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L. C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter Co. Collection

An inventory of its records at Syracuse University

Finding aid created by: SM
Date: 3 Jan 2017

Revision history:

Biographical History

The Syracuse based Smith Premier Typewriter Company was founded in 1886 by the gun manufacturers Lyman Smith and Wilbert Smith in cooperation with their younger brothers Monroe and Hurlburt. The Smith-Premier No.1, an invention of Alexander Timothy Brown, was patented in 1889. The new Building for the typewriter production was erected on the corner of Syracuse's Clinton and Onondaga Street. The Smith Brothers soon joined a consortium of typewriter producers (Remington, Yost, Densmore and Caligraphas) which became the Union Typewriter Company. When forced to continue the production of blind-writing typewriters despite the growing customer interest in frontstrike visible typewriters, the brothers decided to leave the Union Company and founded a new company, the L.C. Smith & Bros Typewriter Company (1903). The new Company soon released its L.C. Smith & Bros. Models No. 1 and 2 which were both invented by Carl Gabrielson. L.C. Smith & Bros. later merged with the Corona Typewriter Company in 1926 to become the L.C. Smith & Corona Typewriters Inc.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The L.C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter Co. Collection consists mainly of business correspondence, the major part of which belongs to the era of the Smith Premier Typewriter Company (1890-1903). The correspondence related to the L.C. Smith & Bros Typewriter Company belongs exclusively to the early phase of that company (1904). The few items of printed material are related to the latter company.

Arrangement of the Collection

The collection is subdivided by type. Within each type, items are arranged chronologically.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Subject Headings

Persons

Smith, Lyman Cornelius, 1850-1910.

Corporate Bodies

L.C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter Co.
Smith Premier Typewriter Company.

Subjects

Business enterprises -- New York (State) -- History.
Typewriter industry.

Places

Syracuse (N.Y.) -- History.

Genres and Forms

Advertisements.
Correspondence.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

L.C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter Co. Collection,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Purchase, 2015.

Table of Contents

Business material

Inventory