The majority of images contained in this collection pertain to the Westinghouse Electric Corporation products and activities in the western Pennsylvania area from the start of the company in 1886 to the mid-1990s. Most of these photographs date from 1920 to the mid-1980s and cover a wide variety of subjects including research, employees, facilities, products, and events such as the Worlds Fairs. These materials came from the offices at Gateway Center (Pittsburgh, PA) and the Research and Development Center in Churchill, PA. The majority of this collection consists of images taken by professional photographers employed by the Corporation. Some of the images have been reproduced for publications and therefore have been taped, cropped, painted on or marked in some way.

The images have been arranged in 4 large series according to their format: prints, negatives, slides/transparencies, and glass plate negatives. Within these four series, the images have been organized by the reconstructed cataloging systems used by the Corporation. In this collection, the use of the Corporation's cataloging systems allows for a roughly chronological order.

Images without any apparent Corporation identification number were arranged into 11 topical categories, similar to the categories used in the arrangement of the paper portion of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation (MSS 424) collection: Albums/Binders, Education, Employees, Events, Facilities, Miscellaneous, Products, Publications, Radio, Research, and World War II.

Series I: Prints

The Prints series consists of 25 boxes and is arranged into six subseries. Sub-series have been designated following the original arrangement of the photographs under the following categories: Numerical, NY, CP/PR, Chronological, PH, and Topical.

Series II: Negatives

The Negatives series consists of 11 boxes and is arranged into six subseries. Sub-series have been designated following the original arrangement of the photographs under the following categories: Numerical, NY, CP/PR, Chronological, PH, and Topical.

Series III: Slides/Transparencies

The Slides series consists of 16 boxes and is arranged into four subseries. Sub-series have been designated following the original arrangement of the photographs under the following categories: CP/PR, Chronological, PH, and Topical.

Series IV: Glass Plate negatives

The Glass plate negatives series consists of one box and is arranged numerically. Damaged or cracked glass plate negatives have been separated into a second box which is also arranged numerically. Most of these images deal with railroad electrification and products from 1910 to 1920.

Series V: Indexes

The Indexes series consists of two boxes and contains several different types of tools used by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation to keep track of these images. This series contains seven volumes of handwritten ledgers, four folders of printouts from an electronic indexing system, 30 folders of pages from catalog binders, and one folder of miscellaneous captions that have become separated from images.

The images in this collection have been arranged in four large series according to their format: prints, negatives, slides/transparencies, and glass plate negatives. The arrangement of all images within these four series is identical. Below is a brief description of each sub-series used.

Sub-series I: Numerical (c1886-c1978)

This series contains the oldest images of the collection and are filed by the one- to six- digit number that usually appears on the lower right hand corner of the image. When filed numerically, these numbers create a loose chronological order to the photographs. Since many of these images were undated, this arrangement allowed a close approximate date to be assigned. Some of these images have corresponding text captions which were likely distributed to the press.

In some cases, the Westinghouse Electric Corporation manufactured a variety of machines for a single company and documented their construction and/or installation through photographs. The Corporation filed these images together under that company's name even though the photographs may have spanned a variety of years and had many different numbers. In this finding aid, these images have been kept together and contain a note "[not inclusive]" in reference to the numerical range stated.

A few images have two dates associated with them. In these cases, the original images have been reproduced and assigned new filing numbers to reflect the date of reproduction- not the original date of photography. When this happens, the original date of photography is given as part of the title and the date of reproduction is recorded in the date column.

Sub-series II: NY [New York] numbers (1939-c1945)

This group begins with images taken during the construction of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company pavilion for the 1939 World's Fair held in New York. It continues through the years of World War II, documenting the war effort in some of the plants in the New York area.

Sub-series III: CP and PR numbers (1944-1977)

The images in this series have been arranged according to associated filing numbers beginning with the letters "CP" for the years 1944 to 1947, and "PR" for the years 1947 to 1977. The images chronologically overlap with the Numerical sub-series (I). Many images have text captions that were likely distributed for use in the press. In addition, six large ledger books document the subject of each image for this sub-series. These books can be found with the Indexes (Series V).

Sub-series IV: Chronological order (1959 to 1984)

The images in this sub-series were found in folders which were labeled with the month and year and contained a brief description of the subject matter. In some cases a few images from the folder have been selected and assigned "PR" numbers to use in the press or publications. These images with "PR" numbers will be found in the CP/PR subseries (III). If no images from that batch were selected for press use, the group of images remained filed by date only. In the Print series, many of the folders contained a group of contact negative prints.

Sub-series V: PH numbers (1975-1996)

This series contains the most recent images of the collection. For each number, a copy of the original order sheet is filed with the print. These sheets document the subject, photographer, location, and keywords that could be used to find the image in an electronic database. This database has been printed out and can be found with the Indexes (Series V). The first two digits in the PH number refer to the year in which the image was taken.

Sub-series VI: Topical

Some of the images in this collection are not labeled with a date or other identifying information. These images have been arranged into topical groups which mirror the groups used to organize the paper records portion of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation Collection (MSS 424). Within each topic, folders are arranged alphabetically.

For the majority of the images in this series the archivist has attempted to assign a very approximate date (e.g. - to the decade) and descriptive information using other materials in the collection, assistance from former Westinghouse Electric employees, or other research. In most cases, when a date is recorded as "c1900" or "c1930", it is meant to imply that the image might have been from those decades. Other images may have exact dates or closer estimates.

Topical groups are:

Albums/Binders: these materials were found bound together and may cover more than one subject or time period.

Education: images related to Corporation- sponsored education courses for employees, such as apprentice programs or formal courses in engineering or policy. Most of these images are group photographs of specific classes.

Employees: this group is split into "individuals" and "groups." Most are from the Pittsburgh area.

Events: Worlds Fairs, banquets, visitors, awards, etc.

Facilities: interior and exterior images of many manufacturing plants, research centers, and service buildings.

Miscellaneous: images of a more general nature. These are images can not be filed in the major topics previously established, such as images of the founder George Westinghouse and photographs from his other companies. In some cases the images have no identifiable connection to the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, such as images of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, Joe Lewis, and a 1984 Olympic medal.

Products: images of Westinghouse Electric Corporation products during manufacture, in use, or posed for advertisement purposes.

Publications: images used in the newsletters of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation- i.e. Gateway News, Westinghouse News, etc. Most of these images were grouped together originally.

Radio Broadcasting: images related to radio programs like KDKA. (Images of radio receiver sets will be found in the 'Products' group.)

Research: research projects in progress and special manufacturing jobs.

World War II: war production in Westinghouse facilities and production award ceremonies.