The Ludlow Valve Manufacturing Company records (MC 49) are divided into two series. Series I, publications, focuses on the years 1902-1965 and contains three sub-series. Sub-series A. contains printed catalogs, bulletins and advertisements for the company and its products. Some of the material is specific to a single product while other material covers all products. Pricing is not detailed within the material as it would have been too space consuming to consider printing. A few of the bulletins are How-To guides for Ludlow fire hydrants. Sub-series B. contains financial reports for the company dating from 1934-1958. The first part of this sub-series is accounts and financial statements, prepared for the company at the end of each year. The second part is annual reports which cover a slightly shorter time period, from 1936-1957. Sub-series C. contains information about stockholders. This includes names, addresses and amount and type (preferred or common) of stock. Series II consists of business records and materials dating from 1872-1954. This series contains a variety of business records and materials. Included are hard drawn charts and graphs, photographs of the manufacturing plant and maps of the plant. Also included in this series is limited, but noteworthy, correspondence. One such piece is a letter from James Caldwell announcing his retirement from the company. Another important group of papers regards the current and future state of the company from 1929 to 1932. These papers contain detailed reports of problem areas and potential solutions. Finally, a number of papers in this series relate to the merger of Ludlow Valve Manufacturing Company with Rensselaer Valve Company. The bulk of the material is from the late 1920's to the late 1950's, the most critical time period in the history of the company. It was during this time that numerous attempts were made to revive the company and increase its profits.