Henry Clay Frick Papers, Series III: Voucher Files

Henry Clay Frick's Voucher Files, 1892-1929, consist of accounts payable vouchers and memorandum vouchers documenting a wide variety of expenditures, including household goods and services, payroll, investments, donations and gifts, and travel. Together, these items give a clear and thorough picture of the Frick family's tastes and habits, as well as their daily activities and interests. Examples of some expenditures are cars, china, clothing, shoes, furniture, jewelry, books, entertainment, tuition, horses, carriages, gifts to family members and charitable organizations, doctors' fees and prescriptions, and expenses incurred in the staffing, maintenance, and improvement of the family's residences. Highlights of this series include a voucher for a Mercedes automobile purchased in 1909, with attached fabric swatches and paint samples (#9650); a voucher for $1,000 paid to cellist Pablo Casals for a private concert in 1915 (#5018), and five donations of $500 apiece made to Helen Keller over the period of 1911-1915 (#1578, 2565, 3469, 4190, and 4954). Each voucher records when and to whom payment was made, the amount and nature of the expense, check number, and the account drawn upon for payment. Accounts payable vouchers were receipted by the payee at Frick's request, and are often accompanied by documents such as invoices, related correspondence, and canceled checks. Memorandum vouchers, on the other hand, appear to have been prepared for internal accounting purposes, were not receipted by the payee, and typically have few, if any, attachments.

Materials are arranged in three subseries: Subseries 1. Accounts Payable Vouchers - Group I, 1892-1919; Subseries 2. Accounts Payable Vouchers - Group II, 1912-1919; and Subseries III. Estate Vouchers, 1919-1929.

Subseries I contains a single run of more than 18,000 vouchers dating from the time the system was implemented in 1892 until Frick's death in late 1919. Vouchers are numbered sequentially, but start over at 1 after reaching 10,010 in 1909. Vouchers in Subseries I and III are indexed alphabetically by payee in eleven volumes, beginning in 1901. The original index covering the years 1892-1900 does not survive with these papers, but an electronic index for that period has been compiled. See the archives staff for more information.

Vouchers in Subseries II resemble those found in the first subseries, but comprise a second concurrent run of about 5,000 vouchers starting in 1912 and continuing until Frick's death. Expenditures documented in this subseries are very similar to those found in Subseries I, and were paid using the same bank accounts, so the purpose of the second run is not clear. Vouchers in Subseries II are indexed alphabetically by payee in two volumes, though these indexes appear to be less complete than the indexes found in Subseries I.

Subseries III, Estate Vouchers, date from Henry Clay Frick's death in until the settlement of his estate in 1929. This is the smallest of the three subseries, containing about 2,600 vouchers. Examples of expenditures in this subseries are legal fees, taxes, insurance, payroll, investments, continuations of gifts to family initiated during Frick's lifetime, and household and office expenses billable to the estate.