Inventor Name
Unknown
Repository
Hagley Museum and Library
PO Box 3630
Wilmington, DE 19807-0630
302-658-2400
https://www.hagley.org/research
Summary
Archibald Johnston was born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania on May 30, 1865. Upon graduation from Lehigh University in 1889 he joined the Bethlehem Iron Company and remained with the firm and its successor, Bethlehem Steel until retirement in 1927. At Bethlehem, Johnston was given the responsibility for the erection of the gun forging plant and the armor plate plant, both the first of their kind in this country. In 1900, he was appointed Assistant General Superintendent. Johnston was named General Superintendent and elected to the Board of Directors in 1901. From 1906 to 1908 he was president of its Bethlehem Steel Corporation. After Charles M. Schwab assumed the presidency in 1908, Johnston remained as First Vice President. In this position he was in charge of government sales, both foreign and domestic. Johnston also served as the Republican mayor of Bethlehem from 1917 to 1921 and was active in national professional societies and civic organizations. The bulk of this collection is concerned with Johnston’s work at Bethlehem Steel; a smaller portion consists of strictly personal papers. The correspondence files of Series I cover such subjects as ordnance contracts with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Italy, Russia and Turkey in the pre-World War I years (c. 1906-1913), general business correspondence and memoranda, sales letters, promotion notices, proposals and inquiries, etc. Correspondence regarding Bethlehem Steel’s patent infringement suits with Midland Steel and Niles-Bement-Pond Company (1905-1909) are included. Also covered are ore mines in Cuba, Puerto Rico, New York and New Jersey. Series II comprises reports and test data on armor plate manufacturing processes, ballistic tests, and financial, manufacturing and cost reports. Notes and notebooks, reports on foreign and domestic inspection trips, plant expansion projects, products (such as railroad rails, tool steel and ordnance items) are also found in this series. The legal documents series deals with various contracts from the 1908-1913 period. An account book for 1867-1882 for an unidentified shipping company is also contained in the Johnston papers. Almost no material on Johnston’s early years with Bethlehem Steel (1889-1892), when he was in charge of the armor plate and gun forging plants’ construction, are to be found in this collection. In addition, papers relating to foreign ordnance sales during the First World War are also lacking. The photographs and drawings are maintained by the Pictorial Collections Department. They include photos of ordnance and armor plate produced by Bethlehem, as well as views of plants and employees, and Bethlehem’s exhibit at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. There are 31 views of the Juragua Iron Company’s facilities in Cuba and several pictures of U.S. Marines on Duty in China, ca. 1913, probably taken when Johnston was negotiating a Chinese naval contract. There are also 70 drawings of ordnance produced by Bethlehem, as well as a Russian battleship.