Nash Motors Company Records, 1890-1938

Collection context

Summary

Title:
Nash Motors Company Records
Dates:
1890-1938
Creators:
Thomas B. Jeffery Company Nash Motors Company
Abstract:
Extent:
(Boxes: 5 legal, 14 letter, 6 1/2 letter, 1 record storage)
Language:
Preferred citation:

Nash Motors Company Records. Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Background

Scope and content:

The records were created by the Thomas B. Jeffery Company of Kenosha, Wisconsin and the Nash Motors Company of Maryland. Correspondence; financial and accounting records; insurance records; purchase contracts and inventory lists; Rambler price and parts lists, catalogs, sales brochures and magazines; patents. A few personal papers of Thomas B. Jeffery’s last will and testament and estate. Notable are clippings, correspondence, patent records and lawsuit records beginning in 1902 for challenges by George B. Selden’s patent to automobile manufacturers. Papers include the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, a group formed to collectively defend against the patent challenge. The collection also includes the following: a magazine article (dated 1975) about Thomas B. Jeffery; and NHM curator notes (dated 1977).

Biographical / historical:

Jeffery produced its first automobile in the U.S. in 1902. In 1916 the Jeffery Company was sold to the Nash Motors Company which moved its headquarters to Kenosha.

Indexed terms

Subjects:
Automobile industry and trade.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid created by Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County staff.
Date Prepared:
1890-1938
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using Record Express for OAC5 on July 14, 2025, 2:55 p.m.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Research is by appointment only

Terms of access:

Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder

Preferred citation:

Nash Motors Company Records. Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Location of this collection:
900 Exposition Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90007-4057, US
Contact:
(213) 763-3359