Special Collections Department
J.K. Wright Printing
Ink Company
Records
1852 - 1923
Manuscript Collection Number: 411
Accessioned: Gift of Ethyl Sparks
Sikes, 1991 and 1993
Extent: .5 linear feet
Content: Prints, letterhead, minutes,
ledger, and magazines
Access: The collection is open for research.
Processed: Sally W. Donatello,
May 2001
Special Collections, University of Delaware Library
Newark, Delaware 19717-5267
(302) 831-2229
Table of Contents
Introductory Note
J.K. Wright Printing Ink Company, located in center- city Philadelphia, was originally incorporated in 1902 in Camden, New Jersey. Its purpose was “to manufacture printers and lithographers inks, varnishes, plate oils, pigments, paints and oils, and kindred products and to buy, sell, trade, deal in and with the same.” The principals of the company were John K. Wright, Henry J. Kingsbury, and W.L. Wier. Wright held the majority stock of eight shares, while the other principals each had one share. Officers elected at the first board meeting were J.K. Wright, president; Henry A. Ingram, secretary; and, William Shuman, treasurer.
John K. Wright had owned a business at 26th and Aspen Street in Philadelphia, and he sold his equipment to the newly-formed business at 26th Street above Pennsylvania Avenue. The sign on the building, as depicted on prints and letterhead in the collection, read “J.K. Wright & Co. and Fairmount Printing Ink Works.” After Wright died in the summer of 1904, George W. Wright was unanimously elected president. Other officers were secretary Wallace L. Wright and treasurer M. Josephine Wright.
Source:
Introductory note obtained from the collection.
Scope and Content Note
The J.K. Wright Printing Ink Company Records, spanning the dates 1852-1923, consists of .5 linear feet of prints, letterhead, minutes, ledger, and magazines. This small collection documents an ink business at the beginning of the twentieth century in Philadelphia. The majority of the records consists of minutes from the company’s first three years and a ledger with formulas to make inks. The ink- stained ledger lists formulas for job batches such as “Portrait Black Ink,” “Black Peate Ink,” and “Dull Finish Stamping Ink.” There are two documents about shareholders and their stock holdings. Additionally, there are prints showing the façade of the company’s building and sheets of company letterhead. Issues of magazines relating to the printing industry published in the 1920s include Yours Truly, A Magazine about Letters and Letter Writing (1922) and The Blue Pencil (1922-1923).
Related Collections:
Ms 408 Sparks Family Papers
F2 Photographs—for a photograph of Grace Wright, who was related to the Sparks
family.
Contents List
Box -- Folder -- Contents
1 F1 Print, n.d.
An Asher & Adams’s black-and-white image of the
printing company
5 3/8 “ x 7”
F2 Letterhead (10 items)
Company logo in black and white; includes address
at 243 S. 10th Street, Philadelphia
F3 Minutes, 1902-1905
Company minutes from incorporation to a year after
the death of the first owner, John K. Wright
F4 Ledger, 23 Jan 1909-19 Nov 1912 (3 items)
Seventy-six pages of formulas for inks; verso of
cover has a label with the following: James
Arnold Blank Book Manufacturer, No. 518 Minor St,
Philadelphia; laid in the ledger were two prints
of the company’s building, printed in yellow ink,
on the verso are formulas for inks
F5 Financial documents, 1906 (2 items)
Stockholders’ information
F6 Magazines, 1922-1923 (8 items)
Copies of The Blue Pencil
F7 Magazines, 1922 (2 items)
Copies of Truly Yours, A Magazine of Letters and
Letter Writing
F8 Certificate, 1885
Attendance, conduct & lessons record for George
Wright from the N.W. Boys’Gram [mar] School
2 Contents of F4
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Last modified: 01/19/11
