Last (Jay T.) Collection of Fashion: Honig & Schutter Business Correspondence, 1884-1890

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Summary

Title:
Jay T. Last Collection of Fashion: Honig & Schutter Business Correspondence
Dates:
1884-1890
Creators:
Last, Jay T.
Abstract:
The Honig & Schutter business correspondence, a subset within the Jay T. Last Collection of Fashion Prints and Ephemera, contains records of the Honig & Schutter clothing dealers of Hazelton, Pennsylvania. The approximately 65 billheads and related documents from 1884 to 1890 focus on merchandise and supplies purchased by Honig & Schutter, including clothing, footwear, headwear, and accessories.
Extent:
approximately 65 items in 1 binder
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

[Item title]. Jay T. Last Collection of Fashion: Honig & Schutter Business Correspondence, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The Honig & Schutter business correspondence, a subset within the Jay T. Last Collection of Fashion Prints and Ephemera, contains approximately 65 items that date from 1884 to 1890. The collection features billheads and related items sent to Honig & Schutter of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, that document merchandise for men and children purchased for resale by the company, including clothing; headwear; footwear; and accessories such as men's collars, cuffs, neckwear, handkerchiefs, and gloves. Over 35 wholesale dealers are represented in the collection.

The materials include predominantly handwritten billheads from a variety of businesses in and around the northeastern United States, particularly New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Some billheads have engraved or lithographed images of commercial buildings, although the majority contain only text.

Biographical / historical:

The Jay T. Last Collection is an unparalleled archive of printed paper artifacts that documents American lithographic, social, and business history. The collection began in the early 1970s when physicist and Silicon Valley pioneer Jay Last moved to Southern California and started collecting citrus box labels he found at local flea markets and rummage sales. As his collection grew, Last realized that these labels conveyed important information about commercial printing, graphic design, and social history, and he expanded his collection to include other forms of American visual culture. Today this collection contains more than 200,000 lithographic prints, posters, and ephemera of mostly nineteenth and early twentieth century American origin and represents works by more than five hundred lithographic companies.

Clothing, footwear, and headwear retailers Isaac Honig and George Schutter of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, sold merchandise for men and children during the latter part of the 19th century. Honig and his sons continued to operate the business into the 1930s under various names.

Acquisition information:
This collection forms part of the Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, which was donated to the Huntington Library by Jay T. Last in 2005 as a gift in progress. The bulk of the fashion ephemera was transferred to the Library between 2010 and 2013 . The Honig Schutter records described in this finding aid were received by the Library as part of other ephemera within the Jay T. Last Collection and is organized according to correspondent.
Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in 1 binder alphabetically by correspondent.

Rules or conventions:
Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Note:

Finding aid last updated on September 23, 2015.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Charla DelaCuadra.
Date Prepared:
© 2014
Date Encoded:
Machine readable finding aid encoded by Charla DelaCuadra in November 2014 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Item title]. Jay T. Last Collection of Fashion: Honig & Schutter Business Correspondence, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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