Information Sheet

 

 

R            American Zinc, Lead and Smelting Company.

10                    Records, 1901-1965.

                                    154 boxes.

 

NOTE: THIS COLLECTION IS IN OFF-CAMPUS STORAGE. AT LEAST TWO DAYS' ADVANCE NOTICE IS REQUIRED FOR RESEARCH USE.

 

 

The American, Lead and Smelting Company (commonly known as “American Zinc”) was a large nonferrous metals firm which mined, processed, smelted, and marketed basic zinc and lead products.  It had major mining and milling operations in Missouri, Wisconsin, and Tennessee, smelters in Kansas and Illinois, and interests in ore processing machinery.  Founded in 1899, the company became a leader in the zinc industry.  By 1965 it controlled the largest zinc ore re­serves in the United States, and ranked second in zinc ore production and third in smelting ca­pacity.  By that time controlling interest in the firm had passed to Consoli­dated Gold Fields, Ltd., a mining in­vestment company.  James D. Norris’s AZn: A History of the American Zinc Com­pany (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1968), based in large part upon this collec­tion, is an excel­lent general history of the firm.

 

These records, secured from the company's administrative offices in St. Louis, have been or­ganized into three major sections:

 

                      -- Harry S. Kimball File, 1901-1930 (15 boxes)

 

                      -- Walter G. Swart File, ca.  1907-1915 (12 boxes)

 

                      -- Howard I. Young File, ca.  1925-1965 (127 boxes)

 

 

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