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.
