Highlights Archives
A Pictorial History of an Industrial Pioneer
Alonzo Pawling and Henry Harnischfeger met while both were employed at the Whitehill Sewing Machine Company of Milwaukee. Several years later, in 1884, sensing Milwaukee's growing need for a dependable machine and pattern shop, the two combined their resources and, with a simple handshake, started the business that would one day service 90 percent of the world's surface mines and revolutionize the machinery industry with the invention of the electric crane. This turn-of-the-20th-century innovation is the subject of this month's featured gallery from Wisconsin Historical Images, the Society's online image gallery.
Pawling and Harnischfeger moved into their first building the first week of December 1884 in the midst of a harsh Milwaukee snowstorm. Despite this daunting beginning, Pawling and Harnischfeger quickly became known for their high-quality parts and machinery. Business was so good that, within a year, a second-story addition was required, followed by a third story the year after that.
In 1887 A.J. Shaw came to the Pawling & Harnischfeger Company (P&H) with an opportunity that would irrevocably alter the course of the business. Shaw, then working for the E.P. Allis Company, had been charged with fixing a complex rope-driven traveling crane. Instead of simply fixing the crane, however, Shaw decided to replace the rope-driven parts with three electric motors, one for each function of the crane. Given their local renown, it was to P&H that Shaw took his idea for his revolutionary electric crane.
The photographs in this collection depict the various types of electric cranes, hoists and earth-moving equipment built by P&H in the first decades of the 20th century. The majority of photographs are not attributed to any specific photographer, though most, if not all, seem to have been taken by commercial photographers. P&H cranes were installed in industrial complexes around America, from foundries in Portland, Oregon, to sugar refineries in Brooklyn, New York. P&H serviced them all.
The photographs capture not only the equipment the company manufactured, but also people working, including photos of the P&H offices, the nurses' station, and the P&H product display at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Four retired workers provided some of the identifying features in these photos.
Also included is a subcollection of cranes manufactured by the Milwaukee Electric Crane & Manufacturing Corporation. P&H purchased the company in 1963.
Alonzo Pawling and Henry Harnischfeger maintained their active business partnership until 1911, at which point ill health led Pawling to retire and sell his business interest to Harnischfeger. After Pawling's retirement, the company became known as Harnischfeger Corporation, though the trademark and logo "P&H" remain intact to this very day.
Pawling and Harnischfeger came from humble beginnings in Milwaukee, but became one of the best-known and well-respected suppliers of manufacturing services to industries around the world. Today the company maintains the ideals of "perfect design and honest workmanship" that began almost 125 years ago.
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:: Posted December 18, 2008
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