Henry Clay Frick Papers, Series VIII: Letterpress Copybooks

Items in this series consist of letterpress copybooks containing Henry Clay Frick's outgoing correspondence. Volumes are arranged in three subseries: I. General Letterpress Copybooks, 1881-1919; II. Secretary's Letterpress Copybooks, 1892-1919; and III. Special Letterpress Copybooks, 1893-1923. Letters generally appear in chronological order within each copybook, and document business dealings, investments, art collecting, political activities, taxes, insurance, philanthropy, and personal matters. They give insight into Frick's daily activities, interactions with colleagues and friends, political views, and manner of conducting business. Some correspondents represented in these volumes include Andrew Carnegie, Walton and E.M. Ferguson, Philander Chase Knox, Thomas Lynch, Jay C. Morse, W.R. Stirling, H. McK. Twombly, H. A. Gray, M.S. Quay, Charles S. Carstairs, M. Knoedler & Co., F.J. Osterling, and Daniel H. Burnham.

Subseries I: General Letterpress Copybooks, 1881-1919, is the most comprehensive of the three subseries. These 42 volumes contain a nearly complete run of letters composed by Frick over the period of 1881-1919. Correspondents are indexed alphabetically at the front of each volume. In most volumes, guide numbers noted at the top of each page indicate the page number of the previous and/or next letter addressed to the correspondent at hand. Additional copies of outgoing letters were sometimes filed alongside their incoming counterparts in the Henry Clay Frick Papers, Series II: Correspondence, but this was not done consistently by Frick's office staff, and generally only in later years.

Subseries II: Secretary's Letterpress Copybooks, 1892-1919, contains outgoing letters composed by the secretary in Henry Clay Frick's Pittsburgh office. Frick's New York secretary, Alice Braddell, either did not maintain a copybook for outgoing correspondence, or it does not survive with these papers. Letters contained in these volumes pertain chiefly to insurance, investments, property and tax matters, and bank transactions. An alphabetical index of correspondents can be found at the front of each volume. The earliest items in this subseries (Volumes 1 and 2) were compiled by George Megrew from 1892 to 1895. There is an unexplained gap in these volumes from 1895 to 1900. R.B. Caldwell served as secretary from 1900 until November 1902, after which the position was briefly held by C.H. Hicks. F.W. McElroy took charge of the copybook in December 1902, and served the longest of all of Frick's secretaries. He left Frick's employment in early 1915 and was replaced by C.F. Chubb. During Chubb's service, letters are occasionally signed by assistant secretary W.J. Naughton. The letterpress copybooks in this subseries terminate in early 1919, some months before Frick's death.

Subseries III: Special Letterpress Copybooks, 1893-1923, contains volumes designated for correspondence on specific topics, such as taxes, insurance, art, and the settlement of Henry Clay Frick's estate. The first volume in this subseries, "Financial Matters, etc.," contains routine correspondence on matters relating to taxes, club dues, promissory notes and mortgages, bills, stock and bonds, and insurance. Letters in the "Taxes and Insurance" volumes concern property taxes, water rents, and insurance policies and claims. Letters copied into the "Estate" volumes pertain to taxes, employees, bills paid, stocks, and rental properties, including the Frick Building, Frick Building Annex, and Union Arcade Building.

Special letterpress copybooks can also be found in other series among the Frick Family Papers, including an art letterpress copybook in Henry Clay Frick Papers, Series I: Art Files, and volumes pertaining to the construction and furnishing of Frick's residences in New York and Prides Crossing, Mass., in the One East 70th Street Papers and Eagle Rock Papers, respectively.