Feiss Company Records, 1905-1977
Collection Number: 5614
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
Feiss Company Records, 1905-1977
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5614
Abstract:
This collection is made up of letters, notes, articles, and other papers pertaining
to the life and career of Richard A. Feiss.
Creator:
Feiss Company
Quanitities:
3 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English
After receiving a law degree from Harvard, Feiss joined his father's clothing manufacturing
business, where he attempted to combine elements of Frederick Taylor's theories of
scientific management with his own theories of personal relationship. His goal was
to establish a factory in which production was efficient while at the same time the
employees had the opportunity to experience personal development, growth, and self
actualization.
To improve production, Feiss employed aspects of scientific management, including
standardization of equipment, routing instructions, and time studies. To enhance conditions
for the workers, he established a program of "Personal Relationships" which gave the
workers a chance to participate in decision-making, and also improved the selection,
orientation processes. Additionally, workers were offered counseling services, recreational
facilities, mental and physical examinations, and other advantages.
Due to economic hardships and personality conflicts among the top managers in Joseph
& Feiss, R.A. Feiss resigned from the company in 1925 and went into business on his
own. Consequently, the system he developed at Clothcraft crumbled.
The collection consist primarily of notes and articles on work standardization and
personnel policies, and routine business materials used in industrial organizations
practicing scientific management principles. The collection reflects Feiss' work and
theories on worker welfare and personal relationships, as influenced by Frederick
W. Taylor's scientific management principles.
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference
archivist for access to these materials.
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and
Procedures for Document Use.
INFORMATION FOR USERS
Feiss Company Records #5614. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives,
Cornell University Library.
Names:
Abt, Jacob.
Feiss, Richard A. (Richard Albert), 1878-1954
Getasky, I. M.
Stillman, William O.
Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 1856-1915
Joseph and Feiss Company (Cleveland, Ohio)
R.A. Feiss Company
Tabor Manufacturing Company
United States. National War Labor Board (1918-1919)
United States. National War Labor Board (1942-1945)
Subjects:
Clothing workers. United States. Health and hygiene.
Labor and laboring classes. Mental health. United States.
Men's clothing industry. United States. Management.
Scientific management.
Wages. Men's clothing industry. United States.
CONTAINER LIST
|
Container
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Description
|
Date
|
|
|
Series I. R.A. Feiss.. Professional Papers
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 1-1b |
Correspondence re disaffiliation with Joseph & Feiss Co.
|
1925-1926 |
|
Scope and Contents
and personal with R.A.F.'s father re post Feiss Co. career; correspondence. re Manufacturing
Laboratories, Inc
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 2 |
Correspondence, General
|
1915-1955 |
|
Scope and Contents
includes Feiss-Dryfoos Genealogy
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 2a |
Correspondence with Professor Henry H. Farquhar and Farquhar's letters and activities
at Harvard Business School
|
1920-1926 |
| Box 1 | Folder 2b |
Correspondence with Carl Barth
|
1914-1934 |
| Box 1 | Folder 3-4 |
Correspondence with William 0. Stillman concerning post J & F Co. Career plans
|
1927-1928 |
| Box 1 | Folder 4a |
Correspondence re "On The Problem of Organizing for the Chief Executive"
|
1943-1946 |
|
Scope and Contents
includes form letters, articles, pamphlets, by Committee for Constitutional Government
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 5 |
Employment Forms (Applications, etc.)
|
1928-1947 |
| Box 1 | Folder 6-11 |
Forms & Publications for Ordnance Division, U.S. Armed Forces
|
1917-1918 |
| Box 1 | Folder 12 |
Memoranda-Joseph & Feiss Co.
|
1925 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes appraisal of economic problems and policy
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 13-15 |
Needle Trades Conference of America
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
Correspondence, 9/18-2/19
|
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| Box 2 | Folder 1 |
Needle Trades Conference of America, Reports and Constitution
|
1918 |
|
Scope and Contents
1918 Needle Trades Conference of America. Notes from 1918 meeting
|
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| Box 2 | Folder 3 |
Notes on the operating of the Bedaux System
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
no date
|
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| Box 2 | Folder 4-6 |
Notes from Courses taught at University of California
|
1941-1942 |
| Box 2 | Folder 7 |
Patent
|
1918 |
|
Scope and Contents
Price slips for piece work, includes transparencies
|
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| Box 2 | Folder 8-19 |
Tabor Manufacturing Material
|
1905-1915 |
|
Scope and Contents
plus no date; Philadelphia, PA.-includes work orders, foundry tags, pay differentials,
tool lists, instructions, bills, requisitions
|
|||
| Box 2 | Folder 20 |
Miscellaneous
|
1912 |
|
Scope and Contents
paper on filing system by subjects and coding symbols; instructions, logic, examples,
n.d., plus "The Place of the College in Collecting and Conserving the Data of Scientific
Management" by W. Lewis, 1912
|
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| Box 2 | Folder 21 |
Partial list of books referring to Feiss' work
|
|
|
Series II. Richard A. Feiss. Articles, Speeches, Papers
|
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| Box 3 | Folder 1 |
Miscellaneous articles from Factory and The Magazine of Management
|
1914-1915 |
| Box 3 | Folder 2 |
"Scientific Management Applied to the Steadying of Employment, and Its Effect In An
Industrial Establishment"
|
1915 |
|
Scope and Contents
May-15
|
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| Box 3 | Folder 3 |
"Personal Relationship As A Basis of Scientific Management"
|
1915 |
|
Scope and Contents
1915 and a 1924 reprint, 15 pp
|
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| Box 3 | Folder 4 |
"Personal Relationship in Business Administration"
|
1916 |
| Box 3 | Folder 5 |
"The Spirit of Scientific Management," "Maximum vs. Minimus Hour Legislation"
|
1917 |
| Box 3 | Folder 6 |
"Stimulating Labor Efficiency in Wartime"
|
1918 |
| Box 3 | Folder 7 |
"A National Labor Policy," (address)
|
1919 |
| Box 3 | Folder 8 |
"The Engineering Approach to the Problem of Continuous Employment"
|
1921 |
| Box 3 | Folder 9 |
"Scientific Management During Times of Depression" (address)
|
1922 |
| Box 3 | Folder 10 |
10 "The Life of Frederick W. Taylor, A Review"
|
1924 |
| Box 3 | Folder 11 |
"Mental Hygiene for the Management"
|
1927 |
|
Scope and Contents
1927 and a 1928 reprint
|
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| Box 3 | Folder 12 |
"Scientific Management Methods As Applied to A Manufacturing Organization"
|
1928 |
|
Scope and Contents
124 pp
|
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| Box 3 | Folder 13 |
"On the Problem of Organizing for the Chief Executive"
|
1943 |
| Box 3 | Folder 14 |
"Past, Present and Future"
|
1924 |
|
Series III. Joseph & Feiss & Co. Papers
|
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| Box 4 | Folder 1-3 |
Accounting and Bookkeeping Forms
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
no date
|
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| Box 4 | Folder 4 |
Articles of Agreement
|
1920-1921 |
|
Scope and Contents
Stock/Shareholders- Agreement, R.A. Feiss, et. al. - Owners
|
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| Box 4 | Folder 5 |
Amendment to 1920 Articles of Agreement
|
1925 |
|
Scope and Contents
Owners stockholdings agreement
|
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| Box 4 | Folder 6 |
Articles on Company
|
1911 |
|
Scope and Contents
Emma Britten-Welfare Dept. in J & F
|
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| Box 4 | Folder 7 |
Article on Company
|
1920 |
|
Scope and Contents
"Lizzie Likes Her Job"
|
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| Box 4 | Folder 9 |
Article on Company
|
1923 |
|
Scope and Contents
"Experiment and Statistics in the Selection of Employees"
|
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| Box 4 | Folder 10-11 |
Balance of Stores & Stock Keeping Forms
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
no date
|
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| Box 4 | Folder 12 |
Budget and Operating Costs, Statement
|
1924 |
| Box 4 | Folder 13 |
Classification of Departmental Charges
|
1923 |
| Box 4 | Folder 14 |
Comparative Costs
|
1925 |
| Box 4 | Folder 15 |
Condensed Balance sheet
|
1925 |
| Box 4 | Folder 16-17 |
Employment and service department: Mary Gibson, articles
|
1918-1977 |
| Box 4 | Folder 18 |
Expense operating statement
|
1925 |
| Box 4 | Folder 19-32 |
Financial statements
|
1932-1953 |
| Box 4 | Folder 33 |
Income and expense statement
|
1925 |
| Box 4 | Folder 34-35 |
Instructions for handling orders
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
no date
|
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| Box 4 | Folder 36 |
Interdepartmental memorandum
|
1920 |
| Box 4 | Folder 37 |
Miscellaneous
|
1923 |
|
Scope and Contents
"Employee Representation In Industry," p. 44-49, Material on J & F Co
|
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| Box 4 | Folder 38 |
Memorandum forms, personal
|
1915 |
| Box 5 | Folder 1 |
Miscellaneous
|
1953 |
|
Scope and Contents
Photo (Xerox) of Julius Feiss, Co-founder, Joseph & Feiss Co., The Cleveland Press,
July 14, 1953, p. 23
|
|||
| Box 5 | Folder 2 |
Notice of Stockholders Meeting
|
1926 |
| Box 5 | Folder 3 |
100th Anniversary Banquet
|
1941 |
|
Scope and Contents
Clippings, Program (which includes history of company)
|
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| Box 5 | Folder 4 |
Order Forms
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
no date
|
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| Box 5 | Folder 4a |
Organization Charts
|
1925-1928 |
| Box 5 | Folder 5-7 |
Personnel Forms
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
n.d. (Includes pension booklet, work forms, medical and dental records)
|
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| Box 5 | Folder 8-11 |
Record Forms, Miscellaneous
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
n.d. (Includes payroll form)
|
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| Box 5 | Folder 12 |
Report to the Board of Directors
|
1924 |
| Box 5 | Folder 13 |
Routing Instructions
|
1918-1920 |
| Box 5 | Folder 14 |
Superintendent of Planning, Keppele Hall Articles
|
1923 |
|
Scope and Contents
Wage Systems; Planning Department Instrument of Executive Control
|
|||
| Box 5 | Folder 15 |
Superintendent of Planning, Keppele Hall Budget Notes
|
1924 |
| Box 5 | Folder 16 |
Superintendent of Planning, Keppele Hall, Period Average Cost Report
|
1924 |
| Box 5 | Folder 17 |
Time Study For Rate Setting
|
1921 |
| Box 5 | Folder 18 |
Time Study "Make-Up Ready" Form
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
n.d. (for sewing trousers)
|
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| Box 5 | Folder 19 |
Visitors Book
|
1910-1925 |
|
Scope and Contents
Includes Signatures of Frederick Taylor and Frank Gilbreth
|
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| Box 5 | Folder 20 |
Photographs-Clothcraft
|
1920 |
|
Scope and Contents
R.A. Feiss; Feiss Plant; Carl Barth and Miscellaneous photos
|
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|
Series IV. R.A. Feiss, Inc.
|
|||
| Box 6 | Folder 1-2 |
Detail Analysis of Expense Forms
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
no date
|
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| Box 6 | Folder 3 |
Forms
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
n.d. (Balance of Stores, Operating Forecast)
|
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| Box 6 | Folder 4 |
Operating Forecast, Statement, Forms
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
no date
|
|||
| Box 6 | Folder 5 |
Organization Chart
|
1928 |
| Box 6 | Folder 6 |
Pamphlet on Lewis: "The Perfect Blind Stitch Machine"
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
no date
|
|||
| Box 6 | Folder 7 |
"Scientific Management As Applied to a Manufacturing Organization"
|
1928 |
|
Scope and Contents
Draft
|
|||
| Box 6 | Folder 8 |
Procurement of Materials
|
1928 |
| Box 6 | Folder 9 |
Procurement of Manufactured Product
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
Draft
|
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| Box 6 | Folder 10 |
Procurement of Materials or Supplies from Store Room
|
|
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Scope and Contents
Draft
|
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| Box 6 | Folder 11 |
Production of Product
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
Draft
|
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| Box 6 | Folder 12 |
Procurement of Product from Factory
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
Draft
|
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| Box 6 | Folder 13 |
Procurement of Product from Customer
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
Draft
|
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| Box 6 | Folder 14 |
Distribution of Expenditures
|
|
|
Scope and Contents
Draft
|
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| Box 6 | Folder 15 |
Announcement of R.A. Feiss, Inc
|
1928 |
|
Scope and Contents
consulting service and promotional material (photocopies)
|
|||
| Box 6 | Folder 16 |
Herman Hutkin Data
|
1928 |
|
Scope and Contents
correspondence
|
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| Box 6 | Folder 17 |
Correspondence with Mrs. Richard Feiss
|
1957-1959 |