In 1936 Will Rice gave the Institute the first really large gift since the death of William Marsh Rice. I’ve known that so long I can’t remember learning it. What I forgot until a couple weeks ago when I was last in the Woodson was the form that gift took. Here’s the letter of appreciation from his fellow board members, written , I assume, by Lovett:
I don’t know much about Reed Roller Bits other than that they had some big litigation with Hughes Tool in the 1920s. I just discovered, though, that the Woodson holds a history of the company, which I will consult the next time I can go in.
Bonus: You know you want one.
Extra Bonus: One thing I do know a lot about is paper clips. For a long time at Rice straight pins were used to hold papers together. In 1936, though, someone bought a whole bunch of those spiral clips like the one you can see above. It’s a Nifty Clip, patented in 1936, and we used them for almost three years before the supply ran out.