Early Office Museum
Antique Office Photographs
~ Business College Classes ~
Instructional texts on penmanship and bookkeeping were available in English by the 17th century, and texts on shorthand were available by the 18th century. However, to our knowledge it was not until the mid-19th century that people founded private business colleges to train students to be clerical workers in commercial and government offices. These colleges, which were an American innovation, typically had courses in business practice, bookkeeping, penmanship, shorthand/stenography, and telegraphy. After 1880, they added typing courses. Thus, in 1897, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, had a Business Department, which offered hands-on practice in a mock bank and a mock railway and express office, and also taught book-keeping; a School of Shorthand; which trained students in shorthand, typing, duplicating, and filing; a School of Penmanship, which prepared students to teach writing and pen art; and a School of Telegraphy, which trained students as telegraph operators. Our exhibit on Gender & the Office includes a discussion of gender in business colleges. Business colleges remain important in providing educations that enable people to advance their careers. Now, with the advent of the computer and internet, many of these institutions offer online degree programs
| Click Image to Enlarge | Description | Source |
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"Interior View," Bryant, Stratton & Folsom Commercial College, Albany, NY, 1865. As of 1865, Bryant, Stratton & Folsom operated a chain of business schools in a number of US and Canadian cities. It claimed that "Young men by attending these schools will obtain a sound theoretical and practical business education." A description of this image states: "The first at the right is the Railroad, Steamboat and Freight Office. The next is the National Mercantile College Bank. Still on to the right is the Forwarding, Express and Commission Office. To the extreme left appears the Exchange, Insurance and Brokerage Office. The next and last is the Jobbing, Collection and Post Office." | Albany Directory, 1865. |
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Business Office, Practical Business Training Department, and Telegraph Department, Davenport Business College, Davenport, IA, 1875. This college was founded in 1865. | A.T. Andreas, Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, Andreas Atlas Co., Chicago, 1875; single page 168 in Early Office Museum Archives |
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Practical, Banking &
Office Departments, Eastman Business College,
Poughkeepsie, NY, 1870s. The top image is an engraving that was published in 1872
[confirm]; the second is an engraving that was published in 1877 or later;
next are two stereoview photographs that were published in 1877-78.
All show the same large
double room with balconies. These rooms were used by the Practical,
Banking & Office Departments, with the area in the foreground used by
the Preparatory Department. Eastman Business College was founded in
1859. In the 1870s, all students were men. Over the archway
between the two rooms is the inscription "Teach your BOYS that which
they will PRACTICE when they become MEN." |
Early
Office Museum Archives |
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Practical Department, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1877-78. | Early Office Museum Archives & Private Collection |
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Banking & Office Departments, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1877-78. | Early Office Museum Archives & Private Collection |
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Preparatory Departments, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1877-78. | Early Office Museum Archives & Private Collection |
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Telegraphic Department, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY. Top image is a photograph from 1877-78. Bottom image is an engraving from 1877 or after. | Early Office Museum Archives & Private Collection |
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Special Penmanship Department, Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, NY. Top image is a photograph from 1877-78. Bottom image is an engraving from 1877 or after. | Early Office Museum Archives & Private Collection |
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Class of 1883, Spencerian Business College, Milwaukee, WI, 1880. The College was established as part of the Bryant & Stratton chain in 1863 by Robert C. Spencer, originator of the Spencerian system of penmanship. While most of the students visible in the picture are men, women are seated along the right side of the table. | Private Collection |
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"Interior View of the Practical Department" of a business college, 1883. "In many of the commercial schools, the Practical Department has a separate, commodious hall, wherein [are located] all the equipments and arrangements for inducting the student into counting-house methods by practical experience. Around the room are arranged various offices, each fitted up in a business like manner and provided with an appropriate set of blank books, including ledgers, journals, cash books, sales books, letter books, check, note an draft books, etc., together with bill and letter files and copying press. One office represents a bank, another insurance, [another] a wholesale house, and so on with importing and jobbing, real estate, commission and freight offices, the books contained in each being modeled after those in use by the most reliable firms in business, thus designing to give the students exactly similar practice to that which is exacted in business life. Letters on various subjects are exchanged, drafts, notes and checks are received or issued, goods are shipped, paper discounted at the bank, real estate bought and sold, loans negotiated, brokerage and commission reckoned, losses proved and adjusted, remittances sent." This 566 page comprehensive book on business methods does not mention typewriters or adding or calculating machines. Other than books and papers, the only specialized office equipment that is mentioned or illustrated are letter copying presses for making copies of outgoing letters, letter filing cabinets for storing incoming letters, desks, safes for protection of company books and money from fire, telegraph equipment, and stock tickers. | G. L. Howe and O. M. Powers, The Secrets of Success in Business, Showing Completely and Practically How Business is Done in the Great Centers, 1883. The authors were employed at business colleges, and the book was intended for business college students and others interested in learning business methods. In Early Office Museum Archives. |
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Classroom (top) and Model Counting-Room (bottom), Bryant & Stratton Commercial School, Boston, MA, 1884. This business college was founded in 1860. As of 1884, it admitted both men and women. The subjects taught were Book-keeping, Penmanship, Commercial Law, Commercial Correspondence (including grammar, spelling, reading, and composition), and Commercial Arithmetic. The prospectus does not mention training to use typewriters or other types of office equipment. The college claimed to be "the largest school of its kind in the world" and to have seating capacity for several hundred students. | Twenty-Fourth Annual Prospectus of the Bryant & Stratton Commercial School, Boston, MA, 1884, pp. 35, 41. In Early Office Museum Archives. |
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Typing Class, Metropolitan Business College, Chicago, IL, 1891. | Eighteenth Annual Prospectus of the Metropolitan Business College, Chicago, IL, 1891. In Early Office Museum Archives. |
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"Typewriting Room - General View," Thirty-Fifth Annual Catalogue of the Albany Business College and School of Short-Hand and Type Writing, Albany, NY, 1894. Photograph shows a room filled with Remington No. 2 typewriters, a letter copying press resting on a Caligraph typewriter stand, and electric lighting. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Typewriting Room - Looking East," 1894, same as preceding but with students in the room. There are alternating rows of female and male students. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Typing Class, Business High School, Washington, DC, 1899. The student at the left of the photo has the carriage of an upstrike typewriter lifted so that she can see what she has typed. Operators of upstrike typewriters were not able to see the letters as they were being typed. | The City of Washington: An Illustrated History, 1977, p. 312. |
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"Typewriting Department," Michigan Business and Normal College, Battle Creek, MI. From an undated college annual catalog published in 1898 or later. Photo shows 14 Smith Premier upstrike typewriters. | Annual Catalog, Michigan Business and Normal College, Battle Creek, MI. In Early Office Museum Archives. |
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Advertising calendar, Pleasant View Business College, Ottawa, IL, 1901, with image of a woman using a Remington typewriter. Pleasant View Business College may have been the successor to Brown's Business College, which was founded in Pleasant View in 1888. Business colleges were often privately owned, and their names sometimes changed when ownership changed. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Typewriting room, Strayer's Business College, Baltimore MD, 1901. | Tenth Annual Catalogue of Strayer's Business College, Baltimore MD, 1901-1902. In Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Typing class in session at Broken Bow [Business] College," Broken Bow, Nebraska, photograph by Solomon D. Butcher, 1903. | Nebraska State Historical Society, nbhips 10012 |
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Stenography and Typewriting Class, William Cullen Bryant High School, Queens, NY, 1904. A student in the center is reading into a wood-cased dictating machine. In front of him another student is using an identical machine in transcription mode. Edison brand wax dictating machine cylinders are on the desks. Students are using at least three Oliver typewriters as well as upstrike typewriters. William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was an American poet, journalist, and co-creator of Central Park in Manhattan, NY. The high school is still operating. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"View of Typewriting Department," Catalog of Spencer's Business School, Kingston, NY, 1905. Caption states: "Twenty-One New $100 Machines. Pupils Transcribing Shorthand Notes." Pupils are using Remington upstrike typewriters. | Barbara Rosenthal |
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"Examination Section,
Remington Employment Department," Remington Typewriter Co., New York,Catalog of Spencer's Business School, Kingston, NY, 1905. Caption
states: "Hundreds of our graduates find excellent positions through
the assistance of the Remington Typewriter Co." To encourage the sale
of its typewriters, Remington assisted in the placement of typists. (See
postcard to the right.) In 1901, Remington advertised that "Our
Employment Department supplies competent stenographers and operators to
users of writing machines without charge to either employer or employee.
All users of Remington typewriters are invited to avail themselves of this
service." |
Barbara Rosenthal |
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"Typing Department, Heald-Dixon College, Oakland, CAL." Heald-Dixon College is listed in a 1907 San Francisco business directory. | Private collection |
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"Model Office, Actual Experience, Shorthand Department, Bliss Business College, Lewiston, Maine," postcard, postmarked 1908. Image shows three students using typewriters to transcribe correspondence. Also, a letter copying press. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Transcription class, Pawtucket Business College, Pawtucket, RI. Correspondence recorded on a cylinder is being played back on a transcribing machine. Each student has a headset. Some students are transcribing by hand while others are transcribing with typewriters. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Banking Department, Dakota Business College, Fargo, ND, postcard, postmarked 1908. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Typing class, Grand Island Business College, Grand Island, NE, postmarked 1908. The 36 students--roughly equal numbers of men and women--who are packed into this room are using front-strike typewriters. The college was founded in 1885. For a list of graduates of the college and their occupations in 1916, click here. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Adding machine class. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Book-keeping and Banking Dep't, Business University, Abbeville, GA. | Private collection |
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Typewriting Department, Behnke-Walker Business College, Portland, OR, postmarked 1910. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Phonograph Dictation--A Modern Feature of our Shorthand Department," Haverhill Business College, Haverhill, MA, 1909-10 college catalog. Photograph shows seven students simultaneously transcribing dictation being played back by a transcription machine. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Typewriting Department," Haverhill Business College, Haverhill, MA, 1909-10 college catalog. The Typewriting Department had twenty typewriters. The ones in the front row are Remington No. 6's, and the rest appear to be the same. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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"Using the Neostyle Duplicating Machine," Haverhill Business College, Haverhill, MA, 1909-10 college catalog. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Office, Special School of Commerce, Institut Notre-Dame aux Epines, Eeklo, Belgium. Left of center is a vertical filing cabinet and a front-strike typewriter. At the right is a model of Roneo Copier that was advertised in 1910. | Early Office Museum Archives |
| The 1911-1912 year book for Wilson's Modern Business College, Seattle, WA, states that students were trained to use the "Burroughs Adding Machine, Filing Cabinets, Loose Leaf Ledgers, Card Ledgers, Draft and Check Protectors, Billing Machines, Mimeographing Machines, Edison Business Phonographs, Typewriters with Adding Attachments, Loose Leaf Sales Binders, Private Telephone Exchanges, and almost every form and ruling used in everyday bookkeeping practice." | ||
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"Corner of Banking Department, Holmes Business College, Portland, Oregon," postmarked 1911. | Early Office Museum Archives |
| To view photo, click on link to right. To return here, click on the back button on your browser. | Typing Class, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, 1911. | University of Puget Sound Archives |
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Office Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12. "This is the finishing room where the advanced pupils are placed largely upon their own responsibility and are taught bookkeeping without the use of textbooks. The office department has a bank, a trust company, a wholesale house, a commission house, and a transportation office. An adding machine, a rapid-roller copying press, and a card and vertical letter file are in daily use in this room." | Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue, 1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives. |
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Typewriting Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12. "This is one of four rooms devoted to instruction in touch typewriting and office methods." The College had 160 typewriters, all visible writing machines. | Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue, 1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives. |
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Model Shorthand Business Practice Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12. Photo shows "pupils using modern office labor-saving devices, including adding machine, card filing systems, Multigraph, and typewriting machines." The male student at the back left is using a Multigraph. | Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue, 1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives. |
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"Students receiving instruction in the use of the Multigraph," Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12. The Multigraph was printing form letters that appeared to be typewritten. "We have two of these machines in daily use, one run by electricity." | Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue, 1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives. |
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Shorthand Practice, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12. Photo shows students "having speed exercises in shorthand through the use of an Edison Commercial Phonograph." | Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue, 1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives. |
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Telegraphy Department, Albany Business College, Albany, NY, 1910-12. | Albany Business College, Annual Catalogue, 1912-1913. In Early Office Museum Archives. |
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Edison dictating machine transcription class. | Edison National Historic Site 29320068 |
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Strayer's Business College Student with Burroughs Adding Machine (Class 3) | Library of Congress |
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Strayer's Business College Student with Rotary Stencil Duplicator. | Library of Congress |
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Typewriter Room, Bryant and Stratton Commercial School, Boston, MA, 1914. | Private collection |
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Office Classroom with Typewriters and Rotary Stencil Duplicator, Bryant and Stratton Commercial School, Boston, MA, 1914. | Private collection |
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"Class in Stenography and Typewriting, Educational Department, U.S. General Hospital No. 30, Plattsburgh, NY." United States Army General Hospital No. 30 was set up during World War I to treat soldiers who returned from overseas with "war neuroses." The hospital operated during at least 1917-19 and received its first patient with war neurosis in 1918. One soldier is using a Royal flatbed typewriter. Another is using an Oliver typewriter. An electric rotary stencil copier is in the room. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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African American students in classroom at the National Training School for Women and Girls, Washington, DC. This vocational training school was founded in 1909 by Nannie Helen Burroughs, an African American. | Library of Congress |
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Typewriter Room, State Business College, Tacoma WA. There are 30 typewriters and 2 Burroughs adding machines. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Typewriter Room, Elyria Business College, Elyria, OH, 1918. | Private collection |
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Advanced Bookkeeping Dept., Gem City Business College, Quincy, IL. | Private collection |
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"Shorthand Dept., Cedar Rapids Business College," Cedar Rapids, IA, photo by Wm. Baldridge. This business college, which was famous for penmanship, was founded in 1879 and was still operating in the late 1930s. | Early Office Museum Archives |
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Typing class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1920. Students at right rear are typing as material is played back by a central Dictaphone transcribing machine. Other students are typing from written material. | Oregon State University Archives #882. |
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Typing transcription class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1920. Students are typing as material is played back by individual Dictaphone transcribing machines. | Oregon State University Archives #882. |
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Shorthand laboratory, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1920. Students are taking shorthand notes as material is played back by a central Dictaphone transcribing machine. | Oregon State University Archives #882 |
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Office Training class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, c. 1923. Anyone seeking a bachelor's degree in the OSU School of Commerce was required to take at least twelve credits of Office Training classes--six credits each of Typing and Office Methods & Appliances. Student in foreground is typing as material is played back on a Dictaphone transcribing machine. Student at right rear is using an electric Burroughs Bookkeeping Machine, manufactured by the Burroughs Adding Machine Co, Detroit, MI. Student at left is using an Elliott Fisher Accounting Machine, manufactured by the Elliot Fisher Division of General Office Equipment Corp., Harrisburg, PA. | Oregon State University Archives #882 |
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Office Training class, School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 1924. The woman on the left is using an A. B. Dick Co. mimeoscope, which had a drawing table with an electrically illuminated glass top. The mimeoscope was used to trace drawings onto mimeograph stencils. The woman at the right is using a rotary mimeograph machine to make copies. | Oregon State University Archives #882 |
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"Hi-Trail Office," Osseo, Minnesota, 1926. The man at the left is using an A. B. Dick Co. mimeoscope (see preceding description). The woman at the right is using a rotary mimeograph machine to make copies. | Minnesota Historical Society, Neg. No. 46439 |
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Suffolk High School typing class, Suffolk, Virginia. |
Suffolk Public Library, Hamblin Studio Collection, Neg. 0588b |
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Class with Burroughs key-driven calculators, 1926. | Private collection |
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Typing class, Washington School for Secretaries, Washington, DC, photograph by Theodor Horydczak (c. 1890-1971). | Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Theodor Horydczak Collection, LC-H824-2208-003 |
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Classroom session with filing cards, Washington School for Secretaries, Washington, DC, photograph by Theodor Horydczak (c. 1890-1971). | Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Horydczak Collection, LC-H824-2208-004 |
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Students using Dictaphone transcribing machine and other office equipment, Washington School for Secretaries, Washington, DC, photograph by Theodor Horydczak (c. 1890-1971). | Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Div., Horydczak Collection, LC-H824-1215-003 |
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"Pupils get intensive training on all types of office machines," Chicago, 1944. This photo came from the archives of The Times, Chicago's Photo Newspaper. According to information on its back, this photo shows the interior of a classroom at "Jones Business School." It appears that this refers to Jones Commercial High School, which opened in 1938 and was operating in 1944. The student closest to the camera in operating a Burroughs Moon-Hopkins typewriter-calculating machine. Moon-Hopkins Billing Machine Co. marketed this typewriter-calculating machine from 1909 until 1921, when the company was acquired by Burroughs Adding Machine Co. Burroughs continued to market the machine until at least 1951. (A website indicates that this machine was produced until 1957.) The front part of this machine was an upstrike typewriter; the rear was a direct multiplication calculating machine. The Moon-Hopkins had a conventional 4-row keyboard for the typewriter. In front of this was a 2-row keyboard with two sets of keys numbered from 0 to 9 for the calculating machine. |
Early Office Museum Archives |
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School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Students are using machines to punch cards used in the card reading, sorting, tabulating, and printing machines shown in the following photograph, probably made by IBM. | Oregon State University Archives #882 |
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School of Commerce, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Students and teacher with card reading, sorting, tabulating machines, and printing machines, probably made by IBM. | Oregon State University Archives #882 |
Photographs are copyrighted. All rights are reserved by the copyright holder, the owner of the photograph, and the Early Office Museum.