TRW, 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 individual and group portraits, including Charles Hubbell, Samuel L. Mather, Thomas E. Dewey, Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Henry Ford II, Frederick C. Crawford, Gene Autry, and other employees and associates of TRW Inc. Subjects of photographs include Thompson Aircraft Products Company, trade shows, Garrison Machine Works, the Frederick C. Crawford home, Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, Ford Motor Company the TRW administration buildings and plants, a Thompson Products press binder, Thompson Products family day (1949), and the crew of the "Memphis Belle."
