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Blake F. McKelvey research collection on Joseph C. Wilson

 Collection
Identifier: D.552

Biographical / Historical note

Blake Faus McKelvey (June 10, 1903, Centralia, Pennsylvania – September 13, 2000, Rochester, New York) was Rochester’s City Historian from 1948 to 1973 and author of Business as a Profession: The Career of Joseph C. Wilson (Rochester, NY: Office of the City Historian, 2003). He was also the author and editor of many books and volumes of Rochester history, as well as a participant in radio talks and even a documentary film. He received degrees from Syracuse University, Clark University, and Harvard University, earning a Ph.D. from the latter in 1933.

The Office of the City Historian was created in 1921 to maintain World War I service records. In 1936, McKelvey was hired to assist then-City Historian Dexter Perkins, who was also chair of the Department of History at the University of Rochester. Following Perkins’s retirement in 1948, McKelvey took on the office’s research and publication activities full time. In 1976, his documentary Blake McKelvey’s Rochester won a Golden Eagle Award from the Council on International Nontheatrical Events. McKelvey’s wife, Jean Trepp McKelvey (1908-1998), a noted labor relations expert and arbitrator, was appointed as the first faculty member of Cornell University’s School of International and Labor Relations in 1946.

After his tenure as historian, McKelvey continued to publish about local history, including his biography of Joseph C. Wilson. McKelvey began his research for the biography in 1980, nearly a decade after Wilson’s death. Although the manuscript was prepared by 1982, McKelvey was unable to find an academic or commercial publisher. The work was not finalized and published until 2000, with assistance from then-City Historian Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck.

McKelvey’s sources included published company reports and newsletters, archival materials related to Wilson, and interviews and correspondence with childhood and personal friends and business colleagues of the Xerox CEO. McKelvey examined files from Wilson’s office at Xerox Tower and from his home office on Clover Road. The material from Wilson's home is now held in the Joseph C. Wilson papers, D.273. McKelvey conducted interviews with and later gathered comments on his draft of the biography from Xerox executives such as Sol Linowitz and university officials such as President W. Allen Wallis.

McKelvey’s biography of Wilson is organized chronologically. It includes topics such as Wilson’s involvement in the 1941 Haloid executive board controversy, discovery and early development of xerography, management of Xerox’s explosive growth, as well as his dedication to education and community.



Joseph C. "Joe" Wilson (December 19, 1909-November 22, 1971) was born and raised in Rochester and developed Xerox Corporation into a hugely successful international enterprise, the profitability of which transformed both the City of Rochester and the University of Rochester. Wilson graduated from West High School in 1927 and was a member of the University of Rochester's class of 1931, the first to graduate from the newly built River Campus. He then attended Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA in 1933 before returning to join the family business, Haloid Company, which manufactured photographic paper. By 1946, Wilson was president and general manager of Haloid, which would become the Xerox Corporation in 1960. Under his leadership, Haloid purchased the rights to the reprographic process invented by Chester Carlson known as xerography. It would take over a decade to develop it into the 914 photocopier which was launched in 1959. The product revolutionized the way business was done around the world.

Wilson believed in the interrelated nature of business and community. Thus, he was involved in many community, business, and charitable organizations. He became a trustee of the University of Rochester in 1949, eventually becoming chair of the Board of Trustees in 1959. He was also president of the Community Chest (now known as the United Way), a position which had also been held by Eastman Kodak founder George Eastman. Wilson died suddenly of a heart attack on November 22, 1971 while having lunch with New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

Joseph C. Wilson timeline:

1909 - Born in Rochester, NY to Joseph R. and Katherine Upton Wilson

1927 - Graduated West High School

1931 - Graduated University of Rochester

1933 - Graduated Harvard Business School; Assistant to Sales Manager, Haloid Company

1935 - Married to Marie C. "Peggy" Curran

1936 - Secretary of Haloid Company

1938 - Secretary-Treasurer of Haloid Company

1940 - Treasurer and board member of Haloid Company

1945 - Vice President of Haloid Company

1946 - President and General Manager of Haloid Company

1947 - Haloid Company acquires rights to xerography from Battelle Memorial Institute

1949 - Trustee of University of Rochester

1950 - Member of Community Chest of Rochester and Monroe County

1951 - General Chair of fundraising for United Negro College Fund

1952 - President of Rochester Chamber of Commerce

1954 - Chair of Corporate Relations Committee of University of Rochester

1956 - Formed Rank-Xerox; Chair of Trustee Steering Committee of University of Rochester

1958 - Chair of Executive Committee of University of Rochester

1959 - Chair of Board of Trustees of University of Rochester; 914 office copier introduced by Haloid-Xerox Company

1961- Chief Executive Officer of Xerox Corporation

1962 - Formed Fuji-Xerox

1963 - Established Katherine Upton Wilson Scholarships for the children of Xerox employees; established Haloid-Xerox Professorship in International Economics

1964 - Board member of Committee for Economic Development

1966 - Chair of Xerox Corporation; Chair of United Nations Association of United States

1967 - Honorary Chair of Board of Trustees of University of Rochester; President of Community Chest of Rochester and Monroe County; Chair of Metropolitan Housing Committee

1971 - Chair of President Richard M. Nixon's President's Committee on Health Education; died November 22 in New York City

Scope and Contents

The Blake F. McKelvey research collection on Joseph C. Wilson consists of research notes, correspondence, documents, and printed materials accumulated by McKelvey while conducting research for his book Business as a Profession: The Career of Joseph C. Wilson (Rochester, New York: Office of City Historian, 2003). The collection, spanning the dates 1936-1984, documents Joseph Wilson’s role in business, including Xerox, and community, including the University of Rochester and Metropolitan Housing Committee.

The collection was organized by McKelvey before its acquisition by University of Rochester’s Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation. This finding aid preserves the folder titles used by McKelvey. In some cases, informal titles such as “Joe Abroad” have been clarified while the original has been retained in parenthesis. The folders have been reordered alphabetically, but the contents remain in McKelvey's order.

McKelvey’s collection includes published company materials such as annual reports to shareholders and employee newsletters. The bulk of the collection consists of McKelvey’s research folders, which include "xerocopies" of business documents, McKelvey’s correspondence with Wilson’s friends and business colleagues, as well as McKelvey’s handwritten notes, which include parenthetical references to specific pieces of correspondence. The collection also includes a typed manuscript draft of McKelvey’s biography of Wilson.

Topics in the collection trace the activities of Wilson’s career, including his involvement at Haloid and Xerox, his role as University of Rochester trustee, his other community responsibilities such as Community Chest, his speeches, and his personal and business travels, as well as discussion of Wilson’s posthumous legacy in correspondence between McKelvey and Wilson’s friends and associates.

Creator

Dates

  • Creation: 1936-1984

Language of Materials

English

Extent

2.6 cubic feet (8 containers)

Access

For access to this collection, please contact the University of Rochester Archives (archives@library.rochester.edu) at least two business days prior to your planned visit.

Please note: Some materials may be restricted or require permission for use.

Use

Reproductions may be made upon request but can be subject to restrictions. Permission to publish materials from the collection must currently be requested. Please note that some materials may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the researcher's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections. For more information, please contact the University of Rochester Archives (archives@library.rochester.edu).

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Blake F. McKelvey, 1984.

Preferred Citation

[Item title, item date], Blake F. McKelvey Research Collection on Joseph C. Wilson, D.552, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Arrangement

The records have been arranged in three series.

Series 1: Haloid and Xerox publications, 1936-1983

Series 2: Research folders, 1939-1984

Series 3: Manuscript of biography, 1981

Bibliography

Brooks, John. The Autobiography of American Business. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1974.



Brooks, John. Business Adventures. New York: Weybright and Talley, 1959.



Ellis, Charles D. Joe Wilson and the Creation of Xerox. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2006.



McKelvey, Blake. Business As a Profession: The Career of Joseph C. Wilson Founder of Xerox. Rochester, NY: Office of the City Historian, 2003.



McKelvey, Blake. "A History of Historical Writing in the Rochester Area." Rochester History 6, no. 2 (April 1944): 1-24.



Stave, Bruce M. "A Conversation with Blake McKelvey." Journal of Urban History 2, no. 4 (August 1976): 459-486.


Title
Guide to Blake F. McKelvey research collection on Joseph C. Wilson
Status
Completed
Author
John M. Green
Date
April 2019
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Sponsor
Marie C. and Joseph C. Wilson Foundation

Library Details

Part of the Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation Library

Contact:
Rochester NY 14627-0055 USA