Swenson Granite Company Records, 1856-2014\n

Title:

Swenson Granite Company Records, 1856-2014\n

Creator:

Swenson Granite Company
Rock of Ages (Firm)

Accession / Call Number:

2017.111

Object ID:

2017.111

Date:

1856

Physical Description:

125 boxes, 137 volumes, and 10 oversized boxes

Scope and Content:

The Swenson Granite Company Records, 1856-2014, consist of the business records of the Swenson Granite Company (the John Swenson Granite Company, Swenson Granite Works, etc.), Rock of Ages, and their many subsidiaries. This extensive collection of records has been separated into a number of series, subseries, and sub-subseries by company: Swenson Granite Company and Rock of Ages. \n \n The Swenson Granite Company materials span from 1856 to 2014 and consist of executive and administrative records, financial records, contracted projects, corporate acquisitions, promotional materials, patents, building plans, and photographs. \n \n The executive and administrative records include meeting minutes, internal and external correspondence, leases, permits, health surveys, strategic plans, union agreements, etc. Contracts for jobs, with retailers, and with other companies, such as the Boston and Maine Railroad, can be found throughout the administrative records. Some employee records exist in the collection, primarily as index cards which include the employee's name, date of hire, and other identifying information, such as their date and place of birth, height, and weight. \n \n Association records, for which members of the Swenson family served on the board, are also represented and themselves contain correspondence, financials, meeting minutes, and by-laws. These include such associations as the American Granite Curb Producers Association and the National Building Granite Quarries Association.\n \n This collection also contains approximately 37 boxes and 130 volumes of Swenson Granite Company financials, including account books, tax files, accounting files, and monthly or yearly financial statements. Project files, which contain contracts, bills, correspondence, and articles, include notable projects such as the CBS Headquarters in New York, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, and the House of Representatives Office Building in Washington, DC. A large collection of building plans and architectural drawings, organized by job number, remains unprocessed at this time.\n \n Corporate acquisitions by both Swenson Granite and Rock of Ages contain information on the companies that were acquired, considered for acquisition, or entered into agreements with either company. These folders contain a variety of materials from correspondence and financial records to advertisements and environmental surveys. A few of the companies include: Anderson-Friberg Company, Inc.; Childs & Childs Granite Company; Coggins Granite, Inc.; Fletcher Granite Company, Inc.; Keystone Granite Co.; Quarry Capital Limited; Royalty Granite Corporation; and Woodbury Quarries, Inc.\n \n A number of patents, building plans, and drawings are included from both companies. The patents include those applied for by employees, which contain the patents themselves, copies of patents for research, and correspondence regarding those patents. The collection also contains drawings and plans of quarries, the Swenson Granite Company property, machinery, and products.\n \n Promotional materials range from advertisements and brochures to speeches and media articles/press releases from both companies. These materials provide an insight into the types of granite being produced and sold, the projects the companies worked on, and noteworthy events within the company that the media reported on. Information on silicosis, a lung disease caused by exposure to the granite dust, and the work of Swenson Granite in combating the disease, for which they were a leader in the field, is also included.\n \n Dated and undated photographs of the Swenson Granite Company, their projects, and their quarries around the world, including those related to Rock of Ages is also in the collection. The majority of photographs of projects are of the completed project, but there are a few images of the installation and quarrying of materials. Very few people are identified in these images. Notable projects photographed include the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, the CBS Building in New York, the Plymouth Rock Monument, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Other images include a number of images from Swenson's World War II operations.\n \n The business papers of Rock of Ages date from 1926 to 2010, with the bulk of materials dating from the 1990s. These materials include correspondence, governance, court cases, union agreements, employee handbooks, financial records, corporate acquisitions, patents, drawings, promotional materials, and records from Rock of Ages Asia, Rock of Ages Canada, and Rock of Ages International.\n \n While the vast majority of correspondence pertains to their business, some political correspondence is can also be found in this collection, including letters dated 1991 from Congressman Bernie Sanders, Senator James M. Jeffords, and President George H. W. Bush, who were responding to a petition sent to the White House supporting Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait (Box 68, Folder 14). Some notable events are also represented in the correspondence, including a letter dated September 14, 2001 calls for a moment of silence and prayer after the September 11th terrorist attacks (Box 81, Folder 6). \n \n Other materials include meeting minutes, granite reports, retreat papers, and annual reports. The bulk of documents is on the corporate reorganization and initial public offering of Rock of Ages in the 1990s. Prominent court cases in this collection include a dispute over a sign on I-89 and a 1994 quarry death.\n \n The Rock of Ages financials consist primarily of monthly or yearly financial statements prepared by the company or an outside accounting firm, and most include information on the Swenson Group: Rock of Ages, Swenson Granite, Royalty Granite, and Rock of Ages Canada.\n \n The records of Rock of Ages Asia, Rock of Ages Canada, and Rock of Ages International consist primarily of correspondence, but also include agreements, meeting minutes, financial documents, and reorganization or dissolution papers.\n \n A small series of Swenson family papers, dated from 1871 to 2002, is also included in this collection. Materials in this series are sparse and consist of a variety of documents, including correspondence, a bible, stock records, insurance, estate papers, and John Swenson's naturalization papers. Also included with the family materials is memorabilia, which consists of four newspapers marking important United States events, including new tax laws, Pearl Harbor, the end of World War II, and the attacks of September 11, 2001 (Box 118, Folders 13-16). Eight folders of family photographs, the majority of which are undated and contain unidentified persons, show the Swenson family, house, school portraits, and some of their travels.\n \n For a family history, written by John Swenson (grandson to the John Swenson who founded the John Swenson Granite Company) in May 1988, see Box 118, Folder 10.

Subjects:

Account books, Business records, Business, Granite industry and trade, Granite quarrying, Quarries and quarrying

Locations:

Concord, NH
Barre, VT

People:

Swenson, John, Swenson, Kneeland, Swenson, Kurt, Swenson, Kevin

Credit Line:

Gift of Kurt and Kevin Swenson and all the other former owners of Swenson Granite Company from October 18, 1883 to September 16, 2016.

Restrictions:

Available for research.

Level Description:

Collection