Featured Collections

Better Living was a Du Pont employee magazine created and published by the company's public relations department. The magazine, which began publication in 1946, featured the company's popular advertising slogan "Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry." In keeping with this branding, its issues featured photojournalistic essays celebrating Du Pont products' contribution to improving American standards of living, features depicting Du Pont employees at work and at leisure, updates on Du Pont activities at home and abroad, and articles extolling free market values and the role of citizen consumers in postwar America.

148 items.

This digital collection includes consists of issues of Business Screen magazine, a trade publication for the industrial film industry, that were published between 1938 and 1973. We would like to thank Rick Prelinger for his generosity in making this resource available. Hagley Library's Business Screen magazine (Accession 2017.227) collection is entirely digital. Original materials are housed with the Prelinger Archives, which also provided the digital copy.

275 items.

The Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America formed in 1912 with the purpose of advising the government on issues facing industry and business throughout the country. The majority of images in this digital collection are photographs taken for the Chamber’s publication, Nation’s Business.. Published from 1912 to 1999, the monthly magazine featured images by many of the country’s most prominent photographers, and proved invaluable as a public relations tool and a means of communicating the Chamber's agenda to members of the business and legislative communities. This digital collections features selected materials from the Chamber of Commerce of the United States photographs and audiovisual material (Accession 1993.230) collection and from additional publications that may be found by searching Hagley Library's catalog. To learn more about the photographs from Nation’s Business, visit our online exhibit, "100 Years of Picturing the Nation's Business".

1966 items.

Cinécraft Productions was founded in 1939 by Ray Culley (1904-1983) and Betty (Buehner) Culley (1914-2016) in Cleveland, Ohio. The firm specialized in commercial productions for business, industry, trade organizations, and, in some cases, government agencies and social service organizations. The company has been in continuous operation since then, making it the “country's longest-standing corporate film & video production house”. Hagley Library's collections of material generated by, or in association with, Cinécraft Productions include The Cinecraft, Inc. films (Accession 2019.227) collection, the Culley family collection of Cinecraft Productions audiovisual materials (Accession 2018.201), Cinecraft oral histories (Accession 2021.206) collection, Robert A. Schneider collection of Cinecraft Production audiovisual materials (Accession 2018.202), the Frank Siedel papers (Accession 2022.215), and scattered items in our Sponsored and industrial motion picture film collection (Accession 2018.222). The collections that have been digitized appear below. None of them have been digitized in their entirety, and new additions continue to be made to some collections.

5 items.

The David Sarnoff Library collections (Accession 2464) include the research records, the papers of individual scientists, photographs, films and sound recordings that document the research and development conducted at the David Sarnoff Research Center and other RCA facilities from the early days of the Radio Corporation of America to the David Sarnoff Research Center’s operations in the 1980s and 1990s. It also includes the original David Sarnoff papers (Accession 2464.55) collection, assembled by Sarnoff and his staff to document his career. These formed the core of the David Sarnoff Library when it opened at the David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton in 1967. When the library closed in 2009, the archival collections were donated to Hagley and the museum objects went to The College of New Jersey. This digital collection offers a small sample material selected from the David Sarnoff Library collections at Hagley, which encompasses twenty collections and nearly 3,000 linear feet of material.

12 items.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, commonly referred to as the DuPont Company, is a chemical company which was established in 1802. The company began as a manufacturer of black powder, but expanded considerably during the early 1900s. The company began establishing plants all over the United States and began to manufacture other products in addition to gunpowder and explosives. The company manufactured paints, dyes, photographic products, synthetic fibers, plastics, biochemicals, and focused on applied research. The DuPont Company films and commercials (Accession 1995.300) collection consists of moving images documenting the research, development, training, safety measures, products, and promotional aspects of DuPont Company history. This includes commercials, short films, feature films, and television programs. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety.

296 items.

The Herbert Harwood Jr. Railroad and Transportation collection of photographic negatives (Accession 2019.212) comprises nearly 150,000 images covering all of the twentieth century. The collection includes Harwood’s own work as a railroad photographer as well as the work of others. Among the collection are photographs from many notable photographers active in the 1930s and ‘40s and well as the work of his father-in-law, George M. Beischer, who served as the chief mechanical officer for several railroads, including the fledgling Amtrak in the 1970s. The collection is currently being processed, and has not been digitized in its entirety.

91 items.

Hologic, Inc. is a developer and manufacturer of medical digital imaging instruments with a primary focus on mammography and women's health. The company was founded in 1985 by S. David Ellenbogen (1938-2001) and Jay A. Stein (1942-) in Bedford, Massachusetts. The Hologic Digital Mammography oral histories (Accession 2020.201) collection brings together interviews with the individuals involved in inventing, researching, and commercializing digital mammography and breast tomosynthesis at DuPont, Sterling, and Hologic. The interviews address the founding of Hologic and the development of 3D mammography and breast tomosynthesis. It also covers the sale and consolidation of other companies under Hologic; development of new medical imaging machines; certification of new medical devices; negotiations with the medical insurance industry; and selling medical devices and technical support to healthcare systems and care providers.

30 items.

Lukens Steel Company was a medium-sized producer of specialty steel products and one of the top three producers of steel plate in the United States. Lukens Steel Company is noted for being the first industrial company in the United States led by a woman, Rebecca Lukens (1794-1854). The Lukens Steel Company newsletters (Accession 2020.209) is an online collection of the employee newsletter of the Lukens Steel Company produced between 1935 and 1989. The newsletter was called Lukens Plate through 1949, then was renamed Lukens Life after 1950. The issues include information about the Lukens community; retirement, engagement, and wedding announcements of Lukens employees; and other relevant industry news.

781 items.

The Midvale Steel Company was established in 1867 in the Nicetown area of Germantown, Philadelphia by English steel-maker William Butcher (circa 1791-1871). Upon his death in 1871, the Butcher Steel Works became the Midvale Steel Works with engineer Wiliam Sellers (1824-1905) as president. The company's name changed again in 1880 to the Midvale Steel Company. The Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company motion picture films (Accession 1970.034) collection consists of five reels of film that document operations at the Midvale Steel Plant. While the reels are not dated, they are believed to be from 1919. The films document the various stages of production at the plant with a focus on the precision steel making process. The films show the various stages of steel production at the plant, and include footage of an integrated workforce with African American and white employees working together on the shop floor.

5 items.

The Chamber of Commerce of the United States is the world’s largest commercial association. Chamber members range from small businesses and local chambers to leading industry associations and large corporations. The Chamber traces its origins to an April 22, 1912, conference of commercial and trade organizations called by President William Howard Taft. The goal was to form a national group to advise the government on issues facing industry and business throughout the country.​ Nation’s Business was a monthly publication from the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. The Chamber used the publication to inform the business community about commercial trends and to solidify political support around key positions on government policies regarding business and economic life. Nation's Business is call number f HF1.N38 in the Hagley Library's Published Collections Department; our holdings cover all the years of its publication (1912 to 1999), with most years' issues included in their entirety. All of the issues in our collection of Nation's Business from 1915 on have been digitized.

1114 items.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) was organized in Ohio in 1895 with the goal to protect American goods from foreign competition and to promote trade expansion. The organization continues today as the largest manufacturing trade association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all fifty states. This digital collection draws from multiple collections and accessions at Hagley Library. These include materials originating from the National Association of Manufacturers in the library's Published Collections Department, the National Association of Manufacturers records (Accession 1411) collection, and the National Association of Manufacturers photographs and audiovisual materials (Accession 1973.418) collection. These records provide comprehensive documentation of the organization's programs and activities from its founding in 1895 to the present. They have not been digitized in their entirety; this digital collections contains a selection of items primarily dating to the 1960s and 1970s.

2042 items.

Incorporated in 1846, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company became the largest railroad in the United States in terms of corporate assets and traffic from the last quarter of the nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. The Pennsylvania Railroad negatives (Accession 1993.300) collection contains more than 5200 negatives from the official Pennsylvania Railroad files largely depict PRR trains, tracks, equipment, and facilities. The collection also contains numerous views of similar facilities and equipment on other railroads, of nearby buildings and properties, or of standardized equipment and accessories that were collected by the PRR for reference. The negatives in this digital collection were digitized to positives for online access. Most of the digital images seen here are black-and-white, low resolution copies produced from the original negatives.

5404 items.

The Sperry Corporation was an electronics company; its UNIVAC Division manufactured the first commercial digital computer. The Sperry UNIVAC division had its origins in the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), founded in 1946 by J. Presper Eckert (1919-1995) and John W. Mauchly (1907-1980). In 1950, Eckert and Mauchly sold their firm to Remington Rand, Inc, a major manufacturer of business machines, who continued development of the UNIVAC system. In 1955, Remington Rand merged with the Sperry Corporation, and the UNIVAC Division was retained as part of the newly formed Sperry Rand Corporation. The Sperry Corporation, UNIVAC Division photographs and audiovisual materials (Accession 1985.261) collection documents predecessor organizations to the Sperry Corporation. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. The materials here are a selection from the collection, and primarily include product images of computers from the 1950s to 1970s.

388 items.

‘Sponsored film’ defines a variety of motion picture productions funded by businesses, organizations, or governments that dictated the point of view, audience, and intent of the film. Industrial or business films are a sub-genre of sponsored films with content that marketed products and ideas, touted a particular company or industry, trained employees, and explained manufacturing or transactional processes around the creation and sales of products and ideas. The Sponsored and industrial motion picture film collection (Accession 2018.222) at Hagley is an artificial collection compiled by curators that includes single motion picture films or small sets of films acquired via purchase or donation. The collection is comprised of sponsored films produced for businesses (industrial films) and those produced for organizations promoting business interests. Additionally, it contains educational films with the intent to teach consumerism, energy production, career training, and similar topics with a pro-business message. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety.

120 items.