Excerpt about Spaulding 
& Co from "Centennial history of the city of Chicago. Its men and institutions. Biographical sketches of leading 
citizens" published in 1905.

Spaulding & Co. The house 
of Spaulding & Co., jewelers, was established and incorporated in 1888. Mr. 
Henry A. Spaulding, one of the founders, and the first president of the company, 
had for years been prominently identified with the jewelry house of Tiffany & 
Co. in Paris. lie, 
together with a party of gentlemen, including Levi Z. Leiter and Edward Forman, of Chicago; 
Edward Holbrookof New York; E. J. 
Smith, then of Detroit, and George St. Amant of 
Paris, organized and established 
the present well-known house.

The business was incorporated 
with a paid-in capital of $500,000, and the following officers chosen: Henry A. 
Spaulding, president ; Edward Forman, secretary, and Edward Holbrook, 
treasurer. These were all men of business experience and ability, and all thoroughly 
informed in the special departments to which they gave their attention. Mr. Lloyd 
Milnor of New York became treasurer 
in 1890 and president in 1896, succeeding Mr. Holbrook, who had been chosen to 
that office in 1894. Edward Forman died April 14, 1898, and Mr. E. J. Smith was 
made secretary. 

Within a short time it was 
demonstrated that Chicago could support such 
an establishment as it was the intention of the promoters to make it, and soon 
Spaulding & Co. became recognized as the leading jewelry house of the West. 
Located on the southeast corner of State street 
and Jackson boulevard, the company 
occupies a six-story-and-basement building, two floors of which, each with a space 
of 147x40 feet, are utilized as salesrooms.

On the upper floors are the 
manufacturing departments, and here all of the diamond mountings are made, and 
the special designs in gold and silverware, for which the house has established 
such a wide reputation. There is also a very complete stationery department, and 
everything connected there with, including embossing, is done in the building. 
The main floor is devoted to the sale of jewelry, diamonds, silvenware, gold and silver mounted leather goods, stationery 
and a full line of English hall and mantel clocks. 

On the second floor is to be 
found the art department, where everything in the way of statuary, bronzes, rich 
cut-glass and costly bric-a-brac are gathered in picturesque display. Throughout 
the entire building one is impressed with the taste shown in the furnishings, 
as well as the artistic arrangements, making it one of the best-appointed shops 
of its kind in the world. 

Spaulding & Co. also maintain 
a branch establishment in Paris at 36 Avenue de 1'Opera, 
said to be the most conspicuous American addition to that city in the way of adornment 
and trade. The showrooms are handsomely decorated in white and gold, and the "evening 
room," draped in black velvet, like the "gem boudoir" of the Chicago house, is of special 
interest to the large number of visitors who throng the place. 

The Paris house is of special value in connection 
with the American house, as it enables them to secure all the newest Parisian 
novelties as they make their appearance. And in this regard it may be said that 
Chicago, with its close proximity 
to the mineral wealth of the great Northwest, is rapidly becoming the center of 
the jewelry trade of the country.