Bulletin Of The 1900 Us Census - Pens, Pencils

[AAAndrew]

I ran across this bulletin that encapsulates the information from the 1900 US Census related to pens and pencils, including fountain pens, gold pens, steel pens, wooden pencils, etc...

 

I extracted the bulletin out from the larger published compendium for convenience sake.

 

There are some fascinating tidbits here for those interested in early fountain pens, including breakdowns by state, capital, and labor numbers. Interesting to me is that the numbers are not correct, at least as it applies to steel pen manufacturers.

 

In Table 17, it supposedly shows the number of manufacturers of steel pens over the last few decades prior to this census. They began collecting data on steel pens in 1870. In every census since then, the number of manufacturers is marked as 3.

 

I can clearly proved that in 1890, for example, there were at least six known manufacturers, and perhaps more smaller ones. That's the number I can prove were actually making pens, as opposed to those purchasing pens from elsewhere and just having them branded. (Spencerian Pen Co., I'm looking at you!) You had Esterbrook in New Jersey (1858 - c.1964), Turner & Harrison (1875-1952) and Leon Isaacs (1885-1900) in Philadelphia, Miller Brothers in Connecticut (1882 - ?), Eagle in New York (1889 - ?), and M. Jacobs in Chicago. In 1900, Leon Isaacs was bought by Turner & Harrison, M. Jacobs' widow, Rebecca, who had been running the company died in 1898 and the company closed, but you added Braham in Cincinnati, OH in 1895, and all the others were still there, so you had at least five.

 

Anyway, have fun checking it out if you haven't seen it before.

 

Andrew

 

 

 

 

Bulletin 212 of 1900 Census - Pens Pencils_smaller.pdf