Call Number:

Print Collection 77

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

9 linear feet (9 boxes)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

S.S. White dental catalogs collection, 1862-1981, Print Collection 77, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1862-1967 (inclusive)

Creator:

Samuel Stockton White Dental Manufacturing Company

Abstract:

The S.S. White company was founded in 1844 by Philadelphia dentist Samuel Stockton White (1822-1875) and served as an important dental equipment manufacturer. The company produced a wide range of tools, instruments, and furniture for dentists in addition to artificial teeth, crowns, and dentures. S.S. White's business was international in scope with advertising materials and catalogs published in Spanish, German, and French in addition to English. This collection consists of catalogs, price lists, advertising materials, and other similar materials.

One of the most important dental equipment manufacturers in the United States, the S.S. White company was founded in 1844 by Philadelphia dentist Samuel Stockton White (1822-1875). The company produced a wide range of tools, instruments, and furniture for dentists in addition to artificial teeth, crowns, and dentures. S.S. White's business was international in scope with advertising materials and catalogs published in Spanish, German, and French in addition to English.

Sources:

See David and Dreyfuss, The Finest Instruments Ever Made (Medical History Publishing Associates, 1986), pp. 342-354 for a list of S.S. White catalogs recorded in a 1980s survey.

See Samuel S. White catalogue of dental instruments and equipment with a new introduction on Samuel S. White and the S.S. White Dental Company by Audrey B. Davis. San Francisco : Norman Pub. ; [Washington, D.C.] : In association with Smithsonian Institution Libraries, 1995.

This collection consists of catalogs, price lists, advertising materials, and other similar materials drawn from two sources. The first is a set of 46 volumes of S.S. White catalogs which were collected by the University of Pennsylvania libraries (or possibly by the company itself) and bound by rough chronology and subject; the second is a collection of S.S. White materials brought together by the Evans Dental Museum and library which was transferred to the Kislak Center in 2015. These two collections have been housed distinctly but are intellectually combined in this finding aid. Note that the S.S. White Company donated a substantial portion of their in-house library to the University of Pennsylvania in 1969 and some of the materials here likely come from that source.

The collection is arranged here by catalog subject – beginning with a series of S.S. White's general catalogs dating from 1862-1967 and continuing with the series of "Specialties of the Mouth" catalogs and general price lists, these are followed by Anesthesia, Crowns/Bridges/Teeth, Dental Engines & Lathes, Dental Furniture, Electrical Apparatus & tools, Fillings, Forceps, Furnaces, Impressions, Operative Instruments & Tools, Orthodontics, Price Lists, Radiology, Dental Dams, Specialties of the Mouth, Vulcanization, and miscellaneous. Catalogs are arranged chronologically where possible within each series. Some catalogs are present in duplicate or triplicate because they are heavily annotated or otherwise altered.

Sources:

See David and Dreyfuss, The Finest Instruments Ever Made (Medical History Publishing Associates, 1986), pp. 342-354 for a list of S.S. White catalogs recorded in a 1980s survey.

See Samuel S. White catalogue of dental instruments and equipment with a new introduction on Samuel S. White and the S.S. White Dental Company by Audrey B. Davis. San Francisco : Norman Pub. ; [Washington, D.C.] : In association with Smithsonian Institution Libraries, 1995.