The Globe-Wernicke Company was formed as a result of the Cincinnati based Globe Files Company (est. in 1882) purchasing the Minneapolis based Wernicke Company in 1899. The company is best known for their high end bookcases, Desks, and other office furniture. Globe Wernicke established factories in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Germany.
The company patented the 'elastic bookcases' also known as a modular bookcase. These were a high quality stacking book shelves, with a standard width of 34 inches, in Oak, Walnut and Mahogany, capable of being adapted to fit together to form a bookcase which could either be all of the same measurements or which could be re-arranged by the insertion of units of different depths and heights. These glass fronted shelves now are proving to be collectable, desirable and usable antiques - with regularity these bookcases appear in auctions and internet sites and, what originally cost $75 or so will now be sold for $900 or more.
During World War II 90% of the company's business in the US was converted to produce military equipment.
Famous quotes containing the word globe:
“Even to this day it is easier than it ought to be for me to get a rise out of an American by telling him something about himself which is equally true about every human being on the face of the globe. He at once resents this as a disparagement and an assertion on my part that people in other parts of the globe are not like that, and are loftily superior to such weaknesses.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)