Presented as-written with no comment-taken from the public domain. I'm surely is was written a while ago, as B-H Co. was purchased by another outfit and no longer supplies locomotive parts. WHERE HAVE THE BALDWIN PAPERS GONE?by Henry A. Rentschler, President, Baldwin-Hamilton" Where have the Baldwin papers gone?" I can shed some light on this question, but first a little history. Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton (B-L-H) was a complex company. Its roots went back to the very beginnings of industry in the United States. Baldwin had its beginnings in 1832; Hamilton in 1846; and Lima in 1869. Baldwin, Lima, and Hamilton merged in 1950. Much of the corporate and product history has been published, some quite recently. I have had the privilege of helping on some of the recent volumes, including one on Lima that is due out later this year.At the time B-L-H discontinued the manufacture of locomotives in 1954, the firm had attempted to destroy most of its old and obsolete records. It only partially succeeded, and fortunately some drawings were spirited off and preserved. A curator at the Smithsonian Institution told me some years ago that the Baldwin collection alone, if it were still intact, would be valued at over $7,000,000. Too bad it was so scattered, and so much destroyed.I will not reconstruct B-L-H¨s entire history here, nor can I comment much on the "corporate" records, which were mostly destroyed, or in a few cases ended up with Armour and Greyhound during the litigation of B-L-H in 1971-72. Our group, now known as the Baldwin-Hamilton Company, a division of Ecolaire Incorporated, ended up with certain engineering records patents, files, and tooling directly related to our product lines. Due to the similarity of our company name and that of B-L-H, we often get inquiries about this product or that, and I keep a list of other B-L-H product lines to help the owners of B-L-H apparatus find information. The list contains trade names of products and locations of recordsòeighteen locations, eighteen other companies with B-L-H records.During a major consolidation in 1975-76 we gave away many original documents and drawings to museums around the country. Among the gifts were: documents pertaining to the Austin-Western and Western dump cars, given to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga manuals for steam and diesel locomotives with Baldwin and Hamilton trade names, given to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento; Baldwin locomotive manuals and other engineering records, given to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden; Baldwin, Southwark, Hamilton, and Hooven, Owens, Rentschler trade catalogues, given to the Hagley Museum, Wilmington, Delaware; records of Hamilton, Baldwin, De La Vergne, Lima-Hamilton, and Hooven, Owens, Rentschler machinery given to the Ohio Historical Society, Columbus; a large collection of locomotive drawings and records of Baldwin, Baldwin Locomotive Works, and BòLòH, given to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Strasburg; Southwark, PorteròAllen, Baldwin, and De La Vergne records pertaining to steam engines, pumping engines, blowing engines, diesel engines, refrigeration machines, and locomotives, given to the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington; Hamilton, Pelton, Southwark, De La Vergne, and Hooven, Owens, Rentschler records pertaining to diesel and steam engines and other equipment, given to the Steamship Historical Society, New York records of Austin-Western dump cars and Baldwin locomotives, given to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, Chattanooga; records of Baldwin, De La Vergne, GriscomòRussell, Griscom Spencer, and Loewy Hydropress, given to the Western Museum of Mining and Industry, Colorado Springs, CO.Additionally, the largest collection of Baldwin Locomotive Works drawings and records, and records of BòLòH, is at the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas; the DeGolyer acquired the collection in 1954. Approximately 15,000 BLH and Baldwin Locomotive Works photographs and negatives, including the earliest glass plate negatives, are owned by H. L. Broadbelt of Newport News, VA. And many Lima photographs, drawings, and corporate records are at the Allen County Historical Society in Lima, OH.Of course, we retain modern (mostly post World War II) records pertaining to our current product lines-locomotives, diesel engines, steam engines, and dump cars-and current trade names-Baldwin, Hamilton, Lima-Hamilton, Whitcomb, Austin-Western, and Hooven, Owens, Rentschler. Finally, it is not "paper," but I might add that we have preserved the 1905 statue of Matthias Baldwin, which we display outside our offices here in Malvern, PA.Where have the Baldwin papers gone? Almost everywhere apparently.

That piece was written in the 1980's. Mr. Rentschler still comments occasionally on BLH matters on another forum, and has put together at least one book that he offers for sale. He has promised an update on further records donations since Baldwin-Hamilton closed in 1991. The statute of Baldwin is at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Mike

I believe the B-H drawing files were donated to the PA State Archives.Maybe Kurt Bell can confirm.I put this letter up to contrast how,in the past , a highly placed individual in a given company handled corporate archives-versus the almost wholesale destruction of the EMD archives when the LaGrange plant was 'rightsized' in more recent times. An interesting side note: Mr. Rentschlers' uncle, Frederick, founded Pratt andWhitney aircraft engines. Dave

Not only large firms - Glover Machine Works had about 40 file cabinets of archival material dating back to the reconstruction era go out the window and to the landfill. Regrettably, only a small quantity was preserved, fortunately, it was heavily skewed towards locomotive production. The majority of the patterns and dies and machinery were also lost, with it, the last chance to preserve an original American steam locomotive manufacturing facility in its entirety. The paltry contents of the Kennesaw museum is just a representative example of what could have been. The real tragedy is that Cobb County had put of $200,000 (if memory serves) to preserve Glover artifacts, but the decision makers weren't decisive about using these resources when the time was critical. Sure, it wasn't as impressive as Baldwin, but I am happy I was one of the last to have had the chance to experience the site in its entirety and very sorry todays younger and future generations will not have an equivalent opportunity.dave