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McDonald's Franchise Collection

An inventory of its collection at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: SAB
Date: 09 Nov 2023



Biographical History

McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest fast food restaurant chain, with upwards of 40,000 locations in over 100 countries. Many McDonald's stores are franchises, which means that the corporation licenses its brand and business model to individual business owners who pay a fee and agree to comply with corporate standards.

Gloria Sabath (1925-2021) and her husband Fred Sabath (1924-2004) became co-owners of their first McDonald’s franchise, located in Carson, California, in 1970. Over the next 21 years, they went on to own three McDonald’s in Rolling Hills and the Lakewood Mall. They had four children and retired in 1991.


Scope and Contents of the Collection

The McDonald's Franchise Collection contains management materials, promotional items, training materials, and miscellaneous.

Management materials contains documents relating to the internal operation of the store and corporate standards.

Promotional items contains printed handouts, plastic meal trays featuring McDonald’s characters, McDonaldland modeling dough and a mold, a tote bag that resembles a McDonald’s fry container, and a black leatherette valise bearing the McDonald’s arch logo.

Training materials primarily consists of documents and certificates from Hamburger University, the McDonald’s management training facility in Illinois.

Miscellaneous contains photographs and handouts from McDonald’s events, a nutritional booklet, and a certificate of appreciation from medical nonprofit foundation March of Dimes.


Arrangement of the Collection

The collection is arranged alphabetically.


Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advance 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

Corporate Bodies

McDonald's Corporation.

Subjects

Chain restaurants.
Fast food restaurants.
Franchises (Retail trade)
Restaurant management.
Restaurants -- Marketing.

Genres and Forms

Business records.
Cafeteria trays.
Catalogs (documents)
Certificates.
Correspondence.
Diplomas.
Photographs.
Promotional materials.
Tote bags.
Training manuals.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

McDonald's Franchise Collection,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Purchase, 2021.


Table of Contents

Management materials

Promotional items

Training materials

Miscellaneous


Inventory