Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
The Lang Tanning Company, Ltd. photograph album.
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Series
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
25 photographs : b&w ; 20 x 25 cm
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The founder of The Lang Tanning Company Limited, Reinhold Lang, came to Berlin (now Kitchener) from a small village in the German Rhineland with his eldest son George, and established a small tannery in 1849. The tannery was located on Foundry (now Ontario) Street in Berlin, and was moved to an area between Wilmot (now Victoria) and Francis Streets after fire destroyed the original plant. This area was chosen because there was a natural spring there that could be used as water supply for the tannery. The Lang Tanning Company then went on to become the largest sole leather producer in the British Empire, and Reinhold Lang, who was also a member of the Berlin Council in 1859, became a prominent local citizen. During the First World War, Lang Tanning produced huge amounts of saddle material, and in the Second World War it supplied sole leather and leather linings for aircraft gasoline tanks. The company discontinued operations as a tannery in 1954 due to competition from synthetic materials, but kept its five-acre downtown site and complex of 35 buildings until 1974, when the property was sold to Ball Brothers Limited (a Kitchener contracting firm). In 1954, at the time that the Lang Tanning Company ceased operations, Jerome Lang was president, and Reinhold (Bun) Lang was Chairman of the Board. In 1974, at which time the President of the company was Reinhold (Bun) Lang, the company held a final meeting where they wound up business: the payment of bills, the disposition of assets, and the surrender of the 1917 charter to the Federal Government.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Series consists of a collection of photographs originally contained in a photograph album created to showcase the activities of The Lang Tanning Company Limited. It tells the story of a three generation manufacturing company and depicts several steps in the leather tanning process. Each photo includes a typed caption indicating what is captured in the corresponding image. Employees, predominantly white men, appear throughout though a small number or photos include white women at work on various stages of leather processing. No employee identifications are included.
Notes area
Physical condition
Album was taken apart for preservation purposes. Album is stored along with photos in an unnumbered file folder.
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
The photographs are listed in their original order.
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Album scanned as TIF files March 2021.
Restrictions on access
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Belair, Charles (Photographer)
- Lang Tanning Company, Ltd. (Subject)