University of Texas at Austin

Norman Bel Geddes and Co.
Proposed design changes to the IBM typewriter
September 30, 1946
Photograph
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Norman Bel Geddes Database

Job 558, International Business Machines, 1943-1953

Summary: Between late 1943 and 1947, Geddes’s office worked for IBM on the design of business machines and workstations, notably designing the enclosure for the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), an electromechanical computer for Harvard, which named it the Mark I, and a new casing for IBM’s electric typewriter. Geddes’s partners in this enterprise were Katherine B. Gray, Roger L. Nowland, and Peter Schladermundt. By mid-March 1944, the partnership had dissolved, but existing contractual obligations were completed under the name of Norman Bel Geddes & Company, using the “same personnel ... now engaged ... with identical supervision and standards of operation.”

The job file consolidates designs and prospects for calculators, a paper rack and calculator exhibit (jobs 511, 517, 518, 519, 568), a secretarial desk and chair (jobs 558, 564), a typewriter (jobs 559, 565), a truck (jobs 532, 563), the "Think" sign and magazine (job 561), a card punching machine (job 567), a building (job 568), and a building sign (job 569).


(click image for description)

Box/Location Folder Description
box 44 558.1 Client Correspondence, meeting minutes, memo 1944-1947.
box 44 558.2 Legal --- Contracts - Harvard calculator, accounting machine, paper rack 1943-1944. Patent Application - Typewriter 1948.
box 44 558.3 Harvard Calculator Housing --- Job Diary 1943-1944.
photo box 18 558.1 Secretarial Desk --- 36 Photographs.
flat file 558.1 Secretarial Desk --- 1 Photograph.
negative box 30 558.1-2 Secretarial Desk --- 75 Negatives.
damaged flat files, drawer 12 558.1 Secretarial Desk --- 20 Drawings and sketches, 23 blueprints.
damaged flat box 19 558.1 Secretarial Desk --- 28 Drawings and sketches, 14 blueprints.
box 44 558.4 Truck --- Photograph Negative Record Sheet 1946.
damaged flat files, drawer 12 558.2 Truck --- 7 Drawings, 2 photostats.
damaged flat box 19 558.2 Truck --- 17 Drawings and sketches, 25 blueprints, 7 photostats.
flat box 13a 558.6 Truck --- 10 small wooden models.
photo box 18 558.2 Truck --- 14 Photographs of 2 models.
negative box 30 558.3a Truck --- 41 Negatives.
negative box 52 558.3b Truck --- 41 Negatives (continued). [nitrate]
negative box 31 558.4 Truck --- 41 Negatives. (continued)
box 44 558.5 Typewriter --- Publicity - Photostats, clippings, letter sent 1952.
photo box 18 558.3 Typewriter --- 26 Photographs of models and of existing designs.
negative box 31 558.5 Typewriter --- 34 Negatives.
damaged flat files, drawer 12 558.3 Typewriter --- 7 Drawings, sketches, blueprints 1946.
damaged flat box 19 558.3 Building at 20 & 22 E. 57th St. --- 4 Blueprints.
box 44 558.6 Data Transceiver --- Letters rec., manual, brochure 1954.

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