[Ledgers and Time Books from a National Blank Book Co. Catalogue]
"Time is money, and as such, a careful record of it must be kept," insisted ad copy for the National Blank Book Company. Stationers to the managerial class, National sold timekeeping rosters that segmented each day into a terse equation of hours worked and wages billed. Their success speaks to a reorganization of American life around commodities, whose production and purchase appear here inexorably entwined. The photograph, mounted to the page of a disbound catalogue, shows inventory measured and marked for order. A neat grid evokes the strictly ruled pages within these books, reiterating the rigor of their corporate brand.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Ledgers and Time Books from a National Blank Book Co. Catalogue]
- Photography Studio: Stadler Photographing Company (American, active 1900s–1940s)
- Date: ca. 1913
- Medium: Gelatin silver print with applied color
- Dimensions: 23.4 x 28.4 cm (9 3/16 x 11 3/16 in.)
Frame: 18 x 20 in. - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Funds from various donors, 2000
- Object Number: 2000.335
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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