HISTORY TOPICS
Honeywell
This Minneapolis-based multinational corporation began more than one hundred years ago as a manufacturer of heat-regulating mechanisms called "thermostats." In 1927, when Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company merged with the Honeywell Heating Specialty Company, the merged company was named Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company. The new company continued to expand, acquiring leading companies in fields of scientific instruments and controls, moving into global markets, entering into the manufacture of munitions, aerospace, information, and security systems. In 1963, the company name was changed to Honeywell, Inc. In 1999, Honeywell, Inc. was merged with AlliedSignal, with corporate headquarters re-located to New Jersey.
GET STARTED WITH SECONDARY SOURCES:
- All Together Now, Happy Centennial, edited by Judy
Haaversen.
[Minneapolis, Minn.: Honeywell, Inc., 1985].
Honeywell world centennial issue, which includes a history of the company.
MHS call number: Folio HD 9729 .H59 A634 1985 (in the Serials Collection). - Honeywell, the Early Years, by C.W. Nessell.
[Minneapolis, Minn.: Minneapolis-Honeywell Regular Co., [1960?]
MHS call number: HD 9729 .H59 N47. - Honeywell, the First 100 Years, by Judith Yates Borger.
[Minneapolis, Minn.?: s.n., 1985]
MHS call number: HD 9729 .H59 B67 1985. - Honeywell: After 100 Years, by Edson W. Spencer.
New York: Newcomen Society of the United States, 1985.
MHS call number: HD 9729 .H59 S63 1986. - Honeywell International History, by Edson W. Spencer.
[Minnesota?]: Honeywell, 1993.
MHS call number: HD 9729 .H59 S636 1993. - The Legend of Honeywell, by Jeffrey L. Rodengen.
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.: Write Stuff Syndicate, c1995.
MHS call number: Folio HD 9729 .H59 R63 1995.
PRIMARY RESOURCES:
- Honeywell, Inc., Annual Reports.
MHS call number:
1931-1963: HD 9729 .H59 A3 1931-1963;
1964-1971: HD 9729 .H59 A312;
1972-1984: HD 9729 .H59 A313;
1985-1995: HD 9729 .H59 A313 1985-1995;
1996-present: HD 9729 .H59 A313 1996- . - Honeywell, Inc., Corporate Records.
The collection relates primarily to Honeywell's control systems business, especially to thermostats and related controls for home heating plants, and to autopilots and related aeronautical equipment and devices for airplanes. A smaller portion of the collection is concerned with the company's information systems (computer) business. The records were re-organized in 2002 into fifteen record series based upon type of material and/or corporate function and include alphabetically-ordered subject files; product catalogs and manuals; patent files; promotional and sales-related materials; product literature; and photographs of company buildings and facilities, executives, overseas offices and operations, and products. There are scrapbooks and portfolios featuring examples of Honeywell advertising, especially from the 1930s through the 1950s. The collection contains company-produced newsletters and journals, including four reels of microfilmed in-house newsletters (formerly cataloged separately). There are thirty-two reels of microfilmed engineering correspondence; audiotapes and videocassettes, motion pictures, and filmstrips; some financial and stockholder information; and material relating to Honeywell's overseas offices and operations. "Historical Files" consist largely of background information gathered in connection with Honeywell's observance of its centennial anniversary (1985), and also includes transcripts of oral history interviews conducted in 1973 in Wabash, Indiana. There are some photographs of and files relating to employees and employee activities, but there are no "personnel records," per se. There is information about Honeywell mergers and acquisitions, and a series of records of predecessor, subsidiary, and related companies.
MHS call number: See the green Manuscripts Alpha Notebooks — filed under Honeywell, Inc. — for a detailed list of boxes and locator numbers (there are 149 boxes of material + 36 microfilm reels at M620), or use an electronic version of the inventory.
Note: There are related archival materials in the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. - Council for Corporate Review Records.
This archival collection (1967-1976) contains background and working files of the Council for Corporate Review, which was organized in 1970 to "broaden effective public participation in the decision-making processes of Minnesota corporations." Major activities of the Council included attempts to stop the production by Honeywell, Inc., of anti-personnel fragmentation bombs used in the Vietnam War.
MHS call number: See the green Manuscripts Alpha Notebooks—filed under Council for Corporate Review—for a detailed list of boxes and locators (there are 7 boxes, but not all relate to this topic). - Minnesota Spanish Speaking Affairs Council Records.
This archival collection (ca. 1970-1993) includes the Honeywell Hispanic Technical and Professional Education Project (1982-1983), which identified, recruited, trained, and placed Hispanic youth in technical and professional fields. It was initiated by Hispanic leaders and funded by a grant from Honeywell, Inc. The files include project staff minutes, correspondence, articles of incorporation, project profile, and newspaper articles.
MHS call number: See the black State Archives Notebooks—filed under Spanish Speaking Affairs Council—for a detailed list of boxes and locator numbers
(there are 10 boxes, but not all relate to this topic), or use an electronic version of the inventory. - "Oral History Interview with Irma M. Wyman, 1992."
Wyman discusses her childhood and the people and events that influenced her, including her college years and the barriers she faced as a female. She also goes into detail about her involvement in the fledgling computer world of the 1950s and her continuing struggle with being female in a male-dominated career field. She discusses her role at Honeywell and the changes that occurred within the company during her tenure.
Restriction: Restricted access through Dec. 31, 2007. Ask a librarian for help.
MHS call number: OH 38 (in the Oral History Collection); see the blue Oral History Notebooks for interview description sheets (there are 7 90-minute cassettes). - Newspapers that may be useful for this topic:
- Minneapolis Star-Tribune (an index for articles published after 1970 is located in the Hubbs Microfilm Room)
- St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch (an index for articles published in 1967 or after is located in the Hubbs Microfilm Room)
- Visual Resources Database subjects that may be useful for this topic:
- Check the library catalog for other materials.
