Table of Contents

Historical Note

Scope and Content Note

Information for Researchers

Separations List

Administrative Information

Description

Subject Headings

Inventory of the Pierce Manufacturing Corporation Records

In the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library

Historical Note

Both Pierce Manufacturing Corporation and Pierce Brothers, Limited, the textile firms represented by records in this collection, were essentially family business ventures typical of mills established at New Bedford, Mass., between 1880-1910. The former firm was established in 1892 by Andrew Granville Pierce (1829-1903), a former city mayor and leading New Bedford businessman. Other officials of Pierce Manufacturing Corporation included Andrew Granville Pierce Jr. (1864-1950), treasurer and manager, and his brother, Albert Russell Pierce (1869-1948). The firm principally manufactured fine cotton and silk goods, although a leading product of the mill during World War I was a coarse cotton developed by Albert Russell Pierce for use in airplane wings. At the peak of its prosperity between 1909-1919, Pierce Manufacturing Corporation was one of the largest textile firms in New Bedford, employing 1,200 people in two mills boasting a total of 3,600 looms and 116,000 spindles. Like most New England cotton mills, however, this corporation experienced increasing competition from textile companies in the southern United States after 1925 and ultimately closed down in 1944.

Pierce Brothers, Limited, was founded in 1909 by Andrew Granville Pierce Jr., with Albert Russell Pierce and a third brother, Edward Taber Pierce (1855-1937) as manager and treasurer, respectively. This organization supplemented the output of Pierce Manufacturing Corporation by producing silk, rayon, and fine cotton yarn cloth. Always smaller than the parent firm, the company at its peak around 1928 employeed about 500 people in one mill with 1,200 looms and 53,000 spindles. Pierce Brothers, Limited, continued to operate until the early 1950s. The mill property was sold to the Cresent Corporation of Fall River, Mass., in 1952.

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Scope and Content Note

This collection contains business records of Pierce Manufacturing Corporation and Pierce Brothers, Limited, as well as personal papers of several Pierce family members.

Predominant among the records of both organizations are volumes containing swatches representing cloth produced by each firm. The sixty-two sample books for Pierce Manufacturing Corporation in Sub-group 1, dating from ca. 1892-1944, include very little information concerning the manufacture of the material; however, those sample books in Sub-group 2 for Pierce Brothers, Limited, provide complete statistics relating to cloth produced by that company between 1919-1939. The remainder of Pierce Manufacturing Corporation records in Sub-group 1 consist of minutes of directors' meetings, 1892-1935, reflecting the firm's administrative affairs throughout most of its history; stock records, 1893-1944; account books and bills and receipts for 1892-1919 and 1933-1944; memoranda concerning wages and duties of company employees, ca. 1923-1941; several additional cloth samples; and the corporation's letter book for 1939-1944. Sub-group 2, devoted to Pierce Brothers, Limited, records, consists of a report on machinery and buildings, 1941; memoranda concerning cloth manufacture, supplies, equipment, and employees, 1938; samples of cloth finished for the company by firms in New York and Rhode Island, ca. 1915-1939; and the fifteen sample books for 1919-1939. The Pierce family papers in Sub-group 3 relate to Andrew Granville Pierce, his sons, Andrew Granville Pierce Jr., and Albert Russell Pierce, and his grandson, Albert Russell Pierce Jr. Most notable are papers of the family head, particularly a letter book, 1868-1888, 1900, containing copies of outgoing correspondence relating to Andrew Granville Pierce's interest in the New Bedford, Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Co., New Bedford and Fairhaven Street Railroad Co., Morse Twist Drill Co., Potomska Mills, Grinnell Mills, and various banks in New Bedford and Boston. His papers also contain lecture notes of Henry Howard Jr. (1874-1944), compiled in about 1899 as a student at New Bedford Textile School--an institution that the elder Pierce served as a trustee. Papers for other family members chiefly consist of personal correspondence, notes, memoranda, bills, and related documents, ca. 1886-1948.

Arrangement of Collection

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Information for Researchers

Access to the Collection

Unrestricted. Consult librarian for an appointment.

Preferred Citation

New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library Mss 3 [sub-group, series, sub-series, folder/volume as appropriate], [item]

Copyright Notice

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 United States Code 552a) governs the use of materials that document private individuals, groups, and corporations.

Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a reproduction if the document does not infringe the privacy rights of an individual, group, or corporation. These specified conditions of authorized use include:

If the researcher later uses a copy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," the researcher is personally liable for copyright. privacy, or publicity infringement and agrees to indemnify the New Bedford Whaling Museum from any legal action as a result of the error. Permission to obtain a photographic, xerographic, digital, or other copy of a document does not indicate permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, sell, distribute, or prepare derivative works from the document without permission from the copyright holder and from any private individual, group, or corporation shown or otherwise recorded.

Permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, prepare derivative works from, sell, or otherwise distribute the item must be obtained separately in writing from the holder of the original copyright (or if the creator is dead, from his/her heirs) as well as from any individual(s), groups, or corporations whose name, image, recorded words, or private information (e.g. employment information) may be reproduced in the source material. The holder of the original copyright is not necessarily the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is not legally liable for copyright, privacy, or publicity infringement when materials are wrongfully used after being provided to researchers for "fair use."

This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if fulfillment of the order is judged in violation of copyright or federal or state privacy law. This institution also places restrictions on the use of cameras, photocopiers, and scanners in the research room.

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Separations List

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Administrative Information

Provenance

Records and papers in this collection were presented to the Old Dartmouth Historical Society on 14 April and 26 May 1978 by Mrs. A. Russell Pierce as part of a larger group of manuscript and printed material. A complete list of the items in the Pierce gift is available in the Society's accession records, AR 78.8.

Processing Information

Processed by: Patricia J. Albright, ca. 1982

Encoded by: Robbin Smith, 02 June 2011; box list amended by Mark Procknik, 07 October 2011

Funds for processing this collection were provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Description

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Subject Headings

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