Conard-Pyle Company records supplement

The Conard-Pyle Company records supplement includes substantial additions to some of the series in the original collection, as well as records which constitute three new series related to the Atlantic Coast Nurseries, Inc., printed material and Robert Pyle's professional papers.

The series in this supplement parallel the series and subseries in the original collection. However, there are no additions for several series in the original collection, including Series III. Legal records, VIII. Professional organizations, IX. Trade shows, and XI. Plaques, awards, and ephemera. Three new series have been added to the Conard Pyle Company records in this supplement: Series XII. Atlantic Coast Nurseries; Inc., Series XIII. Books, magazines, catalogs, pamphlets and articles; and Series XIV. Robert Pyle professional papers.

This supplement has additional material for several of the subseries found in Series I. Company Administration and Operation. Substantial files, dating from 1929 to 1946, were added to subseries I.B. Foreign correspondence, namely, correspondence with the firms of Charles Mallerin in France and Pedro Dot in Spain, as well as a group of miscellaneous foreign correspondence arranged alphabetically.

The additions to subseries I.E. Speeches, Trips and Events, focus on the files for Red Rose Rent Day events from 1957 through 1984, when the annual celebration was discontinued. The files, arranged by year, include press kits, photographs, negatives, slides, and other material used to publicize the event. Begun in 1937, Red Rose Rent Day honored a proviso found in the original 1731 deed to the property (part of which eventually was sold to Conard-Pyle Company in 1928). When the property was deeded to William Penn's grandson in 1731, the proviso called for the payment of a red rose yearly if demanded. Later deeds in 1742 and 1748 continued to carry this proviso. At the Red Rose Rent days the Conard-Pyle Company would give one red rose to a descendent of the William Penn family in fulfillment of the proviso.

Additions to subseries I.G. Company Operation files include a variety of material, such as drafts of histories of the Conard-Pyle Company, an early deed to the West Grove property (1868), a file of "famous autographs," and minutes for the stockholders annual meetings during the 1980s.

The additions in series II. Financial records span the dates 1910 to 1999 and range from records of orders for bulbs (1922-1927) to trial balance sheets from 1932 to 1938, as well as inventories and prices in 1999, stock books from 1910-to 1923, records of equipment and insurance costs in the 1920s and 1930 and payrolls for 1932 to 1936.

Series IV. Patents and Licensing has additions of contracts and licenses arranged alphabetically by grower from 1933-1949, as well as a ledger on hybridization from 1929 to 1959 and a record of "Woody Plant Acquisitions" dating from 1928 to 1981.

The supplement also includes additions to subseries V.A. Advertising, consisting of the files for retail advertising campaigns from 1925 through 1943. Correspondence for 1967 from the Meilland firm have been added to series VI. Meilland Family Partnership.

Two photograph albums, dating from 1911 and 1925, were added to Series VII. Images, Audio, and Film. One of the albums is labeled "Rose Trip Abroad" and includes images and information related to Robert Pyle's service as a judge for the 1911 National Rose Show of France in Paris. Photographs taken in France, Holland and Germany depict Pyle's trip and the gardens he visited.

The additions to Series X. Individual flowers are undated plastic transparencies of images of certain named roses, such as Floradora and Gypsys Fantastique. There is also one glass plate negative of the rose named Happiness.

The first new series to the Conard-Pyle Company records is Series XII. Atlantic Coast Nurseries, Incorporated, spanning the dates 1921 to 1928. Robert Pyle was the president and one of the founders of this corporation which included partners from Virginia and Massachusetts. Incorporated in 1922, in Virginia, the purpose of the company was to produce, buy, sell and distribute plant life. The records in this series comprise financial records, correspondence, stock books, the constitution and papers of incorporation.

Series XIII. Books, magazines, catalogs, pamphlets and articles consists of printed material related to gardening, marketing, advertising, trade shows, and the publications from horticultural organizations. Issues of The National Rose Society of Great Britain Annual (1910-1951) and the American Association of Nurserymen Report and Proceedings (1908-1945) have been removed for cataloging.

The final new series of material added to the Conard-Pyle Company Records is Series XIV. Robert Pyle professional papers, which included two subseries. The first subseries, XIV.A. Diaries comprises the daily diaries kept by Robert Pyle from 1912 to 1951. The second subseries XIV.B. Lectures consists of the notebooks of lectures and talks given by Robert Pyle between 1935 and 1948.

Robert Pyle's daily diaries are extensive and detailed. The diaries serve as a record of his daily activities; in some cases, Pyle charted his day in increments of 10 or 15 minutes, documenting not only his work schedule, but the time spent at meals, reading, and meditating. The diaries include photographs, clippings, itineraries, and notes from meetings he attended.

The diaries provide a record of Pyle's participation in the business at Conard-Pyle Company. The diaries document his business trips, staff meetings, and new ideas for the business. The diaries also reveal Pyle's personal life, recording his daily routines, involvement in the local Quaker meeting, and the forms of entertainment he enjoyed. Covering a forty-year span, these diaries richly depict Robert Pyle's life and work. The diaries are available in a digital version connected to this finding aid.

The lectures and talks in subseries XIV.B. include occasional handwritten text but more often are typed lectures or in some cases, lists of descriptive information for slide shows. Robert Pyle spoke to a variety of groups, such as the American Institute of Park Executives, groups visiting the Red Rose Inn, the Oxford Rotary Club, the West Chester Bankers Association, Ohio State University, and the West Grove Garden Club, to name only a few of his many audiences.