cbi00090a Burroughs Corporation Records, 1880-1998. Finding Aid. Prepared by Archival Staff of the Charles Babbage Institute, 1995-2006. University of Minnesota Libraries July 2006

University of Minnesota Libraries Minneapolis, MN 55455

EAD encoding by Karen Spilman, July 2006. English University of Minnesota Libraries. Charles Babbage Institute. [cbi] Burroughs Corporation Burroughs Corporation records 1880-1998 681 boxes, 46 trays (approximately 450 cubic feet) The collection contains the records of the Burroughs Corporation, and its predecessors the American Arithmometer Company and Burroughs Adding Machine Company. Materials include corporate records, photographs, films and video tapes, scrapbooks, papers of employees and records of companies acquired by Burroughs. CBI 90 English Administrative Information Acquisition:

The records were given to the Charles Babbage Institute by Unisys Corporation in 1991.

Access to materials:

Access to the collection is unrestricted.

The Charles Babbage Institute holds the copyright to all materials in the collection, except for items covered by a prior copyright (such as published materials). Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provisions of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred Citation:

Burroughs Corporation Records (CBI 90), Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Arrangement of Collection

The Burroughs Corporation Records are arranged into 111 series. Please see the finding aid for each series for a box and folder list. Advertising Samples, 1904-1986 John C. Alrich Papers, 1956-1958 American Arithmometer Company Records, 1886-1905 Analysis of Competitor Products (Competitive Information) and Competitors’ Product Literature, 1907-1971 Annual Meeting Records, 1967-1983 Annual Report Photographs, 1961-1985 Annual Reports, 1923-1985 Artifacts, 1954-1966 Lawrence Bewley Papers, 1953-1960 Biography Files, 1893-1985 Black Box Photograph Collection, 1880-1972 Book Publications, 1920-1988 Branch Office Photographs, 1911-1966 Burroughs and Sperry Merger Records, 1985-1989 Burroughs Bulletin Photographs, 1947-1952 Burroughs Machines, Ltd. Records, 1909-1926, 1966-1974 Robert G. Busse Scrapbook, 1941-1967 Thomas Butler Papers, 1935-1937, 1953 Charles R. Hadley Company Records, 1905-1956 Control Instrument Corporation Records, 1948-1968 Corporate and Recruiting Brochures, circa 1930-1980 Corporate Events, 1967-1980 Corporate Identity Studies, 1957-1985 Corporate Market Development Group, 1983-1984 Court Documentation, 1934-1935 CUBE Correspondence, 1969-1988 Frank Cullen Papers, 1955-1976 Cumbernauld Plant Technical Literature, 1976-1982 Decisions in Force, 1911-1958 Defense/Government Photographs, circa 1950s-1960s Defense, Space, and Special Systems Group, 1965-1971 Detroit Area Divisions Records, 1962-1977 Edsger W. Dijkstra Papers, 1971-1979 Distributive Organization Records, 1886-1949 Early Office Machine Photographs, 1907-1939 Early Office Machine Product and Technical Literature, 1900-1966 ElectroData Division Photograph Collection, 1962-1980 ElectroData Division Records, 1952-1979 Electronic Control Division and Electronic Instrument Division Records, 1958-1966 Executive Orders, 1921-1943 Exhibits Photographs and Records, 1947-1983 Facility Literature, 1966-1974 Facility Photographs, circa 1900-1983 Field Force Letters, 1918-1923 Financial Collection, 1905-1955 Fragile Publications Collection, 1905-1955 General Subject File, circa 1904-circa 1990 Glass Lantern Slide Collection, circa 1945-1960 Simon E. Gluck Papers, 1954-1962 Gregory Publishing Company Burroughs Manuals, 1976-1983 Histories of Burroughs, 1886-1986 HOBO Group Reports, 1951-1952 Installation Stories, 1951-1957 International Operations Records, 1954-1979 Norman L. Kreuder Papers, 1956-1962 Langhorne Family Correspondence, 1886-1900 Legion of Honor Records, 1961-1972, 1985 Duncan L. MacDonald Papers, 1955-1964 Mechanical Library, 1920-1968 Miscellaneous Legal Records, 1934-1970 Narration Scripts and Slide Presentations, 1948-1975 Glen F. Nielsen Papers, 1955-1956 Oversized and Mounted Photographs, circa 1897-circa 1977 Paoli Area Divisions Records, 1949-1977 Pasinski Family Papers, 1912-1984 Passport Negatives, 1950-1965 Patent and Trademark Records, 1897-1980 Patent Research and Development Requests, 1946-1968 Patent Research Division Files, 1947-1962 PDA and PMA Authorizations, 1967-1971 Photograph Collection, 1949-1963 Pike Adding Machine Company Records, 1903-1911 Policies and Procedures Correspondence, 1919-1957 Press Clippings, 1925-1986 Press Releases, 1947-1987 Price and Style Lists, 1906-1972 Product Literature, 1910-1984 Product Photographs, circa 1940-1985 Product and Testing Reports, 1951-1982 Product Planning Records, 1950-1973 Redactron Corporation Records, 1969-1977 Reference Photographs, 1891-1985 L. P. Robinson Papers, 1952-1961 L. P. Robinson and L. W. Cali Papers, 1956-1960 Sibyl M. Rock Papers, 1956-1965 Sales Conventions Records, 1905-1929 Sales Records, 1914-1922 Salesmen's Manuals and Literature, 1906-1975 Salesmen's Papers, 1910-1985 Scientific Research Society of America - Burroughs Branch Records, 1952-1962. SEC Forms and Stock Information, 1942-1986 Serial Publications, 1907-1998 Shareholder Meetings and Reports, 1922-1986 Martin Shuler Papers, 1952-1954 Slide Collection, circa 1955-1978 Speeches, 1921-1985 Standard Practices Manuals, 1921, 1951 Charles P. Staubach Papers, 1906-1928 Don L. Stevens Papers, 1957-1962 Strike Crime Reports, 1975 Subsidiary Product Literature, 1949-1983 System Development Corporation Records, 1946-1982 Tax Appeal, 1930 Lyle Thompson Papers, 1948-1979 Todd Company Records, 1953-1956 Irven Travis Papers, 1948-1968 United Foundations Campaign Records, 1959-1969 Universal Adding Machine Company Records, 1900-1912 Videotapes and Films, 1957-1989 J. Jay Wolf Papers, 1954-1978 World War II Era Records, 1931-1946

Historical Note of Burroughs Corporation

The Burroughs Corporation began in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company. It was formed with the intent of selling the adding machine invented by William Seward Burroughs. The company started in St. Louis, Missouri where Burroughs was living at the time. The company moved its entire operations to Detroit, Michigan in 1904.

By 1905 the company had settled in Detroit and the name was changed to the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, in honor of William S. Burroughs who had died in 1898. Operations resumed almost immediately, and for about the next fifty years, Burroughs grew into the biggest adding machine company in the United States. It introduced many different products, including many variations of the basic adding machine, typewriters, check protectors, ticketeers, and finally, computers.

In 1953 the Burroughs Adding Machine Company was renamed the Burroughs Corporation, a name more reflective of their broad scope of products. They still had a strong market in adding and calculating machines, especially at banks and similar institutions. However, they were also moving into the computer field about this time. Their experience with the military during WWII also steered them toward the computer field, and they worked with the government on numerous contracts after the end of the war.

As Burroughs Corporation concentrated more and more on computers, they still marketed toward their prime customers, banking institutions. However, as time passed, their mainframes and other computers were given a greater market. IBM, of course, was far ahead of Burroughs in terms of sales and revenues, but Burroughs was often the next competitor behind them.

In September 1986, Burroughs Corporation and Sperry Corporation completed a merger that had been started over a year before. W. Michael Blumenthal, president of Burroughs Corporation, and Joseph J. Kroger, president of Sperry Corporation, became Chairman/CEO and Vice-Chairman, respectively, of the new company -- Unisys Corporation. The merger, which was actually an acquisition of Sperry by Burroughs for $4.8 billion, put Unisys into second place in the computer market in 1986, with revenues of about $10.5 billion. This was the largest merger in the computer industry's history, and although impressive, Unisys was still only about 1/5 the size of IBM. A period of reorganization followed the merger, with the closing of some facilities, combining of similar departments in Burroughs and Sperry, and the divestment of non-computer-related businesses.

Biographical Note of William Seward Burroughs

William Seward Burroughs, inventor of an adding machine and a founder of the American Arithmometer Company (which was renamed in his honor in 1905), was born in rural New York, although the date of Burroughs' birth has been hard to establish, it was between 1855 and 1858. He became a bank clerk at the Cayuga County National Bank in Auburn, New York in the 1870s, but eventually moved to St. Louis for health reasons.

It was here, in the early 1880s, in a small area of the Boyer Machine Company shop, that he started working on the bank clerk's dream--the adding machine. After several years, he applied for a patent, eventually granted in 1888. The earliest machines were great prototypes, but when in the hands of inexperienced users would give outrageous answers. Burroughs answered the challenge by designing (in a few days), the "dash pot," a mechanism that regulated the pull on the adding machine's handle.

The next challenge was to convince banks and businesses that they needed this new machine, surprisingly not an easy thing to do. With a few salesmen who doubled as the service department, the American Arithmometer Company set out to add a new machine into the "modern-day" offices at the end of the nineteenth century. William Seward Burroughs only glimpsed the beginning of the office automation phenomenon, for he died, in Citronelle, Alabama, in 1898.

Scope and Content Note

The collection contains the records of the Burroughs Corporation, and its predecessors the American Arithmometer Company and Burroughs Adding Machine Company. Materials include corporate records, photographs, films and video tapes, scrap books, papers of employees and records of companies acquired by Burroughs during the companies tenure in the adding machine and computer industry, such as the System Development Corporation, Charles R. Hadley Company, Control Instrument Company, ElectroData and Todd Company.

Related Materials

The Burroughs Corporation Records includes over 100,000 photographs depicting the entire visual history of Burroughs from its origin as the American Arithmometer Corporation in 1886 to its merger with the Sperry Corporation to form the Unisys Corporation in 1986. 550 of these photographs have been scanned and stored in the Burroughs Image Database. The database can be searched by subject keywords, names, places, dates or historical period. This project is part of the University of Minnesota's IMAGES union database.

The corporate records of the Sperry Corporation were donated by the Unisys Corporation to the Hagley Museum and Library, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Index Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Burroughs, William Seward, 1858?-1898, Acme Carbon and Ribbon Company. American Arithmometer Company. Balbik Systems, Ltd. Burroughs Adding Machine Company. Burroughs Corporation. Charles R. Hadley Company. Control Instrument Company. ElectroData (Firm) Haydu Brothers. Mittag & Verlag, inc. Moon-Hopkins Billing Machine Company. Pike Adding Machine Company. Seytec (Firm) System Development Corporation. Todd Company. Universal Adding Machine Company. Accounting machines. Banks and banking -- Automation. Bookkeeping machines. Calculators. Computer industry. Computer industry -- History. Computers. Computers -- History. Computers -- Research. Industries -- Michigan -- Detroit. Office equipment and supplies industry. Business records. Motion pictures. Photographs. Video recordings.