Boston Wool Trade Association Records

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 6545

Scope and Contents

The bulk of the collection consists of the annual files of the BWTA from 1951 to 1972. These include correspondence, bills, receipts, and information pamphlets. The minutes and printed circulars appear to be complete. Records from the Associated Wool Industries and the National Wool Trade Association are meeting minutes. Those of the National Wool Finance Corporation are correspondence and financial records. Except for a few files of correspondence, the records before 1950 are formal minutes and reports. Little information on the workings of the association is available.

Dates

1911-1972

Creator

Boston Wool Trade Association (creator, Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.

Biographical / Historical

The Boston Wool trade Association (BWTA) was founded in 1911. The impetus for such and organization came from Jacob F. Brown of Brown and Adams, wool merchants, and grew out of the Interstate Commerce Commission hearings on wool freight rates. Membership included wool brokers and importers, top makers waste and noil dealers, and others in related fields. The association was established to improve business conditions, to create uniformity in business transactions, to promote business between members, to arbitrate disputes, and to promote the interests of the industry before the government and the public.

In 1933, as a result of the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act, the U.S. government requested that the wool trade submit a Code of Fair Competition. This was drawn up by the BWTA, but the government insisted the code should come from the whole wool trade. Under the leadership of the BWTA and other regional associations, the National Wool Trade Association was organized. The NWTA helped establish a code, an after the invalidation of the NRA by the Supreme Court it continued to lobby and act on behalf of the industry until 1966.

During the 1930s the BWTA was include in several other programs, In 1934, the BWTA executive committee addressed the problem of wool promotion. In recommended that the NWTA rase funds for that purpose, and in 1935, Associated Wool Industries was established to promote wool consumption, mainly through advertising. Also in 1934, the BWTA, through the agency of the Wool Advisory Committee of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, participated in the formation an operation of the Wool Finance Corporation. This organization was established to take large quantities of unsold wool on consignment at high guaranteed advances. Its goal was to stabilize the market and increase wool prices. The corporation was dissolved in 1936.

-Taken from "The Merrimack Valley Textile Museum: A Guide to the Manuscript Collections

Extent

82.3 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Custodial History

American Textile History Museum Collection, gift of the Boston Wool Trade Association.

Processing Information

The ATHM # references the accession number given to collections by the American Textile History Museum (ATHM). These numbers have been kept and tracked for researchers looking for former citations. The ATHM accession number for this collection was 0022.290. When the materials had been processed by the ATHM, we kept the records in the original order but sometimes the box and folders numbers will change. The old numbers appear in the processing note, the box and folder are the numbers that immediately follow the accession number. For instance, the number 0022.290.1.3, would indicate that the material was formerly in Box 1, Folder 3.