based hardware wholesaler that sold merchandise to member retailers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana.
	Quantity:	7.15 cubic feet (6 boxes, including 11 volumes, 16 folders and 1 volume in 1 partial box, 1 oversize folder in 1 partial box, 1 item in 1 oversize folder, 3 master audio files: WAV (163 MB), and 3 user audio files: MP3 (6.92 MB).
	Location:	See Detailed Description section for shelf locations.

The Northwestern Hardware Company was organized on February 8, 1913 in Minneapolis by and for retail hardware dealers of the Northwestern states, to buy and sell hardware and related products wholesale to retail hardware and general store merchants.

The directors of the Northwestern Hardware Company met with several prominent Minnesota hardware men on May 15, 1913, and agreed to organize a wholesale hardware company. On June 9, 1913 it was decided to incorporate the company under the name of Hall Hardware Company, and it was agreed that all subscriptions of hardware dealers taken under the name of the Northwestern Hardware Company would be received into the Hall Hardware Company. Incorporators included George E. Hall, of Fargo, North Dakota, and G. H. Reeves and Fred N. Furber, both of Minneapolis. Subscriptions for the capital stock of the corporation were invited from persons engaged in the retail hardware business in the Northwest. By 1933 Hall Hardware supplied 450 retail hardware stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. In 1949 the name of the firm was changed to Our Own Hardware Company.

The Hall Building Company was incorporated in 1918 as a holding company to finance, construct, and operate a building in Minneapolis under lease to the Hall Hardware Company. Securities were offered for sale to members of the Hall Hardware Company, their clerks, relatives, and a few other individuals. The directors of the Hall Building Company were the same as those of the Hall Hardware Company.

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SCOPE AND CONTENTS

Includes minutes of directors, stockholders, and executive committee meetings; annual financial reports; a stockholders register; printed historical materials; and miscellaneous correspondence and papers. There is some information about predecessors Northwestern Hardware Company and Hall Hardware company, and there are some records of the Hall Building Company.

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ARRANGEMENT

The records are organized into the following sections:


		Our Own Hardware Company Records.
		Hall Building Company Records.

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Our Own Hardware Company Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of audio files are maintained on the Society’s secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

One of the original phonograph records was disposed of after the sound recordings were digitally reformatted into WAV files; the other was retained in the collection for its value as an artifact.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,525; 16,834; 17,402; 17,482

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, October 1999; additions by David B. Peterson, December 2013 and December 2021.

Digital audio transferred from the original phonograph records by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes, October 2017.

Catalog ID number: 990017358560104294

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION

OUR OWN HARDWARE COMPANY RECORDS

Includes records of predecessor Hall Hardware Company.

Location

Box

144.E.7.10F

Annual financial reports:

Include audit reports, balance sheets, profit and loss statements.

1913-1932. 2 volumes.

1933-1948. 8 folders.

1949.

Annual reports, 1991, 1996.

Annual meeting calendar of events, 1993.

Articles of incorporation and bylaws, 1969

Death announcements, 1937-1949, 1966.

Company-issued announcements for directors and member/stockholders.

Directors meeting minutes:

Includes copies of the company's articles of incorporation and of various revised versions.

1926-1939. 14 folders.

Location

Box

144.E.8.1B

1940-1950. 8 folders.

Executive committee minutes, 1936-1951, 1959. 8 folders.

Letters to stockholders from company management, 1915-1949. 5 folders.

Includes annual meeting announcements, financial statements, circular letters, information about stock sales, stock retirements, corporate policy, and the Hall Building Company. There are also letters to prospects by G. E. Hall (1924), and profit dividend letters (1915-1928).

Manager's reports to the board of directors, 1916-1925.

President's reports, 1945-1949. 4 folders.

Reports and speeches to directors, stockholders, and executive committee meetings. Includes Hall Hardware Company, Hall Building Company, and Our Own Hardware Company.

Stock and Stockholders:

Stock certificates: Hall Hardware Company, 1918, 1926.

Location

Folder

142.J.2.1-3

Stockholders summer meeting photograph, July 7, 1920.

Panorama photograph was removed from its frame. Identifications of nine individuals that appeared on the glass have been preserved.

Location

Box

144.E.8.1B

Stockholders meeting minutes:

1915-1918.

Contains extracts.

1928-1929.

1932-1934.

Location

Box

144.E.8.2F

1935-1950. 8 folders.

Stockholders registers, undated, 1920-1921.

Gives names of member firms and their locations.

George Hall articles about selling hardware, 1926-1929.

Historical information:

Assembled historical information (1917-1968).

Company anniversaries, 1931-1988.

Employees:

25 Year Employees Club: Member biographies, 1946-1985. 3 folders.

Company newsletters: Miscellaneous issues, 1944-1952, 1976.

Employee handbook, approximately 1976.

Employee publications (miscellaneous), undated, approximately 1976.

Advertising and publicity:

Advertising calendars, 1991, 1998.

Christmas merchandise promotion, 1950.

Includes inventory and financial results of promotion.

Institutional advertising appearing in the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, 1948.

Newspaper advertising supplements, undated, 1935.

Miscellaneous, undated, 1932-1938.

Location

129.F.9.4F-2

Newspaper advertising, 8 1946-1947.

Location

Box

144.E.8.2F

We care phonograph record, undated. 1 master 7-inch vinyl disc (3 minutes, 5 seconds): 33 1/3 r.p.m., 1 submaster audio file (3 minutes, 5 seconds): WAV (34.8 MB), and 1 user audio file: MP3 (2.26 MB).

3 tracks: 1. We care (pledge) w/announcer; 2. We care (chorus) w/donut; 3. We care (solo) w/donut. Appears to be the same on both sides.

Digital Audio

Location

Internet

Radio advertising "Shoot 'em up in '60", 1960. 2 master audio files (5 minutes, 54 seconds): WAV (133 MB) and 2 user audio files: MP3 (4.66 MB).

Made from a phonograph record.

Digital Audio Side 1

Digital Audio Side 2

Location

Box

144.E.8.2F

Publications:

undated, 1913-1988. 2 folders.

Includes a brochure on store modernization (undated), a biographical article on George E. Hall (1926), a company historical sketch (1933), a mail convention catalog (1945), an issue of Our Own Hardware News (March 10, 1949), and an historical article on the 75th anniversary of Our Own Hardware (1988).

Publications for customers, 1932, 1940s.

Photographs, undated, 1920-1979. 2 folders.

Location

Box

153.I.7.6F

Inventory materials:

George E. Hall: Ordering bulletins, 1915. 3 folders.

Sheets sent to dealers giving information on products available through the firm.

Merchant members:

Bulletins, 1926-1932.

Conventions: Buying Market, 1986, 1996, 1997. 2 folders.

Correspondence: A-X, 1919-1970. 13 folders.

Introductory packet for dealers, approximately 1935.

Mail order catalog order blank for merchandise, 1933.

Merchandising schedule, 1932.

Prospective members, 1919-1930s.

Services: Retail support and more publication for members, 1988.

Summer Merchandising Meeting, 1940.

Company sale bills and merchandise order sheets, 1933.

Membership listings, 1997.

Location

Box

141.I.3.3B

Dealer owned retail hardware merchants manual, 1930s. 1 volume.

Location

Box

153.I.7.6F

Supermix paint:

Testimonials and advertisements, undated, 1935-1960s.

Supermix Sizzler bulletin, undated, 1940s.

Supermix sales helps, 1932.

Catalogs:

Hall Hardware Company catalogs for dealers, Nos. 1, 3-6, 1914-1920? 5 volumes.

Hall Hardware Company sales catalog, 1926.

Our Own Hardware Company sales catalogs, 1933-1970 (bulk 1963-1970). 4 folders.

Sales catalogs, some in color, issued for public distribution. Most were distributed by Ebert Hardware, Preston, Minnesota.

Location

Box

147.H.13.5B

Catalogs, undated, 1935-1970. 3 folders.

Sales catalogs, some in color, issued for public distribution. Includes numerous Christmas catalogs.

Location

Box

141.I.3.3B

Hall Hardware Company high efficiency catalog, 1922-1938. 1 volume.

Our Own Hardware Company high efficiency catalog, 1938-1952. 1 volume.

Location

Box

141.I.3.4F

Old catalog, 1939-1948.

Location

Box

147.H.13.5B

Miscellaneous files:

Burnsville distribution center, approximately 1970-1977.

Duffy, Stephen P., 1954, 1968.

Unidentified record book, 1934-1967.

Includes employee time record (1934-1935), general fund cash receipts and disbursements (1934-1948), reserve fund receipts and disbursements (1934-1967).

Miscellany, approximately 1985-1997.

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HALL BUILDING COMPANY RECORDS

Location

Box

147.H.13.5B

Correspondence and miscellaneous papers, 1922-1951.

Includes prospectuses, circular letters to stockholders, lists of stockholders, financial reports, and other materials.

Minutes:

1918-1949. 5 folders.

Includes manager's reports, letters to stockholders, proxies, and directors, executive committee, and stockholders meeting minutes.

First annual meeting, February 17, 1919.

Debenture transfers, 1956.

Insurance appraisal, June 4, 1959.

Miscellany, 1952-1970.

Location

Box

141.I.3.4F

Minute book, 1918-1937. 1 volume.

Includes articles of incorporation, bylaws, financial reports, incorporators meeting minutes, and minutes of board and stockholders meetings.

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CATALOG HEADINGS

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:: Business enterprises -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.; Dealers (Retail trade).; Distributors (Commerce).; Hardware -- Northwestern States; Hardware industry -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.; Hardware stores.; Retail trade.; Wholesale trade -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Persons:: Hall, George E., 1864-1950, author.

Organizations:: Hall Building Company (Minneapolis, Minn.), author.; Northwestern Hardware Company (Minneapolis, Minn.), author.; Hall Hardware Company (Minneapolis, Minn.), author.

Document Types:: Phonograph records.; Photographs.

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