Repository

Heinz History Center

Title

Photograph Collection of Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation

Creator

Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation

Collection Number

MSP#33

Extent

10 cubic feet (13 boxes, one quarter shelf bound materials)

Date

1880-1952

Abstract

The Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation was one of the largest iron and steel manufacturers in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. These photographs include images of facilities, products and transportation. The facility series features a large assortment of posed shots of employees, listing their names, job titles and miscellaneous information, including nicknames, years of service or reasons for leaving the company. It also contains interior and exterior photos of the many Jones and Laughlin mills, warehouses and office buildings all over the United States. Transportation images include tugboats, barges and railroads carrying Jones and Laughlin finished products and raw materials.

Language

The material in this collection is in English.

Author

This guide to the collection was rewritten by Stephen Doell on June 21, 1993. Revisions occurred to the finding aid as a part of the encoding process in Summer, 1999.

Sponsor

This finding aid has been encoded as a part of the Historic Pittsburgh project, a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Funding for this portion of the project has been donated by the Hillman Foundation.

Publisher

Heinz History Center

Address

1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org

Historical Sketch of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation

The Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation was one of the largest iron and steel manufacturers in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jones and Laughlin (J & L) grew out of the American Iron Works founded by John and Bernard Lauth in September, 1853. Four months later Benjamin F. Jones and Samuel Kier joined the firm, giving each man one-quarter controlling interest. The iron furnace and mill was located on the South Side of the Monongahela River, in the East Birmingham neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

The success of the firm was related to the expertise each man brought to it. According to the partnership agreement signed in December 1853, Jones controlled the Warehouse, books, accounts and finance. Bernard Lauth managed the rolling mills and Works. John Lauth supervised the small rolls and turning department. Kier had no listed duties. Each partner received $1,500 salary and retained a capital value of $5,000. What was unique about this iron works was the partners' steadfast determination to reinvest their profits back into the company instead of taking them as personal profits. The company did not pay its investors a dividend until 1870, choosing instead to build more facilities and expandits production capacity.

From 1855 to 1861, the company experienced many changes. Samuel Kier sold his interest to Jones, John Lauth sold his interest to his brother Bernard, and James Laughlin bought into the firm. In August of 1861, "Mr. Bernard Lauth ceased to be active in the business and was later bought out by the remaining partners" for a reported $100,000. This figure did not include an undisclosed sum Lauth received for his patent on the cold-rolled shafting process, acquired in 1859, which proved to be a profitable iron making improvement for the American Iron Works. With the departure of the original owners, the company changed itsname to American Iron Works-Jones and Laughlin's. As improvements in iron processing and the advent of steel making dramatically changed the industry, so too did J & L adapt to remain a top iron and steel producer. Through its first fifty years of existence J & L produced wrought iron, iron bars, and plates, from which nails were made. In 1886 J & L began making steel from its seven-ton Bessemer converter. By 1894 J & L was completely out of the wrought iron businessand produced only steel. As an example through sheer numbers, the J & L outputdramatically increased from its inception to the turn of the century and beyond: 1853, seven tons per day; 1857, 16 tons per day; 1862, 100 tons per day; 1876, 1,000 tons per day; and 1907, 5,000 tons per day.

In 1907, Jones and Laughlin began construction on their Aliquippa Works on aplot of land twenty six miles down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh in Beaver County. J & L also owned the 475 acres of land surrounding the new Aliquippa Works, which it 'sold' to a J & L subsidiary, the Woodlawn Land Company. J & L also named the community Woodlawn, until the name was changed to Aliquippa. The town was incorporated into a borough in 1909, the same year that the Aliquippa Works produced its first "heat" of steel. Employees bought tracts, built homes and created a new community around the factory. The Aliquippa Works allowed J & L to diversify its product line beyond structural steel and sheet metal. The new facility made various steel wire products, tin plates, seamless tubing, steel barrels and welded pipe.

Over the next thirty years J & L expanded at a steady rate with increases intotal output, employees and profits. By the start of World War II, J & L was the fourth largest steel producer in the world, producing over 4.8 million tons of steel a year and employing 45,000 workers. Despite operating in the direct shadow of United States Steel's Duquesne, Homestead and Edgar Thompson Works, J& L remained an independent steel company holding its own in a crowded market. The company's independence is reflected in its "family business" practices, as either a Jones or a Laughlin descendant controlled the firm until the 1930s. This independence ended with the merger of J & L and the French Ling-Temco-Vought Corporation (LTV) in 1974. Coupled with a depressed steel market of the 1970s, J & L rapidly declined in production and soon began demolishing older factories with no intention of rebuilding. The Aliquippa Works shut down most of itsfactories in May 1985. It went from a work force of over 10,000 in 1971 to less than 2,500 at its closing. By 1989 most of the South Side Works and the Eliza Furnaces across the Monongahela River were leveled. In the 1990s, the few remaining buildings serve as a distant memory of the thriving community these factories surrounded.

Scope and Content Notes

These photographs include images of facilities, products and transportation. A majority of these photographs were accumulated by the Public Relations Department of Jones and Laughlin between 1952 and 1953 for the company's 100th anniversary. Many former workers and their families contributed personal collections, often including identifications and personal anecdotes.

Arrangement

The Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation Photographs are housed in 13 archival boxes and are arranged in three series. Series are designated as Facilities, Products and Transportation.

Materials are arranged alphabetically within each series.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Arrived with the Records of Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation, MSS #33.

Preferred Citation

Photograph Collection of Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation, 1880-1952, MSP #33, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.

Processing Information

This collection was rewritten by Stephen Doell on June 21, 1993.

Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Jennifer Marshall on August 10, 1999.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights reside with the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or publish, please contact the curator of the Archives.

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