Thomas Burkhard Coppersmith Company records
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Abstract
The Thomas Burkhard Coppersmith Company, founded in New York City in 1836, moved to Brooklyn in 1891. This collection contains account and production books, as well as advertising handbills, customer lists, order books, and clippings, that provide insight into the operation of a leading manufacturer of copper kettles for the confectionary and pharmaceutical industries during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Historical Note
The Thomas Burkhard Company, a maker of copper kettles, was founded in 1836 by Peter Burkhard at 61 Vesey Street in New York City. Thomas Burkhard (1839- 1916), Peter's son, inherited the company upon the death of his father. Under Thomas's leadership, the family-run company purchased the rival John H. Heynen and Company in 1878, received a patent for an asbestos-lined steam copper kettle for use by confectionaries in 1887, and ultimately moved the plant from 125 White Street in New York to 494 Flushing Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg in 1891. The firm was incorporated in 1908, and continued to operate in Brooklyn until 1962, when it was sold to George Keller Copper Works.
In 1885, Thomas moved with his family from New York to 145 Monroe Street in Brooklyn, only a half-mile from the future site of his factory, where he resided until his death. Burkhard was a Freemason and a member of the Mechanics and Tradesmen's Society of New York.
Scope and Contents
The Thomas Burkhard Coppersmith Company records consist of six bound volumes containing the business records of the firm from 1876 to 1909. The records primarily consist of account books, production notes, advertising handbills, customer lists, and order books that list individual orders placed between 1892 and 1909. Newspaper clippings of interest to Burkhard on technical subjects and patents for kettles are also included. The records provide in-depth descriptions of Burkhard's production process, accounts, and clients, frequently with detailed drawings of items purchased, client addresses, sale prices, and labor costs.
Order books also reveal the variety of confectionary, coffee, chemical, and pharmaceutical companies, both local and nationwide, that bought Burkhard's copper jacket kettles, tillers, stills, cylinders, vacuum pans, and mixers. Among Burkhard's clients were Huyler's, Thomas Mills and Brothers, Merck and Company, E.R. Squibb, Eastman Kodak, Johnston and Lilly, H.J. Heinz and Company, National Biscuit Company, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, and the United States Treasury Department.
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Conditions Governing Access
Open to users without restriction.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Thomas Burkhard Coppersmith Company records, 1991.044, Box and Folder number; Brooklyn Historical Society.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Charles Apfelbaum and formally accessioned in 1991.
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Processing Information
Minimally processed to the collection level.
