The Hook and Hastings Company produced over 2500 organs, including some of the century's finest church and concert hall organs. This collection consists of correspondence and internal documents related to the building and repair of these pipe organs.

Eight folders of letters and contracts document organs installed in Summit, New Jersey; New York; Philadelphia; Wayne and Greenville, Pennsylvania; and Whitman, Massachusetts between 1893 and 1899. These documents deal exclusively with customers either unwilling or unable to settle their accounts with the firm. Churches in Summit, New Jersey (Folders 1 and 2), Philadelphia (Folder 4), Brooklyn, New York (Folder 6), and Whitman, Massachusetts (Folder 7), and also a private owner in Wayne, Pennsylvania (Folder 5) complained that their organs failed to perform properly despite repeated attempts to remedy the problems. One church in New York (Folder 3) was unable to pay the amount due, and another in Brooklyn, New York (Folder 6) refused to pay for work done by outside contractors. Finally, a college in Greenville, Pennsylvania (Folder 8) continued to negotiate a contract for moving and installing an organ for at least two years. Copies of letters from Francis H. Hastings are present in many of the files, and these show that he made repeated attempts to satisfy the customers and settle the accounts. Unfortunately, the final resolution of most of these cases is not evident from the papers included in this collection.

One bundle of 42 work orders from early 1875 (Folder 9) records repairs made to organs throughout New England and as far south as Baltimore, Maryland. Twelve miscellaneous checks, contracts, and scraps of paper (Folder 10) show office activity in the period between 1845 and 1881. Three business cards, one for E. & G.G. Hook Organ Builders, are present in this group. Finally, one Folder (Folder 11) contains notes on a new water motor for use in the factory, a plan that was abandoned in late 1899.

In summary, this collection reveals the day-to-day operations of a large, successful organ building company in the late nineteenth century.