Reynolds family papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 1924

Scope and content

Correspondence, patents, drawings, accounts, affidavits, bonds, and other legal documents mainly concerning the invention, manufacture, and sale of an artillery device consisting of a revolving battery for projecting balls, and the Empire loom and related textile improvements, but also referring to hay forks, rotary pumps, weather vanes, and other inventions of Rensselaer Reynolds and his son Robert. Also, related papers of Rensselaer Reynolds's brothers and business associates, James and Benjamin Reynolds, as well as Alfred Wild, Peter Van Schaack, William Benjamin, and others. Also, personal and official correspondence (1863-1865) of Robert Burns Reynolds, written while he was enrolled at the United States Naval Academy; his notebooks containing gunnery sketches, naval songs, and accounts; and one photograph in midshipman's uniform. The collection also contains a diary, and indentures for the sale of land.

Scope and content

Also, a genealogy of the Reynolds family (1632-1932) with mention of the Bruce, Burns, Camp, deRose, Deyo, Fenninger, Frizzell, Saunders, Silliman, Wadsworth, and other families; manuscript poetry; and miscellanea.

Dates

1835-1908.

Creator

Reynolds family. (Family)
Reynolds, Rensselaer, 1807-1872. (Person)
Reynolds, Robert Burns, 1843-1910. (Person)
Reynolds, James, active 19th century. (Person)
Reynolds, Benjamin, active 19th century. (Person)
Wild, Alfred, active 19th century. (Person)
Van Schaack, Peter, active 19th century. (Person)
Benjamin, William, active 19th century. (Person)

Language of Material

In English.

Biographical / Historical

Residents of Stockport, Columbia County, New York. Born in Valatie, New York in 1807, Rensselaer Reynolds (full name Lansing Van Rensselaer Reynolds) invented the first machine for insulating telegraph wires so they could be laid down underwater, and the first machine in the United States for making round matches. He founded the Projecting Engine Company and invented the Empire loom, and he formed a partnership with William Benjamin of New York City in 1852 to manufacture and sell the loom in Stockport, naming the business the Empire Loom Works. Although William Benjamin soon left, the business prospered and was eventually passed on to Rensselaer's four sons, Gordon Byron Reynolds, Robert Burns Reynolds, Frank A. Reynolds, and Joshua Reynolds. (Rensselaer and his wife Elsie Marie Burns also had two daughters, Sarah and Nettie.) Rensselaer died in 1872. He and his son Robert each obtained several patents for inventions or improvements to various implements.