When Great Grandpa Murphy had this photo taken in 1891 the company was already 18 years old. This was our Vesey Street, NYC, store. The offices were upstairs. In those pre-telephone “turtle” mail days local Pastors would stop in and look over the ledgers, record books, samples of certificates, and leave with their parcel neatly wrapped in brown paper and white string. Incidentally, this was the entire Murphy Co. staff of its day. The lady, whom we would call an Administrative Assistant, was commonly known as a Type Writer in the 1890s. A typing machine and a woman trained to operate it were considered pretty progressive in the gas light era. We can only wonder what Grandpa would make of our latest computers and telecommunications.