The James Hartness Papers consist of correspondence, writings of James Hartness, printed and mimeogrpahed material, newspaper clippings and photographs. They span the years 1882-1935, falling mainly within the period 1904-1933.
The collection reflects Hartness' business, professional and avocational interests, its emphasis being on his professional and public affiliations both in Vermont and nationally.
There are eleven series in the collection. Series I, General Correspondence is the largest series in the papers. Hartness' correspondents range from fellow Vermonters to persons nationally and internationally active in engineering, astronomy, invention, industrial management, and politics. His Vermont correspondence addresses both personal and public matters. There is a smattering of correspondence regarding machine tool manufacture in Vermont and elsewhere and also a number of letters between Hartness and members of his immediate and extended families including his brothers, John A. and Robert B. A list of notable correspondents and lists of correspondents arranged by subject follow this description. Series I is arranged alphabetically by individual correspondent, institution, organization or company.
Series II, Professional Files, represents in a more concentrated form Hartness' nonoccupational activities, i.e., his association with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Engineering Council, the Aero Clubs of Vermont and the U.S., and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Included here are also Hartness-For-Governor campaign material, correspondence relating to his term as governor of Vermont, reports and letters regarding the Vermont State Board of Education, the Naval Consulting Board / Organization for Industrial Preparedness, and the National Screw Thread Commission. All this material, apart from the Hartness-For-Governor and State of Vermont material, is arranged chronologically; the political papers are arranged by subject and alphabetically. Jones and Lamson Machine Co. material has been added to this series; this material is general and incomplete, composed mainly of letters to the company from clients or other machine tool manufacturers; it is arranged alphabetically. (See oversized Photo #173, the J & L Machine Shop Group Photo [1895?].)
The professional engineering files form the bulk of Series II: these are fairly extensive reports of A.S.M.E. and A.E.C. projects plus letters to and from members of the Society and Council. The Naval Consulting Board files concern the industrial survey of Vermont undertaken by the Vermont Committee of Public Safety in 1916-1917. The governor's papers included here are incomplete; a more complete set is available on microfilm at the Vermont Public Records Division in Montpelier.
Series III, Personal Files, consists mainly of correspondence regarding appointments - largely speech making engagements, applications and recommendations plus Hartness' investment and tax files. This material is arranged by subject.
Series IV, Miscellaneous Subject Files, is a fairly incomplete assortment of correspondence and some printed matter not central to Hartness' primary interests.
Series V consists of the papers of James Hartness' secretary, Harry T. Laffin, and of his son-in-law, Dr. William H. Beardsley. The Laffin material - correspondence, reports and printed matter - deals primarily with the Boy Scout movement in Vermont and with the Springfield, VT Chamber of Commerce. Beardsley's papers present a greater scope of interest: general correspondence, Vermont State Chamber of Commerce, the Green Mountain Parkway Plan, the National Recovery Administration, speeches and reports, newspaper clippings. Both the Laffin and the Beardsley sections are arranged by subject.
Series VI, Writings and Speeches of James Hartness, is arranged by title. The writings are the rough and the finished copies, manuscript and typescript, of his books, articles, and speeches. They deal with engineering, industrial management, aviation and politics. The unpublished "Star Gazing in Comfort" is included in this series as are miscellaneous notes and fragments and a single folder of writings of others including Russell Porter on astronomy and Henry L. Gantt on efficiency.
Series VII, Photographs, consists mainly of Hartness/Beardsley/Flanders family snapshots. There are a few late nineteenth century photos of Lena P. Hartness' grandmother's farmhouse and land, plus three folders of unidentified photographs, one folder of negatives and one folder of postcards.
The newspaper clippings of Series VIII are generally organized by subject, dealing for the most part with Hartness' primary campaign, his terms as governor of Vermont and as president of the American Engineering Council. The four scrapbooks in this series deal with astronomy, with his term in state office, with his 1915 speech on "The New Vermont" and with items of general interest.
Series IX consists of one folder of memorabilia: an assortment of calling cards, membership cards, tickets, etc.
The final series, Printed Matter, contains copies of Hartness' published writings (all of which are duplicated in the Vermont Research Collection) plus miscellaneous magazines, pamphlets, and newsletters on various subjects, again reflecting Hartness' professional and avocational interests. Some of the material from Series X has been removed to the Vermont Research Collection and to general library circulation. See the Separated Material note.
An oversized material is composed of machine blueprints and mechanical drawings and State of Vermont Fiscal Charts.
A series of Family Papers was added to the collection in 2017 relevant to the Beardsley family. The correspondence present mainly consists of William H. Beardsley's letters to Anna Jackson Hartness in the years leading up to their marriage, and letters Anna wrote to her mother Lena from the early years of Anna's marriage. Anna often addressed her letters to her mother with the nickname "Puss." William and Anna's daughter Mary Beardsley Fenn transcribed several handwritten letters in 2009; these are noted when present. Mary also wrote a biography of her grandparents, James Hartness and Lena Pond Hartness, which is included in the Family Papers series.
Collection is open for research.
Collection does not circulate.
James Hartness was born in Schenectady, New York, on September 3, 1861 to Ursilla Jackson (approximately 1834-1891) and John William Hartness (approximately 1830-1906). At the age of two he moved with his parents and brothers (John and Robert) to Cleveland, Ohio. His father found work in various machine shops there, finally joining Younglove, Massey and Co. in the capacity of foreman and then superintendent. James was educated in Cleveland public schools and, finishing his grammar school course, he went to work for his father's employer. He apprenticed under Jason Bidwell at the Union Steel Screw Works in Cleveland from 1877-1880 and in 1882, at the age of twenty-one, took a job as foreman at the Thompson, Stacker Bolt Co. of Winstead, Connecticut.
On May 13, 1885, he married Lena Sanford Pond of Winstead and later that year went to work for the Union Hardware Co. at Torrington, Connecticut. In 1888-1889, while Lena remained in Torrington with their first daughter, Anna Jackson, James Hartness worked successively for Pratt and Whitney of Hartford, Eaton, Cole and Burnham of Bridgeport and at an engine shop in Scottsdale, Pennsylvania. None of these plants suited his purposes, however, and in 1889 he applied for and was hired as shop superintendent at the Jones and Lamson Machine Co. of Springfield, Vermont. Their second child, daughter Helen Edith, was born in Springfield in 1890.
Hartness had begun patenting his inventions in 1886; by 1888 he had five patents, four of them in his own name. In 1891 he patented the flat turret lathe, an improved model that allowed for longer cuts and for heavier and faster work, a radical improvement on the high turret lathes then in use.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which Hartness joined in 1891, had, several years earlier, begun to move away from the purely technical consideration of the profession and to consider the broader issues of engineering, principally efficient methods of manufacture and shop management. In 1897 Hartness contributed two papers, both dealing with thread-cutting, to the Society's annual meetings. He took an increasing part in committee work in the early years of this century and in 1909 was elected manager of the A.S.M.E., holding that office for three years. After two years as the Society's Vice President he was, in 1914, elected for a one year term and remained actively involved with the A.S.M.E. Executive Council for the next five years. During his active years in the Society Hartness wrote several influential books on industrial management, including The Human Factor in Works Management and The Human Element: The Key to Economic Problems.
His public career began in 1914 when Governor Allen M. Fletcher appointed him to the Vermont State Board of Education, with which he remained associated until 1920. He, in the meantime, expanded his public service working as federal food administrator for the State of Vermont (1917), as chairman of the Vermont Industrial Survey conducted by the U.S. Naval Consulting Board / Organization for Industrial Preparedness through the Vermont Committee of Public Safety (1916-1917), and as a member of the Interallied Aircraft Standardization Commission (1918) and of the National Screw Thread Commission (1918).
In the Republican gubernatorial primary campaign of 1920 Hartness faced Frank W. Agan, Frederick H. Babbitt, and Curtiss Emery, winning the party's nomination well ahead of his opponents. His campaign strategy was to present himself as an engineer and a successful business man who could bring new ideas and new methods to the state executive department. In his campaign speeches and literature he pointed continually to the need to develop Vermont industrially as well as agriculturally. Through the Hartness-For-Governor Clubs he was able to personally approach a wide sampling of Republican voters and he supported his personal campaign with a steady stream of campaign bulletins and newspaper detailing his plans for Vermont.
While governor he reorganized the highway department and brought increased attention to the need for efficiency in state government.
The Federated American Engineering Societies, which became the American Engineering Council - a body set up by the various American engineering associations for purposes of national and governmental policy consultation - elected Hartness President in 1924. His health was poor that year, however, which seriously limited his capacity in that office.
Ill health continued through the following years. He underwent three operations in 1925, never fully recovering from them, He nevertheless found time and energy to attend the annual A.S.M.E. meetings in 1926 (in Denver) and 1929 (Salt Lake City). And in the last three years of his life, he took out a group of ten patents, most of them relations to precision thread gauging.
He retired from the Jones and Lamson presidency in 1930 though he remained personally associated with the company. On March 18, 1933, Lena Pond Hartness died of cancer. James Hartness died on February 2 of the following year.
Anna Jackson Hartness (1899-1966) married William Henry Beardsley (1882-1935) in 1912 and they had three children: James "Harty" Hartness Beardsley (1914-2004), Constance Hartness Beardsley Claghorn, and Mary Hartness Beardsley Fenn (1917-2015). William was the son of Oliver W. Beardsley and Theresa Leedon Beardsley. William graduated from Yale University Medical School in 1910. He had three sisters (Ella, Nellie, and Carrie) and two brothers (Robert and Lewis, who went by Lew). Helen Edith Hartness Flanders (1890-1972) married Ralph Edward Flanders (1880-1970) in 1911 and they had three children: Helen Elizabeth Flanders (b. 1912 and went by Elizabeth), Anna "Nancy" Hartness Flanders Balivet (1918-1962), and James Hartness Flanders (1923-1992). Ralph was the son of Albert W. Flanders and Minnie Gilfillan Flanders. Ralph went on to serve as the U.S. Senator from Vermont from 1946-1959.
31.2 Linear Feet (24 cartons, 2 boxes, 1 oversize folder)