This display, dating to 1897, was used by John H. Patterson to illustrate all the steps involved in selling a cash register, and to show interdependency within the company. Starting at the beginning: the Probable Purchaser (P.P., for short) was identified and contacted by Agents. An Order was placed through the agent, and it was Recorded and Traced through the company until it was actually Made. After construction, the register was Inspected, bundled with Supplies, and Shipped to the customer. Settlement, or billing, was the next step, along with Collecting the bill. The final step was Cash, or profit, and then the process started over again. The water that propelled this wheel was equal parts Training, Money, Good Advertising, Inventions, Lack of Competition, and a New Systems Department. This display was a favorite of Patterson’s and he used it often to promote the ideas he felt would drive his company forward.

This model of the first cash register factory shows workers with a Ritty Dial machine, as well as a National Manufacturing Co. register. It was displayed in the NCR exhibit at the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago. NCR regularly exhibited at World’s Fairs and other major expositions, both nationally and internationally. Items in our collection include material from the 1904 Lewis and Clark Expo in St. Louis, the 1936 Texas Centennial Expo, the 1939 Golden Gate Expo, and the 1964 World’s Fair, just to name a few.

“We have come to the land of the lotos eaters. Sit thou down and eat of their fruit and forget all thy cares forever.” This legend was carved on the backboard of the black walnut buffet in the dining salon of the LOTOSLAND, Col. E. A. Deed’s private yacht. A lotos eater was one of the mythical Greek Lotophangi–one who gave himself up to indolence and daydreaming.
Built in 1929, at a cost of one million dollars, the LOTOSLAND was both opulent and innovative. The staterooms all featured air-conditioning, and each had its own full-size bathtub and shower. Most of the wood used was either teak or black walnut, and the fireplaces were made of Carrara marble. In the music room there was both a Steinway piano and an organ. It was the first private vessel to be outfitted with a seaplane, in this case a 5-passenger Sikorsky. At more than 200 feet, the LOTOSLAND was more than twice the length of the Presidential yacht, and a crew of more than thirty people was required for full operation.

Unfortunately, Deeds did not get to enjoy his yacht very long. In October, 1940, the United States Navy purchased the LOTOSLAND from Deeds for $140,000. It was then converted into a patrol boat, complete with deck guns and depth charge racks, and commissioned as the USS SIREN. It initially served as a patrol vessel between Eastport, Maine, and Block Island, Rhode Island. Later, the USS SIREN was a convoy escort in the Caribbean Sea, where there was a large concentration of enemy submarines. The Navy placed her out of service in October, 1945.

Invented by Joseph Desch and Robert Mumma in 1938, the Electronic Accumulator was a major leap in technology. For the first time, with this machine, numbers were counted electronically using vacuum tubes, instead of mechanically. This seemingly simple difference greatly increased the speed and ease with which data could be manipulated, paving the way for our modern computers.

The Electronic Calculator, invented in 1942, continued to refine ideas first explored with the Accumulator. It reduced the number of tubes required to operate, and increased the number of functions that it could perform. This machine was able to do addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Division, however, was not an option. In 1942, before they got a chance to install the division circuit, Desch and Mumma were asked to take on a greater project– breaking the German Enigma code! This project was second only to the atom bomb in importance, and much of the material relating to its development is only now becoming declassified. The Bombe, the machine invented to break the German code, relied on technology developed in these two prototypes. While far from easy, the labor was worthwhile, and the NCR-built Bombe saved an untold number of lives and significantly reduced the length of the war in Europe.

It is the range of subjects that is astonishing - department stores, restaurants, and hotels of every size and description. Often there are both interior and exterior shots, many with people. Grocery stores from the beginnings with a full service grocer, to the start of self-service, and ending with the supermarkets that we know today. It would be easy to do a study of the changing architecture of the American gas station with this collection. There are many unusual subjects too. While the central focus of all these photographs was the cash register, much of everyday life was captured as well. In many cases it is possible to read the menu at the soda fountain, or see the clothes for sale in the department store, even look at the Halloween masks in a dime store.

We have taken many steps to make this collection accessible, the most important being the entering of information about each photograph into a computer database. When this database is complete in the near future, it will be possible to search the more than 24,000 images by business name, business type, date, city, and state, or a combination of any of those. For example, one could search for hotels in Philadelphia in 1920, and the computer will quickly compile a list of photographs that match the criteria. Additionally, for people who would like to browse the collection, we have photocopied all of the photographs and these will be available in the reading room when we open. Once a patron has determined the photographs he would like to see, a request can be made to the reading room staff, and the original photographs will be brought out for viewing. For a fee, it will also be possible to have high quality scans or reprints made from the original photographs.

This project represents the largest volunteer project undertaken by the Historical Society to date. Often, we have had more than 10 people at a time working on this project, and even with that amount it has taken more than a year to complete. Volunteers have been involved in every stage of the project including the initial organizing of the photographs, inventorying the photographs, rehousing the photographs in acid-free materials, entry of information into a database, and photocopying of the original photographs. There is no way this project would be complete without the help of our volunteers, and I would like to thank them publicly for their service.