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Preliminary Guide to the N. N. Hill Brass Company Records
Mss 47  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access Restrictions
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms
  • Additional Materials

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: N. N. Hill Brass Company Records
    Dates: 1891-1904
    Collection number: Mss 47
    Creator: N. N. Hill Brass Company
    Collection Size: 2.8 linear feet (7 document boxes)
    Repository: University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Dept. of Special Collections
    Santa Barbara, CA 93106
    Abstract: The collection contains 25 letter books of the N. N. Hill Brass Company of Middleton, CT, which manufactured bells and toys. Copies of approximately 12,500 letters are included in the letter books. Many deal with shipment of goods and related matters. Some are faint and barely legible. It appears, from the gaps in the date spans, that some volumes are lacking in the collection.
    Physical location: SRLF.
    Languages: English

    Access Restrictions

    None.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

    Preferred Citation

    [Item description, folder title, box number]. N. N. Hill Brass Company Records. Mss 47. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

    Acquisition Information

    Gift of William P. Wreden, in honor of Martha H. Peterson, 1975.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The collection contains 25 letter books of the N. N. Hill Brass Company of Middleton, CT, which manufactured bells and toys. Copies of approximately 12,500 letters are included in the letter books. Many deal with shipment of goods and related matters. Some are faint and barely legible. It appears, from the gaps in the date spans, that some volumes are lacking in the collection.
    Norman N. Hill began his career with the Barton Bell Company and later started his own company. Among the items manufactured were tea bells, electric gongs, trinity chimes, telephone chime boxes, bicycle bells, and sleight bells. Later, in the 1930s, N. N. Hill received the Walt Disney toy contract, which became a major portion of their business. Product lines included bell-ringing pull toys and toy telephones with Disney characters. The N. N. Hill Brass Company no longer is in existence.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    N. N. Hill Brass Company
    Toymakers

    Additional Materials

    The Romaine Trade Catalog Collection (Mss 107) contains two boxes of toy company catalogs.
    Additional archival materials on N.N. Hill are held at the Connecticut Historical Society Library ( http://www.chs.org/index.htm ).