The H. William Oetjen - Proto Tool Archive Needs a Permanent Institutional Home

Hey everyone,
I was advised by a few members over on the Facebook tool groups to bring this urgent situation to the Garage Journal community.
We are currently holding the H. William Oetjen Collection—a massive, intact historical archive detailing the mid-century industrial history of Proto Tools, Plomb, and related manufacturing giants.
This is a complete historical record consisting of thousands of corporate photos, WWII-era engineering blueprints, original marketing materials, rare 1960s Indy 500 film reels, and original Proto Tools exhibition reels showing their historic trade shows and product demonstrations.
Here is the issue: Our physical storage space and time limits are officially maxed out.
Our absolute priority is to place this entire collection into a museum, university library, or corporate archive intact. We do not want to break this history up. However, if we cannot secure an institutional home soon, we will be forced to liquidate the collection through small lots or single-item sales on eBay.
You can view the free digital archive we've built so far right here: https://www.oetjencollection.com/the-h-william-oetjen-archive
(Note: This was our first time building a website, and we accidentally uploaded some lower-resolution images that make the text on certain documents hard to read. Even so, you can absolutely still get a clear sense of the collection's immense size, scope, and historical importance through what is online!)

1. How you can actively help us save this collection right now:
   • Connect Us: If you have a personal relationship or a direct contact at an academic library, industrial museum, or automotive archive, please introduce us.
   • Share This: Send this link to friends, collectors, or museum curators who care about American manufacturing history and might know an organization looking to acquire a record like this.
   • Reach Out: If you know an institution that should buy or take this entire archive, please send me a direct message immediately so we can get in touch with them.
2. I've attached a few photos below to show the scope of what we are trying to save. Let’s work together to keep this history alive and whole before we run out of time.
   Thank you all so much for the help and for sharing this!

Just wanted to add a quick note here—the timeline on our storage space is incredibly tight, which is why we are pushing so hard to find an institutional home right now. If you or someone you know has a direct lead, please don't hesitate to shoot me a private message (PM) here on the forum so we can move quickly. Thanks again, everyone.

Have you cross-posted this in the Vintage Tools section of the forum?

Where is the archive located now? That will probably be important to know for someone who is interested. Does it include any actual tools, or is it mainly paper items? As mentioned, the vintage tool section of this forum may be a better place to post - I know there are some serious collectors (mainly of Plomb, not so much for Photo) who may have some ideas or suggestions.

One other thought is to contact Keith Rucker at http://vintagemachinery.org in Georgia. He has a massive collection of catalogs and other factory information for all different brands of power tools, mainly for woodworking but also metal working. He doesn't really get into hand tools but he has the expertise for maintaining a collection such as this, and may also have some good suggestions on who you should contact.

Calling Smokeshow...

I would hope it all goes to a good tool museum, not some individual that would not show off the collection.
Best of luck in your search for a good home.

Woody

Stuart in MN said:

Where is the archive located now? That will probably be important to know for someone who is interested. Does it include any actual tools, or is it mainly paper items? As mentioned, the vintage tool section of this forum may be a better place to post - I know there are some serious collectors (mainly of Plomb, not so much for Photo) who may have some ideas or suggestions.

One other thought is to contact Keith Rucker at http://vintagemachinery.org in Georgia. He has a massive collection of catalogs and other factory information for all different brands of power tools, mainly for woodworking but also metal working. He doesn't really get into hand tools but he has the expertise for maintaining a collection such as this, and may also have some good suggestions on who you should contact.

Click to expand...

It’s all currently in Palm Springs Ca. Only a handful of tools this collection is more correspondence, photos and 4 8mm reels. Thanks so much for your input and I’ll reach out to Keith Rucker

jabberwoki said:

Calling Smokeshow...

Click to expand...

?

woody 73 said:

I would hope it all goes to a good tool museum, not some individual that would not show off the collection.
Best of luck in your search for a good home.

Woody

Click to expand...

Thanks! I’m giving it my best shot.

Skyman said:

Have you cross-posted this in the Vintage Tools section of the forum?

Click to expand...

Thanks I didn’t know I can do that.

A GJer (who can remain as nameless or not as he wants) forwarded this FB material to me and another GJ member (who can also remain as nameless or not as he wants) a week or so ago in a PM.

As I said to them - as well as to you in more abbreviated terms through the [Contact] button and form on your website, I don't know how you came by this posthumous collection of a former Proto executive's corporate memorabilia and ephemera, but if your primary interest is genuinely "to preserve it as a record of mid-century American industrialism" for historical significance, for historians, researchers, collectors, and history-minded Plomb and primarily Proto tools enthusiasts, you should scan it and upload it to Internet Archive.

If you're not familiar, IA is the largest free and open access public domain library of digital documents in the world. Many of us scan and upload catalogs, books, forms, and other ephemera there for the benefit of all. It's an invaluable resource explicitly intended for your stated purpose. Sharing the information value, while retaining the actual documents for their collectible value.

Granted, it's a large collection of paper, but you have already scanned the photos and many of the other ephemera - business cards, identification forms, flyers, program guides, etc, at a resolution that is readable and useable as is. They are already in the public domain on your website, FB, and now right here on GJ, and could also easily be organized (titled, dated, etc) and uploaded to IA.

Only the pages of the bound and paper-clipped documents (manuals, correspondence, etc) containing multiple pages that cannot be seen and read would need to be scanned. That would be a generous undertaking, no doubt. But it's been done before. Link to GJ thread with over sixty (60) (500+ pages total) editions of the Plomb company newsletter from 1944-1945, all personally scanned and uploaded by a GJ'er to IA, HERE.

By the way, if you're interested in learning more about the complementary Keydrivers in this collection, we also have a thread dedicated to their history, type, and production, linked HERE.

As a GJ'er who has delved deep into the Plumb v. Plomb Lawsuit, thread linked HERE, I would personally be interested in seeing any of the documents related to this statement from your FB post scanned and uploaded to IA...

If you're looking to sell it in one fell swoop to a "corporate archive," I am not sure why your first thought wouldn't be StanleyBlack&Decker. They are the current owners of the Proto trademark. While their website includes some obligatory-like recognition of the brands they devoured as a gigantic business entity, I don't get the impression they have earnestly devoted much actual capital to the physical preservation of that heritage and legacy. I could be wrong.

Otherwise, and no offense, this whole enterprise looks like a giant sales ad to me. I don't blame you for wanting to move what sure looks like a massive estate sale or house liquidator lot as a lot. I would do the same thing. You might find some nutty Proto guy with deep pockets, but if you end up parting it out, note that GJ has a Classified Section. Just scroll down. If you try to have that kind of conversation up here in the discussion areas, you'll get whacked.

Fantastic. So cool that this stuff exists.

Are you trying to donate it, loan it, or sell it to a museum?

The part about finding a place for it or being forced to sell it....Not sure what to make of that.

Is it several boxes or a room full of stuff? Just what's shown on your page?

Might be worth giving the LeMay's car museum in Tacoma, Washington a call: https://maps.app.goo.gl/s5iGoBJVvtTQbyf29

If you want to seem genuine, I suspect you'll need to offer to donate it rather than sell it.

But I could see them creating a small exhibit out of this stuff.

Sounds totally valid; this scenario plays out all the time; someone or an organization saves up artifacts, cars, ephemera of some significance to some people, then that person or group ages out naturally and it needs to move on. The exact terms are never certain, only that it has to move. Good luck! (I’m already worried about my own “collection”, kids aren’t interested.. I’d like money but even more to get things to people who genuinely appreciate them.. (no hurry, no emails : )