W.H. Kildow Cigar Company records

The most valuable aspect of the W. H. Kildow Cigar Company Collection lies in the extensive financial records. The records include a number of ledgers, receipts, bills, checks and financial correspondence most of which date from 1903 to 1938. The records provide significant evidence of the financial status of the company during the formative years of its existence. Similarly, this information provides the researcher a tool for analysis of the costs and benefits of the cigar industry in Ohio at the turn of the twentieth century, as well as the administrative procedures for operating a small business in this era.

The collection also contains a number of printed materials which provide information on the company's marketing and publicity techniques. This information also gives some indication of the society's popular culture by highlighting certain images thought to be popular during this time period. Correspondence and legal documents are included in this collection documenting business transactions and such legal issues as registration of trade marks and labels.

As a whole, the collection is significant for the knowledge of the cigar business at the turn-of-the century which it provides to the researcher. The collection clearly reveals the economic profitability and risk involved in such a venture, as well as some of the advertising and marketing methods used during the era. Although the collection is limited in scope, it does sufficiently reveal the costs and benefits of operating a semi-small business in mid-western American at the beginning of the twentieth century.