The Scaglione Antique and Vintage Office Museum

Each image on this page was carefully crafted by Curtis Scaglione for the Smithsonian Institute Learning Lab display. Each machine is a part of the Antique and Vintage Office Museum and the sole property of Curtis Scaglione, the creator of this display.

This collection features  staplers manufactured between the years 1877 and 1955. It is one of the the most complete collections of antique and vintage paper fasteners in the world. It is interesting to note that some of the machines in this collection have not been seen in years. 

Paper Fasteners have been around since the early 1850’s therefore, we have a great selection of antique and vintage machines for review and examination. The development of staplers really took off in the early 1900’s and improvements followed. Many machines produced today are based on designs dating the early 1930's.

Today, we refer to this office machine as staplers. But early paper fasteners included the eyelet machines and pin fasteners.

Even now, some examples are proving to be more desirable to collectors and are harder to find. 

When examining the early machines, it is easy to see these machines are historic. They were developed and manufactured during the mechanical revolution, Simple in design yet dependable.  These  19th century and early 20th century designs are what you would expect of the era and this is where the concept of paper fasteners began.