Introduction | Agency History | Scope and Contents | Series Description | Inventory

Introduction

The papers of the Chicago Shipbuilding Company, Chicago, Illinois, were obtained in the winter of 1967/1968 by Richard J. Wright. They became part of the Richard J. Wright Marine Collection at Bowling Green State University, and are now part of the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes.

The records of the Chicago Shipbuilding Company occupy nearly thirteen linear feet. The bulk of the records, which fall between the years 1900 and 1950, document typical activities of the company including physical expansion, financial records, World War I shipbuilding and official, legal and labor correspondence. No restrictions have been placed on the use of these materials. The register was completed by Linda Jasperse, graduate student in the History Department, Bowling Green State University.

Agency History

The Chicago Shipbuilding Company was formed in 1890. In that same year, land was purchased from the South Chicago Brewing Company at 101st Street and the east bank of the Calumet River as a site for the new shipyard. The shipyard was constructed soon thereafter.

The company underwent a number of administrative changes in its early years. Initially, it was a branch of Cleveland's Globe Iron Works. Mr. John F. Pankhurst, the vice president of the Cleveland firm, also was the Chicago company's first president. Because of changes in stock ownership in 1892, the Chicago Shipbuilding Company was reorganized, became more independent of the Globe Iron Works, and sought its own contracts. At this time, William L. Brown was president and Washington Irving Babcock was general manager.

For the fledgling company, the 1890s were a prosperous decade. The shipyard expanded, more ships were built, and repair services were provided for Great Lakes ships. William Brown and Washington Babcock provided such effective leadership that toward the end of the decade, the Chicago Shipbuilding Company was one of the most highly regarded of all shipyards in the Great Lakes area.

By 1898, the company was to experience even further organizational changes. It became apparent that fierce competition among the various shipyards on the Great Lakes was undermining profit margins. The answer was consolidation; the Chicago Shipbuilding Company joined the newly created American Shipbuilding Company.

The Chicago Shipbuilding Company, as a subsidiary of American Shipbuilding Company, continued to build ships and to do repair work throughout the early part of the twentieth century. The company again expanded, and in 1912 it took over the Ship Owner's Dry Dock Company of Chicago. In 1913, it closed the North Yard and built a new dry dock area near the South Yard. Today the Chicago Shipbuilding Company is mostly involved with ship repair and operates under the name of the American Shipbuilding Company.

Scope and Content

The records generated by the Chicago Shipbuilding Company extend from 1890 to 1962, with the bulk of the material falling between 1900 and 1950. A single record series included in the collection dates to 1832, but it consists of land titles that were not generated by the company.

For the Great Lakes, the maritime, or the economic historian, these records would prove to be exceedingly useful. They are arranged chronologically by series where possible. It must be noted, however, that very early records of the company (ca. 1890) and later records (after 1950) are, for the most part, incomplete or missing. This would limit the research potential of the collection for those interested solely in the development of the Chicago Shipbuilding Company itself. It would perhaps present less of a problem to researchers interested in, for example, early twentieth century American shipbuilding or individual vessel information.

The most important record series include: dry dock ledgers and reports, correspondence, surveys, and financial papers. Together, these documents help the researcher to grasp the administrative, fiscal, and historical importance of the Chicago Shipbuilding Company.

First, the dry dock ledgers and reports are records documenting typical activities of the company: what ships were repaired, how long it took to repair them, and what services were rendered. The records are in convenient column form for statistical analysis of, for example, linear growth trends in the company. The dry dock reports also include signatures of dock employees, which may provide leads for the researcher interested in turn-of-the-century worker or labor history. The dry dock reports comprise the most complete of all of the record groups in this collection, for they extend without gaps from 1907 to 1962.

Second, the correspondence available consists of a variety of series: official, legal, and labor correspondence. To glean information regarding expansion, property-leasing transactions, and labor relations, these documents would be most useful. The bulk of correspondence lies between 1915 and 1950.

Third, the South Yard surveys visually document the expansion of the main dry dock area of the Chicago Shipbuilding Company. The blueprints, charts, and maps extend from 1894 to 1932, which covers well the early-century years of South Yard improvements.

Fourth, the daily and monthly financial papers are of importance primarily to statisticians, although the general researcher in Great Lakes history could benefit from perusing the financial statements, for example, to better understand the company's status at a given point in its history. This record group extends from 1909 to 1943, although many series are incomplete.

A feature of this collection is a record group entitled "World War I Shipbuilding." This group consists of contracts, payroll bills, correspondence and superintendent's reports for the years 1917-1918. For the researcher interested in the effects of the war years upon American industrial concerns, this record group would be of primary importance.

The remaining record groups-building materials specifications, ship tests, and land titles-would not be of considerable use to those engaged in initial orientation to the Chicago Shipbuilding Company.

The materials in this collection are, for the most part, in very good condition. The records have not been microfilmed to date.

Series Description

CORRESPONDENCE

CORRESPONDENCE
1900-1939
Arranged chronologically.
Consists of official correspondence from miscellaneous sources.

LABOR CORRESPONDENCE
1916-1950
Arranged chronologically according to subject.
Consists of incoming, outgoing and interdepartmental correspondence regarding accidents, wages, bonuses, and draft exemptions, as well as miscellaneous correspondence.

SOUTH YARD CORRESPONDENCE
1917-1950
Arranged chronologically according to subject.
Consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence regarding land, expansion and improvement of existing facilities, and machinery.

SUBJECT FILES/CASE FILES

BUILDING MATERIALS SPECIFICATIONS
1929-?
No arrangement.
Contains equipment specifications for the Wabash Railway Company and the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company.

NORTH YARD TRANSACTIONS
1915-1930
Arranged chronologically according to subject
Consists of lease and sale correspondence and appropriate documentation for transactions made.

WORLD WAR I SHIPBUILDING
1917-1925
Arranged chronologically according to subject.
Consists of contracts, payroll bills, correspondence, and superintendent's reports.

REPORTS

DRY DOCK LEDGERS
December 1906-July 1924
Arranged chronologically.
Consists of identifying features of docked ships (tonnage, name of vessel), when and where they were docked, and a breakdown of charges incurred for repairs.

DRY DOCK REPORTS
July 1924-October 1962
Arranged chronologically.
Consists of loose paper forms that include information identifying docked ships (tonnage, name of vessel), when and where docked, and how many days passed before docks were flooded.

LEGAL DOCUMENTS

TITLES
1832-1906
Arranged chronologically.
Includes abstracts and examinations of land titles.

FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS

FINANCIAL RECORDS
1890-1957
Arranged chronologically.
Both in ledger and loose paper format.
Consists of defense bond ledgers, alphabetized and indexed financial ledgers, sales ledgers, payroll ledgers, payroll insurance information, financial statements, machine shop ledgers, purchase orders, petty cash records, invoice registers, cost books, balance sheets, stock certificates, memos, and tax correspondence and forms.

MAPS, CHARTS, DIAGRAMS, GRAPHS, LISTS, ETC.

SHIP TESTS
1926
Arranged chronologically.
These tests resembling blueprints were designed to determine the performance of the ship propellers, boilers, pumps, engines, etc.

SOUTH YARD SURVEYS
1894-1932
Arranged chronologically.
Includes blueprints, charts, maps of the South Yard area.

Inventory

Box 1

Ledger

1. Dry dock ledger-North Yard, October 1910-August 1915
2. Dry dock ledger-South Yard, December 1906-July 1924
3. Folders-Dry Dock Reports
4. July-December 1924
5. 1925
6. 1926
7. 1927
8. 1928
9. 1929
10. 1930
11. 1931
12. 1932
13. March-December 1933
14. March-December 1934
15. 1935
16. 1936
17. 1937

Box 2: Dry Dock Reports-South Yard

Folders

1. February-December 1938
2. 1939
3. 1940
4. 1941
5. 1942
6. 1943
7. 1944
8. 1945
9. February-December 1946
10. 1947
11. 1948
12. 1949
13. 1950
14. 1951
15. 1952
16. 1953
17. 1954
18. 1955
19. 1956
20. 1957
21. 1958
22. 1959
23. January-June 1960
24. July-November 1960
25. March-December 1961
26. January-October 1962

Box 3: World War I Building

Folders

1. Contract #425, 1917
2. Contract #425, 1917-1918
3. Contract #425, 1917
4. Payroll Bills #425, 1917-1918
5. Correspondence and Reports, #425, 1917-1918
6. Contract #426, 1918
7. Contract #426, 1918
8. Permit Bills, Payrolls, Correspondence, #426, 1917-1918
9. Contract #428, 1917-1918
10. Contract #428, 1918
11. Correspondence, Bills, #428, Payroll, Reports, 1918-1919

Box 4: World War I Building

Folders

1. Contracts #429, #430, 1918
2. Correspondence and Reports, #429, 1918
3. Contract #438, 1918
4. Bills, Correspondence, Reports, #438, 1918-1919
5. Contract #439, 1918
6. Records, Correspondence, Bills #439, December 1917-July 1918
7. Records, Correspondence, Bills, #439, August 1918-December 1925
8. Contract #445, 1918
9. Contract #446, 1918
10. Correspondence, Records, Bills #445, #446, #447, 1918-1919
11. Contract #448, 1918
12. Correspondence, Reports, Bills, #448, 1918-1919

Box 5: World War I Building

Folders

1. Power House, 1917-1918
2. Dry Dock #2 Bridge, 1918
3. Superintendent's Reports, December 1917-January 1918
4. Superintendent's Reports, February-March 1918
5. Superintendent's Reports, April-July 1918
6. Superintendent's Reports, August 1918-January 1919
7. Miscellaneous Bills and Payroll, 1917-1918
8. Miscellaneous Bills, 1917-1918
9. Correspondence regarding Needs and Appropriations, 1916-1918
10. Miscellaneous correspondence, 1917-1919
11. Shipbuilding-Supplies, 1917-1918
12. Shipbuilding-Correspondence EFC, 1916-1917
13. Shipbuilding-Correspondence EFC, 1918-1923
14. Shipbuilding-Correspondence regarding Daneburg (#82), 1917-1918

Box 6: North Yard

Folders

1. Correspondence regarding sale-equipment, 1915
2. Sale/lease inquiry, 1915-1937
3. Actual lease-Republic Box Co., 1916-1924
4. Actual sale-Republic Box Co., 1916-1930
5. Actual lease-Hydraulic Sand & Transit Company, 1918-1924
6. Actual sale-Construction Mat. Corp., 1929-1934
7. Actual sale/lease-Hoskins Coal & Dock Co., 1935-1939
8. Actual sale/lease-Moulding-Brown Company, 1931-1936

Box 7

Folders

1. Examinations of title-sections of land, 1832-1888
2. South Yard-Correspondence regarding requisitioned land, 1917-1918
3. South Yard-Correspondence regarding requisitioned land, 1919-1920
4. South Yard-Correspondence regarding expansion & improvement, 1918
5. South Yard-Correspondence regarding expansion & improvement, 1918-1919
6. South Yard-Correspondence regarding expansion & improvement, 1918-1920
7. South Yard-Correspondence regarding land description, 1925-1936
8. South Yard-Correspondence regarding East 100th Street, 1917-1918
9. South Yard-Correspondence regarding East 100th Street opening, 1919-1923
10. South Yard-Correspondence regarding South Yard Property, 1920-1931
11. South Yard-Correspondence regarding depreciation, repair, replacement of machinery, 1937-1944
12. South Yard-Correspondence regarding depreciation, repair, replacement of machinery, 1945-1950

Box 8: Labor Correspondence

Folders

1. Miscellaneous, 1916-1918
2. Miscellaneous, 1919-1927
3. Regarding Accidents, 1919-1937
4. Regarding Assignment Wages, 1917, 1919
5. Regarding Hog Island, October-November 1918
6. Regarding Draft Exemptions, 1917-1918
7. Regarding Riveters, 1917
8. Regarding Wages and Hours, 1916-1920
9. Regarding Unpaid Bonus Claims, 1920
10. Regarding Unpaid Bonus Claims, 1919-1923
11. Regarding Paid Bonus, 1917-1920
12. 1942-1944
13. 1945
14. 1946
15. 1947
16. 1948
17. 1949
18. 1950

Box 9

Folders

1. Ledgers-Defense Bonds, 1942-1943
2. Ledgers-Defense Bonds, 1942-1943
3. Ledgers-Defense Bonds, 1942-1943
4. Ledgers-Defense Bonds, 1942-1943
5. Financial Correspondence to stockholders, 1909-1936
6. Financial Correspondence Preferred and Common Stock, 1914-1921
7. Financial Correspondence Preferred and Common Stock, 1922-1930
8. Financial Correspondence regarding stocks and bonds, 1916-1937
9. Financial Statements, 1916-1918
10. Financial Statements, 1919-1920
11. Financial Statements, 1921-1922
12. Financial Statements, 1923-1925
13. Financial Balance Sheets, 1916-1918
14. Financial Balance Sheets, 1919
15. Financial Balance Sheets, 1920
16. Financial Balance Sheets, 1921

Box 10

Folders

1. Financial Balance Sheets, 1922
2. Financial Balance Sheets, 1923
3. Financial Balance Sheets, 1924-1925
4. Financial-Fairbanks' Memos, 1916-1918
5. Financial-Fairbanks' Memos, 1919-1921
6. Financial-Fairbanks' Memos, 1922-1925
7. Financial-Shop inventories, January-March 1943, November 1953-March 1954
8. Banking-Correspondence regarding payroll insurance, 1916-1920
9. Banking-Correspondence regarding interest and reopening of Bank, 1918-1935
10. Banking-Correspondence regarding signature on checks, 1921-1936
11. Banking-Liberty Loans, 1917-1930
12. Taxes-Correspondence/Forms, 1914-1915
13. Taxes-Correspondence/Forms, 1916-1917
14. Taxes-Correspondence/Forms, 1917-1921
15. Taxes-Correspondence/Forms, 1918-1919
16. Taxes-Correspondence/Forms, 1919-1920

Box 11: Taxes-Correspondence/Forms

Folders

1. 1920, 1920-1922
2. 1921, 1921-1922
3. 1922, 1921-1924
4. 1923, 1922-1925, 1931
5. 1924, 1923-1925
6. 1925, 1925-1926
7. 1926, 1926-1927
8. 1927, 1927-1929
9. 1928 and 1929, 1928-1931
10. 1930, 1930-1935
11. 1931, 1931-1933
12. 1932, 1932-1933
13. 1933, 1933-1934

Box 12: Taxes-Correspondence/Forms

Folders

1. 1933, 1935-1937
2. 1934, 1934-1935
3. 1934, 1935-1938
4. 1935, 1935-1936
5. 1935, 1937-1938
6. 1936, 1936-1939
7. 1937, 1937-1938
8. 1938, 1938, 1939
9. Goose Island, 1930, 1931, 1933, 1935-1937

Box 13

Folders

1. Surveys-South Yard, 1894-1917
2. Surveys-South Yard, 1917
3. Surveys-South Yard, 1918-1932
4. Surveys-South Yard, 1919-1931
5. Specifications-Building for Wabash Railway Company, March 9, 1929
6. Specifications-Building for Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, n.d.
7. Test SS MARYLAND, August 17, 1926
8. Test SS LEGIGH, August 27, 1926
9. Test SS CAMBRIA, August 31, 1926
10. Test SS STEELTON, September 1926
11. Correspondence-regarding Perley Lowe vs. Chicago Star Construction & Dredge Co., 1900-1901
12. Correspondence-People Gas Co., 1918-1939
13. Correspondence-Chicago & S. Haven Steamship Co., 1919-1921
14. Correspondence-Green Manufacturing Co., 1920
15. Correspondence-General American Tank Car Corp., 1920-1922
16. Correspondence-Central Dredging Co., 1922-1924
17. Correspondence-Commonwealth Edison Co., 1927-1935

Box 14

Folders

1. Correspondence-WW I Charities and Funds, 1917-1920
2. Correspondence-Court Cases, 1919
3. Correspondence-Bridge-North Halstead Street, 1937
4. Correspondence-Docks, Dry Docks, 1919-1936
5. Correspondence-Machine Shop License, 1920-1933
6. Notes-Electric Switchboard, n.d.
7. Correspondence, miscellaneous, 1915-1923
8. Correspondence, miscellaneous, 1923-1938
9. Comparative Trial Balances, July 1899, July, August, November, December 1903
10. Comparative Trial Balances, January, February, March, April 1904

Box 15: Financial Ledgers-General, alphabetized and indexed

Volumes

1. April 1902-June 1918
2. July 1918-June 1919
3. July 1919-June 1920

Box 16: Ledgers

Volumes

1. Financial, November 1906-June 1907
2. Financial, November 1906-July 1912, August 1918-March 1919
3. Sales-North Plant, November 1906-July 1913
4. Cash-Sales, March 1934-March 1954
5. Payroll, January 1907-June 1911
6. Payroll, December 1916-December 1919
7. Payroll, January 1920-October 1926
8. Monthly Scrap Report, July 1921-November 1926
9. Monthly Scrap Report, December 1926-May 1942

Box 17

Volumes

1. Appraisal of North Plant, 1914 indexed, 1914
2. Appraisal of South Plant, 1914 indexed, 1914
3. Appraisal of South Plant, 1917 indexed, 1917
4. Financial Ledger-Purchase Orders, January 1938-December 1949
5. Financial Ledger-Purchase Orders, January 1950-December 1953
6. Financial Ledger-Petty Cash, July 1929-June 1934
7. Financial Ledger-Petty Cash, July 1934-June 1939
8. Financial Ledger-Petty Cash, July 1939-June 1943
9. Financial Ledger-Petty Cash, July 1943-December 1951
10. Financial Ledger-Petty Cash, March 1956-December 1957
11. Financial Ledger-Unbilled Dry Work, January 1936-December 1946
12. Financial Ledger-Fuel, May 1946-April 1954
13. Financial Ledger-General, December 1951-May 1955

Box 18

Volumes

1. Financial Ledger-General, July 1933-June 1941
2. Financial Ledger-General, July 1941-June 1946
3. Financial Ledger-General, July 1946-February 1951
4. Financial Ledger-General, March-June 1951
5. Abstract of Title, 1832-1906
6. Abstract of Title, 1837-1899
7. Examination of Title, 1832-1881

Box 19

Volumes

1. Financial Ledger, alphabetized, November 1900-June 1916
2. Financial Ledger, alphabetized and indexed, November 1906-July 1912

Oversize Volumes

Wrapped Packages

1. Stock Certificate Book, #1-150, July 1892
   Financial Ledger-Trial Balance Book, 1919-1922
   Financial Ledger-plus record of L. L., November 1906-June 1912, December 1917
   Financial Ledger-indexed, July 1916-June 1918
2. Sales Registers, July 1913-December 1917
   January 1918-June 1922
   July 1922-June 1924
3. Cash-Financial Ledgers, July 1905-June 1911
   July 1911-December 1916
4. Cash-Financial Ledgers, December 1916-May 1920
   May 1920-August 1926
5. Cash-Financial Ledgers, September 1926-December 1930
   July 1941-September 1951
6. Register for Audited Invoices, July 1919-June 1922
7. Financial Ledgers, April 1918-June 1927
   July 1927-June 1935
   June 1937-June 1949
8. Cost Book-Barges #17, #18, #19, indexed, 1895-1896
   Machine Shop-Ledger, indexed, 1890-1900
   Financial Ledger-Piece work, December 1925-May 1927
9. Financial Record, January 1910-July 1918
   Loose Papers: work on ships, 1942-1943
   amounts owed by accounts, July 1931-June 1941
   miscellaneous general expense ledger, July 1931-June 1943

Business Bibliography | Labor Bibliography | Vessel Design