Eberhard Faber, Inc. records
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Abstract
The Eberhard Faber, Inc. records includes materials related to the business and family history of Eberhard Faber, Inc., a pencil manufacturing company based in Brooklyn from the 1870s to 1956, and its predecessor companies. The collection contains documents related to the founding, operations, and intellectual property of the company, along with marketing and sales materials and photographs.
Historical Note
The Eberhard Faber Pencil Company began as a U.S. subsidiary branch of A.W. Faber Company in 1849. Johann Eberhard Faber's (1822-1879) (referred to as just Eberhard Faber) great grandfather, Kaspar Faber (1730-1784), began to manufacture and market pencils in the village of Stein, located near Nuremberg, Bavaria (now Germany), in 1761. Kaspar Faber's son, Anton Wilhelm (A. W.) (1758-1839), took over the management of the business in 1784 and grew the business. He eventually renamed it A.W. Faber Company, now Faber-Castell. The company continued under several more generations of Fabers, until Eberhard Faber moved to New York City to manage a subsidiary branch of A.W. Faber Company.
The original New York City office of A.W. Faber Company was located at 133 William Street in Manhattan. In 1858, Eberhard Faber expanded its operations to include the manufacture of rubber bands and rubber erasers under Eberhard Faber Rubber Company (formerly the C. Roberts Rubber Company), which consolidated with Eberhard Faber Pencil Company in 1950. This factory was located in Newark, New Jersey. Until 1860, A. W. Faber Company was still exporting its pencils to the U.S. In 1861, the company opened its first U.S. pencil factory on East 42nd Street, on what is the present-day location of the United Nations. After a fire destroyed the factory in 1872, the A.W. Faber Company moved its U.S. manufacturing to Greenpoint in Brooklyn, although it kept its sales office in Manhattan.
When Eberhard Faber died on March 2, 1879, his sons Eberhard II (John) (1859-1946) and Lothar W. (1861-1943) took over the management of the company. After years of conflict between the German and U.S. branches of the company, the U.S. branch split ties with A.W. Faber Company. First incorporated as E. Faber Pencil Company in 1898 and finally as Eberhard Faber Pencil Company in 1904, the factory in Greenpoint grew to envelop two square city blocks bounded by Greenpoint Avenue, West Street, Java Street, and Franklin Street. In 1923, a new six-story building was also added. By 1924, Eberhard Faber Pencil Company had sales offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Dallas. Later, the company expanded to have factories in Canada, Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela.
The factory remained at its Greenpoint location until 1956 when it moved operations and headquarters to Crestwood Industrial Park in Wilkes-Barre, PA. In 1962, Eberhard Faber Pencil Company and Eberhard Faber Toy and Game Company, already based in Pennsylvania, merged. During this transition, the company changed its name to Eberhard Faber, Inc. In 1987, Eberhard Faber Pencil Company (by then EF, Inc.) was sold to Faber-Castell.
Sources:
- Faber-Castell USA. http://www.faber-castell.us/14798/About-Us/index_ebene3.aspx (accessed June 29, 2010).
- Habstritt, Mary. "Eberhard Faber's Pencil Factory," Archive of Industry. http://www.archiveofindustry.com/images/EberhardFaberHistory.pdf (accessed June 29, 2010).
- The Story of the Oldest Pencil Factory in America. New York: Eberhard Faber Pencil Company, 1924.
Arrangement
The records are organized into four series:
- Series 1: Administrative records, 1857-1987
- Series 2: Marketing and advertising records, circa 1875-1972
- Series 3: Faber Family records, 1825-circa 2016
- Series 4: Photographs, circa 1900-circa 1980
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of materials relating to Eberhard Faber, Inc., or the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company, and its operations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Germany, and Pennsylvania, among other places the company conducted business. The collection includes documents related to the history of the business: legal documents chronicling company purchases and consolidations, intellectual property certificates, certificates of amendment and by-laws, and Board of Directors, Board of Trustees, and Stockholders meeting minutes. Promotional and marketing materials include product catalogues, news clippings, and other publications produced by Eberhard Faber Pencil Company to showcase their products. Photographs depict Eberhard Faber Pencil Company's offices and factories, company events, and headshots of executive-level employees in the 1960s. Also included are records related to the history of the Faber family, particularly Eberhard Lothar Faber IV (1936-2022) and Julia Taylor Faber (1900-1992).
There are no employee records in this collection aside from a 1917 handwritten list of employees in Sub-series 1.1: Business ownership records.
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Conditions Governing Access
Open to researchers without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
While many items at the Center for Brooklyn History are unrestricted, we do not own reproduction rights to all materials. Be aware of the several kinds of rights that might apply: copyright, licensing and trademarks. The researcher assumes all responsibility for copyright questions.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Eberhard Faber, Inc. records, CBHM.0033, Box and Folder number; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Photographs of interior of Wilkes-Barre, PA factory, product catalogs, and Mongol pencil product display were a gift of Eberhard Faber IV, 1988. Further materials were a gift of Lo Faber, 2024.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
If digital surrogates exist, they should be used in place of the originals whenever possible.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The 1988 accessions (1988.017, 1988.019, V1988.035) were initially processed in 2010 by Patricia Glowinski as the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company collection (ARC.028). This collection was reprocessed by Alice Griffin in 2026 to include the 2024.032 accession.
Folder titles in brackets were provided by the archivist. Original newspaper clippings were discarded after preservation photocopies were made.
