Guide to the Records of the Macintosh-Hemphill Company, 1827 - 1954

Arrangement

Repository
Heinz History Center
Title
Records of the Macintosh-Hemphill Company
Creator
Macintosh-Hemphill Company
Collection Number
MSS#14
Extent
0.75 cubic feet (2 boxes)
Date
1827 - 1954
Abstract
The Mackintosh-Hemphill Company was formed from numerous mergers of companies, each involved with the production of iron products and machinery, over one hundred years. The Mackintosh-Hemphill Records contain sales brochures, maintenance pamphlets, trade publication reprints, product photographs, letter books and other sundry items.
Language
The material in this collection is in English.
Author
This guide to the collection was originally prepared by Historical Society Staff in1972; the records were rearranged and inventory rewritten by Timothy S. Kernan on March 17, 1993. Revisions occurred to the finding aid as a part of the encoding process inSpring of 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

History of the Mackintosh-Hemphill Company

The Mackintosh-Hemphill Company was formed from numerous mergers of companies, each involved with the production of iron products and machinery, over one hundred years. The Pittsburgh Foundry, the first of this group of companies, was founded in 1803 by Joseph McClurg, Joseph Smith and John Gormley. McClurg eventually bought out his two partners and individually operated the business until 1814. The Pittsburgh Foundry produced cast iron cooking utensils, pressing irons, stoves, grates for pioneers and cannons for the American forces during the War of 1812. McClurg also operated a tobacco factory and a general store, which primarily served those of the flat boat and conestoga wagon trades. In 1830, the Pittsburgh Foundry merged with the Jackson Foundry and the Eagle Foundry and became Kingsland, Lightner & Cuddy. This new company was located on Water Street in downtown Pittsburgh.

Other companies that merged to form Mackintosh-Hemphill include Bolland and Garrison and the Fort Pitt Foundry. The Bolland and Garrison Company was founded in 1840 by Kingsland's nephew Abram Garrison, Lightner's nephew H. L. Bolland and H. F. Bolland. In 1852, the company moved from Fifth and Smithfield Streets to Pittsburgh's South Side between Ninth and Tenth Streets. With Garrison's declining health in 1862, the management of the company was turned over to his son-in-law, J. H. Ricketson, who served as president until his death in 1900. In 1864, Bolland retired from the company and the name was changed to A. Garrison and Company. The Fort Pitt Foundry opened in 1825 by Alexander McClurg near 12th and Etna Streets along the Allegheny River in what is now Pittsburgh's Strip District. The Fort Pitt Foundry primarily made engines, locomotives, boats and shot for rifles. The Foundry later changed their name to Knapp and Totten.

In 1859, James Hemphill, Dr. W. W. Mackintosh and N. F. Hart formed a partnership which was later incorporated under the name Mackintosh-Hemphill Company. To this new enterprise, Mr. Hart contributed the financial support, Hemphill the engineering and practical shop experience and Mackintosh the valuable patents, including one on a new type of oscillating steam engine. In 1878, Mackintosh-Hemphill purchased the adjacent Fort Pitt Foundry to meet the requirements of the growing business.

The Pittsburgh Iron and Steel Foundries Company, formed by the Speer, Knight and Fownes families between 1905 and 1907, also became part of the Mackintosh-Hemphill Company. Originally named the S. Jarvis Adams Company after the former owner who was also the inventor of the Janus Faced Lock, Pittsburgh Iron and Steel operated a blast furnace at a plant which would later become the Midland Works of the Crucible Steel Company of America. The company also constructed a boiler company that was later sold to the Babcock and Wilcox Company. Following the withdrawal of the Fownes interests in 1912, the company changed its name to Pittsburgh Iron and Steel. They produced axle boxes, brake shoes, pipe balls, mine car wheels, ingot molds, and other dies. The company was also known for the production and patenting of adamite, an abrasion resistant alloy of chromium and nickel.

In 1922, Mackintosh-Hemphill Company merged with the Pittsburgh Iron and Steel Foundries Company, the A. Garrison Foundry Company, and the Woodward Machine Company of Wooster, Ohio. The company's main products remained industrial machinery and steel products for industry. In 1955, the E. W. Bliss Company of Canton, Ohio, purchased Mackintosh-Hemphill and in 1968, the company became part of Gulf and Western Industries.

Scope and Content Notes

The Mackintosh-Hemphill Records are housed in two archival boxes and arearranged in two series. Series have been designated for the Mackintosh-Hemphill Records and the records of early related companies. These records contain sales brochures, maintenance pamphlets, trade publication reprints, product photographs, letter books and other sundry items. These records document two distinct periods in the company's development, its formative years in the early nineteenth century and its work in the second quarter of the twentieth century. The records also document two distinct roles of the company: the day to day activities of early related companies and publications of the Mackintosh-Hemphill Company during the twentieth century. While providing fairly detailed records of these two periods, these records appear to document no aspect of the company's history comprehensively and provide little material outside of these two time periods. Of primary note for the other time periods are histories written for Mackintosh-Hemphill.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

These material were received in at least two accessions and were combined into one body of records in1993.

Acc#1932x Gift of Mackintosh-Hemphill Company, (Letter Books of Related Companies).

Acc#c1961Gift of Mackintosh-Hemphill Company, (Additional records, primarily material arranged with series I).

Preferred Citation

Records of the Mackintosh-Hemphill Company,1827-1954, MSS#14, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania Records previously cited: Mackintosh-Hemphill Company, Records, 1827-1954, MSS#14, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania

General

Records previously cited: Mackintosh-Hemphill Company, Records, 1827-1954, MSS#14, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Historical Society Staff in 1972.

Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Kate Colligan in March of 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.

Subjects

    Corporate Names

    • Bolland and Garrison (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    • E. W. Bliss (Canton, Oh.)
    • Garrison Foundry (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    • Kingsland, Lightner and Company (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    • Pittsburgh Foundry(Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    • S. Jarvis Adams Company (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

    Other Subjects

    • Foundries -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Iron industry and trade -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Machinery Industry -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Pittsburgh(Pa.) -- Industry
    • Steel industry and trade -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • World War, 1939-1945 -- War Work -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh

Container List