This collection comprises the business archives of the Busch-Sulzer Bros. Diesel Engine Companies and is divided into three series. These correspond with the major divisions in the company's history--the Diesel Motor Company of America from 1898 to 1901, the American Diesel Engine Company from 1901 to 1911, and the Busch-Sulzer Bros. Diesel Engine Company from 1911 to 1946. Records of the last-named form the bulk of the collection.
The Diesel Motor Company of America (1898-1901) series includes correspondence, reports, blueprints, and drawings, legal documents, and corporate records. The largest portion of this series is composed of reports on the development of the early diesel engine. In addition, the series includes extracts of correspondence between Adolphus Busch, E. D. Meier, and Rudolph Diesel pertaining to their original agreement, a small number of legal documents, and a form letter to the stockholders.
The American Diesel Engine Company (1901-1911) series includes correspondence, financial records, reports, blueprints and drawings, clippings, legal documents, and corporate records. The majority of the correspondence, which is concentrated from 1907 to 1911, deals with company business, although there are a few scattered letters of a personal nature. The chief correspondents for this period are Adolphus and August Busch, E. D. Meier and James R. Harris. The financial records in this series include an appraisal inventory of company holdings, reports of assets and liabilities, tables of production costs, and engine order forms.
The legal documents are comprised of licenses and certificates, papers relating to patenting the Diesel engines, and contracts and other legal papers leading to the first Busch-Sulzer agreement of 1910. The minutes of a few meetings of the Board of Directors comprise the corporate records. This series also includes the bankruptcy papers and file compiled by James Wilkie, during the period of the company's receivership, 1908 to 1911.
The Busch-Sulzer Bros. Diesel Engine Company (1911-1946) series is composed of correspondence, reports, clippings, publications, labor relations files, blueprints and drawings, financial records, legal documents, and corporate records. The correspondence, which deals primarily with business matters, treats such topics as the establishment of working relations between Busch and the Sulzer Bros., improvements in the locomotive engine during the 1920s, submarine development during World War I and the 1920s (including a letter from Franklin D. Roosevelt, February 13, 1917) and refinements in the diesel principle. Other topics of interest which are treated more briefly include attempts at Anheurser-Busch soft drink production during Prohibition, the Diesel Engine Manufacturers Association, and papers on the Midwest Trade Association's interest in the merchant marine. Chief correspondents include Adolphus and August Busch, Meier, Harris and E. B. Pollister, Max Rotter, and George D. Pogue. Developments in the diesel engine are also documented by the section on specifications and blueprints and drawings.
The corporate records include the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Directors from 1911 to 1943 and the minutes and profit statements for the annual stockholders meetings for the same period.
A single folder documents the company's relations with labor during the 1920s. In addition, data on employee wages and working conditions can be found here.
Topics upon which reports were made to the company include engine production and special reports on such matters as the World War II navy contract and production efficiency. Other reports are filed under the title of the authoring officer, i.e. president, general manager. The report on factory construction includes a detailed photographic study of factory construction during the early part of the century.
The financial records are comprised of reports of assets and liabilities from 1911 to 1943, tabulations of production and building costs, a detailed inventory of company assets in 1925, engine order forms (1911-1934), and receipts, official forms, and computation sheets for various federal, state, and city taxes.
The legal documents include licenses and certificates and documents relating to the Busch-Sulzer agreement from 1911 to 1926. The collection also contains the advertising publications and operating handbooks printed by Busch-Sulzer Diesel and material published by firms with which the company dealt. Applications of the diesel engine are documented by a newspaper file maintained during the 1920s and 1930s. The miscellaneous material is comprised chiefly of advertising and public relations materials sent to the firm by such groups as the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Shipping Board, and the Midwest Trade Association.
