The collection includes drawings, templates, blueprints, and photographs from the Wallace Nutting Old America Co. One photograph is of the men and women who worked for him in July 1928. On the back of the photo, the men are identified, but most of the women are not. Another photo is entitled "Ready for the Afternoon"; it is an example of the sort of photos which Nutting sold. One blueprint is for a Chippendale chair; the others are floor plans of the Hazen House, the Cutler-Bartlet House, and the Wentworth-Gardner House, all of which were restored by Nutting. The templates were used in the furniture workshop. Almost all of them are guidelines for carving decoration on the pieces made there. Some, however, are outlines for the shapes of legs, bonnet tops, or table aprons. A few of the templates indicate the stock number of the piece for which it was intended. Almost all the drawings in this collection were executed by Ernest John Donnelly for the third volume of Wallace Nutting's Furniture Treasury (copyright 1933). A few drawings appeared in volume 2 of Furniture Treasury or in Nutting's Pennsylvania Beautiful. Nutting identified himself as the artist for the latter book, although the drawings in this collection which appeared in that book have the name E. Blanche Brown written on the back. Nutting did not identify the artist of the drawings for volume 2 of Furniture Treasury; they may have been executed by Donnelly. The drawings include carved shell and rosette decorations, finials, clock hands, bed posts, and pieces of furniture. As well, there are several silhouettes which were not used in volume 3, but may be the originals of the silhouettes which Nutting sold as part of his picture business. As well, the collection includes an illustrated catalog of Windsor furniture, two price lists, and photos of furniture made by the Wallace Nutting, Inc.
