Finding Aid for the Henry Heil Chemical Company Records Biomed.0463

Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections

Title: Henry Heil Chemical Company records

Source: Selvaggio, Marc (Bookseller)

Identifier/Call Number: Biomed.0463

Physical Description: 0.4 Linear Feet (1 box)

Date (inclusive): 1884-1916

Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Language of Material: Materials are in English.

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Property rights to the physical objects belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

[Identification of item], Henry Heil Chemical Company Records (Collection 463). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.

Purchased from Marc Selvaggio from the Franklin E. Murphy, M.D. Fund, 2012.

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

UCLA Catalog Record ID: 7103610 

The collection consists of more than 130 pieces, including approximately 70 pages of letters and invoices, from 40 different firms, and includes approximately 60 different catalogues and brochures. The letters---on company letterheads, including some elaborate, illustrated, engraved letterhead--present detailed, specific information on product features, availability, prices and terms. The Heil Company noted that its customer base was "mines, smelters, iron & steel works, schools, colleges, and universities," and it principally sold items used in testing, such as for academic and industrial laboratories, doctors' and hospital labs, medical schools, etc. The correspondence, product pamphlets and catalogs, wholesale price lists, and other items--all from the suppliers to Heil--represent a wide range of products, such as ampoules, syringes, water purification devices, pharmaceutical machinery, sterilizers, measuring instruments, atomizers, cultures, Bunsen burners, and gas (e.g., nitrous oxide) canisters. As responses to Heil Company's inquiries to do public catalog resale of chemicals, drugs, equipment, and instruments, they document the relationship between a distributor and mostly small manufacturing firms that supplied specialized products. The materials originally were filed away by Heil in plain envelopes, which were not retained. Most of the original stamped covers from the firms were discarded at time of receipt, but some remain.