Manuscripts Collection
Andersen Corporation was founded in 1903 as the Andersen Lumber Company by Danish immigrant Hans Jacob Andersen and his family at Hudson, Wisconsin. In 1929 the name of the firm was changed to Andersen Frame Company and in 1937 to Andersen Corporation.
The company began making window frames at its small Hudson plant in mid-1904. In 1905 Hans introduced an innovative two-bundle method of designing and shipping unassembled window frames. Eleven sets of horizontal parts were manufactured in different lengths and another eleven sets of vertical parts were made in different lengths, that in various combinations enabled the company to provide window frames in 121 sizes that (it was said) could be assembled by a carpenter in fewer than ten minutes. The company moved across the St. Croix River to South Stillwater, Minnesota in 1913, where land was available and a larger manufacturing plant was built on a site formerly occupied by a sawmill. South Stillwater's name was changed to Bayport in 1922.
The company initially manufactured only window frames, but in the 1930s it began to produce complete window units. Product lines that were later introduced included the Master Frame Casement Window (1930), the firm's basement window (1934), its Narroline Window (1938), Horizontal Gliding Window (1940), Pressure Seal Window (1946), Flexivent Window (1952), Beauty-Line Window (1957), Strutwall Window (1959), Perma-Shield Window (1966), High-Performance Glass (1983), and its Series 200 and Series 400 products (2000). Andersen's first gliding door was introduced in 1966, and its Frenchwood door went into production in 1989.
During the Second World War the company produced wooden ammunition boxes for the armed forces, earning two prestigious Army-Navy "E" awards in the process.
Andersen's frames were originally constructed of White Pine lumber. Other varieties of wood were later used as well. Fibrex, a new wood-vinyl composite material, began to be used by the company in the manufacture of its products in 1991.
Andersen Corporation initiated its popular profit-sharing plan in 1914. It began the ALCO Benefit Club in 1916, which provided sick leave for employees. It offered its first paid life insurance plan to its employees in 1919. Paid vacations were introduced in 1923. A company-paid pension plan was introduced in 1943, and a stock ownership plan for employees was introduced in 1975. The company has always been and remains a non-union shop.
Presidents of the corporation have included Hans Andersen (1903-1914); Fred Andersen (1914-1960); Earl Swanson (1960-1968); Bill Hulings (1968-1975); Arvid Wellman (1975-1981); Harold C. Meissner (1981-1991); Jerry Wulf (1991-1998); Don Garofalo (1998-2002); and James E. Humphrey (2002-).
Hans Jacob Andersen left his native Denmark in 1872. He arrived in Spring Valley, Minnesota, in 1874, where he started a construction business and owned a lumber yard. He moved to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, in 1887 when he purchased a wholesale lumber company there. In 1889 he moved again to St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he owned and operated a sawmill. Andersen relocated to Hudson, Wisconsin, in 1896, where he managed a sawmill and opened a retail lumber yard known as the Wisconsin Lumber and Building Company. Hans married Mary Kezia Cummings of Spring Valley, Minnesota in 1881. The couple had three children: Mary ("Mollie") (d.1947), Herbert (d.1921), and Fred (1886-1979). Mary Cummings Andersen died in childbirth in 1891. Hans married Sarah ("Sadie") McDonald in 1896. He died of a heart attack at Hudson in 1914. Upon Hans' death Fred Andersen was elected president of the corporation, and Herbert Andersen vice president and secretary-treasurer.
The collection includes financial journals and ledgers, advertising proofs and job files, product catalogs, employee newsletters, employee handbooks and benefit plans, legal files, trade mark and patent documents, price lists, sales information, details and specifications, service bulletins, installation manuals, and other records. Audio and visual materials include photographs of factory scenes, Andersen products, employees and company executives; videocassettes that feature television commercials; and motion pictures featuring factory production lines.
Most of the material was brought together from various people and departments in the company in connection with the 75th (1978) and 100th (2003) anniversaries of the company. Much of it was used in researching and producing the history books that were written at those times. The records eventually came to be the responsibility of the Public Affairs Department. The collection was donated to the Minnesota Historical Society in November 2007.
The bulk of the material relates to advertising and sales activities. Information about employees and their activities is also included. A series of Historical Files includes a variety of "historical" material, much of which was used in connection with the production of the anniversary history books. There are no annual reports and there is relatively-little recent financial information about the company.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
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
Access to records less than fifty years old requires written permission.
Quotation or publication, beyond the fair use provisions of the copyright law, from records less than fifty years old requires written permission.
Accession number: 16,134.
Initial sort and re-boxing by David Peterson and Emily Buzicky, August 2005; three series fully processed and sound and visual materials further sorted by David Peterson and Dee Ann Olson, April 2006; remainder of collection processed by David Peterson, Richard Arpi, and Kathryn Pase, July 2008.
The project began in the summer of 2005 as an on-site contract processing project, at Andersen Corporation's headquarters offices. By 2007 the company decided to donate the entire collection to the Minnesota Historical Society. The physical transfer took place in November 2007.
Catalog ID number: 006653405
Advertising files consist largely of print advertisements for Andersen products, including advertising proofs and magazine tear sheets aimed at the consumer, dealer, and trade markets. The great majority is glossy magazine advertising, dating from about 1970 to the present. There are also advertising portfolios; files on advertising "jobs" undertaken by Campbell-Mithun, the company's advertising agency; information about a Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition co-sponsored by Andersen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City; and "Substantiation Files," which include technical and other data documenting (substantiating) the corporation's advertising claims about energy efficiency and insulating values. The advertising series also includes product literature and information about television and radio advertising campaigns.
Campbell-Mithun was the Minneapolis advertising agency utilized for many years by the Andersen Corporation.
Most of this material was brought together by the company for use in its seventy-fifth and centennial anniversaries.
Ad copy, print ads, correspondence and memoranda, and related papers pertaining to advertising "jobs" undertaken by the Campbell-Mithun advertising agency. Includes correspondence with Campbell-Mithun and the Merchant, Gould, Smith, Edell, Welter and Schmidt law firm (patent, trademark and copyright lawyers).
An exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City that was co-sponsored by Andersen Corporation. Additional materials concerning the exhibition are found in Historical Files.
File includes an optical disk and an audiocassette.
Primarily proofs of magazine advertisements targeted at retail consumers. Some of these are probably also found in Job files.
Oversize proofs of magazine advertisements.
Brochures and pamphlets targeted primarily at the retail consumer.
This group of material includes product literature and miscellaneous printed and other material pertaining to various products manufactured by Andersen. It was brought together by Andersen employees in connection with the company's seventy-fifth and centennial anniversaries.
The file includes a 3.5-inch computer diskette that contains an "electronic sales presentation."
This file includes some information about Minneapolis architect Ralph Rapson's "Glass Cube House," located along the Apple River in western Wisconsin.
Technical data, advertising brochures, and related correspondence and memoranda backing up (substantiating) advertising claims. There is a great deal of correspondence with the Campbell-Mithun advertising agency and with the Merchant, Gould, Smith, Edell, Welter, and Schmidt law firm (patent, trademark, and copyright lawyers).
This series consists mainly of internal company-produced
newsletters, especially the
This publication was apparently produced for customers.
This publication was apparently produced for dealers and vendors.
This publication was produced for employees.
This publication was produced for Andersen employees and their families in order to communicate the company's direction and growth strategies.
This publication was produced for Andersen employees who were serving with the armed forces during World War II.
This material consists largely of detail drawings for window frames, window units, gliding doors, and hardware, and related papers aimed at dealers and jobbers (contractors). The files include blueline and blueprint architectural and mechanical drawings, tracings, detail drawings, microfiche copies of detail drawings, as well as specifications, technical data, and other product information.
This material includes exterior home elevation drawings.
This material consists of a variety of employee-related materials. It includes employee handbooks, training manuals, items related to the employee club (ALCO Club), employee service anniversaries, and materials relating to Andersen's profit-sharing program. Employee newsletters are found in the Company Newsletters record series.
Includes information on the corporation's deferred profit sharing, employee stock ownership, pension and retirement plan, uniform salary plan, triple option health care plan, group life insurance, U.S. government bond investment program, and pre-tax benefit plan.
Gives name, title, number of people supervised, salary, and job duties.
Most of this material was apparently brought together in connection with the company's seventy-fifth and centennial anniversaries.
This directory appears to include headquarters office staff and plant employees, sales staff, Renewal by Andersen (Cottage Grove, Minnesota), Dashwood, and consultants and contractors.
Most of this material was brought together in connection with the company's seventy-fifth and one centennial anniversaries.
Gives employee name, earnings to date, deductions, and total amount of profit sharing check for the semi-annual employee profit sharing program.
Gives hourly rate and yearly earnings.
Gives employee name, date of birth, date of employment, seniority rank and the number of people hired in each year still on the payroll.
This series consists of journals, ledgers, and other financial and accounting records and record books documenting the finances of the main corporation and its two immediate predecessors, Wisconsin Lumber and Building Company and Andersen Lumber Company. Some of the volumes relate to the real estate activities and holdings of the corporation. There are also a variety of unidentified journals and ledgers. The documentation seems most extensive for the years 1900 to about 1930.
See additional Wisconsin Lumber and Building Company financial and accounting and other records in the Related and Subsidiary Companies record series.
See additional Andersen Lumber Company financial and accounting records (1919-1922) in the Related and Subsidiary Companies record series.
These volumes include amounts in columns with headings such as "Freight Credit," "Lumber Credit," "Frames Credit," "Pulleys Credit," and "Moulding Credit."
Volume features figures in multiple columns, but without column headings.
Includes real estate accounts.
This volume seems to document product sales and shipping.
This volume was perhaps the property of Fred C. Andersen.
This series consists of material that was brought together for or produced in connection with the company's seventy-fifth (1978) and one hundredth (2003) anniversaries, as well as miscellaneous "old" items that apparently gravitated to the public affairs staff.
There are company histories, newspaper clippings, booklets and publications; catalogs; advertising proofs, sales-related materials; scrapbooks; and information about the company's war production work during World War II. It includes the Andersen Lumber Company articles of incorporation (1903); articles and speeches by Fred Andersen; photocopies of Hans Andersen's Danish-language emigration documents; a set of moulding books; and a series of posters advertising a 1994 Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (1994) that was sponsored by Andersen.
Most of the material was assembled and/or brought together in
connection with the publication of Andersen's 75th anniversary history book,
Some large sets of material were removed from this series and interfiled as "historical" material with similar items in other record series (e.g., "Historical" advertising files).
This is information about Fred Andersen's home in Bayport, located near the plant along the St. Croix River.
Additional records of this company are in the Financial and Accounting Volues and the Related and Subsidiary Companies record series.
The actual articles of incorporation are in oversize drawer 1, below.
This file includes a VHS videocassette and 10 slides.
This firm was hired by Andersen to construct one or more historical exhibits for the company.
This is a typewritten narrative on Campbell-Mithun stationery.
Correspondents include Joseph E. Arndt, Jim Berg, Donald Wilson, Harold L. Rothschild, Fred Andersen, and Earl Swanson.
This speech was perhaps written by Fred C. Andersen. Among other
things it states that publication of the
This exhibition, which ran from February 20 to May 10, 1994, was co-sponsored by the Andersen Corporation.
This illustrated booklet was published by the Virginia and Rainy Lake Lumber Company, Virginia, Minnesota.
"H. J. Andersen, St. Cloud, Minnesota," is printed on the front cover.
This was an exhibition sponsored by Andersen Corporation at the National Building Museum, Washington, D.C., March 29-August 11, 2003.
Two snapshot photographs of the front page article in the Hudson
This is a copy of seminar paper given by Thomas L. Olchepke [sp?] of Champaign, Illinois, for a class entitled Psychology of Industrial Conflict. The paper was based in part upon an interview with George Hoel of Andersen Corporation.
This file includes a 7-inch reel of audio tape.
This file includes a 50-cent piece (1942).
This booklet was published by the United States Department of
Agriculture as
Includes two copies of
This scrapbook is divided into three sections: Advertising, Mailings, and Publicity. It includes print advertisements, form letters, clippings, sales promotional items, and other materials.
This scrapbook was created by student Weston Belz for his
social studies class. It deals with the history of Andersen Corporation, and
includes clippings,
This scrapbook was apparently created by Clare Stout of
Andersen Corporation. It includes clippings, photographs,
This file includes information about Robert H. Edwards and Laurence McKinley Gould.
This is a photograph of the front page of the newspaper.
This series includes manuals, brochures, booklets, drawings, one-page sheets, pocket guides (folded) and photographs for many product lines. The materials are arranged alphabetically by product, and chronologically within each product category. Two folders of miscellaneous product instructions are found at the end of the series.
Photograph booklet of typical installations of casement windows for the Andersen Frame Corporation.
For casement, awning, gliding, Narroline, double hung, and gliding door products.
Includes A1 casement window; A2 Flexivent window; A3 gliding window; and A4 Pressure Seal window.
Includes triple-glazing applications.
Files relating largely to patent, trademark, and copyright issues and litigation. Includes correspondence with the Merchant, Gould, Smith, Edell, Welter and Schmidt law firm, which represented Andersen in these matters.
This record series is an artificial assemblage of management-level files. It includes some of Fred Andersen's speeches, files related to legislation in which the corporation was particularly interested, its Legislative/Shop/Factory Advisory Committee, operations reports, public affairs files (including clipping files and news releases), and some documentation of the corporation's research activities.
Includes invitations, entertainment committee notes, remarks by Fred Andersen, and news clippings about the party and the profit sharing announcement.
This was a committee of elected representatives from the factory floor and upper management. The name of the committee changed from the Legislative Committee to the Shop Committee in November 1943, and from the Shop Committee to the Factory Advisory Committee in April 1970.
Correspondence with congressmen and other corporations concerning the impact of the Monongahela National Forest decision, which limited clear-cutting in national forests. The Andersen Corporation was concerned that its supply of wood products would be greatly limited if the decision was enacted nationwide or not tempered with further legislative refinement.
Documents the Andersen Corporation's opposition to national legislation that would permit labor unions to picket all gates of a construction site.
Reports contain information on equipment value, manpower status, mill room loss, safety, first aid, plant additions, wages and hours, materials consumed, and products shipped. There is no report for 1980.
Methods Engineering is also included in some of the reports. There is no report for 1983.
Given to groups touring the Andersen plant as a memento.
This record series includes motion pictures and VHS videocassettes.
Motion pictures include about 665 reels of movie film, many of them apparently made as part of a "time study" project undertaken by the company at an unknown date. There are some films of other things as well, including footage of Saint Croix River floods affecting the Andersen plant. The film numbers were assigned by company personnel. This person compiled a long-hand list, which has been transcribed and included here.
Many of the videos are television advertisements featuring Andersen products and product lines. There are also some news stories, as well as internal presentations for the sales force or dealer use.
Several small spools inside a large silver canister.
All moving images are 16mm motion picture film unless otherwise indicated. Many are said to have been made in connection with a "time study" undertaken by the company. The following list was made from a handwritten list compiled and provided by the company. The abbreviations are as they appear on the original list.
This is the original list, handwritten on yellow tablet paper.
This film is missing.
This film is missing.
Factory scene.
Factory scene.
This film is missing.
Factory scene.
This unidentified and undated film was discarded.
Factory scene.
This empty film canister was discarded.
Factory scene.
Factory scene.
This is a list giving the contents of VHS videocassettes 1-16 (628-639, and 645, above).
This is apparently a radio commercial advertisement.
These apparently are collected television commercials.
This white box ("Distributor Representative Case") of training materials for sales representatives includes a VHS videocassette, a Distributor Reference Guide, a Distributor Representative Checklist, and one set of Retailer Profile Sheets. There is also an accompanying Sales Representative Facilitator Guide.
Black-and-white and color enlargements and snapshots, and a few slides, documenting Andersen products and product lines, the Bayport plant, manufacturing activities and processes, the loading and shipping of windows from the plant, executives and employees, Saint Croix River floods that affected the plant, members of the sales force and their periodic meetings, and members of the Andersen family. There are photographs of Andersen windows installed in homes, schools, churches, and business buildings, and in post-World War II suburban tract housing developments. There are some photographs and glass negatives taken by noted Stillwater photographer John Runk.
The Red River Lumber Company, based in Minneapolis, was owned by the family of T. B. Walker.
These are photographs that were pulled together by Andersen employees in connection with the company's seventy-fifth and centennial anniversary books. They are probably what the company considered its best and most interesting photographs.
Some of these photographs are attributed to the Red River Lumber Company (Westwood, California).
Most of these images are connected with the production of the
Andersen centennial history book,
This is an interactive CD-ROM that was apparently produced for use by dealers.
Some of these albums duplicate, or nearly duplicate, each other. Many of the photographs were taken in suburban tract housing developments being built in the Twin Cities and elsewhere.
These are photographs taken at the main Andersen manufacturing plant in Bayport.
This file includes some slides.
These photographs were taken and/or gathered together in
connection with the publication of Andersen's centennial history book,
4 mounted copies of this often-used photograph of meeting attendees on the front steps of the company's general office building.
This material includes price catalogs, price lists, and discount sheets produced for dealers, wholesalers, and jobbers (contractors). They feature product dimensions and specifications, as well as pricing information.
This catalog is also known as List Price Catalog, Suggested List Price Catalog, and as Distributor Suggested List Price Catalog. Catalogs from some years are missing.
Product catalogs were apparently produced for dealer, jobber, and consumer use, and feature the various Andersen products and product lines. A few of the catalogs are in French, German, and Japanese.
After 1992 known as "Commercial Catalog."
These materials were primarily produced for use by dealers and distributors in the sale and promotion of Andersen products. There is some overlap with Advertising files. Much of the material is in the form of glossy product literature. There are also "sales aids" and "helps" produced for use by dealers and the sales force; information about direct mail campaigns to be employed by local dealers; Distributor Advisory Council Meeting Minutes; information manuals; Andersen wall calendars for use by dealers; and information about the Window of Knowledge in-store electronic work station. There is also a set of 36 diaries kept by sales manager Jim Rowland. The material seems to be largely the files of Sales Promotion Manager Jack Ullrich and Marketing Communication Manager Joseph E. Arndt. There are also some files that originated with Dick Stout.
The name of this publication was changed in 1986 to
Includes some slides.
Missing 1973 and 1978.
One of the volumes includes 2 large phonograph records.
Most of this material was brought together by the company at the time of its seventy-fifth and centennial anniversary celebrations.
Duplicate copies of the product literature found inside the kit were discarded.
These are books of price quotation letters.
Circular letters and related papers sent by the company to its regional sales managers.
These are circular letters sent by the company to members of its sales force.
This is a record of railroad cars coming into and sent out of the Andersen plant.
The Window of Knowledge was a computer-powered work station developed to help dealers select and quote Andersen products efficiently and accurately.
This material was apparently produced for use by dealers and contractors, and consists primarily of technical information.
Financial and accounting records of a variety of related, predecessor, and subsidiary companies. Also included are some corporate record (minute) books, stock certificate books, audit reports, newsletters, and some other correspondence and papers. Researchers should consult the Financial and Accounting Volumes record series for additional records of the Andersen Lumber Company and the Wisconsin Lumber and Building Company, and Historical Files for additional records of the Andersen Lumber Company.
Originally "Bayport Foundry Company."
Says "General Records, Bayport Foundry Co." on the front cover.
Blank stock certificates 111-200 were discarded.
Seems to relate to the acquisition of Morgan by Andersen Corp.
Robinette was President and CEO of Morgan Products Ltd.
This was the hotel Andersen Corp. built in Bayport.
Says "Ledger" on the front cover.
Correspondence and other papers concerning personal financial matters, real estate, taxes, personal automobiles, legal matters, and other concerns and affairs of various members of the Andersen family. There are also some personal letters, a few diaries, some pocket books of notes and memoranda, and bills and receipts for personal purchases. There is additional information about members of the Andersen family in the Historical Files record series.
Includes 3 photocopied diaries (1900, 1913, 1914).
Includes real estate documents.