Scope and Contents: The Kable Printing Company records document the business operations of the Kable Brothers Company and its successor the Kable Printing Company of Mt. Morris, Illinois from 1903-1974. These records primarily consist of ledgers and account books. Six series can be defined: General Financial Data, Labor and Personnel Records, Inventories, Stock Certificates, Internal Publications, and Photographs.
Series one, General Financial Records, is made up of appraisals, capital equipment records, financial reports, loans, daily sales and cash flow books as well as profit/loss accounts. The volumes in this series cover the years from 1904-1966.
Series two consists of labor and personnel records. These volumes include performance of workers and numbers of hours per task both for men and machines (1933-1974). Another set of records pertaining to labor is employee and building loans (1923-1939).
Inventories form a third series of documents. These volumes record the value of all items owned by the company for the years 1903-1957. Property listings and capital equipment reports replace the inventories in 1957 and continue until 1969.
A fourth series is made up of stock certificates and debenture notes. Included are preferred, capital and common stock shares as well as debenture notes (1941-1945, 1952) and common stocks notes.
Internal publications, The Kablegram, (1929-1973) and the Hot Slug, (1960-1974) form the fifth series of material. These volumes are of three types. The Kablegram was a compendium of advice, humor, and self-help information. Over the years the Kablegram became more technical in nature discussing printing methods, customers, and plant problems. The Hot Slug is more along the lines of a company organ-it tells of hirings, retirements, promotions, and visitors.
The last series is photographic material. These photographs (430) document the changes in machinery, personnel and plant over the more than seventy years of the Kable Printing Company’s existence.
Subjects (links to similar collections)
