cash register

This 1904 National Cash Register Company cash register has an ornate brass exterior with a marble plate above the cash drawer. In addition to the wooden cash drawer and pop-up indicators at the top, the machine had two rows of keys. Keys in the top row are marked NO (/) SALE, 50, 30, 20, and 10. Keys in the bottom row are labeled $1, 75, 40, 30, 25, and 15. Next to the lower row, slightly lower, is a key marked 5.

Inside a locked compartment above the keys are adding wheels for all eleven of the keys. When this compartment is closed, one can read a total indicator labeled: Amount (/) Purchased. A sticker on the bottom of the cash drawer indicates that it has serial number 387543 and was sold by the Louisville, Kentucky office. A mark on the front of the case reads: N. H. (/) Burroughs. A mark on the cash drawer reads: National.

Nannie Helen Burroughs, an African-American born in Virginia, attended high school in Washington, D.C. and then worked the National Baptist Convention. From 1909 until her death in 1961 she was the president of a business college for African-Americans in Washington. This cash register, marked with her name, was used teaching students at the school.

Reference:

Crandall, Robert L. and Sam Robins. The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. II, Vestal, N.Y.: The Vestal Press, 1990. This includes a listing of the date of manufacture of NCR cash registers by serial number.