vertical file

noun

1. a collection of pamphlets, pictures, clippings, or other materials stored upright, as in a filing cabinet or cabinets.
2. a cabinet for such storage.

Word History and Origins

Origin of vertical file¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

There is no vertical file at the county HQ labeled “Cheerios Park: Name.”

From Washington Post

Visitors also encountered the latest and arguably most important organizational invention of the century, the vertical file, created by Melvil Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal System.

From Literature

This happens so often that she has prepared a document that sits in the vertical file that explains how little we are sure of.

From Washington Post

In “Cubed” he walks us through the invention of a few of our favorite things: the vertical file cabinet, the suspended ceiling, the fluorescent light bulb, the elevator, the Dictaphone, the human-resources department.

From New York Times

Probably the best arrangement for a large part of this material is to assign a subject heading or a class number and keep in a vertical file alphabetically or by class number.

From Project Gutenberg