Preliminary Guide to the N. N. Hill Brass Company Records
Preliminary arrangement and description by D. Tambo
Department of Special Collections
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone: (805) 893-3062
Fax: (805) 893-5749
Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html
© 2010
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Preliminary Guide to the N. N. Hill Brass Company Records
Collection number: Mss 47
Department of Special Collections
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
- Processed by:
- D. Tambo
- Date Completed:
- Sept. 15, 2006
- Latest revision:
- J. Mundy, 30 July 2008
- Encoded by:
- A. Demeter
© 2010 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
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
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.
Box 1
Apr. 8, 1891 - Jan. 2, 1892
Box 1
Jan. 2, 1892 – Sept. 20, 1892
Box 1
Sept. 21, 1892 – June 7, 1893
Box 1
Feb. 22, 1892 – Dec. 13, 1893
Box 2
July 16, 1894 – Nov. 28, 1894
Box 2
Aug. 21, 1895 - Nov. 18, 1895
Box 2
Nov. 18, 1895 – Jan. 30, 1896
Box 2
Jan. 31, 1896 – Apr. 4, 1896
Box 3
Apr. 4, 1896 – June 16, 1896
Box 3
Dec. 4, 1896 – Jan. 23, 1897
Box 3
Mar. 16, 1897 – May 3, 1897
Box 3
May 4, 1897 – July 21, 1897
Box 4
July 22, 1897 – Oct. 4, 1897
Box 4
Oct. 5, 1897 – Dec. 9, 1897
Box 4
Feb. 10, 1898 – Apr. 14, 1898
Box 4
Oct. 6, 1898 – Dec. 22, 1898
Box 5
Dec. 22, 1898 – Apr. 3, 1899
Box 5
May 26, 1899 – Oct. 10, 1899
Box 5
July 13, 1899 – Jan. 18, 1900
Box 6
Jan. 19, 1900 – Apr. 14, 1900
Box 6
Apr. 14, 1900 – Aug. 4, 1900
Box 6
Mar. 11, 1901 – May 31, 1901
Box 7
June 24, 1902 – Sept. 23, 1902
Box 7
Sept. 24, 1902 – Jan. 17, 1903
Box 7
Mar. 28, 1903 – Jan. 22, 1904
