The Winterthur Library

The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Creator: Charles L. Ill, 1864-19--

Title: Bills

Dates: 1891-1901

Call No.: Col. 376

Acc. No.: 95x62

Quantity: 322 items

Location: 34 L 1

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

Charles Ill was a prominent physician who lived and worked in Newark, New Jersey at the turn of the 20^th century. His father, a native of Germany, was also a physician. Dr. Ill graduated from the Bellevue Medical College of New York City in 1888, after which he spent a year taking post-graduate courses at the University of Strassburg in Germany. Upon his return to the United States, Dr. Ill formed a practice in obstetrics and gynecology in Newark, New Jersey. He was on the staff of St. Michael's and St. Barnabas' hospitals, both in Newark. Dr. Ill also was a member of Mayor Gillan's staff, served on the Board of Education, and was president of the Academy of Medicine of Northern New Jersey from 1921 to 1922. He married Lillian Ruckelshaus in 1889 and they had five children, three of whom also became physicians.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

This collection contains 322 receipts and printed and manuscript bills dating from 1891 to 1901 for a wide variety of products and services relating to the household activities and medical practice of Dr. Charles Ill of Newark, New Jersey. Products and services include house renovations and furnishings; utility bills; food, liquor, and house wares; clothing and sundries; blacksmithing, carriage and harness repairs; hay, grain, and animal feeds; and pharmaceutical and medical supplies. The firms represented were located primarily in Newark, New Jersey and vicinity. The majority of bills have printed billheads, most of which have illustrations; some are in color. Of particular interest are illustrations of period gas stoves, furnaces, and cooking ranges depicted on the back of the Newark Gas Company bills.

ORGANIZATION

The bills have been sorted by the product sold.

PROVENANCE

Purchased from Donald Broas.

ACCESS POINTS

Topics:

Bausch & Lomb Optical Co.

Johnson & Johnson.

Upjohn Pill & Granule Co.

Parke, Davis & Co.

Alcoholic beverages - Prices.

Animals - Food.

Blacksmithing - Prices.

Boots - Prices.

Carpentry.

Carpet cleaning industry.

Carpet laying - Prices.

Carriage manufacturers and dealers - New Jersey.

Carriages and carts - Maintenance and repair.

Chimneys - Repairing.

Clothing trade - New Jersey.

Coal - Prices.

Department stores - New Jersey.

Drugs - Prices.

Dwellings - Maintenance and repair.

Engraving, American - Specimens.

Finance, Personal.

Food prices - 19th century.

Furniture - Repairing.

Harnesses - Repairing.

Hat trade - New Jersey.

House furnishings - Purchasing.

Household supplies - Prices.

Insurance - Plans.

Interior decoration.

Medical supplies - Prices.

Merchants - New Jersey.

Painting, Industrial - Prices.

Portrait photography - Prices.

Plumbing.

Public utilities - Rates.

Real property tax.

Roofs - Maintenance and repair.

Shipping - Rates.

Shoes – Prices.

Sleighs and sledges - Repairing \x Prices.

Stoves - Pictorial works.

Surgical instruments and apparatus - Prices.

Physicians - New Jersey - Newark.

Toys – Prices.

Wallpaper - Prices.

Bills (financial).

Billheads.

Receipts.

Invoices.

Physicians.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Location: 34 L 1

Folder 1: Pharmaceutical and Medical Supplies, Office Expenses

Contains 65 invoices for pharmaceutical and surgical supplies from 1892-1901. Supplies include needles, gauze, forceps, licorice root, fennel, cocaine, quinine, strychnine, pepsin powder, bismuth subnitrate, cod liver oil, nipples, syringes, stomach tubes and sponges among others. Suppliers include Metzger, Parke Davis, Johnson & Johnson, Fischer Chemical, Neidlinger Bros., Pennsylvania Vaccine Co., Upjohn, Lancaster County Vaccine Farms, Spencer Optical Manufacturing, and Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. Also included are an 1892 price list from Pennsylvania Vaccine Company and a catalog with prices of Bausch & Lomb equipment.

Folder 2: House Utilities

Contains 70 invoices for house and possibly office utilities from 1893-1901. These include bills for telephone, water, coal, real estate taxes, and gas. The invoices from the gas company are of particular interest since they depict period gas stoves, furnaces, and cooking ranges on the back side of the bill.

Folder 3: House Renovations and Furnishings

Contains 34 bills from 1891-1901 for remodeling and furniture purchases from local businesses. Items purchased and services rendered include general plumbing, roof repair, plastering, chimney repair, doorbell repair, linoleum installation, carpet installation, carpet cleaning, window repair, stove pipes repair, interior painting, spruce wood floors installed, and iron bed, book case, shades, and gas lamp fixtures purchased.

Folder 4: Food, Liquor, and House wares

Contains 49 bills from local businesses between 1891 and 1901 for food, liquor, and house wares. Items of interest include receipts for sherry, champagne and 100 pounds of "Cincinnaty bologna."

Folder 5: Clothing and Sundries

Contains 34 receipts from various local department stores, tailors, dry goods stores, and shoemakers dated 1892-1901. Items purchased include men's suits, chiffon dresses, shirts, gloves, derby hat, coats, shawl, negligee, skirts, children's boots, pants, and ties. Sundries include perfumes, soaps, cigars, luggage, and jewelry.

Folder 6: Blacksmithing, Carriage and Harness Repair

Contains 44 invoices dated 1893-1901 for horseshoeing, wagon, carriage, and sleigh repair, and saddle and harness repairs by local businesses.

Folder 7: Hay, Grain, and Animal Feed

Contains 35 invoices for hay, oats, straw, and animal feed primarily from Drake and Company of Newark, NJ. Dates range from 1893 to 1901.

Folder 8: Miscellaneous

Contains 35 invoices and receipts dated 1893-1901 for money orders, shipping charges, taxi service, dentist office, picture frames, photographic portraits, insurance premiums, floral arrangements, and toys (farm set, toy soldiers, doll, etc.).