Mr. Torrey ---
Hello
As an actual Baby Boomer ('46), I do remember those cans, especially the concentric rings! While '49 sounds early to me, that was an explosive period for innovation, with Modernism reigning supreme. And remember, lots of new ideas were developed in the '20s and '30s, but in the pre-war world's chaos, they never happened.
Think of it....millions of military personnel lived in action, for years, surrounded by quickly-evolving technology, full of ideas and waiting for a chance to DO SOMETHING ("...imagination running wild...") with their ideas. With the U.S. in '45 standing clear in a devastated world, where areas not devastated were generally in more traditional, localized economies, we were ready to explode with new things. Just look at the post-War ('48 or so) car designs...
About the old records:
On-Site ---
1. Where?
Old stuff, if kept, tends to get moved-around to less-convenient places, making room for more-current things. So check areas at the top of stairs/scuttles, behind the later boxes.
2. Cozy files:
We're all familiar with spray-in insulation guys, covering everything the Owner didn't move, or that didn't move by itself. Look for "mounds" in the insulation. In likely areas, even without mounds, if you have a safe-to-walk-on ceiling, go poking with a stick, along "pathways", etc.
3. Cellars, crawl-spaces:
Hoping that moisture didn't do its thing, put on your grubbies and climb in. On more that one occasion, I've found stuff behind walls, piers, etc. My guess is, someone, told to throw-out "those boxes", hid them from inspecting honchos who were not about to go "horizontal spelunking" themselves, to check...
If you see 2 green eyes lookin'-back at you, that's not a problem unless they're a foot apart and 8-feet above the floor... Then you have a problem. If they wink at you, you have a BIG problem!
4. Other buildings:
Check the Church's schools, gyms, convents/rectories/parsonages, etc. Catholic churches had rows of several garages for the priests; it can't hurt to check in there (nice, small attic spaces that no-one even thought about). For buildings that have been sold-off, approach their owners, even though major clean-outs often occur after such purchases. And, ever-so-rarely, buildings get moved. Look for new foundations on the old buildings, and hold your breath...
Off-Site ---
1. City/Town:
Start by finding a friendly, helpful person, who can help you negotiate with, or get around, the officials, as you're seeking access to seek. Same notations as above, for the hunting process. One of the "scariest" situations, to me, is, the municipal offices are in a totally-different building, from the time period you're interested in. Think, looking for info on a '50s project in Boston, where they moved to an all-new City Hall in +/- 1970.
2. Historic groups, museums:
The folks that run such places universally have dreams, and materials, that exceed the display-capacity of their buildings, and their budgets, by factors of 3, to 20-or-more. They could well have a load of stuff from Our Lady of the Horde Church, sitting someplace, possibly off-site, waiting for daylight. Other than, maybe, a brief press-release when the stuff was given / received, there's no public mention of it. Why? Well, without space and funds to do something with this fifth-on-the-list project, why talk it up (other than to potential donors)?
Who knows?...
Maybe if you can help clean-up the file on O.L. Horde, you could get a tad-bit of publicity, and maybe bump the project up a notch on the Museum's list...
Best of luck ---
Bill
william j. devlin aia, inc.,
ARCHITECT
Springfield, MA