Industrialists

An artificial collection of account books and financial volumes, ca. 1680-1930, relating to such occupations as: farmers, merchants, traders, millers, blacksmiths, lawyers, manufacturers, laborers, physicians, shoemakers, carpenters, tailors, and cigar makers. Materials relating to private organizations and businesses are also included. The collection focuses on the Connecticut and New England region.

The papers consist of printed material, business records, and photographs that document the Bissell family and the foundations of the American petroleum industry in the 1850s. The collection is bound in seven volumes: two volumes of printed material relating to petroleum and other industries, three volumes of records of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company and the Adirondack Pulp Mills that document the creation and early growth of the companies, and two Bissell family photograph albums.