Camera-wiki.org:US document before 1964, copyright not renewed
The documents published in the United States before January 1st, 1964 with a copyright, but whose copyright was not renewed, are in public domain in that country.[1]
They should be in public domain also in the European Union, where the "shorter term" rule applies to foreign works, and foreign documents which are already in public domain in their home country are not further protected.[2]
The copyright registration for these documents had to be renewed during the 28th year of their first term of copyright to maintain copyright for a full 95-year term. It is extremely likely that this was not done for catalogues or documentations published by commercial companies during the period, and that these are now in public domain.
