Title: George Hopkins Johnson Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1860s-1972

Creator:

• Johnson, George Hopkins, 1901-1974

Call Number: Mss 308; Audio 564A; AB 861-AB 876; PH Mss 308; PH 6927

Quantity: 1.6 cubic feet (4 archives boxes), 2 tape recordings, 16 film reels, 114 photographs, 181 negatives, and 19 transparencies

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of George Hopkins Johnson, a Wisconsin industrialist who ran the family business, the Gisholt Machine Company of Madison (circa 1940-1971), was director of and later consultant to the Tools Division of the War Production Board (1942-1945), and was a member of the post-war Allied Commission of Reparations' American delegation to Moscow and Germany, and of the American Business Executive Mission, a special War Department assignment to reassess the production outlook of heavy industry in Germany. Materials primarily pertain to Johnson's trips to Germany, and include miscellaneous records of the Gisholt Machine Company, and some personal and family correspondence and documents. Correspondence includes the Civil War letters of an uncle, Ole C. Skipness. The recordings contain a 1973 interview with Johnson, primarily concerning his 1945 trip to Germany and Moscow.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00308

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

George Hopkins Johnson was born in Madison, Wisconsin on December 13, 1901. His parents were Hobart Stanley Johnson and Elizabeth Hopkins Johnson. He attended Madison public schools and Middlesex School, Concord, Massachusetts. In 1923 he graduated from Harvard College. He attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in 1923-1924.

After working several summers for the Gisholt Machine Company, incorporated by his grandfather in 1889, Johnson began work on a permanent basis in February 1924. For most of the next four years he worked in Europe as Sales Engineer. In 1928 he became Vice-President and Director of Gisholt. From 1940 to 1964 he served as President, and from 1964 to 1966 as Chairman of the Board of the Gisholt Corporation. After his retirement at the end of 1966, Johnson agreed to remain on the Board of Directors of Giddings and Lewis Inc., the parent company of Gisholt. He resigned in February 1971 when Giddings and Lewis voted to close the Gisholt plant in Madison and move only certain of its operations to Fond du Lac.

In 1942-1943 Johnson served as Director of the Tools Division of the War Production Board as a dollar-a-year man. He was a consultant to the Board throughout the war. In 1945 he was chosen to go to Germany and to Moscow as a member of the American Delegation of the Allied Commission on Reparations. Two years later he returned to Germany as a member of the American Business Executive Mission, a special War Department assignment to reassess the production outlook of heavy industry.

At various times Johnson served as Director of the First National Bank of Madison; Director of Television-Wisconsin Inc., Madison; Director and President of the Gisholt John A. Johnson Foundation; Director and President of the National Machine Tool Builders Association; Trustee of Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin; Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development, Washington, D.C.; and director of several insurance companies based in Wisconsin.

He married Sara Greenwood Fletcher of Wellesley, Massachusetts, on September 25, 1925. They had four children -- Richard Fletcher, Hobart Stanley II, Graham Underhill, and Kaia Kildahl. The Johnsons resided in Madison and Tucson until George Johnson's death in 1974.

The George Hopkins Johnson Papers, 1860s-1972, include correspondence, reports, memoranda, speeches, notes, recordings, films, and miscellaneous. They cover a wide range of his and his family's activity, but there are large gaps in the correspondence and other files. The papers are arranged in three series -- Johnson's Personal Files, Johnson Family Papers, and Gisholt Machine Company Records -- which have been left in much the same order as Johnson maintained them.

The first series includes Johnson's personal correspondence, correspondence from his children, and a substantial amount of material covering his two post-war trips to Germany to review the industrial situation and make recommendations for re-establishing heavy industry. Notes, letters to his wife, and a diary give a fairly detailed first impression of the defeated nation. Also included are reports, speeches made by other visitors to Germany, and industrial statistics. There is extensive printed material passed out by the U.S. military officials in Germany to the delegates of the 1947 mission. An interview with Johnson recorded in 1973 primarily concerns these trips.

Also in this series are 16 reels of home movies of Johnson's family and friends at home in Maple Bluff, Wisconsin, and in Tucson, Arizona. Included is footage of local outings and vacations in Hawaii, Arizona, New England, and Europe. In a few of the earlier films, in-camera editing is used to create a sense of unity between segments.

Photographs in this series relate to the activities of Johnson, including images of the Gisholt Machine Company, photographs relating to his tenure as director of and consultant to the Tool Division of the War Production Board, and images of trips to Europe to reassess the heavy industry of Germany.

The second series includes miscellaneous documents pertaining to the Johnson family history. John A. Johnson, founder of the Gisholt Machine Company, emigrated with his family from Norway to Walworth County, Wisconsin in 1844. In 1889 he separated the production of turret lathes from the Fuller-Johnson Company which he had also started, and incorporated the Gisholt Machine Company, named after the area in Norway where he had spent some of his early childhood. The company grew quickly and after his death it passed to his four sons, Fred, Carl, Maurice, and Hobart (father of George Hopkins Johnson). Hobart survived until 1940, and his sons, Hobart Jr. and more particularly George, continued to run the business until Gisholt was merged with Giddings and Lewis of Fond du Lac in June 1966. Included in the second series are letters by John A. Johnson; the wills of Fred, Carl, and Maurice; Civil War letters written by Ole C. Johnson, younger brother of John, who changed his name to Skipness after the area in Norway where he spent his childhood; early letters by Hobart; a Wisconsin income tax audit of Hobart and his wife Elizabeth; and materials relating to an investment fund called Independence Fund started in 1922 by Hobart and some friends. In 1938 the fund's origin and purpose were called into question as a scheme to avoid surtax.

Added to this series are color transparencies and glass and film negatives, circa 1890s-1947 (bulk 1940-1947), primarily of vacations and trips made by Johnson and his family. Images of a trip to Germany, 1947, likely are associated with Johnson's work as an industrialist.

The third series contains miscellaneous records of the Gisholt Machine Company, including several short histories, floor plans of the East Washington Avenue office and factory, correspondence covering various years from 1897 to 1971, pictures and descriptions of early products offered for sale, annual reports, a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, correspondence with Gisholt's British subsidiary, Lang, estimated expenses for exhibiting at the 1947 Machine Tool Show, thank-you notes from Germans who received Christmas CARE packages from Gisholt employees, and correspondence and contracts for several balancing machines to be delivered to the Russians shortly after the end of the Second World War.

Acquisition Information

Placed on deposit by Mr. and Mrs. George Hopkins Johnson, Madison, Wisconsin, October 15, 1973 and July 8, 1974. Presented by Mrs. George Hopkins Johnson, December 13, 1974 and by Sally Johnson, Tucson, Arizona, 1977. Accession Number: M73-382, M74-279, M73-502, M77-411

Processing Information

Processed by Elizabeth Maule, August 6, 1974.

Mss 308	Series: Johnson's Personal Files
Box   1 Folder   1	George Hopkins Johnson, personal, 1943-1970
Box   1 Folder   2	Personal file, 1942-1944 Arrangement of the Materials: Alphabetical by sender's name
	Personal Correspondence Arrangement of the Materials: In reverse chronological order.
Box   1 Folder   3	1950-1967
Box   1 Folder   4	1968-1970
AB 861-AB 876	Home movies, 1928-1941 Physical Description: 16 film reels (circa 6,400 feet); color and b&w; 16 mm archival positive
Mss 308 Box   1 Folder   5	Speeches, 1942-1946; undated
Box   1 Folder   6	Draft of memorandum to Mr. Cordiner of War Production Board Scope and Content Note: Regarding: Machine Tool Situation in Detroit Region, June 26, 1943. Note: For material about Johnson's appointment to the WPB, see under “J,” Personal File, 1942-1944.
Box   1 Folder   7	Allied Commission on Reparations and Johnson's trip to Germany and Russia in 1945 as a member of the Commission
Box   1 Folder   8	Diary covering Johnson's , 1945 and , 1947 trips to Germany
Audio 564A	Recorded interview on 1945 and 1947 trips, 1973 October 15 Scope and Content Note: Interview with George Johnson by John A. DeNovo, University of Wisconsin history professor, James Morton Smith, Director of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and William F. Thompson, Director of Research of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The interview mainly concerns Mr. Johnson's work on the American Delegation of the Allied Commission on Reparations which visited Germany and Moscow in 1945. It runs approximately 90 minutes.
Mss 308 Box   1 Folder   9	Transcript
	Post-war production situation
Box   2 Folder   1	Eastern Europe and the Orient, 1946
	Eastern Europe
Box   2 Folder   2	1947 January 1-April 15
Box   2 Folder   3	1947 April 16-April 30 Note: Including Johnson's second trip to Germany.
Box   2 Folder   4	1947 May 1-December 31 Note: Including Johnson's second trip to Germany.
Box   2 Folder   5	1948-1949
Box   2 Folder   6	Reunion dinner of members of 1945 Allied Commission on Reparations, 1956
	Correspondence from immediate family
Box   2 Folder   7	Undated and 1941-1945 Note: Including letters written by George Hopkins Johnson to his wife Sally while he was in Germany.
Box   2 Folder   8	1946
Box   3 Folder   1	1947-1948
Box   3 Folder   2	1949-1956
PH Mss 308	Photographs related to the activities of Johnson Note: Included are images of the Gisholt Machine Company, photographs relating to his tenure as director of and consultant to the Tool Division of the War Production Board, and images of trips to Europe to reassess the heavy industry of Germany.
Mss 308	Series: Johnson Family Papers	⇧
Box   3 Folder   3	Johnson Family--miscellaneous letters and wills, 1875-1932
Box   3 Folder   4	Ole C. Johnson Skipness--Civil War letters, and miscellaneous correspondence about them
Box   3 Folder   5	Hobart Stanley Johnson--letters, audit report, clipping, 1884-1960
Box   3 Folder   6	Independence Fund, 1922-1938
PH 6927	Visual materials made by George Hopkins Johnson and his family
	Color transparencies
	Johnson family vacations and trips
Box   1 Folder   1	Hawaii, circa 1940-1941
Box   1 Folder   2	Mexico, 1940s
Box   1 Folder   3	Tucson, Arizona, 1942
Box   1 Folder   4	Unidentified, Dufaycolor transparencies, 1940s
Box   2 Folder   1-25	Hawaii vacation, color lantern slides, 1941
	Negatives
	35 mm
Box   3 Folder   1	Germany trip, 1947
Box   3 Folder   2	Germany trip contact sheets
	8x10-inch glass negatives
Box   3 Folder   3	Residence interior, circa 1890s
Mss 308	Series: Gisholt Machine Company Records	⇧
Box   3 Folder   7	Histories, floor plans, pictures, undated, 1892-1962
	Correspondence and miscellaneous
Box   3 Folder   8	1897-1963
Box   3 Folder   9	1966-1971
Box   4 Folder   1	Product line, 1908-1924
Box   4 Folder   2	Russian balancing machines, contracts, and correspondence, 1946-1949
Box   4 Folder   3	1947 Machine Tool Show, estimated expenses and report of impressions
Box   4 Folder   4	CARE Packages sent to Germany by Gisholt employees, 1947-1948
Box   4 Folder   5	Lang Gisholt Machine Company Ltd., Johnstone, Scotland, 1960-1962
Box   4 Folder   6	Registration statement to SEC and reports, 1940
	Annual reports
Box   4 Folder   7	1941-1961
Box   4 Folder   8	1965-1972