Manuscripts Collection
William Boss was the fourth of eleven children (nine of whom lived to adulthood) born to Janette and Andrew Boss. Born on October 7, 1869, William spent his childhood on the family farm in Gilford township, near Zumbro Falls, Minnesota. As a young man he apprenticed himself in the carpentry and building trade but soon followed his brother Andrew to the University of Minnesota School of Agriculture. While he didn't share his brother's interest in farming, he wanted to take advantage of courses such as manual training, which instructed students in the use of mechanical drawing tools, as well as classes in mathematics and physics. Boss's aptitude for things mechanical soon led to a position as an instructor in steam engineering and eventually as a full-time professor at the school in a new field called agricultural engineering.
In 1895 Boss married Edna Rider (b. 1871) of Oak Center, Minnesota. The couple bought a house in St. Paul's St. Anthony Park neighborhood. It was there that Boss began the Specialty Manufacturing Company in 1900 (see below for history of the Specialty Mfg. Co.). By 1909, the business had grown big enough to compete seriously with Boss's teaching obligations at the University. He decided to resign from his teaching position to devote himself to the new company, but the pressures of World War I soon brought him back to the University. The School of Agriculture had contracted with the government to train soldiers and needed Boss to lecture and supervise. With many of his best men gone to the service, Boss was at first reluctant to leave his growing business. He eventually agreed to come back on a part-time basis and by the end of the war had resumed full-time work, now as head of the department.
In addition to his success in business, Boss was respected for his contributions in the emerging field of agricultural engineering. He was largely responsible for founding the agricultural engineering department at the University of Minnesota, pioneered the creation of its curricula, and designed the first major building to house it. He was a charter member and president of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and in 1943 was awarded the John Deere Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Application of Science and Art to the Soil. Around 1945 he started the Boss Engineering Company with sons Ronald and Harlan, which did consulting and development work for other companies.
Boss also gave his time to many other scientific, social, civic, and fraternal organizations. An active church-goer, Boss was ordained as an elder of St. Paul's Central Presbyterian Church in 1919 and was head of the church's finance committee for over thirty years.
William and Edna Boss had two sons, Ronald and Harlan. After Edna passed away in 1953, Boss's niece, Florence Anding, became his housekeeper and companion. Boss remained active all his life, and continued to report to work at Specialty Mfg. Co. well into his 80s. William Boss died in 1965.
Harlan David Boss was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1908, the second son of William and Edna Boss. In 1932 he graduated from the University of Minnesota's interior decorating program (then called "interior architecture"), which was taught through the School of Engineering and Architecture. After an unsuccessful stint selling venetian blinds, he moved on to a position with Yungbauer Interiors in downtown St. Paul. In 1938 the World's Fair drew him to New York City. Entranced by the beauty of that city and attracted by the opportunities, he decided to stay and spent several years designing glass lamps, goblets, and bottles for an export company before World War II and the draft loomed. Boss enlisted in the army, where he was trained in radio and intelligence, and spent the final years of the war in Europe. His company followed the front through England, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, but never saw combat.
After returning to the United States at the end of the war, Boss
worked for his father in the Specialty Manufacturing Company but continued to
pursue interior decorating jobs on the side. After about ten years, he had
mustered enough customers to start his own business, Boss Interiors, in St.
Paul's Midway area. He was soon joined by Gene Dawley of New York, who became
his partner in the business as well as his closest friend and life-long
companion. The pair were soon in demand by local theaters, galleries, arts
organizations, and individuals. News about Boss's design work for such events
as the Minneapolis Symphony Ball and the "Fiesta Mall" in downtown St. Paul was
featured regularly in the women's section of the
Through his work with the William Boss Foundation, Boss gained a reputation as a patron of the arts and his close friends included many individuals prominent in that arena, such as choreographer, artistic director, and founder of the Minnesota Dance Theater Loyce Houlton, and St. Paul Opera founder and general director Virginia Olson. Boss and Dawley entertained frequently in their home on St. Paul's Portland Avenue, playing host to everything from theater opening night receptions to elaborate Christmas parties for the neighborhood children.
Although he chose to focus his career on his interior decorating business, Boss remained a board member of the Specialty Mfg. Co. and was chairman from 1966 until his death in February 1993 at age 83.
Frustrated by the extra time he had to spend raking up grass clippings after mowing the lawn of his St. Paul home, William Boss came up with the idea of constructing a grass catcher out of wire and canvas which could be easily attached and detached from the mower. The enthusiasm of neighbors and friends for the new device encouraged Boss to begin producing them for sale, and the invention became the start of the Specialty Manufacturing Company in 1900. Sales grew so quickly that before long Boss moved his business to its own factory, eventually ending up on University Avenue (1915-1990s) and later in White Bear Lake (1990s on). The easy-emptying grass catcher was soon followed by several other popular products, including the flow-through detachable hose reel and the acme egg weighing scale. The company soon developed a full line of home lawn and garden care products, including multiple models of hose reels, grass catchers, and water sprinklers. From the mid-1960s on, Specialty focused on flow control products and shut-off valves for all types of liquids under pressure. The original grass catcher remained one of their most popular products, however; the same model was manufactured from 1902 to the early 1980s.
As the name Specialty Manufacturing Company aptly suggests, much of the company's business, especially after 1934, came from custom manufacturing on a contract basis. During World War II they made a number of products under government contract, such as a round washer for use in the manufacture of war products. Another major client was Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (later 3M) for whom the Specialty Mfg. Co. developed and produced Scotch tape dispensers. Other products produced for 3M, their biggest single customer for contract work, have included bow tying machines and box sealing ribbon.
Though it was incorporated in 1947, Specialty Mfg. Co. has remained essentially a family-run company. Founder William Boss acted as its first chairman, director, and general manager, followed by his son Ronald Boss - and in later years - his granddaughter and other descendants.
The collection includes both personal papers of Boss family members and family business records. The bulk of the collection consists of the personal papers of William Boss, a professor and head of the agricultural engineering program at the University of Minnesota and founder of the Specialty Manufacturing Company; those of his son Harlan Boss, a St. Paul interior designer and patron of the arts; and genealogical information on the Boss and related families. The collection also includes records, dating primarily from the 1950s through the 1980s, of the Specialty Manufacturing Company, the Boss family business, which specialized in the manufacture home lawn care tools and flow control products. An additional small body of records of the William Boss Foundation is also included in the collection.
These records are divided into the following five sections:
The following related materials are separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society's book collections:
Two memoirs by William Boss,
Two engineering textbooks by William Boss,
Numerous publications of the Central Presbyterian Church (Saint Paul, Minn.).
Catalogs of flow control products from the Specialty Manufacturing Company.
The following related materials are separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society's museum collections:
Promotional display materials and samples of products manufactured by the Specialty Manufacturing Company, including the grass catcher, hose rack, and egg scale.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should
Accession number: 15,183
Processed by: Lara D. Friedman-Shedlov, January 1998
Catalog ID number: 09-00319546
Genealogical material in the collection was collected primarily by William Boss, his son, Harlan Boss, and his niece, Florence Anding. The materials, primarily correspondence, press clippings, and family charts, document the Boss and related families, including the Bartlett/Bartelot and Rider families. A series of notebooks created by Florence Anding are particularly rich in information on the Boss family and include several round robin letters circulated among the family members during the 1930s and 1940s as well as copies of other family correspondence.
Ernest Rider was the brother of Edna Rider Boss.
The clippings and other materials in the scrapbook were probably collected by Florence Anding.
Material in these files was formerly bound in three notebooks.
Papers in this series document the career of William Boss and his marriage and life with Edna Rider Boss. Materials include scrapbooks, photos and photo albums, and correspondence, as well as records relating to Boss's work in the field of agricultural engineering and as head of the Finance Committee of the Central Presbyterian Church.
Material in this series consists of miscellaneous personal papers and records, primarily concerning Boss's family and marriage. Photos and photo albums depicting Boss and his extended family make up a large portion of this series.
Mainly family shots, including the Boss, Lamb, and Knight families, as well as travel and some photos of iron mines near Crosby, Minn.
Family and travel.
Includes photos of Boss's parents, Janette Nisbett Boss and Andrew Boss II; Boss and siblings; and wedding photos with Edna Rider Boss.
Includes photos of the Boss's siblings and their families, including the Marshall Boss Lamb, Andrew Boss III, Jean Boss Knight, and Alexander Boss families. Also includes photos of Edna Rider Boss's family.
Includes notes on important events in Boss's life, technical diagrams, and lecture notes on engineering.
Boss often wrote clever, rhyming verses to hand out with Christmas favors for each member of the family or for other special occasions.
Includes a copy of the wedding service, a family record, the signatures of witnesses, and signatures of guests at their twenty-fifth and fiftieth wedding anniversaries.
Correspondence in the papers consists primarily of personal and business-related letters and is arranged roughly chronologically. The files include mostly letters received by Boss but also contain copies of some out-going correspondence. Following the chronological series of correspondence is a small group of topical files in no particular order. While most of the correspondence in the papers was written to or by William Boss, this series also includes some letters received by Edna Rider Boss in the years before their marriage.
Courtship correspondence with Edna Rider not only provide a picture of the couple's evolving relationship, but document Boss's early years at the University of Minnesota.
Each year or group of years is arranged in roughly alphabetical order by topic or correspondent. Note that while the dates marked on the files are generally correct, many files have some material from years other than those indicated. The correspondence varies from routine business communications to detailed personal letters to and from friends and family members.
Note that additional correspondence on the subject or from the individual or organization named on the file may also appear in the series of alphabetical business and personal correspondence files.
The collection includes correspondence, articles, newsletters, photographs, and other miscellaneous papers documenting Boss's work in the field of agricultural engineering at the University of Minnesota. Materials concern Boss's University teaching position, administrative matters within the department, School of Agriculture class reunions, and the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, of which Boss was a founding member. A number of articles and lectures written by Boss on the subject of agricultural engineering are also included.
Photographs are mostly unidentified, but primarily depict classrooms and workshops at the School of Agriculture, some showing students at work. Also included are several photos of alumni reunions.
The papers include annual reports, bulletins, tracts, correspondence, finance committee reports, expense statements, and other materials relating to Boss's involvement with the Central Presbyterian Church, where he was a long-standing member and an elder. Most of the files concern Boss's work as head of the church's finance committee, particularly the annual "every member" fund raising campaign. Other prominent issues include the endowment campaign, fund raising for church redecoration, and financial support for a church basketball team.
Papers of William Boss's son Harlan include correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, and records related to his interior decorating business, Boss Interiors. The bulk of the papers in the collection date from the 1940s and document Boss's experiences in the army, particularly his travels throughout Europe during World War II. In addition to the one folder of inventories, photographs, and other related records concerning Boss Interiors, information on Boss's work as an interior decorator can be found in the folder of press clippings.
Mostly concerning Harlan Boss's work as an interior designer.
These scrapbooks contain photographs, drawings, and postcards collected by Harlan Boss during his World War II service in Europe. Churches and other architectural features of the cities he visited are a major focus of the scrapbooks.
The William Boss Foundation was formed by Harlan Boss with an endowment from the Boss family to assist, through major arts organizations in the Twin Cities, young performers in need of scholarships or stipends. The collection contains very little information on the formation and structure of the foundation, but it appears to have been administered through the Specialty Manufacturing Company. Records documenting the finances of the foundation and the manner in which funds were distributed are more abundant. The bulk of the material consists of board minutes, reports of contributions authorized, and financial statements. A small amount of correspondence with organizations applying for funds is also included.
Records of the Boss family business, the Specialty Manufacturing Company, consist primarily of two types of material: administrative and financial records, including minutes, sales reports, and balance sheets; and promotional materials, including catalogs, advertising, and other sales materials. Though the company was started by William Boss in 1900, the bulk of the records date from the 1950s and later.
Includes labeled photos of employees at work doing clerical work and making grass catchers, hose reels, and tape dispensers, as well as photos of the Specialty Mfg. Co. building on University Avenue.