Building the Warehouse System: Archive of 60 photographs, Documenting Steel Storage Rack Manufacturing and Factory Labor in Pontiac, Illinois

Interlake steel Warehouse System

Photograph

Interlake Inc. manufacturing plant archive documenting the production of roll-formed steel storage rack systems in Pontiac, Illinois, during the 1970s, when American warehousing, distribution centers, and high-bay industrial storage increasingly depended on standardized pallet rack, cantilever rack, and modular steel handling equipment. The plant appears to have produced industrial storage components as captions identify frame assembly, frame welding fixtures, roll form lines, coil storage, electro-deposition paint line treatment, product handling, and storage of columns produced off a roll form line. The material records a complete manufacturing company, from raw steel coil and roll forming through welding, painting, storage, shipping, engineering, customer service, accounting, purchasing, and production scheduling.

Photo archive of 60 color and black-and-white photographs, each 8" x 10", Pontiac, Illinois, circa 1970s. Workers weld steel frames at long fixtures while sparks arc across jig tables; coiled steel stock moves through conveyor-fed roll form equipment; finished columns are stacked in warehouse bays; a hard-hatted worker guides a loaded overhead hoist marked “CAPY 15000”; and yellow material-handling equipment moves rack components through storage areas. Typed captions include “Frame Assembly,” “Frame Welding Fixtures,” “#1 Roll Form Line,” “#5 Roll Form Line Coil Conveyor and Down Ender Entry to Roll Former,” “Accessory Department Welding Fixture for Cantilever Arms,” “Storage & Product Handling,” “Customer Services,” “Product Engineering,” “Accounting,” and “Planning & Scheduling & Computer.” Office interiors show partitioned departments, desks, telephones, binders, clerical staff, engineers, and an early computer-related scheduling area, extending the record beyond factory machinery into plant administration.

The archive documents 1970s American industrial production at the point where manufacturing and logistics were becoming increasingly linked as factories were not only making goods, but producing the rack systems that allowed warehouses, distributors, and manufacturers to store and move goods at greater scale. This archive showcases the full internal record of one plant’s production chain, combining shop-floor labor, coil-fed steel forming, welding, coating, storage, product handling, and office coordination in a single operational record. Photographs appear generally clear with some fading and age wear. Overall in very good condition.

Item #23389

Price: $525.00