| Repository: | Western Reserve Historical Society |
| Creator: | Cleveland Crane & Engineering Company |
| Title: | Cleveland Crane & Engineering Company Records and Photographs |
| Dates: | 1906-1956 |
| Extent: | 1.20 linear feet (2 containers) |
| Abstract: | The Cleveland Crane & Engineering Company was a manufacturer of overhead material handling cranes located in Cleveland, Ohio. The company was organized in 1899 by Edward I. Leighton, George A. Armington, Albert L. Assmus, and Charles E. Thomas as the Cleveland Crane & Car Company. The collection consists of blueprints, drawings, and plans, company newsletters, correspondence, marketing literature and sales notes, photographs (approximately 125), project proposals, and specifications. |
| MS Number | MS 5395 |
| Location: | closed stacks |
| Language: | The records are in English |
The Cleveland Crane & Engineering Company was a manufacturer of overhead material handling cranes located in Cleveland, Ohio. The company was organized in 1899 by Edward I. Leighton (1850-1916), George A. Armington (1861-?), Albert L. Assmus (approx. 1876-1937), and Charles E. Thomas (1861-1918) as the Cleveland Crane & Car Company. Leighton became the company's first president and Armington was the general manager. The company's vice president was H. Fuller, who served as vice president of Cleveland Punch & Shear Works Co., while Armington had been in that company's crane department. In 1910, the company officially changed its name to Cleveland Crane & Engineering Co. Its primary factory and headquarters was located at 1271 E. 289 Street, in Wickliffe, Ohio.
In its early years, the company produced cranes and hoists for steel companies, such as Pittsburgh Steel Foundry, Bethlehem Steel, and Jones & Laughlin Steel Company. During, and immediately following World War I, the company was contracted to manufacture cranes to handle armor plating and large naval cannon at the United States Naval Ordnance works in Charleston, West Virginia. In 1919, the company won a contract to produce an aircraft handling crane for the Navy's first aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Langley. Between the world wars, the company supplied cranes and related equipment to companies in various industries, including concrete, coal and steel production, automobile manufacturing and servicing, and electric utilities.
In 1948, the company was acquired by McNeil Machine & Engineering Company of Akron, Ohio. And then in 1984, McNeil sold the Tramrail division to Vulcan Incorporated of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The heavy crane product line was sold to Crane Manufacturing & Service Corporation, Cudahy, Wisconsin. The two divisions eventually became part of Konecranes, which is the world's largest manufacturer of process cranes, and was headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, as of 2017.
The Cleveland Crane & Engineering Company Records and Photographs, 1906-1956 and undated, consist of blueprints, drawings, and plans, company newsletters, correspondence, marketing literature and sales notes, photographs (approximately 125), project proposals, and specifications.
This collection will be useful to researchers of business and industry in Cleveland, Ohio, during the first half of the twentieth century. It will be of particular note to those interested in the Cleveland Crane & Engineering Company, and other companies involved in the manufacture of heavy industry equipment and material handling cranes, and their applications. Catalogs, brochures, and advertising will be interesting to those researching marketing techniques and presentations. Sales notes, and cost and engineering calculations will be be of interest, not only to students of sales methods, but particularly to students of equipment manufacturing sales. Reports detailing sales and commissions for the company's representatives will be valuable to finance, economic, and marketing students looking at the operations of large manufacturing companies. Engineering students will find a large collection of blueprints devoted to the design of various types of overhead cranes, motors, trolleys, and related equipment representative of the types produced and applied to a range of industrial applications, including steel production and coal handling. In addition to company records, the large photograph collection of over 125 images illustrate many of the types of cranes produced by Cleveland Crane & Engineering Company during the 1910s through the mid-1920s. These images will be of interest to both engineering and industrial design students looking into facility layouts and material handing, as well as researchers of early twentieth century photography.
None.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 5395 Cleveland Crane & Engineering Company Records and Photographs, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Candy Lee Korn in 2001.
Processed by Robert Suriano in 2017.
Series I: Marketing and Sales 1921-1929 undated |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Advertising that appeared in Factory, Iron Age, and Foundry trade journals 1929 | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | Engineering specifications for bridge and gantry orders, including dimensions, capacity, purchasing company, and location 1924-1925 1928 undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | Engineering specifications for trolley orders undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 4 | Foundry installation notes, specifications, drawings, orders, and other related information 1923 undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Notes related to talking points for sales, including advantages of Cleveland Crane & Engineering Co. designs 1926 undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 6 | Notes, drawings, data, and other content notes for Cleveland Electric Tramrail "Dope Book" sales handbook ca. 1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 7 | Product literature: Cleveland Close Clearance Crane undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 8 | Product literature: Cleveland Crane ... Graphic (Vol. 2, No. 3) ca. 1940s | |||||||||
| 1 | 9 | Product literature: Cleveland Electric Solenoid Brakes undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 10 | Product literature: Cleveland Electric Tramrail brochures 1929 | |||||||||
| 1 | 11 | Product literature: Cleveland Electric Tramrail bulletin 1921 | |||||||||
| 1 | 12 | Product literature: Cleveland Electric Tramrail Catalog No. 2 1921 | |||||||||
| 1 | 13 | Product literature: Cleveland Hand or Electric Tramrail Spare Parts List and Maintenance Instructions 1929 | |||||||||
| 1 | 14 | Sales manual content, including guidelines, calculations, charts, data, and information undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 15 | Sales notes regarding updates, specifications, sales, pricing, and discounts 1921 undated | |||||||||
Series II: Project Proposal Notes 1919-1928 undated |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 16 | Crane data sheets, including notes and calculations 1925 | |||||||||
| 1 | 17 | Data sheets for 80-foot span bucket crane for Superior Portland Cement Co., Concrete, Washington, and Sandusky Portland Cement Co., including specifications, notes, data, and calculations 1922 1927 | |||||||||
| 1 | 18 | Data sheets for 20-foot and 25-foot span bucket cranes for Standard Oil Co., including specifications, data, calculations, notes, and drawings undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 19 | Data sheets for a 7.5 ton bucket crane for Wolverine Portland Cement Co., including specifications, data, calculations, notes, and drawings 1927 | |||||||||
| 1 | 20 | Data sheets for a 75-foot span bucket crane for the City of Detroit asphalt plant, including specifications, data, notes, and calculations 1926 | |||||||||
| 1 | 21 | Data sheets for a 75-ton, 75-foot span crane for Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., including specifications, data, notes, and calculations 1926 | |||||||||
| 1 | 22 | Data sheets for a 5-ton span crane for Oakland Motors, Pontiac, Michigan, including different trolley options, specifications, notes, calculations, and drawings undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 23 | Design comparisons between Cleveland Crane & Engineering Co. and Northern Engineering Works for a Midland Steel Products Co. proposal 1926 | |||||||||
| 1 | 24 | Design comparisons between Cleveland Crane & Engineering Co. and Northern Engineering Works for an 80-foot span crane at Fisher Body Co., Cleveland, Ohio undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 25 | Design specifications, data, and sales notes for a 350-ton crane for a Hulett ore Bridge at Ohio & Western Pennsylvania dock of the M.A. Hanna Co. 1921 | |||||||||
| 1 | 26 | Design specifications, data, and sales notes for a 5-ton airplane service crane for the aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Langley 1919 | |||||||||
| 1 | 27 | Design specifications, data, and sales notes for proposals to A.A. Cummings, Allied Paper Mill, Austin Co., Bower Bearing Co., Carpenter Steel Co., Central Illinois Public Service Co., Dodge Brothers, Durion Co., Erie Forge and Steel Co., Glens Falls Portland Cement Co., Indiana Steel & Wire Co., Laclede Steel - High Point, Nickel Plate Rail Road, Pontiac Motor Co., and Wilson Forge and Machine Co. 1922-1928 undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 28 | Design specifications, data, and sales notes for various sized cranes for Builders Sand Co. 1925 | |||||||||
| 1 | 29 | Design specifications, data, notes, and calculations for Clark Chemical Co. Project No. 4220 1924 | |||||||||
| 1 | 30 | Requests for Proposal from General Electric Co., Schenectady, New York, for electrical equipment for a power house bucket handling crane 1920 1922 1924 | |||||||||
| 1 | 31 | Sales notes and draft proposal for a close clearance crane for Cleveland Speedster 1926 undated | |||||||||
Series III: Finance 1928-1952 |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 32 | Annual sales comparisons by geographic territory showing sales quotas, gains, losses, and territory dealers 1928-1941 | |||||||||
| 1 | 33 | Annual total sales and shipments by salesman, A.F. Carl, A.E. Creasy, H.P. Haggett, MG. Rosenthal, W.P. Hanks, Carl Berge, and F.W. Everhard for the years 1916-1953 1952 | |||||||||
| 1 | 34-36 | Monthly sales order reports by Harry P. Haggett, including net sales and commission amounts 1929-1944 | |||||||||
Series IV: Organizational Files 1915-1956 |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 37 | Announcement for the farewell party for Harry P. Haggett, called "a Memorable 'Ode' to the 'Slaves'" 1956 | |||||||||
| 1 | 38 | Cleveland Tramrail contact representative agreement between Cleveland Electric Tramrail Division and Harry P. Haggett 1929 1930 | |||||||||
| 1 | 39 | Company newsletter: Crane-ing News 1921 1944 1947 | |||||||||
| 1 | 40 | Company newsletter: Shop Progress, and various employee articles 1915 1916 | |||||||||
| 1 | 41 | Invitation to the Cleveland Tramrail Million Dollar Dinner for company sales representatives 1929 | |||||||||
Series V: Correspondence 1927 1931 |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 42 | Letter from Earl T. Bennington, Sales Manager, to Harry P. Haggett about his decision to leave the company 1931 | |||||||||
| 1 | 43 | Letters from the G.H. Williams Company to Harry P. Haggett regarding clam-shell buckets 1927 1931 | |||||||||
Series VI: Photographs ca. 1910s-1920s 1930 |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 44 | 10-ton bucket crane and trolley manufactured for Glens Falls Portland Cement Co., Glens Falls, New York ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 45 | 10-ton welded trolley ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 46 | 15-ton crane and bucket trolley manufactured for the Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., Woodlawn, Pennsylvania, and South Side Works, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, mills ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 47 | Aerial view of the Cleveland Crane & Engineering Co. factory at 1271 E. 289th Street, Wickliffe, Ohio ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 48-49 | Album of trolleys, brakes, and hoists, girder cranes, span cranes, and gantry cranes manufactured for various customers ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 50 | Bucket cranes manufactured for Nazareth Cement Co., Nazareth, Pennsylvania, Southern Agricultural Chemical Co., Atlanta, Georgia, and Tennessee Copper & Chemical Corp., Lockland, Ohio ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 51 | Cleveland Crane & Engineering Co. factory at 1271 E. 289th Street, Wickliffe, Ohio (photographic negatives) ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 52 | Construction of Cleveland Municipal Stadium (photographic negatives) ca. 1930 | |||||||||
| 1 | 53 | Correspondence from Glens Falls Portland Cement Co., Pittsburgh Crucible Steel Co., and The Davison Chemical Co. 1925 | |||||||||
| 1 | 54 | Gantry cranes manufactured for General Electric Company, Erie, Pennsylvania, and United Electric Light & Power Co. ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 55 | Girders being manufactured ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 56 | Group portrait of unidentified employees and managers ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 57 | Roller bearing equipment for cranes manufactured for Pittsburgh Crucible Steel Co., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 58 | Shriner's parade through downtown Cleveland to Cleveland Municipal Stadium (photographic negatives) 1931 | |||||||||
| 1 | 59 | Span and welded girder cranes (photographic negatives) ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 60 | Span cranes manufactured for Alabama Power Co., International Harvester Co., U.S. Armor Plate Co., and the U.S. Naval Ordnance Plant, Charleston, West Virginia, and unidentified customers ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 61 | Structural end trucks ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 62 | Tramrail installed at Yellow Cab Company maintenance facility and unidentified machining factory ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 63 | Trolley motors and brakes ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 64 | Trolley, end trucks, and control box for a 5-ton, 115-foot span crane manufactured for Pittsburgh Steel Products Co., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 65 | Trolleys and frames for span cranes and hoists manufactured for the Ford Motor Company plants at Green Island, New York, and River Rouge, Michigan ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 66 | Trolleys for use by Donner Steel Co., New York Central Rail Road Co., Reliance Coke & Furnace Co., and Southern California Edison Co. ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 67 | Trolleys manufactured for Bethlehem Steel Co. ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 68 | Various types of trolleys ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 69 | Welded frame for a 40-ton trolley equipped with two 20-ton hoist units for a 38-foot span crane manufactured for Atmospheric Nitrogen Corp., Hopewell, Virginia ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
| 1 | 70 | Welded girder and welded-roller bearing cranes ca. 1910s-1920s | |||||||||
Series VII: Blueprints and Plans 1906-1930 undated |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 2 | 1-2 | Bucket cranes and components and estimated pricing guide 1914-1918 1922-1924 | |||||||||
| 2 | 3-4 | Details and general arrangement drawings for lifts, trolley frames, cupola charging floors and scrap yard, wheel load data, cranes, end truck assembly, presses, pumps and accumulators, hydraulic valves, rivet furnace, and storage layout for the Indiana Steel & Wire Co. 1916 1917 1924 1927 1930 | |||||||||
| 2 | 5 | Details for end trucks, axle boxes, brakes, and bumper 1913-1916 1923-1926 | |||||||||
| 2 | 6 | Details of main cylinder and plunger, base and platen, forgings and studs, pull-back cylinders and pistons, forgings, rods, and valves for 210-ton and 500-ton presses 1918 undated | |||||||||
| 2 | 7 | General arrangement and assembly details for girders and a 59-foot, 30-ton 4 M.E. trolley gantry crane 1923 1926 | |||||||||
| 2 | 8 | General arrangement and assembly drawings for 2 M.E. trolleys 1910 1913-1916 1918 | |||||||||
| 2 | 9 | General arrangement and assembly drawings of 15-ton bucket trolley and 3 M.E. trolleys 1913 1914 1918 1919 undated | |||||||||
| 2 | 10 | General arrangement and assembly for gantry and bridge cranes, including 2 M.E., 3 M.E., and buckets 1911-1927 1929 | |||||||||
| 2 | 11 | General arrangement and assembly for gantry cranes, 3 M.E. trolley crane, charging crane and span 1916 1921-1925 undated | |||||||||
| 2 | 12 | General arrangement of a 4 M.E. trolley, and 200-ton 5 M.E. trolley for the U.S. Navy 1917 1918 | |||||||||
| 2 | 13 | General arrangement of a two elevation transfer station 1928 | |||||||||
| 2 | 14 | Mechanical and solenoid brake details 1916 1917 | |||||||||
| 2 | 15 | Plans for Clark Chemical Co., Wickliffe, Ohio, Project No. 4220 1924 | |||||||||
| 2 | 16 | Project data and comparison sheets for Michigan Central Rail Road gantry crane, Wabash Portland Cement Co. bucket crane, Ternstedt Manufacturing Co. cranes and trolleys, and Midland Steel Product Co. span crane 1925 1926 undated | |||||||||
| 2 | 17 | Proposed arrangements for sand lime brick plants and equipment 1906-1909 | |||||||||
| 2 | 18 | Stencil for foreign shipment boxes and enamel plates 1917 | |||||||||
| 2 | 19 | Tramrail systems, including Cleveland Tramrail, Buffalo, New York, Racquette River Paper Co., Building 109, and International Casement Co., Jamestown, New York 1930 undated | |||||||||