Ward's Natural Science Establishment papers
Biographical / Historical note
A Brief History of Ward's Natural Science Establishment Since 1900:
Founded in 1862 by Henry Augustus Ward (1834-1906), Ward's Natural Science Establishment was a leading supplier of natural science materials to museums in North America. Henry A. Ward spent most of his time travelling around the world and needed someone to lead the main office. As a result, Frank A. Ward, a cousin of Henry's, became treasurer of the Establishment in 1884 and supervised the operations in Rochester. In the few years before his death in 1906, Henry A. Ward gave up his interest in the company and Frank A. Ward became president. By the 1920s, the original purpose of the Establishment proved inadequate as museums started to operate their own collection and taxidermy departments, and no longer purchased from Ward's in their original volume. As a result, the Establishment's sales were weak. A series of deaths in the Ward family in 1927, including Frank A. Ward, led the Ward family to donate the company to the University of Rochester in 1928.
The Frank A. Ward Foundation of Natural Science at the University of Rochester, as the gift was known, at first did not prosper under its new owners. A fire in 1930 destroyed much of the company's records and inventory, and the Great Depression led to further reductions in sales. The University considered shutting down the company, but the scientific and museum community pleaded with the University to continue operations. In addition, Dean L. Gamble (1892-1981), a vice-president of the General Biological Supply House in Chicago wrote to Rush Rhees, University president, asking to be considered for the position of president of Ward's. The University hired Gamble, gave him complete control, and loaned the Establishment money to continue its operations. Throughout the 1930s the Establishment operated on small budgets and continued to lose money until late in the decade. As the economy recovered before World War II, so did Ward's and in 1940, the University sold the company's stock to Dean L. Gamble and Frank Hawley Ward, Frank A. Ward's son, for the amount of money owed the University by Ward's.
Dean L. Gamble led the transformation of Ward's from an obsolete museum supplier into a modern educational supply house. The company maintained its roots in the natural sciences, but shifted its emphasis to schools. Central to this project was development of new products that could make scientific material accessible to students. Gamble pioneered the use of 2"x2" photographic slides as a means of showing biological and geological specimens to a large number of people. He also developed a method of encasing specimens in plastic to allow a student to examine a specimen closely.
Just before World War II, Gamble moved the Establishment from the center of Rochester to a site on Irondequoit Bay that had room for expansion. Ward's grew with the "Baby Boom," and by 1970 sales grew to $10 million. In the 1960s, Ward's purchased land for expansion in the town of Pittsford since a residential subdivision hemmed in the Irondequoit site.
William C. Gamble (b.1926) joined the Establishment in 1950, at the beginning of this period of expansion. He started as a sales representative, but quickly came to lead the company. Dean L. Gamble divorced and re-married in 1949, and moved to Monterey, California in the 1950s. He opened a subsidiary, Ward's of California, to serve the West Coast.
William Gamble led the company through its period of greatest growth. Not only did the "Baby Boom" swell the nation's classrooms, but the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957 fueled tremendous interest in science education. Ward's was a beneficiary of the National Defense Education Act of 1957 which sent millions of dollars to schools to fund expanded programs in the sciences. William Gamble also proved an innovator. He pushed the company to develop filmstrips on the sciences and led the effort, in conjunction with other educators, to develop a series of overhead projection transparencies. Dyna-Vue, as Ward's called the transparencies, proved to be a tremendous success for the Establishment. During the 1960s, Ward's developed a self-contained specimen and magnifying glass called Magnimount was not as successful. In addition, attempted expansion into elementary school science proved unsuccessful. Despite these setbacks, the 1960s were the period of Ward's greatest growth as a business and innovation in science education.
The growth and successes of the 1960s meant Ward's always needed more capital to fund expansion and product development. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, all the Establishment's profits were reinvested. William Gamble attempted to transform the Establishment from being closely held to publicly held through the sale of stock. Such a sale would have allowed the company both to grow and to remain independent. By the late 1960s, public sale of Ward's stock was not possible. Instead Gamble examined merging the company. After rejecting various suitors, Gamble arranged the sale of the Establishment, in April, 1970, to KDI Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio, for $9.3 million in KDI stock.
By the late 1960s, however, the economic climate for educational suppliers changed. The "Baby Boom" was over, interest in science education waned after the moon landing, and the economic and foreign policy decisions of the 1960s helped slow the rate of economic growth. In addition, the merger-mania of the 1960s led to rash decisions and unintended consequences. What was expected to help Ward's turned into a disaster when, in late 1970, six months after the merger, KDI declared bankruptcy after an accounting variance was discovered. In the aftermath of the bankruptcy, KDI's need for capital greatly affected Ward's. New product research and development, the key to Ward's success since 1930, stopped for several years. The Establishment also depended on public school budgets for most of its business. When recession and the tax revolt of the mid-1970s reduced those budgets, the company was also hurt.
In the late 1970s, the outlook for science education continued to be bleak. KDI, which had successfully recovered from bankruptcy, decided to sell Ward's. In August of 1980, Science Kit, a private science supplier purchased Ward's for $3.2 million cash. Shortly after the purchase William Gamble was promoted to Chairman of the Board. Since then Ward's has consolidated all of its operations in a new facility in Henrietta, New York. The company continues to be a leading educational supplier. William Gamble took a position as Executive Vice-President with KDI Corporation and retired in 1986.
Scope and Contents
This collection continues the history of Ward's Natural Science Establishment, Rochester, New York, as started in the Henry Augustus Ward Papers (call number A.W23). Most documents in the collection are from between 1955 and 1980, though some material dates to 1930, and a little is from the nineteenth century. Papers in the collection cover the finances and internal operation of the Establishment, several elementary and secondary educational products, as well as mergers and sales of the company. Also included are the personal papers of William C. Gamble, president of the firm between 1962 and 1980. Material in the collections would be useful to historians of science, science education, business, and the City of Rochester. The collection was given by William C. Gamble, University of Rochester Class of 1950, between 1981 and 1990. Mr. Gamble also provided funds for processing and cataloging the collection.
Creator
- Ward's Natural Science Establishment, inc. (Organization)
Dates
- Creation: 1876-1988
Language of Materials
English
Extent
55 box(es)
Access
The Ward's Natural Science Establishment Papers is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact the Rare Books, Special Collections & Preservation Department prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.
Use
In consultation with a curator, reproductions may be made upon request. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from a curator. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.
Preferred Citation
[Item title, item date], Ward's Natural Science Establishment Papers, D.231, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Arrangement
Historical Material. Magazine articles about the Establishment. Memoirs, reminiscences, scrapbooks. Boxes 1-3, 49-50. Box 1, Folder 1 contains letters from William C. Gamble to Karl Kabelac, manuscripts librarian. Gamble sent the collection in many shipments of a few boxes each. With each shipment he wrote a letter describing what was in the shipment along with his commentary on the people or times covered. The letters offer insight into the operation of Ward's, Gamble's relationship with his father, the KDI merger, and some of the unique individuals who supplied Ward's with human skeletons and preserved materials. Ward's Business Files 1950-1980. Boxes 4-22. Three subcategories:
- Planning
- Finances
- Personnel
Boxes 17-20: William C. Gamble's Punchbooks. These were general purpose notebooks that held financial information, memoranda, and Gamble's business diary. Gamble's punchbooks, in conjunction with other business files, offer a fairly complete picture of company finances during the 1960s. They also provide material on Gamble's civic-minded activities during the same period.
Correspondence. Boxes 23-33. Four subcategories.
- William C. Gamble and Dean L. Gamble
- General Correspondence
- Institutional Correspondence
- Named Correspondence
Educational Materials. Boxes 34-37. Details and examples of Ward's educational projects such as the expansion into elementary science during the 1960s. This section also includes catalogs, and incomplete series of Ward's Natural Science Bulletin and associated publications. Box 37: Catalogs. Along with samples of Ward's catalogs, this box also contains runs of Ward's Natural Science Bulletin and associated publications. While these bulletins served as a vehicle for selling the Establishment's products, the articles published were quite serious and offer a way of tracking changes in science education. Merger and Stock Materials. Box 38. Correspondence, stockholder meetings, and minutes, 1963-1970. KDI Corporation Files. Boxes 39-40. Correspondence, treasurer's files and reports regarding Ward's. Photographs, Ephemera. Box 41. Photos of Dean L. and William C. Gamble, David E. Jensen, Clayla (Mrs. Frank Hawley) Ward. Gamble family material, including William C. Gamble. Boxes 42-51. Ward family material. Henry Augustus Ward. His sons Charles H. Ward and Henry L. Ward and grandson Roswell H. Ward, boxes 52-54.
Subject
- Ward's Natural Science Establishment, inc. (Organization)
- Gamble, William C., 1926- (Person)
- Title
- Ward's Natural Science Establishment papers
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Rare Books and Special Collections staff
- Date
- undated
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Library Details
Part of the Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation Library