TABLE OF CONTENTS
Descriptive Summary of the Collection
Scope and Content of the Collection
Subseries 1: Miehle and Related Companies, 1910-1987
Subseries 2: Other Companies, 1935-1971
Series 2: Personal, ca. 1830-1990
Subseries 1: General, 1926-1987
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Inventory of the R. Ford Bentley Papers, ca. 1830-1990, bulk 1930-1970
Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Lisa Janssen, 2010. ©2010. |
Descriptive Summary of the Collection |
|
| Creator | Bentley, R. Ford (Robert Ford), 1909-1994 |
| Title | R. Ford Bentley Papers |
| Dates | ca. 1830-1990, |
| Dates | bulk 1930-1970 |
| Extent | 2.3 linear feet (6 boxes) |
| Abstract | Personal, family, and professional papers including photographs and genealogical materials relating to Robert Ford Bentley, Chicago marketing and advertising executive with the Miehle Printing Press and Manufacturing Co. Also includes promotional materials and correspondence pertaining to many of the printing related companies that Ford worked for. |
| Language | Materials are in English. |
| Repository | Newberry Library, Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections |
| Collection Call Number | Wing Modern MS Bentley |
| Collection Stack Location | 3a 52 3 |
Administrative Information
Cite As
R. Ford Bentley Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.
Provenance
Gift, Elizabeth Dyas Bentley, 1995.
Processed by
Lisa Janssen, 2010.
Acknowledgements
This inventory was created with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this inventory do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Access
The R. Ford Bentley Papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).
Ownership and Literary Rights
The R. Ford Bentley Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.
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Biography of R. Ford Bentley
Chicago advertising and marketing executive, son of Miehle Printing Press & Manufacturing Company CEO Arthur Bentley.
Robert Ford Bentley was born in Chicago in 1909 to Arthur and Cherry Ford Bentley. He attended the Asheville School in North Carolina, and then Brown University where he studied philosophy and was active in the college's dramatic society. Bentley faced a personal crisis when his father sent him to Europe between his sophomore and junior years at Brown. Arthur Bentley intended for R. Ford to learn French and gain business experience, but Ford had other ideas. He wished to pursue a career in the humanities, in writing or teaching. While he was allowed to return to Brown and finish his degrees in English and Economics, he eventually landed in the family business. After working for two years in Washington, D.C. at the National Recovery Administration and the U. S. Treasury, he joined the Miehle Printing Press & Manufacturing Company where his father held executive positions from. R. Ford Bentley ran several of his own businesses, including Bentley and Company, and R. Bentley and Associates, which did research and advertising for firms in the graphic arts industry. Over the years, Bentley was associated off and on with Miehle and remained a major stockholder of the company and its successors Miehle-Goss-Dexter and Rockwell International.
Bentley married Marjorie Drawbaugh in 1936 and had one daughter, Judy. They divorced in the early 1950s. He subsequently married Elizabeth Dyas in 1955 and they remained together until his death in 1994.
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Scope and Content of the Collection
Personal, family, and professional papers, particularly rich in Miehle promotional materials from the period of 1919 to 1968. This includes photographs and genealogical materials on the Ford family, ancestors of R. Ford Bentley's maternal grandparents; correspondence and clippings concerning his education at Asheville School and Brown University; legal documents, promotional materials, and administrative files relating to the Miehle Printing Press and Manufacturing Company, Miehle-Goss-Dexter, and Rockwell International; materials concerning Bentley's own companies, Graphic Engineering Services, Inc., Bentley and Company, and Ladd, Southworth and Bentley; and promotional materials of Miehle competitors in the printing press industry.
Narrative descriptions of the subject matter, types of material, and arrangement of each series are available through the Organization section of the finding aid.
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Organization
Papers are organized in the following series:
- Series 1: Career, 1910-1987
- Subseries 1: Miehle and Related Companies, 1910-1987
- Subseries 2: Other Companies, 1935-1971
- Series 2: Personal, ca. 1830-1990
- Subseries 1: General, 1926-1987
- Subseries 2: Genealogy Research, ca. 1830s-1990
- Series 3: Photographs, ca. 1907-1986. Box(es) 6
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Selected Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Newberry Library's public catalog. Researchers desiring additional materials on a particular topic should search the catalog using these headings.
Names
- Asheville School (Asheville, N.C.) -- Students
- Dyas family
- Graphic Engineering Services, Inc. -- Records and correspondence
- Ladd, Southworth & Bentley -- Records and correspondence
- Miehle Printing Press and Manufacturing Company -- Records and correspondence
- Miehle-Goss-Dexter, Inc. -- Records and correspondence
- Rockwell International -- Records and correspondence
- Bentley, Arthur, 1876-1946
- Bentley, R. Ford (Robert Ford), 1909-1994
- Brown University Dramatic Society
- Ford family
Subjects
- Printing machinery and supplies -- History -- 20th century -- Sources
- Printing machinery and supplies -- Marketing
- Advertising -- Printing machinery and supplies
- Advertising executives -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Correspondence -- 1901-1950
- Correspondence -- 1951-2000
- Genealogical correspondence
- Graphic arts equipment industry --United States -- History -- 20th century -- Sources
- Manuscripts, American -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Photographs -- 1901-1950
- Photographs -- 1951-2000
- Printing machinery industry -- United States -- History -- 20th century -- Sources
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Container List
Series 1: Career, 1910-1987 |
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| Series is comprised of materials relating to R. Ford Bentley's career both with the Miehle Printing Press and Manufacturing Company, and his own advertising firms, Bentley and Company and R. Bentley & Associates as well as other companies with which he worked such as Klau-Van Pieterson-Dunlap, Inc. and Ladd, Southward & Bentley. Miehle materials include corporate papers that predate Bentley's tenure, but fall under his father Arthur Bentley's presidency. These include minutes, correspondence, and promotional materials, as well as competitors' promotional materials. The Other Companies subseries contains materials pertaining to the marketing and advertising firms which Bentley was associated with in between stints at Miehle. | |||||||||||
| Organized in the following subseries: 1. Miehle and Related Companies, 1910-1987; and 2. Other Companies, 1935-1971. | |||||||||||
Sub-Series 1: Miehle and Related Companies, 1910-1987 |
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| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Miehle - advertising, 1919-1958 | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | Miehle - album, "Presses of Other Days," n.d. | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | Miehle - company history 1950, 1963, n.d. | |||||||||
| 1 | 4 | Miehle - carton equipment, ca. 1950s | |||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Miehle - competitors' advertising ca. 1900-1960 | |||||||||
| 1 | 6 | Miehle - corporate, 1893-1910 | |||||||||
| 1 | 7 | Miehle - corporate, 1911-1917 | |||||||||
| 1 | 8 | Miehle - corporate, 1926-1928 | |||||||||
| 1 | 9 | Miehle - corporate, 1930-1939 | |||||||||
| 1 | 10 | Miehle - corporate, 1940-1949 | |||||||||
| 1 | 11 | Miehle - corporate, 1950-1956 | |||||||||
| 1 | 12 | Miehle - Goss merger, 1956-1957 | |||||||||
| 1 | 13 | Miehle - patents, 1910 | |||||||||
| 1 | 14 | Miehle - presses - Miehle Automatic - promotional materials, ca. 1940s-1950s | |||||||||
| 2 | 15 | Miehle - presses - Miehle Vertical - promotional materials, ca. 1920s-1950s | |||||||||
| 2 | 16 | Miehle - presses - Miehle Vertical - promotional materials, 1950s-1960s | |||||||||
| 2 | 17 | Miehle - presses - Miehle Vertical - report on development, 1951 | |||||||||
| 2 | 18 | Miehle - offset presses - promotional materials, 1940s-1960s | |||||||||
| 2 | 19 | Miehle - sales memos, 1944, n.d. | |||||||||
| 2 | 20 | Miehle-Goss-Dexter - advertising, 1950s-1960s | |||||||||
| 2 | 21 | Miehle-Goss-Dexter - alumni association, 1971-1987 | |||||||||
| 2 | 22 | Miehle-Goss-Dexter - corporate, 1959-1964 | |||||||||
| 2 | 23 | Miehle-Goss-Dexter - corporate, 1965-1969 | |||||||||
| 2 | 24 | Miehle-Goss-Dexter - MGD Graphic News (internal newsletter), 1969-1973 | |||||||||
| 2 | 25 | Miehle-Goss-Dexter - Indian Head merger, 1968 | |||||||||
| 2 | 26 | Miehle-Goss-Dexter - offset presses - promotional materials, ca. 1960s | |||||||||
| 3 | 27 | Miehle-Goss-Dexter - promotion and press, 1962-1969 | |||||||||
| 3 | 28 | Miehle-Goss-Dexter - Rockwell merger, 1967-1969 | |||||||||
| 3 | 29 | Miehle-Goss-Dexter - trademark design, 1958 | |||||||||
| 3 | 30 | Rockwell - general, 1973-1986 | |||||||||
Sub-Series 2: Other Companies, 1935-1971 |
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| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 3 | 31 | The American Pressman magazine, 1935 | |||||||||
| 3 | 32 | Bentley and Company - general, 1950-1955 | |||||||||
| 3 | 33 | Bentley and Company - merger with Ladd, Southward, Gordon and Donald, Inc., 1955-1956 | |||||||||
| 3 | 34 | Driscoll's Printers Gazette, 1954-1955 | |||||||||
| 3 | 35 | Graphic Engineering Service, 1948-1950 | |||||||||
| 3 | 36 | Klau-Van Pieterson-Dunlap, Inc. (KVDP), 1964-1965 | |||||||||
| 3 | 37 | Ladd, Southward & Bentley, 1956-1961 | |||||||||
| 3 | 38 | National Printing Equipment Association, Inc., 1933-1965 | |||||||||
| 3 | 39 | Printers Supplymens Guild of Chicago - certificate of membership, 1964 | |||||||||
| 3 | 40 | Harris Intertype, 1966-1971 | |||||||||
| 3 | 41 | R. Bentley & Associates, 1967 | |||||||||
Series 2: Personal, ca. 1830-1990 |
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| Materials concerning Bentley's education at the Asheville School and Brown University, correspondence with friends and family, much of which pertains to Bentley's future career prospects, as well as notes, and other miscellaneous personal papers. One folder of correspondence in particular pertains to Bentley's personal struggle with his father over his career path. Letter written while Bentley was in Europe between Arthur Bentley and business colleagues whom he had asked to employ his son highlight this conflict. Also, genealogical research material pertaining to the Ford and Dyas families, including correspondence and photocopies of family documents. | |||||||||||
| Organized in the following subseries: 1. General, 1926-1987; and 2. Genealogy Research, ca. 1830s-1990 | |||||||||||
Sub-Series 1: General, 1926-1987 |
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| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 4 | 42 | Brown University Dramatic Society - governance and correspondence, 1929-1933 | |||||||||
| 4 | 43 | Brown University Dramatic Society - programs and invitations, 1929-1933 | |||||||||
| 4 | 44 | Business cards, ca. 1960s | |||||||||
| 4 | 45 | Chicago Federated Advertising Club (CFAC) awards dinner program, 1961 | |||||||||
| 4 | 46 | Clippings, press releases, 1950-1965 | |||||||||
| 4 | 47 | Correspondence - Asheville School / Howard Bement, 1928-1930 | |||||||||
| 4 | 48 | Correspondence - to Bentley, Arthur, 1939-1941 | |||||||||
| 4 | 49 | Correspondence - to Bentley, Cherry Ford, 1940, 1955 | |||||||||
| 4 | 50 | Correspondence - Brown University, 1931-1932 | |||||||||
| 4 | 51 | Correspondence - Kleinschmidt, Ralph "Bud" and Kate, 1968, n.d. | |||||||||
| 4 | 52 | Correspondence - Lithographic Technical Foundation, 1939 | |||||||||
| 4 | 53 | Correspondence - National Recovery Administration, 1934 | |||||||||
| 4 | 54 | Correspondence - United States Selective Service, 1941-1942 | |||||||||
| 4 | 55 | Correspondence - Worrall, Phillip G., 1954-1964 | |||||||||
| 4 | 56 | Correspondence - to various family, 1930-1962 | |||||||||
| 4 | 57 | Correspondence - miscellaneous, 1928-1960 | |||||||||
| 4 | 58 | Correspondence - re: death of Arthur Bentley, 1946 | |||||||||
| 4 | 59 | Correspondence - re: estate of Arthur Bentley, 1946-1964 | |||||||||
| 4 | 60 | Correspondence - re: Newberry Library History of Printing collections, 1987 | |||||||||
| 4 | 61 | Correspondence - re: year in Europe, 1930-1931 | |||||||||
| 4 | 62 | Finances, 1966-1970 | |||||||||
| 4 | 63 | Party invitation and change of address card, 1970, n.d. | |||||||||
| 4 | 64 | Notes, 1945-1965, n.d. | |||||||||
| 4 | 65 | Passport, 1930 | |||||||||
| 4 | 66 | Resume, 1966 | |||||||||
| 4 | 67 | School papers, 1926-1928 | |||||||||
| 4 | 68 | Talks / presentations, 1941-1947 | |||||||||
| 4 | 69 | Vocational analysis, 1938 | |||||||||
Sub-Series 2: Genealogy Research, ca. 1830s-1990 |
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| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 5 | 70-73 | Ford Family - correspondence, 1972-1990 | |||||||||
| 5 | 74 | Ford Family - family letters (originals), ca. 1830s | |||||||||
| 5 | 75 | Ford Family - family trees, ca. 1980s | |||||||||
| 5 | 76 | Ford Family - George W. Ford - Chicago Ford Narrative (transcription only), n.d. | |||||||||
| 5 | 77 | Ford Family - miscellaneous, ca. 1970s-1980s | |||||||||
| 5 | 78 | Ford Family - notes, ca. 1970s-1980s | |||||||||
| 5 | 79-80 | Ford Family - photocopies, ca. 1970s-1980s | |||||||||
| 5 | 81 | Dyas family - notes, correspondence, ca. 1970s | |||||||||
Series 3: Photographs, ca. 1907-1986 |
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| Portraits of R. Ford Bentley and family members, ancestral tombstones and home in Sackets Harbor, New York, and photographs of various models of the Miehle Vertical Press. | |||||||||||
| Arranged alphabetically. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 6 | 82 | Bentley, Arthur, ca. 1930s | |||||||||
| 6 | 83 | Bentley, Arthur, Cherry Ford, and children, ca. 1920 | |||||||||
| 6 | 84 | Bentley, Cherry Ford, ca. 1907, ca. 1930s | |||||||||
| 6 | 85 | Bentley, Judy, ca. 1940 | |||||||||
| 6 | 86 | Bentley, Marjorie Drawbaugh, ca. 1930s | |||||||||
| 6 | 87 | Bentley, R. Ford - portrait, ca. 1960 | |||||||||
| 6 | 88 | Bentley, R. Ford - receiving CFAC award, 1961 | |||||||||
| 6 | 89 | Bentley family residence - apartment building at 2350 Lincoln Park West, ca. 1920s | |||||||||
| 6 | 90 | Ford, George Wilson, ca. 1920 | |||||||||
| 6 | 91 | Ford, Minnie Cherry, 1912 | |||||||||
| 6 | 92 | Ford family - ancestral portrait (unidentified), n.d. | |||||||||
| 6 | 93 | Ford family tombstones in Oswego, Sackets Harbor, and Trenton Falls, New York, 1986, n.d. | |||||||||
| 6 | 94 | Ford family ancestral home in Sackets Harbor, New York, 1986 | |||||||||
| 6 | 95 | Miehle, Robert G., ca. 1910 | |||||||||
| 6 | 96 | Meihle building on Wacker and Madison, Chicago, Illinois, n.d. | |||||||||
| 6 | 97 | Miehle building - corner of 14th and Robey Streets (now Damen Ave.), Chicago Illinois, ca. 1910 | |||||||||
| 6 | 98 | Miehle Vertical Printing Press, ca. 1930s-1940s | |||||||||