GRACO INC.:

The firm was established in 1926 by brothers L. L. and Russell J. Gray as the Gray Company, Inc., and was for many years a family-owned business selling automobile lubrication equipment to service stations and automobile dealership service departments.

During World War II the company made cartridge dies, aircraft parts, mobile lubricating rigs, and tank track pins for the war effort. It broadened its product base after the war to eventually include specialized pumps, regulators, valves, atomizing devices, and accessories; portable painting and cleaning equipment; and sophisticated paint circulating and application technology. In the late 1950s it began an expansion into Europe, Latin America, and the Far East. The corporation went public in 1969 and changed its name to Graco Inc.

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The collection includes administrative subject files, company newsletters, photographs and sound recordings, and product catalogs. There are board and stockholder meeting packets (7 boxes, 1973-1991), financial statements, and correspondence and miscellaneous papers. There is information about the company's branch offices, its international operations and French subsidiary, employee activities, service stations equipped with Graco products, the company's defense work during World War II, its transition to a publicly-held firm (1969), and an oral history project undertaken with the Minnesota Historical Society.

Correspondents include the Gray brothers and other Graco executives and officials, bankers, attorneys, and the Minnesota Historical Society. There is also some information about the Carr-Cullen Co., a Minneapolis millwork manufacturer and distributor.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Access Restrictions:

Access to records less than 25 years old requires written permission.

Use Restrictions:

Quotation or publication, beyond the fair use provisions of the copyright law, from records less than 25 years old requires written permission.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Graco Inc. Corporate Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples

Location of Master Files:

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

The original audio reels were disposed after the reels were digitally reformatted into MP3 files.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,071

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, October 1996

Digital audio of L. L. Gray's remarks to employees during a 1950s union drive transferred from the master audio reels by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes, September 2018.

Catalog ID number: 990017332500104294

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Location

Internet

L. L. Gray remarks to employees during union drive, [late 1950s]. 1 audio file (1 hour, 52 minutes): MP3 (102 MB).

Digital version

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Annual reports are in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.

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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:

Automobiles -- Maintenance and repair -- Equipment and supplies.

Corporations -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Family-owned business enterprises -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Fluid power technology.

International business enterprises -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Lubrication and lubricants industry -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Manufactures -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Oral history.

Painting, Industrial.

Pumping machinery industry -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Service stations -- Equipment and supplies.

Spraying equipment.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Equipment and supplies.

Persons:

Gray, Leil.

Gray, Russell J.

Koch, David A.

Murphy, Charles F.

Organizations:

Carr-Cullen Co. (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Fogautolube S.A. (Myennes-sur-Loire, France).

Gray Company, inc. (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Minnesota Historical Society.

Document Types:

Manufacturers' catalogs.

Photographs.

Sound recordings.

Occupations:

Businessmen

Inventors.

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