Object Details
- Description
- This 1904 National Cash Register Company cash register has an ornate brass exterior with a marble plate above the cash drawer. In addition to the wooden cash drawer and pop-up indicators at the top, the machine had two rows of keys. Keys in the top row are marked NO (/) SALE, 50, 30, 20, and 10. Keys in the bottom row are labeled $1, 75, 40, 30, 25, and 15. Next to the lower row, slightly lower, is a key marked 5.
- Inside a locked compartment above the keys are adding wheels for all eleven of the keys. When this compartment is closed, one can read a total indicator labeled: Amount (/) Purchased. A sticker on the bottom of the cash drawer indicates that it has serial number 387543 and was sold by the Louisville, Kentucky office. A mark on the front of the case reads: N. H. (/) Burroughs. A mark on the cash drawer reads: National.
- Nannie Helen Burroughs, an African-American born in Virginia, attended high school in Washington, D.C. and then worked the National Baptist Convention. From 1909 until her death in 1961 she was the president of a business college for African-Americans in Washington. This cash register, marked with her name, was used teaching students at the school.
- Reference:
- Crandall, Robert L. and Sam Robins. The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. II, Vestal, N.Y.: The Vestal Press, 1990. This includes a listing of the date of manufacture of NCR cash registers by serial number.
- date made
- 1904
- associated person
- Burroughs, Nannie Helen
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- place made
- United States: Ohio, Dayton
- associated place
- United States: District of Columbia
- general subject association
- History, Women's, Equal Rights
- African American History
- See more items in
- Political History: Political History
- Exhibition
- My Computing Devices
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- Credit Line
- Nannie Helen Burroughs School
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- ID Number
- 1978.0342.009
- accession number
- 1978.0342
- catalog number
- 1978.0342.009
- Object Name
- cash register
- Physical Description
- glass (overall, case, keystems, interior material)
- wood (overall, drawer material)
- marble (overall, drawer top material)
- Measurements
- overall: 31 in x 24 in x 17 in; 78.74 cm x 60.96 cm x 43.18 cm
- Record ID
- nmah_532988
Related Object Groups
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