The museum is acquiring a significant collection of mimeograph machines, advertising materials and company documents from the A.B.Dick Company of Niles, Illinois.  The A.B.Dick Company has a storied place in the history of the office equipment industry, dating back to an 1884 handshake between Thomas A. Edison and Albert Blake Dick.


                                                                   (G 1002)

Edison had been selling his Electric Pencil stencil duplicating process for several years.  Experimenting with waxed wrapping paper, Dick developed another process called the mimeograph.  Edison agreed to sell Dick his patents for stencil duplicating and to help Dick market his invention as the “Edison Mimeograph.”  In 1887, the company even subsidized Edison’s experiments on an improved typewriter, ink and stencil.

The A.B.Dick Company went on to become one of the premier manufacturers and marketers of office duplicating equipment.  Today, it continues to produce innovative printing equipment in the tradition of Albert Blake Dick and Thomas A. Edison.