The W. A. Roosevelt Company records have been broken down into three main series: Historical Materials (1801-1979), Financial Records (1900-1948), and Salesman's Catalogs (1902-1984).
The Historical Materials are divided into two parts: materials concerning the W. A. Roosevelt and allied families, and those materials created by the Roosevelt Company. The family documents (1801-1919) include photocopied articles and correspondence of family members. Also in this group are two calendar diaries of W. A. Roosevelt noting social events and sometimes weather of the day (1878-1883 and 1888). Lastly in the family group are personal ephemera, such as steamboat passes and receipts.
Company records that are grouped under Historical Materials (1874-1979) include photocopied articles about the company and history booklets (1968 and 1978), photocopied articles of incorporation and amendments (1888-1979), miscellaneous photocopied correspondence (1888-1936), photocopied legal documents including wills and deeds (1874-1942), photocopied minute books (1888-1936), radio manufacturers' correspondence (1924-1933), photocopied stockholders' documents (1920-1933), and company ephemera. ** Materials in the collection that are photocopied remain in the possession of the W. A. Roosevelt Company.
The next series, Financial Records (1900-1948), give a taste of the workings inside the Roosevelt Company. These materials begin with an index to the general ledgers and miscellaneous financial reports found loose in the ledgers. The grouping of ledgers was categorized into three types: general, customer, and salesmen's. The two general ledgers date from 1900-1948, and there is overlap in terms of dates for both volumes. Volume 1 (bulk dates 1907-1926) contains entry or account numbers 1-200 and is marked "Current Ledger C." The second volume (bulk dates 1938-1948) contains entry numbers 1-400 and is marked "City Ledger." The customer account ledgers were divided into city of La Crosse and non-city of La Crosse customers. Volumes 3 and 4 are city customers, 1900-1949, with a gap from 1918-1946. These were marked "City Ledgers," and are arranged alphabetically by business name. Non-city of La Crosse customer ledgers range from 1933-1949 (bulk dates 1946-1949), and are arranged alphabetically by town or city name. Cities beginning with A-F are located in volume 5 ("Country A"), while city names G-Z are in volume 6 ("Country B"). The final group in the ledger section is the salesmen's ledgers. As far as we could determine, each salesman had a specified territory and must have been responsible for their own ledger. Each ledger is marked "Current A,", "B," "C," and "D," referring to each salesman and his territory. Within each ledger, the customers are arranged alphabetically by city or town name. Volume 7 is an expense account and salary ledger for salesmen only (1910-1947). Volume 8 is salesman A's territory: Wisconsin and Minnesota, including Winona, 1906-1920. salesman B, responsible for Minnesota including Mankato, is represented in volume 9, 1900-1916. The territory for salesman C was mainly local areas in Wisconsin including Sparta and Tomah, and contains very few Minnesota contacts. This ledger, number 10, dates 1900-1918. The area covered by salesman D is quite vast, and touches upon eastern Minnesota, Iowa, and some local Wisconsin towns. There are two ledgers for this salesman; volumes 11 representing 1900-1918, and volume 12 dates 1912-1920 (bulk dates 1919-1920).
The final two sub-series under Financial Records are journals (1931-1944) and cashbooks (1941-1948). There are gaps in the journal run from 1933-1939, and gaps in the cashbooks set 1945-1947. The journals are set up like day books, describing the expenditure of cash by day. The cashbooks give a picture of the available cash the company had on hand each day.
The last series, Salesman's Catalogs (1902-1984), is probably the most interesting because of the artifactual and pictorial quality of these catalogs. As the company expanded, the catalogs became more specialized and soon radio catalogs were separated out from the general catalog, and the electrical and air conditioning products followed suit.
