Series 8: Photographs

The PHOTOGRAPH SERIES contains black and white prints and original nitrate and safety negatives depicting factory interiors, exteriors and aerial views, tire-building equipment, machines and instruments, male and female workers engaged in production, plant reconversion and new construction, company product lines, public relations activities, employee relations, management conferences, and the community and social activities of company employees. They provide excellent visual documentation of complex industrial processes, the evolution of the factory over a thirty year period, and the introduction and use of modern automated equipment into the workplace. The majority of the images date from the 1940s and 1950s, with particular emphasis on the period of new construction and modernization in 1944-1946. The entire process is exhaustively detailed in a series of “plant progress” photographs. These prints are numbered, dated, and captioned and the numbering suggests that certain prints are missing. Also noteworthy are two comprehensive photographic surveys of the factory's machinery and instrumentation done in approximately 1945, and again in 1965. Photographs of rubber workers engaged in all facets of tire production are another strong point. Virtually all of the photographs in the collection were professionally shot, with dates and captions supplied. Some were most likely taken to accompany articles in the U.S. Rubber Company's in-house publication US magazine. A selection of the photographs and negatives are housed in the Visual Material Archive of the State Historical Society in Madison at call number PH 6055. (Additional photographs of the Gillette Tire Company are also located in the Visual Material Archive. PH 626 consists of 28 photoprints of the factory from 1917 to 1939, including aerial and exterior views of the Gillette and Chippewa rubber factories; interior views of the building, calendar, and curing departments; steps in processing; and images of the first experimental tire being built in 1917.) Some of the photographs from this series have been digitized.

Employees

Box 79 Folder 1: Ambassador Club, 1946-1952
Box 79 Folder 2: Bowling teams, 1947
Box 79 Folder 3: Coca-Cola Salute to U.S. Rubber, 1945
Box 79 Folder 4: Employee suggestion awards, 1946, 1952, 1953
Box 79 Folder 5: Gillette Tire Company workers, 1922, 1923
Box 79 Folder 6: Labor union contract signings, 1946-1955
Management

Box 79 Folder 7: Conference leaders training class, 1946
Box 79 Folders 8-9: Cost meetings, 1954-1956
Box 79 Folders 10-11: Self-improvement conferences, 1946, 1948-1950
Box 79 Folder 12: Training dinners, 1952-1953

Box 79 Folder 13: Retirements, 1947-1953, 1958
Box 79 Folder 14: Safety award recipients, 1944, 1947, 1950
Box 79 Folder 15: Security guard force, undated
Box 79 Folder 16: Twenty-year Club, 1944-1948, 1951, 1954
US Magazine feature stories

Box 80 Folder 1: City of Eau Claire, 1947
Box 80 Folder 2: Employees who hold local elective office, 1952
Box 80 Folder 3: Miscellaneous, 1948-1952
Box 80 Folder 4: Veterans returning to plant, 1944, 1945
Box 80 Folder 5: Volunteer plant fire brigade, 1946

Box 80 Folder 6: Air quality testing
Box 80 Folder 7: Bag-o-matic machines, 1956, 1962
Box 80 Folder 8: Beta ray equipment, 1958
Box 80 Folder 9: Compression bag mold handling, 1949
Box 80 Folder 10: Electrical installations, circa 1948
Box 80 Folder 11: Outside firms' “approved photos,” 1945
Box 80 Folder 12: Pocket building machines, undated
Box 80 Folder 13: Power services, circa 1944, 1948
Production equipment photographic survey

Box 80 Folder 14: 1944-1948
Box 80 Folder 15: 1965
Box 81 Folder 1: Steam plant, 1948
Box 81 Folder 2: Tire moving (conveyor) system, 1946
Box 81 Folder 3: Ventilation system, circa 1944

Box 81 Folder 4: Aerial and night views, 1969
Box 81 Folder 5: Aerial views prior to 1964
Box 81 Folder 6: Gillette curing room fire, 1927
Plant progress series, 1943-1946

Box 81 Folder 7: General, 1944
Box 81 Folders 8-12: #1-136, 1943-1944
Box 82 Folder 1: #146-156, 1945
Box 82 Folder 2: #170-178, 181, 1946
Box 82 Folder 3: #6978-7022, 1944 August
Box 82 Folder 4: #8118-8154, 1944 September

Product line

Box 82 Folder 5: Container products, 1954
Box 82 Folder 6: Defective tire display, 1954
Box 82 Folder 7: First Gillette Company tire, 1917
Box 82 Folder 8: First truck tire sold after reconversion, 1944
Box 82 Folder 9: Fisk, Gillette, U.S. Rubber tires and trademarks, undated
Box 82 Folder 10: Heavy service tires, 1945
Box 82 Folder 11: One-millionth Co-op brand tire, 1954
Box 82 Folder 12: Royal 8 tire introduced, 1954
Box 82 Folder 13: U.S. Royal Gripmaster farm tire, 1948
Box 82 Folder 14: Worn Gillette Company tire, 1922

Box 82 Folder 15: Farm tire building
Box 82 Folder 16: First tire and tread stock produced after reconversion, 1944
Box 82 Folder 17: Gillette Tire Company, circa 1935
Box 82 Folder 18: Heavy service tire building, 1949
Box 82 Folder 19: Mill room, 1944
Box 83 Folders 1-2: Passenger tire building, 1945-1946

Box 83 Folder 3: Billboard, Gillette tire trademark, undated
Boy Scouts

Box 83 Folder 4: Dinner and tour, 1954
Box 83 Folder 5: Factory manager for a day, 1952

Box 83 Folder 6: Chippewa Valley Traffic Club, 1952
Box 83 Folder 7: Eau Claire Little League, 1952
Box 83 Folder 8: Forty-seventh anniversary of Gillette brand tires, 1964
Box 83 Folder 9: Gillette Tire Company, miscellaneous, 1935
Box 83 Folder 10: Groundbreaking and opening ceremony for finished goods warehouse, 1949, 1952
Box 83 Folder 11: Indian Head Association contest winner, 1950
Box 83 Folder 12: Montgomery Ward Day, 1958
Box 83 Folder 13: National Safety Council Awards, undated, 1948, 1952
Box 83 Folder 14: Parade floats, 1947, 1948
Box 83 Folder 15: Plant brochure, 1947
Plant visitors

Box 83 Folder 16: Engineer's Club of Minneapolis, 1947
Box 83 Folder 17: French Labor union, 1953
Box 83 Folder 18: Gamble Store group, 1945
Box 83 Folder 19: General Motors company officials, 1947
Box 83 Folder 20: Milwaukee Association of Commerce, 1960
Box 83 Folder 21: Swedish workers
Box 83 Folder 22: Unidentified, undated

Box 83 Folder 23: Rubber processing article in US Magazine, 1949
Box 83 Folder 24: “This plant in 1952” statistical charts
Box 83 Folder 25: Waste control award presentation, 1952