MINIATURE HARDWARE SAMPLES

(June 1998)

HARDWARE SAMPLES. (64K) Yale Padlock and Keys, Steam Gauge, and Angle Valve. United States, early 20th century.

DESCRIPTION

The miniature hardware samples in this month's exhibit were made for the C. M. McClung & Company. They were mounted in display cases on the main floor, so that customers and salesmen could readily see and refer to examples of items for sale. No doubt many orders were placed and taken in front of these items before the company was liquidated in 1971.

The exhibit contrasts some of the miniature hardware samples with standard-size examples of hardware, as seen in the above photograph.

The miniature hardware samples, and others in the exhibit, were a gift of the C. M. McClung & Company, Knoxville, through the courtesy of Mr. Hugh M. Davis, in 1972.

THE C. M. McCLUNG & COMPANY, KNOXVILLE

One of the biggest wholesale hardware companies in the South was located in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1934, at its 50th anniversary, C. M. McClung & Company was riding on the crest of a wave. President McClung boasted that, "Its familiar blue shipping tags are known to transportation companies and retail stores throughout the Southeast and as far away as Hawaii and Africa." The company had over 50,000 items in stock.

It all began in 1820 when the small general store run by Mr. James H. Cowan opened on the corner of Main and Gay Streets in Knoxville, just 29 years after Knoxville was founded in 1791. All the merchandise which it distributed was received from Philadelphia and Baltimore, transported overland in the famous six-team Conestoga canvas-covered wagons of the day (when public transportation for passengers and mail was by stagecoach).

From these modest beginnings, in 1859 the firm of Cowan, McClung & Company was established. One of its young members was Frank H. McClung. Frank H. McClung was the father of Ellen McClung Green, the benefactress of the Frank H. McClung Museum located on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville. The Museum was named in his memory.

In 1884, the wholesale hardware line of the firm was acquired by Calvin Morgan McClung, who had joined the company in 1877 and who, after purchasing a sizable interest in the company, had become its president. This new firm was renamed after Calvin Morgan McClung and became the C. M. McClung & Company. A man of high civic spirit and founder of the McClung Historical Collection (now maintained by the Knox County Public Library System and housed in the East Tennessee Historical Center in downtown Knoxville), C. M. McClung was very proud of his company's accomplishments. One prominent advertisement (circa 1907) confidently proclaimed that:

C. M. McCLUNG & CO., through an Excellent Organization, Efficient Service, Comprehensive Stocks, and Courteous Treatment, have become not only the largest Hardware Jobbers, but also the largest Jobbers in any line in East Tennessee, which is an unusual achievement for Hardware Distributors in any Section. Their Competent Force of Traveling Salesmen cover completely East Tennessee, Southeastern Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, Western North Carolina, North Georgia and Alabama.

Through their MAIL ORDER DEPARTMENT, which is thoroughly organized, they receive an immense volume of business by carrying an Enormous Stock, embracing many lines of Merchandise. On every sale they guarantee the best of Goods at lowest Prices.

In 1919 C. M. McClung noted that the C. M. McClung & Company was "the first firm who ever had the courage to undertake the compilation and issuance of a General Hardware Catalog, illustrative and descriptive of the goods especially demanded by the trade which they served." The bountiful lines of merchandise continued to be offered until the day the C. M. McClung & Company closed its doors.

In 1971, the C. M. McClung & Company was liquidated after 87 years in business. The building, located at 501 to 509 West Jackson Avenue in downtown Knoxville, still stands (actually three buildings: the first, erected in 1893, at 505-507; an 1896 addition at 509; and a 1903 addition at 501-503). Today, several firms occupy part of the 193,680 square feet of floor space once filled with wholesale hardware, housewares, agricultural supplies, automotive equipment, radios, paper goods, plumbing items, sporting goods, stoves, tinware, vehicles, and supplies for mills and the mining, railroad, and lumbering industries.

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