Norcross Company Permanent Files

The series consists of 672 cubic feet of greeting cards and other products such as decorations, ribbons and labels; however, greeting cards make up the bulk of the collection. Norcross had three series of cards, the standard, informal and studio lines. Within these series, the cards are arranged alphabetically by occasion or topic. Two samples of each card are mounted on a stiff paper page. This page also gives information on serial number, release date and drop date; also provided are the names of the finisher, sketcher, letterer, checker, proofreader and persons responsible for plate, verse, idea and litho. The original serial number system established by Norcross has been maintained: all occasions or topics are abbreviated into a lettering system (i.e. "A" and "AN" indicate Anniversary, "AF" denotes April Fool's Day, "B" encompasses Birthday, etc.); preceding this/these letter(s) is the price at which the card was sold, and following the letter(s) is the actual "serial" number, indicating the order in which each card was produced. For example, 35 AN 69 is assigned to an Anniversary card sold for 35 cents, with sixty-nine being the actual number assigned to this particular card. By the release and drop dates, one is able to determine when the card was in circulation.