Last (Jay T.) Collection of Fashion: William Hunt Business Ephemera, 1861-1916

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Summary

Title:
Jay T. Last Collection of Fashion: William Hunt Business Ephemera
Dates:
1861-1916
Creators:
Last, Jay T.
Abstract:
The William Hunt Business Ephemera, a subset within the Jay T. Last Collection of Fashion Prints and Ephemera, contains promotional materials accumulated by jeweler William Hunt of Uniontown, Pennsylvania. About 125 items from approximately 1861-1916 focus on merchandise and supplies solicited to Hunt, mainly by jobbers and manufacturers of jewelers' and watchmakers' tools, parts, products, and services.
Extent:
approximately 125 items
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

[Item title]. Jay T. Last Collection of Fashion: William Hunt Business Ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The William Hunt Business Ephemera, a subset within the Jay T. Last Collection of Fashion Prints and Ephemera, contains promotional materials accumulated by jeweler William Hunt of Uniontown, Pennsylvania. About 125 items from approximately 1861-1916 consist mainly of advertisements received by Hunt from jobbers and manufacturers of jewelers' and watchmakers' tools, supplies, and services. Advertisements for household objects such as silverware, servingware, utensils, toothpicks, pens, and ornamental items are also included, as is a small number of advertisements for clothing and other fashion accessories.

The materials predominantly consist of leaflets, handbills, price lists, and billheads with manuscript text, as well as small catalogs, envelopes, and trade cards.

Biographical / historical:

The Jay T. Last Collection is an unparalleled archive of printed paper artifacts that documents American lithographic, social, and business history. The collection began in the early 1970s when physicist and Silicon Valley pioneer Jay Last moved to Southern California and started collecting citrus box labels he found at local flea markets and rummage sales. As his collection grew, Last realized that these labels conveyed important information about commercial printing, graphic design, and social history, and he expanded his collection to include other forms of American visual culture. Today this collection contains more than 200,000 lithographic prints, posters, and ephemera of mostly nineteenth and early twentieth century American origin and represents works by more than five hundred lithographic companies.

William Hunt was born in Dunbar Township, Pennsylvania, on February 2, 1836. He became apprenticed to jeweler and watchmaker Henry W. S. Rigdon of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1850 for 4 1/2 years. Following four years of employment elsewhere, Hunt opened his own successful watch, clock, and jewelry repair shop in 1858 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He began adding merchandise by 1860, and in subsequent years the repair shop grew into a sizable mercantile business that remained in operation through at least 1912.

Acquisition information:
This collection forms part of the Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, which was donated to the Huntington Library by Jay T. Last in 2005 as a gift in progress. The bulk of the fashion ephemera was transferred to the Library between 2010 and 2013 . The Hunt records described in this finding aid were acquired en bloc in 2014 by the Library and are organized according to size and correspondent.
Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in the following two series:

  • Series I. William Hunt Business Ephemera (small size)
  • Series II. William Hunt Business Ephemera (large size)

Large size items are arranged numerically by call number and described in the following format:

  • Title of print. Date
  • Artist(s) (when known). Printer(s). Publisher(s)

Rules or conventions:
Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Note:

Finding aid last updated on September 23, 2016.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Charla DelaCuadra.
Date Prepared:
© 2015
Date Encoded:
Machine readable finding aid encoded by Charla DelaCuadra in February 2015 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Item title]. Jay T. Last Collection of Fashion: William Hunt Business Ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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