William C. Sturgeon, Acting Curator THE MISSION of the online museum of the Institute for the Preservation of Elevator History is to develop a flexible framework that will allow the individuals, companies and organizations, concerned with the preservation of elevator/escalator (and associated short-range automated transportation), to easily contribute suggestions, photos and graphics that will flesh out the structure and clarify flow of the historical content. The ultimate purpose is to develop an educational tool that will provide students and researchers, as well as youngsters entering the industry, with a broad picture of how the practice, then the art and discipline, of lifting evolved through the ages, beginning with the laborious irrigation process in the fertile deltas of the Middle and Far East to the swift and safe multi-dimensional movement of passengers within the first half of the 20th century. As most online visitors have personally experienced the real life environment of home-front museums – the Wings, Halls, Galleries and pertinent explanations – an attempt has been made to provide such an atmosphere within this museum's structure. Back to Top DONATE your old pictures, brochures or books that are of historical value to the industry. We will utilize this material in the online elevator museum. If you have material to donate, please do so, but if you have material that you would be willing to loan to us to scan for use, we will give credit you in the museum and return the materials. If you have actual equipment we would appreciate pictures taken of this for use in the museum. We cannot accept actual equipment, as we have no space to store it. All material donated will join others in the Mary Sands Sturgeon Library. Donors of Materials Charlie Starmer George Strakosch Andreas Wirths Bud McDonald Back to Top SUPPORT the institute for the preservation of elevator history. This museum is solely supported by Elevator World. The elevator museum is a free educational tool for anyone interested in the elevator/escalator industry. We solicit your donations of historical material, books, brochures and pictures, but we also welcome your financial support. If you would like to be recognized as an educational supporter you can make cash contributions to: The Elevator Museum c/o ELEVATOR WORLD Inc. P.O. Box 6507 Mobile, Alabama 36660 • All contributors of cash or materials will receive credit on this web site. • Contributors of $50.00 receive one historical poster of choice. • Contributors of $100.00 receive the above and a one-year subscription to ELEVATOR WORLD Magazine. • Contributors of $500.00 receive the above and a plaque on the museum home page. There will also be mention of all donors in ELEVATOR WORLD Magazine periodically. Back to Top INSTRUCTION – The museum's "visual tours" allow visitors to pass along the wall of each Gallery at a walking pace by pressing the top arrow on the scroll. To leisurely study a graphic and read a copy card, press the "stop" button. The left and right arrows can then be pressed to move forward or retrace steps. Back to Top CREDITS – The following publications, contained within the Mary Sands Sturgeon Library, are acknowledged as sources of information in the development of The Museum for the Preservation of Elevating History. Some of these books may be obtained in the Museum Bookstore. As the editor of the Museum's editorial content, I am deeply appreciative of the efforts of historians, educators, archivists and marketers who diligently compiled and recorded invaluable bits and pieces of the long history of lifting, a discipline that gradually became dedicated to the short-range automated multi-directional transportation of passengers. Books 100 of the World's Tallest Buildings by Ivan Zaknic, Matthew Smith, Dolores Rice and CTBUH; Copyright 1998 Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd. Angels Flight by Walt Wheelock; Copyright 1993 Borden Publishing Co. Ancient Inventions by Peter James and Nick Thorpe; Copyright 1994 Ballantine Books Ancient Siege Warfare by Paul Bentley Kern Axemaker's Gift, The by James Burke and Robert Ornstein; Copyright 1995 GP Putnam's Sons Carl Flohr Maschinen Fabrik ; Copyright 1900 Carl Flohr Maschinen-Fabrik Castles: Their Construction and History by Sidney Toy; Copyright 1984 Dover Publications Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages by Frances and Joseph Gies; Copyright 1994 Harper Collins Publishers Inc. Chinese Technology in the Seventeenth Century by Sung Ying-Hsing; Copyright 1997 Dover Publications City in History, The by Lewis Mumford; Copyright 1961/1989 MJF Books Der Aufzugbau by Carl Ferdinand Franzen and Theodor Englert; Copyright 1972 Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn GmbH Der Fahrstuhl by Jeannot Simmen and Uwe Drepper; Copyright 1984 Prestel Publishing Electric Elevators by Fred Annett; Copyright 1960/1989 Elevator World, Inc. Electric Elevators Vol I & II by F. Hymans; Copyright 1931/2000 Elevator World, Inc. Elevators by John H. Jallings; Copyright 1918/1995 Elevator World, Inc. Elevators Through the Ages by Michel de L'Ormeraie and Maurice Poisson ; Copyright 1993 Gemap & Associates Engineering in the Ancient World by J.G. Landels; Copyright 1978 University of California Press Engines of Change: The American Industrial Revolution by Brooke Hindle and Steven Lubar Evolution of Technology, The by George Basalla; Copyright 1988 Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge Funicolari Elettriche by Sistema Stigler Going Up by Jean Gavois; Copyright 1983 Otis Elevator Co. History of Cranes, The by Oliver Bachmann, Heinz Cohrs, Tim Whiteman and Alfred Wislicki; Copyright 1997 KHL International Ltd. History of Science, The by A.C. Crombie How and Why of Mechanical Movements, The by Harry Walton; Copyright 1968 Popular Science Publishing Co. Inc. Machines by Robert O'Brien; Copyright 1964 Time Life Education Medieval Builder and His Methods, The by Frances B. Andrews Medieval Warfare: A History by Maurice Keen; Copyright 1999 Oxford University Press Moving People: From Street to Platform by Ray Orton; Copyright 2000 Elevator World, Inc. Nine Chains to the Moon by R. Buckminster Fuller Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry: Volumes I and I by Dennis Diderot Reminiscences of 70 Years in the Lift Industry by Henry Walker; Copyright 1934 John Bellows Rise of the New York Skyscraper: 1865-1913 by Sara Bradford Landau and Carl W. Condit; Copyright 1996 Yale University Press Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World, The by Chris Scarre; Copyright 1999 Thames and Hudson Inc. Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to AD by T.K. Derry and Trevor I. Williams; Copyright 1960 Dover Publications Skyscrapers: Higher and Higher by Caroline Mierop; Copyright 1995 Editions NORMA Skyscraper, The by Paul Goldberger; Copyright 1981 Alfred A. Knopf Inc. Vertical: Lift Escalator Paternoster. A Cultural History of Vertical Transport by Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani and Lutz Hartwig; Copyright 1994 Ernst & Sohn Vertical Transportation by Lubomir Janovsky; Copyright 1978 Lubomir Janovsky World's Fairs by Erik Mattie; Copyright 1998 Princeton Architectural Press ELEVATOR WORLD ISSUES In Search of the Past, September 1963 Men and Machines Against the Mountain, October 1967 Towers, October 1969 Japan and Its Elevator Industry, October 1971 Merchants on the Mediterranean, October 1979 The United Kingdom Continuum, October 1982 Escalators: Spirals and Others, August 1988 Elevator History: 1800-1900, October 1997 Company Booklets, Catalogs, House Organs and Commemoratives 50 Years of Otis Elevator Company -- Otis Elevator Co. Ceretti & Tanfani Aerial Ropeways -- Ceretti & Tanfani Ropeway Co. Cutler-Hammer Mfg. Co. Electric Power Applications -- Harrison Pierce Reed Development of the Elevator -- E.W. Yearsley Edmonds Elevator Company Catalog -- Edmond Elevator Co. Electric Dumbwaiter Service -- Burdett-Rowntree Manufacturing Co. Electric Funicular, The -- Stigler Electric Power Application to Passenger & Freight Elevators -- Harrison Pierce Reed General Electric Company Rotating Equipment -- General Electric Co. The Graves Passenger & Freight Elevators -- L.S. Graves & Son Heller Elevator Company -- Electric Machines The J.W. Reedy Elevator Manu. Co. Passenger, Freight, Steam, Hydraulic and Hand Power Elevators -- The J.W. Reedy Elevator Manu. Co Kaestner & Hecht Electric Elevators -- Kaestner & Hecht Co. Kerscher Elevators -- Kerscher Elevator Co. L.S. Graves & Son Screw, Geared, Hydraulic and Hand Elevators -- L.S. Graves & Son Montgomery Elevator Company Commemorative Otis Indicator, The Otis the First 100 Years -- Otis Elevator Co. Portfolio of Stigler Cabins, A Steam Hydraulic Elevator, The -- Craig Ridgeway & Son Co. Variety Fire Doors -- Freight Elevator Doors -- Variety Fire Door Co. Watson Elevator Company Machines West Coast Wire and Iron Works Wm Wadsworth & Sons Electric Lifts Wm Wadsworth & Sons Transporters Back to Top DISCLAIMER – The images on the Elevator Online Museum web site have been placed there for historical research and preservation purposes. All images on the web site are from the ELEVATOR WORLD archives or from the volumes in the Mary Sands Sturgeon Library (many of which are now out of print). They have not been manipulated or altered in any fashion. Every effort has been made to give credit to the original source of the images used when we knew that source. Some of the images may be protected by copyright. The user must assume any and all responsibility for obtaining appropriate permission for use or assurance of adherence to copyright restriction.