Repository: | Western Reserve Historical Society |
Creator: | Wunderlich, Adolph |
Title: | Adolph Wunderlich Papers |
Dates: | 1855-1967 |
Dates: | 1891-1942 |
Extent: | 1.00 linear feet (1 container) |
Abstract: | Adolph Wunderlich (ca. 1869-1942) was an inventor, engineer, and businessman who was born in Buffalo, New York, and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, as a child. He held patents for inventions and improvements on electric arc lamps, hoisting and lowering mechanisms, suspension devices for electric arc lamps, winches, lubricating devices, and caulking devices. He lived in England from 1898-1912 where he installed London's first street lights and headed his own electrical firm. He founded the Western Reserve Manufacturing Works in Cleveland in 1914. The collection consists of advertisements, agreements, apprenticeship records, catalogs, certificates, correspondence, extracts, financial documents, instructions, legal documents, memoranda, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, patents, a scorecard, and a will. |
MS Number | MS 5208 |
Location: | closed stacks |
Language: | The records are in English, German, French and Swiss |
Adolph Wunderlich (ca. 1869-1942) was born in Buffalo, New York, to Edward Wunderlich (1843-1921) and Ernestine Baumann Wunderlich (1842-1920). He moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, as a child and worked as a laborer in the Cleveland City Railway Shop, an errand boy at a shop in the Flats, and as a laborer at the Lorain street railway repair shop. He completed his apprenticeship as a machinist at Bardons and Oliver in Cleveland.
He moved to England in 1898 where he was the superintendent of the arc light works of Johnson and Phillips of London and owner of the London Electric Firm. He helped to install London's first arc street lights and secured patents for electric arc lamps and suspension devices for electric arc lamps. Wunderlich returned to Cleveland in 1912 where he founded the Western Reserve Manufacturing Works in 1914.
Wunderlich was married to Lillie Breitweg Wunderlich (ca. 1876-1967). The couple had one daughter, Silvia Wunderlich Zverina. Adolph Wunderlich died in Cleveland in 1942 and is buried at Lake View Cemetery.
The Adolph Wunderlich Papers, 1855-1967 and undated, consist of advertisements, agreements, apprenticeship records, catalogs, certificates, correspondence, extracts, financial documents, instructions, legal documents, memoranda, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, patents, a scorecard, and a will.
This collection will be useful to researchers studying the history of business, entrepreneurship, and technology in Cleveland, Ohio, and London, England in the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Those studying the history of the development of electric arc lamps, hoisting and lowering mechanisms, winches, suspension devices for electric arc lamps, and lubricating devices will find this collection useful. Those studying the history of the Jandus Arc Lamp and Electric Company of London, England; The London Electric Firm owned by Adolph Wunderich; and Johnson and Phillips of London, England, will find this collection useful. Those studying the Western Reserve Manufacturing Works of Cleveland, Ohio, owned by Wunderlich will also find this collection useful.
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 5208 Adolph Wunderlich Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Justin Zverina in 1983.
Processed by Margaret Burzynski-Bays in 2014.
Series I: Professional 1855-1942 undated |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
1 | 1 | Cleveland Metal Hose Company, agreement with Adolph Wunderlich 1931 | |||||||||
1 | 2 | Jandus Arc Lamp and Electric Company, annual report 1908 | |||||||||
1 | 3 | Jandus Arc Lamp and Electric Company, catalog 1896 | |||||||||
1 | 4 | Jandus Arc Lamp and Electric Company, legal proceedings 1900 | |||||||||
1 | 5 | Jandus Arc Lamp and Electric Company, memoranda of construction 1899 | |||||||||
1 | 6 | Jandus Arc Lamp and Electric Company, patent issues 1899 | |||||||||
1 | 7 | Johnson and Phillips, indenture and drawing 1906 undated | |||||||||
1 | 8 | Johnson and Wunderlich, patent agreements 1898-1905 | |||||||||
1 | 9 | London Electric Firm, advertisements, correspondence, extracts, and product instructions 1910-1914 undated | |||||||||
1 | 10 | London Electric Firm, product catalogs ca. 1910s | |||||||||
1 | 11 | Patent transfers 1912 | |||||||||
1 | 12 | Patents, account ledger 1906-1911 | |||||||||
1 | 13 | Patents, England 1855-1899 | |||||||||
1 | 14 | Patents, England 1900-1905 | |||||||||
1 | 15 | Patents, England 1906-1910 | |||||||||
1 | 16 | Patents, France 1906 | |||||||||
1 | 17 | Patents, Germany 1899-1906 | |||||||||
1 | 18 | Patents, Switzerland 1899 | |||||||||
1 | 19 | Patents, United States 1885-1902 | |||||||||
1 | 20 | Western Reserve Manufacturing Works, correspondence, general 1931-1932 | |||||||||
1 | 21 | Western Reserve Manufacturing Works, correspondence with Ford Motor Company 1942 | |||||||||
1 | 22 | Western Reserve Manufacturing Works, product pamphlets and instructions undated |
Series II: Personal 1891-1967 undated |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
1 | 23 | Apprenticeship record, Adolph Wunderlich at Bardons and Oliver, Cleveland 1902-1904 | |||||||||
1 | 24 | Certificates and other membership material 1905 1912 | |||||||||
1 | 25 | Last will and testament, Adolph Wunderlich 1910 | |||||||||
1 | 26 | Lease agreement and furniture catalogs, house in England 1910-1912 | |||||||||
1 | 27 | Letter copy book, Adolph Wunderlich 1891-1892 | |||||||||
1 | 28 | Newspaper 1902 | |||||||||
1 | 29 | Obituary, Lillie Wunderlich 1967 | |||||||||
1 | 30 | Pictorial pamphlet, newspaper clipping, and score card, Turners 1893 undated |