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Archive of Gillette Razor Founder King Gillette

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Title: Archive of correspondence relating to the Gillette Safety Razor Company
Author: Gillette, King C.
Description: Large archive of letters, telegrams, etc., most hand-written, a number on various Gillette Razor letterheads.Over 40 letters, many of multiple pages, from King C. Gillette, inventor of the disposable razor blade and founder of the Gillette Safety Razor Company, mostly to Charles A. Gaines, Gillette's representative in London. All of the typed letters from Gillette, of which there are fewer than 10, appear to have been signed secretarially and not by King Gillette himself. The autograph letters are in Gillette's hand. The letters document the early years the Gillette company and King Gillette's struggles to gain controlling interest in the company that bore his name as well as addressing the company's expansion into the English and European markets. With Gaines as his confidant Gillette discusses his efforts to purchase a majority of stock shares and to keep controlling interest of the corporation out of the hands of his rival within the company ranks, John Joyce. Also includes several telegrams, correspondence to Gaines from other Gillette executives, misc. paperwork related to the Gillette Company, a Typed Letter, signed from Gillette's attorney Louis Brandeis, photographs of King Gillette and Charles Gaines, etc. The American Safety Razor Company was formed in 1901 and in July 1902 the name was changed to the Gillette Safety Razor Company. King Gillette obtained a trademark registration for his portrait and signature on the packaging and production began in 1903. Thanks in part to Gillette's low prices, automated manufacturing techniques, effective marketing and advertising, by 1908 the corporation had established manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, England, France and Germany and by 1915 razor sales reached 450,000 units and blade sales exceeded 70 million units. In 1918, when the U.S. entered World War I, the company provided all American soldiers with a field razor set, paid for by the government. Gillette was also a Utopian Socialist, publishing his book "The Human Drift" in 1894 advocating that all industry should be taken over by a single corporation, a later book, World Corporation (1910), was a prospectus for a company set up to create his vision of a Utopian America. He offered Theodore Roosevelt the presidency of the company, Roosevelt declined. Not much evidence of Gillette's socialist leanings is apparent in the present group of letters.
Heading: Place Published: Boston (mostly)
Publisher:
Date Published: primarily 1903-1909, a few later