The records are composed of papers related to and generated by the daily business of the store and are divided into four series: GENERAL BUSINESS RECORDS, CUSTOMER MEASUREMENT BOOKS, FINANCIAL RECORDS, and PHOTOGRAPHS.
The GENERAL BUSINESS RECORDS (1894-2000) consist of business papers and correspondence, materials related to the store's advertising and products, and clippings and scrapbook materials related to the history of both the business and the Kohlbeck family.
The CUSTOMER MEASUREMENT BOOKS (1881-1909, 1927-1957) contain detailed information about the measurements and styles of suits ordered from the shop. Other details listed in these books are the names of customers, styles of coats purchased, and the price paid for the suits and other accessories.
The FINANCIAL RECORDS (1885-1970) comprise the bulk of the collection and consist of ledgers, day books, and cash books from the first three decades of the 20th century as well as financial statements, tax records, and other miscellaneous records. The various books and ledgers from the same periods are connected by a system of page numbers created by the company bookkeepers. For example the entries in the Cash Books from 1901 and 1902 correspond to entries in the Day Books from the same years. Next to each Cash Book entry the page number of the corresponding entry in the Day Book is recorded. The information in the Day Books is in turn similarly linked to the Customer Ledger/Income & Expense Ledger for 1901-1905. This linking of entries occurs again across the Customer Purchase Journal from 1907-1909, the Customer Ledger of 1907-1915 and the Credit Payment Ledgers from 1907-1918. The information is not always complete and some of the Cash Books and Day Books have connections to ledgers and journals that are not part of the collection. The later financial records are more general and do not cover the business at the individual customer level, with the exception of the outstanding debt records from the 1940s. These records include financial statements and summaries as well as tax and insurance materials.
The PHOTOGRAPHS consist of 16 images of members of the Kohlbeck family including the family members from the four generations that managed the clothing store as well as photographs of company employees and the shop and work areas from around 1900.
