Title and statement of responsibility area
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Superior Engravers collection
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Collection
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Physical description area
Physical description
34 boxes of graphic material
ca. 10,000 photographic negatives
ca. 800 photographic prints ; mounted on black paper board; b&w ; 24 x 19 cm or smaller
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Archival description area
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Administrative history
Superior Engravers was founded in Hamilton in 1921. The company's primary function at that time was the production of pre-press acid etchings (a process that involved etching text and images onto metal plates) for use in the printing of posters, and newspaper and magazine advertisements. In the mid 1930s, the owners and four key employees entered into a court battle for control of the company. The employee group won, gaining control of Superior Engravers, and Harold Pitts was named works manager and William Van Sickle became secretary-treasurer. By the 1950s, Jim Pitts, son of Harold, and Jim Van Sickle, son of William, had joined the company, for which projects included the production of shopping catalogues for Eaton’s department stores. Harold Pitts became company president in 1960, and began embracing the technological change of the time, importing a scanner from Germany that could produce colour film separations at a rapid rate. Jim Pitts and Jim Van Sickle gained control of the company in 1971, and continued to embrace technological change, purchasing the first fully-computerized scanner in Canada in 1972. Harold Pitts retired from Superior Engravers in 1976, but remained a director of the company. John Pitts, son of Jim and grandson of Herald, joined the company in 1979, becoming production manager then sales manager in the 1980s. In 1986, John Pitts bought Jim Van Sickles' shares of the company and became president. John's father, Jim Pitts, remained company chairman until his retirement in 1996. In the 1990s, Superior Engravers was renamed Superior Graphics Communications. In 1994, John Pitts eliminated his title as president, and the company became a partnership, known as Superior Interactive Communications. Circa 1998, the company was renamed Brickworks Communications Inc., and Peter Earle, a former Defasco executive, was named CEO. The company continues to provide advertising and marketing support, with an increased focus on corporate and interactive communications. John Pitts is the current owner and president of Brickworks Communications, located at 270 Sherman Avenue North in Hamilton, Ontario.
Custodial history
Dr. John Weaver of McMaster University had occasion to use some of these negatives during the research for his book, Hamilton: An Illustrated History, published in 1982, and arranged for their transfer to Special Collections (now Local History & Archives) at that time.
Scope and content
The collection consists of approximately 10,000 photographic negatives of varying sizes, the majority of which are small format, as well as a selection of approximately 800 photographic prints produced by the Hamilton Public Library Local History and Archives from Superior Engravers negatives. This collection documents commerce and industry in Hamilton, and elsewhere in Ontario, from the 1930s-1950s, particularly during the years of World War II and immediately afterwards. The collection is comprised primarily of images of employees, products, facilities, and activities of Hamilton and surrounding-area businesses, including the Hamilton Bridge Works Company; Adam's Furniture Company; Wright Fruit Company; Dundas Clay Products Limited; Thomson Motors in Burlington; Steel Company of Canada (Stelco); and City Chevrolet Sales Limited. Many images document wartime activity in the various industrial plants, such as the Miss War Worker Contest of 1942. The collection also contains aerial photographs of Hamilton, as well as images of local churches and schools. In the 1980s, approximately 600 nitrate negatives were discovered and subsequently removed from the collection. Prints of many of the nitrate negatives were made and added to the Black Mount collection.
Notes area
Physical condition
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Arrangement
The negatives are filed by number or by date in the order in which they were received. There are some negatives that had no number or date and they are filed first as X8 to X290. There were no envelopes and no descriptions of these particular negatives. Descriptions of the other negatives are based on the original envelopes. There were more than 600 nitrate negatives contained in the collection, which were disposed of after printing. The prints are mounted on black paper board and have been integrated with the Black Mount collection. A list of these negatives is available in Local History and Archives.
Language of material
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Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Photographic prints of original nitrate negatives and various other negatives from the Superior Engravers collection are included in the Black Mount collection.
Restrictions on access
Gloves must be used to access the collection
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Finding aids
A finding aid is available
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Revisions by Jennifer Dell 08/10/2016
Language of description
Script of description
Sources
Houghton, Margaret. (2015). Superior Engravers collection. Hamilton Public Library, Local History & Archives.