Larkin Company Scrapbook

Due to a renewed interest in the demolished Larkin Company Administration Building, designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, we decided to revisit an old scrapbook collection of photographs of the Larkin Soap Company from roughly 1913 to 1918.  John D. Larkin’s hugely-successful mail order company was founded in Buffalo in 1875 and saw a continued growth throughout the latter 19th century and well into the 20th century, until Mr. Larkin’s death and the growing popularity of automobiles and department stores.  The Great Depression didn’t help either.

A catalog from the early 1900’s depicts the building before completion on its cover.  This unique little treasure was discovered between the plaster and lathe walls of an old home in Dunkirk, N.Y. , and despite its obvious condition issues, presents some excellent images of Larkin buildings and products.

Larkin Factory to Family Soaps and Premiums, c. 1904

The photographs, all re-housed using archival materials, primarily show interiors of the building, as well as various activities of the staff.  We even get an image of early electric hair dryers being used in the YWCA facilities within the factory.

YWCA in factory, women using hair dryers

 

Travel Scrapbooks of former Grosvenor Librarian

A recent donation of five travel scrapbooks that once belonged to a former Grosvenor Library staff member have been added to the many unique collections in the Grosvenor Rare Book Room.

Jane Van Arnam, later Wiseman, was the daughter of Seymour and Harriet Van Arnam who resided at 76 Highland Ave. in Buffalo. Seymour was an executive at the Pitts Company, a leading manufacturer of machinery prior to World War II, and Harriet was active in church, clubs, and charity work. Jane graduated from the Buffalo Seminary in 1920 and soon after joined her sister Anna as an assistant in the Catalog Department of the Grosvenor Reference Library, later moving to the Periodical Department and working as a librarian until 1954. Her meticulous skills as a reference librarian are evident from the 5-volume travel scrapbooks she maintained from 1925 until the late 1940’s.

Within the carefully organized volumes are photographs, post cards, letters, menus, passenger lists and pamphlets from the many trips she took throughout Europe, Canada, the U. S., South America and other exotic places.  The scrapbooks as a whole provide a glimpse into the life of a working Buffalo blueblood, as well as the world of popular travel in the early-to-mid-20th century.  Jane died in 1989 at the age of 86.

 

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