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Collection
M. T. Garvin Papers
Title
M. T. Garvin Papers (MG-34)
Object ID
MG0034
Date Range
1899-1988
  1 document  
Collection
M. T. Garvin Papers
Title
M. T. Garvin Papers (MG-34)
Description
This collection contains information and materials relating to Milton Thomas Garvin, his department store and the Garvin Lecture Series. The scrapbooks were complied by him through the years of 1899-1936. Other items in this collection include letters to family and business partners, several pamphlets from the Garvin Lecture Series, M. T. Garvin & Co. store information, receipts, invoices, banquet programs, and a sampling of financial records from the store.
Admin/Biographical History
Milton Thomas Garvin was born in Fulton Township around 1860. In 1874, at the age of fourteen, Garvin quit school and moved to Lancaster City. He worked various odd jobs before he was hired to work as an errand boy for R. E. Fahnestock's dry goods store in December of 1874.
At the age of sixteen, Fahnestock promoted Garvin to a salesman for the store. He continued to work there through his adolescent years and was promoted to manager at the age of twenty-one, when Fahnestock was in failing health. Garvin assumed that responsibility for twelve years and then bought the store when Fahnestock was ready to retire. Garvin renamed the store M. T. Garvin & Co.
Over the next ten years, Garvin bought the rest of the building and several surrounding buildings to expand his store to a four story and three lot property. He prospered in business and was a philanthropist throughout Lancaster County.
Other than a prominent businessman, Garvin served as a board member, trustee, director or president of the following organizations: The Shippen School for Girls, Lancaster General Hospital, Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, Meadville Theological Seminary, A. Herr Smith and Mechanics' Libraries, Lancaster Charity Society, Joseph Priestly Conference, and People's Octoraro Meeting House.
Milton Thomas Garvin died on 18 August 1936.
Date Range
1899-1988
Year Range From
1899
Year Range To
1988
Date of Accumulation
1899-1988
Creator
Garvin, Milton Thomas, 1860-1936
Storage Location
LancasterHistory, Lancaster, PA
Storage Room
Archives South
Storage Wall
Side 01
People
Bechtold, Walter
Bixler, Julius Seelye
Cayce, Hugh Lynn
Chaisson, Eric J.
Compton, Arthur H.
Cousins, Norman
Fitch, S. W.
Fosdick, Harry Emerson
Garvin, Milton Thomas
Hart, Hornell
Hocking, William Ernest
Hopf, Richard
Hupper, Jacob
Kennedy, Gerald
Kiehl, J. P.
Kring, Walter Donald
Lamont, Corliss
Maritain, Jacques
McMurrin, Sterling M.
Niebuhr, Reinhold
Northop, F.S.C.
Noss, John B.
Park, Charles E.
Ross, James H.
Rossner, John
Royden, Maude
Ruether, Rosemary Radford
Smith, Andrew
Sperry, Willard L.
Taylor, Jeremy
Thurman, Howard
Tillich, Paul
Other Creators
LancasterHistory (Organization)
Subjects
Business records
Civic leaders
Department stores
Scrapbooks
Search Terms
Civic leaders
Correspondence
Department stores
Elks (Fraternal order)
Hotel Brunswick
Lancaster Elks Lodge, No. 134
Letters
M. T. Garvin and Co.
Photographs
Scrapbooks
Stevens House Hotel
Williamson Park
Wills
Finding aids
Manuscript groups
Extent
5 boxes,12 folders, 13 scrapbooks, 4.5 cubic ft
Object Name
Archive
Language
English
Object ID
MG0034
Related Item Notes
See also the Photograph and Curatorial Collections.
Access Conditions / Restrictions
No restrictions.
Copyright
Collection may not be photocopied. Please direct questions to Research Center Staff at research@lancasterhistory.org.
Permission for reproduction and/or publication must be obtained in writing from LancasterHistory.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Other Numbers
MG-34
Classification
MG0034
Description Level
Fonds
Custodial History
Processed and finding aid prepared by TH, April 2014. Added to database 10 May 2018.
Documents
Less detail