Thompson Products Inc. was established in 1900, in Cleveland, Ohio, as the Cleveland Cap Screw Company. It began producing automotive parts and underwent several reorganizations, becoming the Electric Welding Products Company (1908), the Steel Products Company (1915), and Thompson Products Inc. (1926). It expanded to include branch plants and the production of aircraft parts, and fostered a company union, the Automotive and Aircraft Workers Alliance (later the Aircraft Workers Alliance). It grew during World War II due to defense contracts. After the war it entered the jet and aerospace industries. It merged in 1958 with Ramo Wooldridge Corporation to become TRW Inc. Outside activities include the National Air Races and the Crawford Auto-Aviation Collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society. The collection consists of views of aircraft, personalities, famous flights, and miscellaneous images documenting aviation history in the first half of the 20th century. The images were acquired by Thompson Products from the Dearborn Library-Henry Ford Museum and were used as a supplement to Thompson Products' existing aviation photographic reference library. Included are numerous images of early Wright and Curtiss aircraft, as well as World War I aircraft. The collection also contains many images of aircraft and equipment representing the rapid advances made in aviation technology during the inter-war years.
