NCR makes donation valued at $3 million to Dayton organization

WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) were brought to Dayton to assemble parts of a code-breaking machine. Contributed

WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) were brought to Dayton to assemble parts of a code-breaking machine. Contributed

Ownership of NCR is coming back to Dayton -- in spirit, at least.

The company founded in Dayton in 1884 has formally donated 3 million artifacts valued at $3 million to Dayton History based at Carillon Park.

Most of those artifacts have been managed by what is now Dayton History for 18 years, Brady Kress, Dayton History's President and CEO, said.

"It is huge for (Dayton History) and it is huge for the Dayton region," he said. "The photo collection is one of the largest collections of its kind in the United States that is still tied to its original owner." 
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The artifacts donated include more than a million photos, glass plate negatives, advertisements, the first solid state business computer, the first electronic calculator, and furnishings from the home of NCR’s third CEO Edward Deeds, the founder of Dayton History’s Carillon Historical Park. 

“It is a tremendous documentation of the community’s history,” Kress said. “Now we own these collections free and clear.”

Founded by Dayton luminary John Patterson, NCR left Dayton in 2009 for suburban Atlanta.

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People relax in the Dayton Biltmore Hotel's Kitty Hawk Room circa 1938. Photo: NCR Archive at Dayton History

Credit: NONE

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Credit: NONE

Class 2000 Installation of NCR cash register inside the Hamiel Hat Co. in downtown Dayton, June 24, 1924. From the collections of Dayton History.

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