Calvin James and Selma Lee Beck Collection (SC-386)

Selma Lee Beck (1900-1963) worked at Frigidaire in Plant 3, and her husband, Calvin James Beck (1895-1980), was an ice cream service man at the Gem City Ice Cream Company. Selma can be seen enjoying cake at a company celebration in one of the photos in this collection.

In 1916, the Guardian Refrigerator Company was organized in Detroit to manufacture and sell one of the first self-contained electric refrigerating units. The company was purchased in 1918 by W.C. Durant, then president of General Motors, and the name was changed to Frigidaire. In 1921, the business was moved to Dayton, Ohio and the mass production techniques of the automobile industry were applied to the building of refrigerators.

During World War II, all civilian production was halted as Frigidaire manufactured .50 caliber Browning machines guns, aircraft propellers and parts, hydraulic controls for airplanes, and other military items. Frigidaire Plant 3 concentrated on the production of .50 caliber Browning machine guns designed for U.S. military aircraft; their guns were most commonly used on the B-17 Flying Fortress. The plant was constructed specifically for the manufacturing of these guns after Frigidaire’s first military contract was received in 1940.