Guide to the Westinghouse Electric Corporation Photographs, 1886-1996

Arrangement

Repository
Heinz History Center
Title
Photographs of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation,
Creator
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
Collection Number
MSP 424
Extent
56.5 feet linear feet (60 boxes)
Date
1886-1996
Abstract
This collection contains photographs taken by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation from their founding in 1886 to 1996. The photographs include images of employees, products, facilities, and activities in western Pennsylvania, but also include images from their many facilties around the United States and the world.
Language
The material in this collection is in English.
Author
The guide to this collection was written by Cassandra Nespor.
Sponsor
Funding for this project was made available by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission through the Archives and Records Management program.
Publisher
Heinz History Center
Address
1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org

History

The Westinghouse Electric Company was started in 1886 with a workforce of 200 men in a small plant in Garrison Alley, Pittsburgh, PA. The name was changed to Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in 1889 and to Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1946.

The Company was founded to build electrical equipment for a new type of distribution system that George Westinghouse modeled after the distribution system for natural gas. With men such as William Stanley and Nikola Tesla as employees, the Westinghouse Electric Company produced many new types of commercial and industrial equipment for the generation, transmission, and application of electricity. Their early equipment included the first transformer in the U.S., generating stations, meters, motors, and transmission lines.

Although the Company produced both direct and alternating current machines, George Westinghouse became an early proponent of alternating current and was eager to prove its advantages over the direct current system. In 1891 the company built the first high voltage transmission line in California. In 1893 Westinghouse won the contract to provide incandescent lights for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The display that the Company produced was considered to be the greatest display of incandescent lighting at the time in the world. The Fair not only helped publicize the Westinghouse name, it also proved the safety of the new Alternating Current method to the public.

The Company grew and in 1895 moved to East Pittsburgh to expand its facilities. The new plant comprised over two million square feet on forty acres of land. In 1900 they produced the first steam generator for the Hartford Electric and Light Company. By 1915 the Westinghouse Electric International Company was established to distribute its products world-wide.

During the first half of the 20th century, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company had a period of rapid growth and diversity of products. Among the new additions were household appliances, broadcasting, nuclear power, defense contracts, and transportation equipment. Major Westinghouse developments in these fields follow.

Transportation- Westinghouse electrified the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad in 1906. The Company invented the first automatic electric substations for railroads in 1917. Westinghouse also produced many powerful electric locomotives, including the first diesel-electric locomotive rail car in the U.S. in1929. Westinghouse was also famous for producing people-movers, elevators, and subway equipment.

Appliances- The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company produced the first electric range in 1917. The electric clothes iron, coffee percolator, and waffle iron soon followed. In 1934 it opened the first all-electric home- the "Electric Home of Tomorrow"- in Mansfield, OH. Its first home Air Conditioning units were sold in 1937. Westinghouse produced home appliances until 1972, when the Major Appliance Division was sold.

Broadcasting- The first commercially licensed radio station was developed by Westinghouse engineers in 1920. Called KDKA, it's first broadcast was the Harding-Cox election results. Westinghouse engineers also developed the first all-electric television cathode ray tube from 1929-1931. A precursor to satellite television, Westinghouse introduced Stratovision in 1945. Westinghouse broadcasting grew to include 11 radio stations and five television stations around the country.

Nuclear- The first industrial machine of its kind, the Atom Smasher, was erected at the Westinghouse Research and Development Center in 1937. By 1941 Westinghouse was producing pure uranium. On December 10, 1948 Westinghouse won a contract from the Navy and the Department of Energy to develop, design, construct, test, and operate a land-based prototype of a water-cooled reactor power plant suitable for marine propulsion. It was called the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. The Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory was established as a government-owned, contract operated facility for this purpose in 1949. The engine and propulsion equipment for the first nuclear powered submarine, the Nautilus, were built by Westinghouse Bettis and launched in 1954. Three years later, Westinghouse Nuclear Power Division adapted this technology for commercial uses and built the generating plant for the first commercial-scale nuclear power facility in Shippingport, PA. In 1961 Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory was awarded a government contract to design and build a Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application. The Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory was sold to Bechtel Bettis Inc. in 1999.

Defense- Westinghouse Defense contracts range from helmet liners to nuclear propulsion equipment for spacecraft, but most of the contracts dealt with radar, electric systems, and nuclear technology. During World War II, the Company received production awards for its contributions to the war effort.

Electronics- ANACOM, a general-purpose analog computer was developed in 1948. Westinghouse engineers also developed molecular electronics in 1959.

Fueling these developments was an active Research and Development Laboratory. In 1895 it started as three rooms called the "electrical laboratory." When the company moved to East Pittsburgh in 1895, each department had its own research laboratory. All research was combined in 1904 as a distinct research department. In 1910 the first building specifically for research was erected at the East Pittsburgh plant. In 1916, the research department moved to a newly built laboratory in Forest Hills, PA. In 1955, the research center moved to a new laboratory in Churchill, PA. The Churchill laboratory added two more buildings and eventually became the Research and Development Center. This site would be the final site for research at Westinghouse and by 1974 would come to include eight major buildings, including a cafeteria, auditorium, and library. The Research and Development Center was also called the Science and Technology Center.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, Westinghouse Electric Corp. continued to expand their business into a more diversified conglomerate by adding financial and real estate services to the company name. At its peak, there were 135 divisions within Westinghouse Electric. Financial troubles led the company to sell some of these divisions over the next ten years and in 1987 the company was restructured into 23 business units. However in the early 1990s there were more financial problems with real estate investments and the Westinghouse Credit Corporation. Despite these problems Westinghouse Electric bought CBS in 1995. Two years later, on December 1, 1997, the company changed its name to CBS and relocated to New York. Under CBS the three businesses that stayed in Pittsburgh were called Westinghouse Electric Company or WELCO. They comprised of non-nuclear energy systems, government operations, and process control.

Scope and Content Notes

The majority of images contained in this collection pertain to the Westinghouse Electric Corporation products and activities in the western Pennsylvania area from the start of the company in 1886 to the mid-1990s. Most of these photographs date from 1920 to the mid-1980s and cover a wide variety of subjects including research, employees, facilities, products, and events such as the Worlds Fairs. These materials came from the offices at Gateway Center (Pittsburgh, PA) and the Research and Development Center in Churchill, PA. The majority of this collection consists of images taken by professional photographers employed by the Corporation. Some of the images have been reproduced for publications and therefore have been taped, cropped, painted on or marked in some way.

The images have been arranged in 4 large series according to their format: prints, negatives, slides/transparencies, and glass plate negatives. Within these four series, the images have been organized by the reconstructed cataloging systems used by the Corporation. In this collection, the use of the Corporation's cataloging systems allows for a roughly chronological order.

Images without any apparent Corporation identification number were arranged into 11 topical categories, similar to the categories used in the arrangement of the paper portion of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation (MSS 424) collection: Albums/Binders, Education, Employees, Events, Facilities, Miscellaneous, Products, Publications, Radio, Research, and World War II.

Series I: Prints

The Prints series consists of 25 boxes and is arranged into six subseries. Sub-series have been designated following the original arrangement of the photographs under the following categories: Numerical, NY, CP/PR, Chronological, PH, and Topical.

Series II: Negatives

The Negatives series consists of 11 boxes and is arranged into six subseries. Sub-series have been designated following the original arrangement of the photographs under the following categories: Numerical, NY, CP/PR, Chronological, PH, and Topical.

Series III: Slides/Transparencies

The Slides series consists of 16 boxes and is arranged into four subseries. Sub-series have been designated following the original arrangement of the photographs under the following categories: CP/PR, Chronological, PH, and Topical.

Series IV: Glass Plate negatives

The Glass plate negatives series consists of one box and is arranged numerically. Damaged or cracked glass plate negatives have been separated into a second box which is also arranged numerically. Most of these images deal with railroad electrification and products from 1910 to 1920.

Series V: Indexes

The Indexes series consists of two boxes and contains several different types of tools used by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation to keep track of these images. This series contains seven volumes of handwritten ledgers, four folders of printouts from an electronic indexing system, 30 folders of pages from catalog binders, and one folder of miscellaneous captions that have become separated from images.

The images in this collection have been arranged in four large series according to their format: prints, negatives, slides/transparencies, and glass plate negatives. The arrangement of all images within these four series is identical. Below is a brief description of each sub-series used.

Sub-series I: Numerical (c1886-c1978)

This series contains the oldest images of the collection and are filed by the one- to six- digit number that usually appears on the lower right hand corner of the image. When filed numerically, these numbers create a loose chronological order to the photographs. Since many of these images were undated, this arrangement allowed a close approximate date to be assigned. Some of these images have corresponding text captions which were likely distributed to the press.

In some cases, the Westinghouse Electric Corporation manufactured a variety of machines for a single company and documented their construction and/or installation through photographs. The Corporation filed these images together under that company's name even though the photographs may have spanned a variety of years and had many different numbers. In this finding aid, these images have been kept together and contain a note "[not inclusive]" in reference to the numerical range stated.

A few images have two dates associated with them. In these cases, the original images have been reproduced and assigned new filing numbers to reflect the date of reproduction- not the original date of photography. When this happens, the original date of photography is given as part of the title and the date of reproduction is recorded in the date column.

Sub-series II: NY [New York] numbers (1939-c1945)

This group begins with images taken during the construction of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company pavilion for the 1939 World's Fair held in New York. It continues through the years of World War II, documenting the war effort in some of the plants in the New York area.

Sub-series III: CP and PR numbers (1944-1977)

The images in this series have been arranged according to associated filing numbers beginning with the letters "CP" for the years 1944 to 1947, and "PR" for the years 1947 to 1977. The images chronologically overlap with the Numerical sub-series (I). Many images have text captions that were likely distributed for use in the press. In addition, six large ledger books document the subject of each image for this sub-series. These books can be found with the Indexes (Series V).

Sub-series IV: Chronological order (1959 to 1984)

The images in this sub-series were found in folders which were labeled with the month and year and contained a brief description of the subject matter. In some cases a few images from the folder have been selected and assigned "PR" numbers to use in the press or publications. These images with "PR" numbers will be found in the CP/PR subseries (III). If no images from that batch were selected for press use, the group of images remained filed by date only. In the Print series, many of the folders contained a group of contact negative prints.

Sub-series V: PH numbers (1975-1996)

This series contains the most recent images of the collection. For each number, a copy of the original order sheet is filed with the print. These sheets document the subject, photographer, location, and keywords that could be used to find the image in an electronic database. This database has been printed out and can be found with the Indexes (Series V). The first two digits in the PH number refer to the year in which the image was taken.

Sub-series VI: Topical

Some of the images in this collection are not labeled with a date or other identifying information. These images have been arranged into topical groups which mirror the groups used to organize the paper records portion of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation Collection (MSS 424). Within each topic, folders are arranged alphabetically.

For the majority of the images in this series the archivist has attempted to assign a very approximate date (e.g. - to the decade) and descriptive information using other materials in the collection, assistance from former Westinghouse Electric employees, or other research. In most cases, when a date is recorded as "c1900" or "c1930", it is meant to imply that the image might have been from those decades. Other images may have exact dates or closer estimates.

Topical groups are:

Albums/Binders: these materials were found bound together and may cover more than one subject or time period.

Education: images related to Corporation- sponsored education courses for employees, such as apprentice programs or formal courses in engineering or policy. Most of these images are group photographs of specific classes.

Employees: this group is split into "individuals" and "groups." Most are from the Pittsburgh area.

Events: Worlds Fairs, banquets, visitors, awards, etc.

Facilities: interior and exterior images of many manufacturing plants, research centers, and service buildings.

Miscellaneous: images of a more general nature. These are images can not be filed in the major topics previously established, such as images of the founder George Westinghouse and photographs from his other companies. In some cases the images have no identifiable connection to the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, such as images of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, Joe Lewis, and a 1984 Olympic medal.

Products: images of Westinghouse Electric Corporation products during manufacture, in use, or posed for advertisement purposes.

Publications: images used in the newsletters of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation- i.e. Gateway News, Westinghouse News, etc. Most of these images were grouped together originally.

Radio Broadcasting: images related to radio programs like KDKA. (Images of radio receiver sets will be found in the 'Products' group.)

Research: research projects in progress and special manufacturing jobs.

World War II: war production in Westinghouse facilities and production award ceremonies.

Arrangement

  1. Series I: Prints
  2. Sub-series I: Numerical (1893-c1978)
  3. Sub-series II: NY [New York] (1939-c1945)
  4. Sub-series III. CP/PR (1944-1977)
  5. Sub-series IV: Chronological (1959-1984)
  6. Subseries V: PH (1975-1989)
  7. Subseries VI: Topical- albums, education, employees, events, facilities, miscellaneous, products, publications, radio broadcasting, research, World War II
  8. Series II: Negatives
  9. Sub-series I: Numerical (1880-c1968)
  10. Sub-series II: NY [New York] (1939-1941)
  11. Sub-series III: CP/PR (1947-1977)
  12. Sub-series IV: Chronological (1961-1977)
  13. Sub-series V: PH (1975-1989)
  14. Sub-series VI: Topical- education, employees, events, facilities, miscellaneous, products, publications, radio broadcasting, research, World War II
  15. Series III: Slides/Transparencies
  16. Sub-series I: CP/PR (1944-1976)
  17. Sub-series II: Chronological (1956-1975)
  18. Sub-series III: PH (1975-1991)
  19. Sub-series IV: Topical- binders, employees, events, facilities, miscellaneous, products, radio broadcasting, research
  20. Series IV: Glass Plate Negatives
  21. Sub-series I: Numerical (c1882-c1950)
  22. Series V: Indexes

Conditions Governing Access

No Restrictions.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Westinghouse Electric Corporation by G. Reynolds Clark, Chairman of the Westinghouse Foundation and Executive Director of Corporate Services and Community Affairs, on December 17, 2006.

Preferred Citation

Photographs of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 1886-1996, MSP #424, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Cassandra Nespor and Lauren Zabelsky from December 2006- June 2008.

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 permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the curator of the Archives.

Related Materials at the History Center

George and Marguerite Westinghouse Collection, Call # MSS 432 and MSP 432

The George Westinghouse Museum Collection, Call # MSS 920

Joseph C. Rengel Papers and Photographs, Call # MSS 488 and MSP 488

Bernard and Joseph Walter Papers, Call # 1998.0196

Forest Hills Public Library records, Call # MSS 216

Leon McCulloch papers, Call # 1999.0098

Ed Gerstenhaber Papers, Call # 2006.0147

Historical Electronics Museum, Westinghouse Electric Aviation Gas Turbine Division, (Lester, PA) Accession #2005.0306

Dr. Fredrick Pement Papers, MSS 495

There are also many related publications in the Library's collection such as brochures, biographies, and cookbooks. Please check the Library catalog for a complete list.

Separated Materials

The Westinghouse Electric Corporation collection also contain two boxes of oversized photographs which have the call number MSR #424, 100 feet of paper records (MSS #424), seven boxes of oversized paper records (MSO #424), and a film collection which is currently unprocessed and unavailable. Separate finding aids have been made for each of these formats.

In addition, a large set of filed photographic negatives was included in the original accession. These negatives have not been incorporated into this finding aid due to their quantity and preservation concerns.

Following the processing of the collection, several negatives were separated due to preservation concerns. These separations have been noted in the container list.

Subjects

    Corporate Names

    • Westinghouse Electric Corporation

    Personal Names

    • Westinghouse, George 1864-1914

    Geographic Names

    • Turtle Creek Valley (Pa.)
    • Pittsburgh (Pa.)

    Genres

    • photographic prints
    • negatives (photographic)
    • transparencies

    Other Subjects

    • Electric household appliance industry
    • Electric machinery – Alternating current
    • Engineering – Research
    • Radio broadcasting
    • Radio – Apparatus and supplies
    • World War, 1939-1945 – Equipment and supplies
    • Nuclear energy – Research
    • Electric machinery industry – History
    • Industrial arts – Study and teaching
    • Employees
    • Factories
    • Nuclear facilities
    • Nuclear power plants – Design and construction

Container List