Lord & Burnham Co. Records (RA)

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Historical Note: Lord & Burnham Company

The Lord & Burnham Company originated when Frederick Lord began building greenhouses as a sideline to his carpentry business in Buffalo, New York in 1849. He moved to Syracuse in 1854 and in 1866 he established Lord's Horticultural Manufacturing Company. In 1870 Lord moved his operation to Irvington on Hudson in order to be closer to his major clients, the estate owners in the lower Hudson Valley. Two years later, his son-in-law William Addison Burnham, became a business partner by providing capital the company adopted the name Lord and Burnham.

The greenhouse industry needed to provide dependable, adjustable and evenly distributed heat to large areas. The company experimented with several boiler types and in 1873 they put their first boiler on the market. One of the most successful, a cast iron sectional model proved to be more efficient than any other available although it did have some faults and repairs were difficult and costly. The second design, almost square in shape and fitted with brass tubes, was introduced in 1878. Later, a sectional boiler was introduced with great success, opening up a new avenue of marketing for the firm-the residential heating market.

After the civil war the development of greenhouses for commercial purposes became more evident throughout the United States. Plants and flowers became increasingly popular for social occasions such as funerals, weddings and parties and Victorian interiors called for houseplants such as palms and ferns. Private greenhouses became a common accessory to many estates, providing readily available fresh fruits and flowers as well as a place for entertaining for the social, financial and political elite. Soon, municipalities added to the demand for greenhouse and conservatory structures. Public parks and gardens sought to build greenhouses for public and educational use.

The company successfully re-invented themselves with new ideas and innovations. The industrial revolution brought on advances in the production of materials such as iron, glass and heating methods. Jay Gould had purchased the Lyndhurst estate, in Tarrytown from the Merritt family in 1870's. When the large greenhouse, built of wood burned down, Gould commissioned L&B to rebuild. The company was the first to introduce small sash bars with supporting iron frames rather than wooden rafters in the rebuilding. Lord and Burnham also pioneered the use of ground glass in the windows. Panes of glass could be made larger to fit a larger surface. These fundamental changes in material allowed more light to reach the growing plants.

The Hitchings Company, established in 1844, specialized in the manufacture of greenhouse components such as ventilating apparatus and heating systems, and began manufacturing greenhouse structures in 1888. In 1905, Lord and Burnham merged with Hitchings & Co. and the Pierson-Sefton Co. to form the Burnham-Pierson-Sefton Corporation. By 1906, realizing that the public preferred to do business with the original companies, they reverted back to the old names of Lord & Burnham, Hitchings and Co. and the Pierson U-Bar Co., but remained incorporated. The company continued to acquire other greenhouse companies, including the William Lutton Co. of Jersey City.

In 1911, the company constructed a greenhouse manufacturing plant in Des Plaines, Illinois and by 1914, in order to produce greenhouses for the Canadian market, Lord and Burnham Limited in St. Catherine's Ontario, was established. In 1917 the company bought the Geneva boiler Works and soon produced and sold boilers at both the Irvington and Elizabeth, N.J. (Hitchings) plants. By 1919 the Burnham Boiler Co. was established to take over the boiler business from Lord & Burnham Co. and Hitchings.

The firm maintained a program of continuous research and development of product in for their heating and greenhouse products for both home and industry. They experimented with the use of aluminum as a suitable material for greenhouse construction and were one of the first to employ composite construction of aluminum and steel. During both world wars, the firm converted most of its facilities to the production of critical military equipment. Production included pontoon bridges, hand grenades and assault boats. By 1946 the corporate structure was re-organized and all major Burnham subsidiaries were consolidated to form the Burnham Corporation. In 1987 the corporation dissolved.

Scope and Content

The collection contains a comprehensive archive of business and architectural records of the country's most prominent greenhouse builders and manufacturers. The bulk of this collection is comprised of architectural drawings for greenhouses and conservatories erected in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by Lord & Burnham Co. Variations on the glass house theme include plans for the related structures such as solariums, aviaries and studios for artists. Textual records, primarily business records include correspondence, telegraphs, letterpress books, postcards, index cards, ledgers, account books and advertising material. The firms of Pierson-Sefton, William H. Lutton and Hitchings and Co. are also represented. The collection contains over 140,000 architectural plans, drawings and renderings that include data on structural and site elements for more than 7,000 glass structures.

The media and physical formats represented in the collection are pencil or pen and ink on paper, pen and ink on drafting linen, and a variety of photographic reproductions such as blueprints, diazotypes, negative photostats, electrostatic print, aniline print and vandyke prints.

Due to one of several fires at the L&B factory and business offices, many of the earliest records have been destroyed, therefore, there are gaps in the sequence.

Restrictions

Access restrictions

This collection is open for research with permission from Mertz Library staff.

Copyright

Requests for permission to publish material from the collection should be submitted in writing to the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Lord & Burnham Co. Records (RA), Archives, The New York Botanical Garden.

Acquisition Information

This collection was originally on long term loan from Lord & Burnham Co., Tarrytown, NY.

Processing Information

Processed by Susan Fraser, Director, LuEsther T. Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden.

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