Digital Collections

The trade journal The American Brewer was founded by Adolph Meckert in New York City in 1867 to serve the nation's growing beer brewing industry. As many of the country's brewers were German immigrants, the journal began publication in German, under the title Der Amerikanische Bierbrauer. Within a year of its founding, it was purchased by its writer and editor, the Bohemian immigrant Anton Schwarz, a trained brewer who would go on to establish the United States Brewers’ Academy in 1882. Schwarz, who died in 1895, passed ownership and editorial responsibilities of the journal to his sons, Robert and Frederick. Each journal issue contains scientific articles, production figures, industry news from around the world, and advertisements from brewery suppliers and manufacturers of brewery equipment.

158 items.

A selection of images from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), a major national trade association of the iron and steel industry. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Bethlehem Steel Company, Pennsylvania.

1329 items.

This digital collection consists of a journal and letter book of Colonel Anne Louis de Tousard (1749-1817). The journal dates to 1791-1792 and was compiled by Tousard while a prisoner at L'Abbaye accused of counter-​revolutionary activities during the 1791 slave insurrection in Saint Domingue (now Haiti) led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. The letter book, dated 1796-1802, documents Tousard's second career in the United States Army. The materials were digitized from microfilm copies. Image: Anne Louis de Tousard portrait.

2 items.

Founded in 1918 by William H. Stayton, the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment was a leading advocate for prohibition repeal in the United States. This collection comprises postcards and folded cards (stationery) issued by the organization. Each item is headed with the saying "Prohibition-Probes," which is followed by an anti-prohibition slogan or quotation. Image: Jack and Jill stationery

52 items.

Henry Belin du Pont (1898-1970) began Atlantic Aviation in 1927 to provide services for business aviation. In 1948, the company moved from the Du Pont Airport to New Castle County Airport south of Wilmington, Delaware and soon expanded to other airports around the country, continuing today as a major aircraft maintenance and sales provider. The collection includes portraits and views of Atlantic Aviation facilities at various airports. It also includes two photographs of Charles Lindbergh's stop at Du Pont Airport in 1927. Image: Henry Belin du Pont next to his Buhl-Verville CA-3 Airster, circa 1927.

26 items.

Automatic Merchandising Company operated and installed vending machines. A signature product was the Auto-Snak, a set of food vending machines which dispensed soda, coffee, milk, sandwiches, soup, salads, pastries and ice cream. These automat style vending machines emerged in America after the invention of the first coffee vendors in 1946 that allowed for the use of vending machines for coffee breaks, cutting needed catering staffs in large factories. This album is a promotional salesman sample album of automatic food vending machines for factories, universities, and offices. The album promotes the company's Auto-Snak machines which sold milk, fresh salads, sandwiches, hot coffee, pastries, ice cream, hot soup, and soda. The images show close-up views of products such as Pepsi-Cola, Dad's Root Beer, Campbell Soup and others. There is also an article about the Budd plant installing the machines and a report about solving issues related to feeding employees. The promotional album is from the Detroit Branch. The contents have been removed from the album for preservation, but the original order of the album has been maintained.

21 items.

The Avon Collection provides insight into the history of the company, its sales representatives, employees, and consumers. The Avon materials in the Hagley Digital Archives encompasses a range of materials such as advertisements, catalogs, representative's sales tools, and corporate documents. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Original Avon trademark, 1929.

3174 items.

This collection consists of scenic stereo views from a published series entitled Beauties of the Brandywine, Delaware, produced by the Philadelphia photography studio of Bartlett & French around 1868. The images, many of which were taken on E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company property, feature posed individuals, mill buildings, and the natural landscape along Brandywine Creek. Image: Crushing Mill, Dupont's Powder Works.

33 items.

Incorporated in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1906, Berkshire Knitting Mills began as an experimental hosiery factory and later became the largest full-fashioned knitting mill in the world. This collection comprises captioned photographs dating from 1908 to 1925 of plant buildings and operations. Manufacturing processes depicted include winding, legger, footer, inspection, mending, looping and seaming, examining, topping, thread counting, turning, boarding, pairing, labeling and packing, and shipping. Image: Seaming department.

68 items.

Bethlehem Steel Corporation, along with its Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, was a leading twentieth-century American business as the nation’s second largest steel producer and largest shipbuilder. The collection consists of color transparencies and slides taken by the corporation’s photography staff from the 1950s through the 1970s, likely taken for public relations and advertising purposes. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Madison Square Garden under construction.

63 items.

Hagley Museum staff conducted a series oral history interviews between 1954 and 1990, speaking primarily with individuals who had worked at the DuPont Company powder yards on Brandywine Creek during the yards’ final decades of operation or who had lived near the yards as spouses or children of DuPont Co. workers. Some of the individuals who were interviewed donated, lent for copying, or provided information on the photographs in this collection. The images primarily depict the worker communities which surrounded the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company powder yards on Brandywine Creek or the powder yards themselves. Image: DuPont Co. workers enjoying a drink near the Club House at Thompson's Bridge.

182 items.

Buckley Music System, Inc. was a manufacturer and distributor of jukebox music systems for businesses. The company operations were active from 1939 through 1950 (exact incorporation and cessation dates unknown). Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Buckley had several distributors in various regions around the United States. The jukebox stations were tied into a central system, including jukes, a full line of auxiliary wall and or bar boxes, and speakers. This album is a salesman sample catalogue marketing the Buckley jukebox system for restaurants, bars, and clubs. This album opens with three photographs of company employees and an image of a wall-mounted speaker cabinet. A majority of the photographs provide an interior view of empty or near-empty establishments who have implemented the system. These photographs feature architectural and interior design details, as well as advertising and point of sale displays for businesses from all across the United States. The photographs have been kept in their original order.

34 items.

The Budd Company began in Philadelphia in 1912 as the Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company, specializing in the design and manufacture of all-steel automobile bodies. The company became a major producer of automobile parts as well as a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger railroad cars and other products. The images in this collection largely depict Budd Company products and facilities. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Metal finish inspection.

141 items.

Carol Litchfield (1936-2012) was a biologist and biochemist specifically interested in halophilic microbiology, that being, microorganisms that live in salt rich environments. Later in her life her interest in halophiles transformed into a fascination with the history of salt. She began collecting everything she could find that related to salt, from images of salt production and advertisements from salt companies, to salt shakers and actual pieces of salt rock. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety.

14 items.

As an organic chemist, Carter Litchfield (1932-2007) studied and specialized in edible fats. Over the course of his career, Litchfield built an important collection about the history of fats and fatty materials. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. The online collection is a curated selection of items and primarily includes paper ephemera such as ration stamps, tax stamps, and trade cards. There are also items relating to the Prussian chemist, Julius Lewkowitsch (1857-1913), whose collection Litchfield acquired. Image: Fairchild and Shelton's Ozone Soap trade card.

395 items.

The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 celebrated the one hundreth anniversary of American Independence. Held in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, it was the first major U.S. world's fair. The Centennial Exhibition opened on May 9, 1876 and closed November 10th. Nearly ten million visitors attended the fair in that time. The fairgrounds were made up of five main buildings, as well as some 250 pavilions and auxiliary structures, including twenty-four state buildings, which were each designed in a regional style. Three large scrapbooks form the most significant and impressive portion of this collection. Also included in the collection are leaflets, pamphlets, trade cards, business cards, correspondence, sheet music, stationary, viewbooks and guidebooks, maps, posters, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera. This collection has not been scanned in its entirety. This digital collection is a work in progress. New scans will be added as they are completed.

330 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 that were taken for the Chamber’s publication, Nation’s Business. Published from 1912 to 1999, the monthly magazine proved invaluable in communicating the Chamber’s messages to business and government, and the magazine featured images by many of the country’s most prominent photographers. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. To learn more about the photographs from Nation’s Business, visit our online exhibit, 100 Years of Picturing the Nation's Business. Image: "The Oath."

1804 items.

Charles Blasius & Sons began in Philadelphia in 1855. In 1887 they bought the trade name "Albrecht", which was one of the oldest piano makers in the United States. Blasius also made pianos under their own brand name, as well as "Ideal" and "Regent." Sometime between 1913 and 1918 they were bought by the Rice-Wuest Company, which continued making pianos until they went out of business at some unknown time. This collection shows interiors and exterior views of the company's factory in Woodbury, New Jersey.

14 items.

An aerial photographer hobbyist turned professional, Charles Findeisen (1919-2007) spent most of his life flying airplanes. He consulted for real estate development firms, engineering firms, and construction companies, and virtually all of his work was in the tri-state region of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Many of the images in this collection have associated coordinates identifying the precise location where the photograph was taken. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety and many of the photographs here depict local airports. Image: Millville Municipal Airport in New Jersey.

94 items.

Charles H. DeMirjian worked for the DuPont Company's Advertising and Marketing Communications Department from 1954 until 1991. He was primarily a manager of designers, helping to establish design parameters and making the final selections from work submitted by subordinates and subcontractors. This collection consists of brochures, advertisements, photographs, and ephemera showing DuPont Company consumer products collected by DeMirjian related to his career. Image: Advertisement for DuPont Lucite wall paint labels.

338 items.

This digital collection includes a small but significant selection of letters, photographs, pictorial envelopes, and other primary sources from the Hagley Library connected to the Civil War. Many of the items relate to du Pont family members, soldiers who served with them, or powdermen who worked in the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company powder yards during the war. Of particular interest is the correspondence of Rear Admiral Samuel Francis du Pont with one of his naval officers, Percival Drayton. The items were digitized in conjunction with Hagley's exhibit, An Oath of Allegiance to the Republic: the du Ponts and the Civil War. Image: Crew of the USS Wabash, detail.

665 items.

Incorporated in October 1974, the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) was formed under the auspices of the United States Railway Association, a quasi-public agency established for the purpose of solving the problems of bankrupt railroads in the Northeast and Midwest. The Conrail photograph collection consists of a large number of images from its company files, but the majority of the material comes from its predecessor companies, Pennsylvania Railroad and Penn Central Transportation Company. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Employee cleaning circuit boards.

150 items.

Incorporated in Delaware in 1935, the Consolidation Coal Company formed in Maryland in 1860. In 1945, the company merged with Pittsburgh Coal Company to form Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Company. The name returned to Consolidation Coal Company (Consol) in 1958. This digital collection comprises the annual reports of the company from 1940 to 1965 as well as a corporate history published in 1934. Image: Detail from back cover of 1953 annual report.

27 items.

This digital collection includes more than 7,800 images from the Dallin Aerial Survey Company collection. The company specialized in aerial images of factories, private estates, schools, country clubs, towns, airports, rivers, and many other sites and some news events of the day. The majority of the photographs concentrate on the Mid-Atlantic region covering a period from 1924 to 1939 although Dallin did make trips to other locales within the United States. To learn more about the Dallin Company and the collection, visit our online exhibit A Bird's Eye View of the Delaware Valley: The Photography of the Dallin Aerial Survey Company. Image: 1930 World Series Opening Game at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

7882 items.

Selection of materials from the David Sarnoff Library including photographs, RCA Annual Reports, Broadcast News, and technical journals and newsletters produced by RCA. Additionally, the collection includes advertisements from RCA and the Victor Talking Machine Company. This digital collection is a very small sample of the entire David Sarnoff Library at Hagley. For more information visit the David Sarnoff Library Project site.

875 items.

Pierre S. du Pont incorporated the Delaware School Auxiliary Association in 1919 to finance the construction of new school buildings throughout the state. Between 1918 and 1940 du Pont donated $5,000,000 to build some 120 schools. This collection contains photographs, almost all exterior, of 114 public elementary and secondary schools in Delaware. These include old school buildings and the new ones that replaced them in the building program instituted by Pierre S. du Pont. To learn more about the legacy of segregation in Delaware education, see A Separate Place: The Schools that P.S. du Pont Built. Image: Christiana Colored School as constructed in 1920.

434 items.

A selection of photographs from albums of the Delaware State Fair from 1919, 1920, and 1921. The albums have not been digitized in their entirety. Image: Crowds at the 1919 Delaware State Fair.

51 items.

When the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) Railroad added direct ownership of coal mining facilities to its operation in 1851, its combination of mining and transportation industries under one corporate entity gave it a market advantage. The DL&W became one of the largest and most prosperous anthracite transporting and mining companies in Pennsylvania. However, following the successfully prosecuted antitrust suit of United States v. Delaware, Lackawanna & W. R. Co. in 1915, as well as a series of antitrust actions against competitors, the DL&W voluntarily divested itself of its mining operations, which were reorganized under the Glen Alden Coal Company in 1921. This collection consists of dated and undated views of mining equipment, mine tunnels, and mine building exteriors and interiors in the eastern Pennsylvania counties of Lackawanna and Luzerne. Most of the views are exteriors devoid of workers. Many of the photographs include a photo credit for W. B. Bunnell, the official photographer of the DL&W.

32 items.

Founded by E. Paul du Pont (1887-1950) in 1919, Du Pont Motors, Inc. manufactured luxury automobiles in Wilmington, Delaware. The company produced eight models, each with several body styles, as well as a few special models. Each of the vehicles was made in limited production, resulting in only 537 vehicles manufactured in the twelve years of the company’s operation. The company suspended production in 1931 due to effects of the Great Depression and went out of business in 1932. The images in this digital collection primarily depict exteriors of Du Pont Motor’s Models A, B, D, and G. Image: Mrs. E. Paul du Pont driving 1919 Du Pont Model A.

33 items.

This collection of more than 1200 photographs depicts the landscape and buildings at or near the DuPont explosives manufacturing plants along Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware. Approximately 900 images depict powder yard sites, including the DuPont Experimental Station, either during the mills' final decades of operation or prior to, during, and after excavation and restoration work on the site in the 1950s and 1960s. Most of the remaining images depict the worker communities which surrounded the powder yards. Image: DuPont Company metal keg mill workers.

1285 items.

The DuPont Company Museum collection consists of photographs and prints that document the history of the DuPont Company. The materials in this collection were originally compiled by the DuPont Company Museum, transferred to the Hagley Museum in 1954 and subsequently to the Hagley Library in 1968. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety, and the online collection is a curated selection of items. Among other subjects, the image depict the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York; the construction of Coleman du Pont Road; production of Phenolin; game birds advertising series; Haskwell Works explosion aftermath, cartoons of employees; a female employee baseball league; and company plants at Old Hickory, Tennessee and Farmingdale, New Jersey. Image: Mexican employees at Old Hickory, Tennessee plant.

314 items.

The DuPont Company South San Francisco Plant began operation in 1935. The plant manufactured and packaged finishes such as Lucite paint, Duco laquers and Dulux enamels. Images in the collection depict the plant's construction in the mid-1930s and exteriors of the office, change house, tank farm and other buildings in 1945. The digital collection comprises most of the photographic material and a portion of the ephemera from the collection, although the collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Building 21.

38 items.

In 1910, the chemical company E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company purchased the Fabrikoid Company of Newburgh, New York, which had developed a textile coating process. The process was used in upholstery, luggage, automobile fabrics, and bookbinding. This is a portfolio of separate pages with two photographs per page placed in a folder made of blue Fabrikoid. The photos illustrate the use of Fabrikoid upholstery in a variety of commercial and residential interior applications, including wall coverings in store window displays, seating and side walls in aircraft, draperies, screens, table tops, as well as furniture. The interior decorating work illustrated in this portfolio is credited to some well-known modernist designers and architects: Raymond M. Hood, John Mead Howells, Winold Reiss, Eugene Schoen, Joseph Urban, and O.W. Wentz. Public buildings shown include the Palm Beach, Florida Hotel, the Tavern Club, Hotel Bossert, Panhellenic Club, and Little Carnegie Theatre.

14 items.

Established in 1913, DuPont Magazine publicized the products and progress of the company during the twentieth century. The issues include articles, product information, and advertisements on topics such as dynamite, quarrying, ammunition, popular plastic products, automobile accessories, and other useful items for the home. This digital collection includes all issues published between 1913 and 2003. Image: Cover detail of DuPont Magazine, v. 14, no. 4.

639 items.

A selection of images related to the DuPont Company powder yards during World War I from the Hagley Digital Archives chosen by our staff. This does not include all material we have on this topic. For a more thorough search, start on our Search Hagley Collections page. If you have additional questions please contact us at AskHagley@hagley.org. Image: Female worker filling powder into silk bags at DuPont Co. Brandywine Mills, circa 1918.

13 items.

In 1952, the DuPont Company created the Product Information section within the Public Relations department. Its function was to produce new releases with photographs about DuPont and its products for indirect publicity and advertising purposes. Most of the photographs were taken from the 1930s through the 1950s. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Comparison of Teflon and plastic.

2457 items.

The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company, established in 1936 as the Rayon Department, specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Rayon, Nylon, Teflon, Corian, and Kevlar. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Chester Weinberg evening gown in Qiana nylon.

284 items.

As DuPont began to diversify its product line beyond gunpowder and explosives in the early twentieth century, the company had a need for more advertising. DuPont established an Advertising Division within the Sales Department between 1907 and 1909, which was reorganized into a separate Advertising Department in 1921. The collection of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Advertising Department records has not been digitized in its entirety. The online collection comprises magazine tearsheets featuring DuPont advertisements dating from 1901 to 1971. A variety of brands and products are represented, including gunpowder, automobile supplies, Cellophane, paints, cleaning supplies, Rayon, Nylon, Dacron, and Fabrikoid. Image: 1956 advertisement for DuPont Cellophane.

677 items.

This collection comprises three albums relating to E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company’s participation in World’s Fairs. One album focuses on the company’s efforts to promote its exhibits in the New York World's Fair and the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, both held in 1939. Another gives a photographic preview of the company’s exhibit at the San Francisco exposition. The final album is a proposal portfolio from industrial designer, Walter Dorwin Teague, and highlights other projects Teague had recently completed. Image: Cellophane demonstration at 1939 San Francisco exhibit.

3 items.

A view of all collections in the Hagley Digital Archives that include material related to the DuPont Company and du Pont family. For a more comprehensive search of all du Pont and DuPont related content at the Hagley Library see our Search Collections page.

16 items.

A selection of images and documents related to employees of the DuPont Company during the 19th century from the Hagley Digital Archives chosen by our staff. This does not include all material we have on this topic. For a more thorough search, start on our Search Hagley Collections page. If you have additional questions please contact us at AskHagley@hagley.org.

33 items.

This digital collection includes more than 3300 items from the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company records collection. The items digitized to date primarily consist of correspondence received by the company between 1802 and 1886 from customers, sales agents, and other business associates. Correspondence with sales agents describe the marketing of black powder to the Army, Navy, coal mine operators, and railroad entrepreneurs. Also included in the digital collection are ledgers which document wages of individual workers and describe living standards. Image: Receipt for the purchase of two passages from Liverpool to Philadelphia, 1852.

3347 items.

The images in this collection primarily depict the buildings, machinery, and workers at the DuPont Co. powder yards on Brandywine Creek and at Carney's Point, New Jersey. Some of the photographs, in particular those of Carney's Point, may have been photographed by Francis G. du Pont, who was the superintendent of the plant. There are also images of du Pont family members and du Pont family homes, slides of an engine used in a study, commercially produced travel views, and a few hand-drawn lantern slides of birds. The bulk of the collection dates from circa 1880 to 1920. Image: Soda House at Carney's Point Works.

214 items.

Collection features over 300 photographs taken by the Seal family of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania during the first half of the twentieth century. Many of these images offer a glimpse into family and town life in Chadds Ford and Wilmington, Delaware during the 1920s and 1930s, featuring Seal family members, friends, neighbors, and employees. Other subjects include the 1939 World's Fair in New York, the artists N.C. and Andrew Wyeth, and local bridges and roads. Image: Howard Ellsworth Seal, Sr. planting corn with granddaughter.

323 items.

This digital collection is a small selection of items from the Eleuthera Bradford du Pont Collection, which dates from the lifetime of E.I. du Pont (1771-1834) and documents important aspects of the early history of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. The materials digitized to date include three company account books dating from 1802 to 1809 as well as corporate correspondence with a Philadelphia businessman, dating to 1805, and with an agent in Cuba, dating from 1821 to 1825. There is also an 1806 letter of introduction for the company written by Aaron Burr. Image: Page from E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company account ledger, 1802-1809, detail.

13 items.

Series of photographs taken at the dedication of the Eleutherian Mills Library on October 7th 1961. In 1984, the name of the library was changed to Hagley Library. Image: Mrs. James Q. du Pont, Mrs. K. Mark, and Mrs. David Craven on library building terrace.

57 items.

Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation research reports were produced beginning in 1953 for the purpose of developing Hagley Museum’s exhibits and interpretations. They were prepared by research staff and by participants in the Hagley Fellowship Program, administered jointly with the University of Delaware. Many of the reports focus on the industrial development of the Brandywine River Valley and surrounding area. The research reports also include scholarly articles which utilize Hagley’s collections as source material or address subjects pertaining to Hagley's mission. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety.

56 items.

Elizabeth Webb (1663-1726) was a minister of the Society of Friends. Her journal, dating from 1697 to 1699, is a record of Webb's first visit to America with her companion, Mary Rogers, to visit several important Quaker meetings.

2 items.

Ernest Dichter (1907-1991) was a major pioneer in consumer motivational research. This online collection is a small sample of items from Dichter's collection at Hagley comprising various research proposals and studies, a magazine interview, and several issues of the motivational newsletter The Human Factor. Substantial material from the Ernest Dichter papers can be found in the subscription database, American Consumer Culture. The database is available to Hagley's on-site researchers and database subscribers. Image: Detail from cover of The Human Factor, no. 366.

18 items.

Beginning the the 1950's, the New York Federal Reserve began publishing educational comic books intended to teach young adult readers about topics such as banking, monetary policy, inflation, and the Federal Reserve system in the United States. The comics, largely aimed at high-school age readers, were distributed free of charge to to teachers and educational institutions, along with lesson plans that could be used to incorporate the comics into classroom activities. This digital collection includes examples of these publications from the Hagley Library's collection. While the majority of these examples were published after the year 2000, they include publications from the the 1970s through the 1980s.

10 items.

The Ferracute Machine Company of Bridgeton, New Jersey was a press and die business founded by Oberlin Smith (1840-1926) in 1863. This digital collection contains images of Oberlin Smith and Ferracute employees, the company's shops, as well as images of a trip made by an employee, Henry A. Janvier, who was sent to China as a consultant to the American Trading Company to supervise the installation of Ferracute coining machines in the Imperial Chinese mints in Hubei and Sichuan provinces in 1898. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Henry Janvier with dog, Snooks, and Ferracute Co. equipment at the mint in Chengdu, China, 1898.

55 items.

A curated selection of moving picture content from Hagley's Audiovisual Collections. Image: Cans of movie film ready for shipment. DuPont Company.

114 items.

Assembled by collectors Arlene and Gerald Fingerman, the collection consists of mixed-format ephemera from various endeavors within American culture, primarily the manufacturing and selling of products or services. Advertising cards and labels compose a large portion of the collection, but it also includes billheads, blotters, bookmarks, business cards, catalogs, checks, envelopes, flyers, letterheads, newsletters, packaging, postcards, and stamps. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Advertising card for J. & P. Coats six cord thread.

142 items.

The Fitz Water Wheel Company specialized in the manufacture of water wheels and small power plants. John Fitz (1847-1914), who succeeded his father as head of the firm, developed the modern steel overshot water wheel. Fitz aimed its product at farmers, small millers, and small town hydroelectric and pumping stations in the United States and abroad. The spread of rural electrification cut into Fitz's market, but John Samuel Fitz, who had succeeded his father in 1914, kept the firm in business by shifting to production for "show" rather than productive use. The firm made many model wheels and turbines for engineering schools and historic restorations of working mills. This collection has been digitized in its entirety, though duplicative items have been omitted from scanning.

40 items.

Floyd Hollenbeck (1920-2002) worked for Trimfit Hosiery, a distribution company for Hanes Hosiery Mills Company. The Hanes Co. was an early adopter of nylon hosiery manufacture, a process first created in 1938. This collection contains twenty-four stereoviews of the Hanes Winston-Salem manufacturing plant and offices from the mid-1960s, by which time Hanes had developed seamless pantyhose.

24 items.

The Frank R. Zebley photograph albums includes nearly 1500 historical photographs from the city of Wilmington, locations around the state of Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania, and other places of interest in the mid-Atlantic region. A special thanks to Hagley volunteer Jean Abplanalp for her photograph research on this collection. Image: Surf fishing on Sunset Beach at Cape May Point.

1449 items.

G.C. Murphy Co. was a chain of discount variety stores founded by George Clinton Murphy in 1906 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Murphy had been an executive with McCrory stores before opening up his own store. After Murphy's death, two former McCrory executives purchased the small chain in 1911. They quickly made it a profitable business as 5c-10c-25c stores, and expanded to new areas. Despite the Depression, the company grew, establishing 181 Murphy stores in 11 states. By 1976, the company operated 529 stores. In 1985, the chain was purchased by Ames Department Stores. In 1989, it was sold again, this time to the parent company of McCrory stores, McCrory Corp., which filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and liquidated a short time later The photographs in this collection are of a G.C. Murphy store in Washington, D.C., and were taken around the years 1930-1945. One photograph is an interior shot of the store’s soda fountain counter. Eight other photographs document various window displays.

9 items.

Genevieve Pittner of Monroe, Michigan, collected roller skating rink stickers between 1941 and 1942. She amassed a large collection by exchanging stickers by mail with other collectors, and she may have been a member of the Universal Roller Skating Sticker Exchange, a national network of sticker enthusiasts who traded. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Sticker from Brooklyn Roller Skating Rink.

23 items.

A selection of images related to computer scientist Grace Hopper (1906-1992) and other female computer programming pioneers from the Hagley Digital Archives chosen by our staff. This does not include all material we have on this topic. For a more thorough search, start on our Search Hagley Collections page. If you have additional questions please contact us at AskHagley@hagley.org. Image: Grace Hopper presenting on COBOL programming language.

19 items.

This digital collection holds individual items from the Hagley Library's Published Collections department that are not otherwise associated with a larger library collection or thematic subject collection. Many of the items here are related to the du Pont family and the E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. These include two works by Bessie Gardner du Pont: a corporate history and a twelve-volume assemblage of translated correspondence of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. The online collection also contains various maps, a biography of Henry du Pont, and a compilation of pamphlets, clippings, and magazine articles relating to several DuPont Company facilities.

47 items.

This collection comprises material published by Hagley Museum and Library from 1998 to the present, including Hagley Newsletter, Hagley Magazine, annual reports, conference materials, and related items. Image: Detail from cover of Hagley Magazine, Spring 2009.

134 items.

This small collection primarily consists of scenic views of the Hagley property. The collection has been organized into three series: Brandywine and Hagley areas of Copeland estate, Rolling wheels, and Pierre Gentieu prints. The Brandywine and Hagley areas of Copeland estate series contains mainly landscape images of the property, though there are a few views that includes structures such as the mills, and a few that show the Copeland house and garden. The Rolling wheels series shows images of rolling wheels in the mills, as well as correspondence and clippings about the property. The Pierre Gentieu prints are photographs taken by Pierre A. Gentieu (1842-1930), a long-term employee of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company who created an invaluable photographic record of the company's Brandywine Mills at the turn of the century. These images include various Hagley property views that show the dam, mills, residential homes, shops, workers and wagons.

10 items.

This digital collection features a selection of images from Hagley Library's Portrait File depicting or associated with du Pont family members. Image: Louise du Pont Crowninshield with her bridesmaids.

216 items.

This is a small collection of articles, excerpts, and essays from Hagley Library's reference file. The material pertains to the history of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, other related Brandywine River Valley topics, and Hagley Library’s archival collections.

37 items.

A selection of images and documents related to Hanford Engineer Works and its operation by the DuPont Company from the Hagley Digital Archives chosen by our staff. This does not include all material we have on this topic. For a more thorough search, start on our Search Hagley Collections page. If you have additional questions please contact us at AskHagley@hagley.org. Image: Hanford Engineering Works.

16 items.

The Hay’s Fruit Juice Company was founded in in the year 1900 and produced Hay’s Five Fruit, a fruit juice syrup used to make and flavor beverages and desserts. This album was created after September 1923, following the completion of additional construction to a recently purchased new factory at 55-71 York Street, in Portland, Maine. This new location enabled the company to produce three to four thousand bottles of fruit juice syrup a day. The product was entirely produced and stored in the factory until shipping, with separate rooms for pressing fruit, mixing the syrup, filling bottles, and inventory storage. The Hay’s Fruit Juice Company photograph album contains photographs and advertisements. The photographs are primarily of the factory’s interior and have accompanying captions on the facing pages that describe the manufacturing process of Hay’s Five Fruit. There are two photographs of raspberry fields and workers. The advertisements and labels are for the company’s fruit juice syrup.

22 items.

Herbert S. Winokur, Jr. donated his collection of Enron Board Records to Hagley Museum and Library in 2010. The records, 1997-2001, are one of the few extant collections of Enron board materials. Items include board minutes; records of the executive, finance, and audit committees; and memorandum and e-mails. These records provide information about this landmark corporate bankruptcy.

135 items.

The oral histories presented here document the research and development processes that transformed Kevlar from a novel polymer in the laboratory to a life-changing product in the marketplace. Through many surprising twists and turns, the people profiled here managed to make Kevlar serve the complicated and occasionally contradictory interests of the DuPont company, scientific inquiry, the marketplace, and the general public. Their stories are a rich study in the business and technology of innovation. Interviews were conducted by John Kenly Smith, PhD, in 2014 and 2015. Special thanks to the 1916 Foundation, the friends and family of Mary Laird Silvia, and individual donors for support of this project.

6 items.

Hoopes Brothers & Darlington, Inc. began in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1867 as a manufacturer of wooden spokes for wheels, and by the 1880s it had become one of the largest wooden wheel makers in the United States. The collection consists of miscellaneous images from the company, largely dating between 1900 and 1948, as well as advertising material and letterheads. Image: Automobile truck wheel.

64 items.

The Indiana Ordnance Works was built near Charlestown, Indiana by the DuPont Company for the U.S. government. Construction began in 1940, and by 1941, the Works was manufacturing military explosives, propellants, and smokeless powder. The Works continued to manufacture ordnance for military use throughout the ensuing decades, though it was operated by a variety of corporate entities. In 1964, its name was changed to the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant. In 1992, it was deactivated, and the property was converted to other uses, including an industrial commerce center and a state park. This collection consists of photographs of the Ballistics Lab of the Indiana Ordnance Works taken during World War II, including views of testing and test facilities, laboratories, machinery, and male and female workers.

21 items.

The Transportation Act of 1920 required railroads to file with the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) for permission to eliminate tracks from their system. This collection consists of index cards to finance dockets involving the Pennsylvania Railroad, Penn Central Transportation Company, and Conrail. The cards document line abandonments and financial transactions from the 1920s through 1985. The cards include, on the top line, a docket number, the date filed, and section of the law under which it was filed. The next line indicates the name of the railroad. The short text is an abstract of the case. For an abandonment, the county and state in which the tracks are located are usually indicated, as well as the length of track to be abandoned and the end points of the abandonment as indicated by a town name or mile posts. Some of the cards include a handwritten notation indicating where the case can be found in the printed ICC Reports.

6 items.

The John B. Stetson Company was a manufacturer of hats. The company was founded in 1865 by John B. Stetson (1830-1906) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its peak, the company employed over 5,000 people and consisted of nine acres and twenty-five buildings around the intersections of 5th Street and Germantown and Montgomery Avenues. Stetson provided generous employee benefits in order to stave off unionization. This led him to establish a school, a hospital, and a building and loan association for his employees, as well as perks such as sports leagues, Christmas turkeys, and Americanization classes. This is a small collection of photographs and other material relating to the company. It includes photographs of workers, workspaces, and worker’s amenities. It also includes materials documenting the company’s history and personnel policies.

14 items.

This digital collection features a small selection of 22 travel photographs from the John E. du Pont collection of Austin and du Pont families’ photographs. The images largely depict locations in Colorado and were taken by noted Western photographer, William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), in the late nineteenth century. Image: "Loaded."

22 items.

John Gordon Rideout (1898-1951) was a noted industrial designer and architect based primarily in Ohio. The images in this digital collection come from an album of negatives in a collection of Rideout's papers. Some of the images, likely dating to the early 1930s, depict Frank Lloyd Wright and his Spring Green, Wisconsin, estate, Taliesin. Others include portraits and candid images of family and friends; the fishing town of Leland, Michigan; an Easter church service; and a Gulf Co. service station. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Frank Lloyd Wright in his study at Taliesin.

192 items.

John J. Raskob (1879-1950) was a prominent business and political figure in the early twentieth century. A top financial executive for both E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company and the General Motors Corporation, Raskob was heavily involved in politics, serving as chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1928 to 1932. He was also a well-known Catholic noted for his charitable giving. The online collection is a small selection of items largely comprising correspondence and pamphlets dating from 1900 to 1950. Image: John J. Raskob as a young man.

415 items.

Advertising, both print and radio, developed as a prominent industry in the early decades of the twentieth century as popular magazine circulation exploded and the radio became ubiquitous in American households. This collection consists of digital access copies of publications and magazine advertisements for radios and other related household electronics dating from 1912 to 1980. Of note are 141 issues dating from 1945 to 1962 of Philco News, which was the employee newsletter for the Philco Corporation, as well as fifteen issues of Good News about RCA Radiotrons. Image: Cover of October 1960 issue of Philco News.

3040 items.

John W. Macklem (1867-1948) began working for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company as an errand boy at a young age and remained with the company his entire career. His collection of photographs, dating to the early twentieth century, depicts the landscape and buildings at the DuPont explosives’ manufacturing plants along Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware. On the back of each of the photographs, Macklem wrote extensive captions on the history of the site. Image: Rolling mills in Upper Hagley Yard.

44 items.

Joseph Bancroft, an Englishman trained in textile weaving in Lancashire, established his own cotton mill on the Brandywine near Wilmington, Delaware in 1831. The firm was incorporated as the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company in 1889. The collection consists of general advertising, fashion photography, and product information for "Ban-Lon" and "Everglaze" -- synthetic fibers produced and marketed by Bancroft in the 20th century. In particular, the collection documents the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company's sponsorship of the Miss America Pageant and the promotion of fabrics by Miss America from the years 1953 to 1967. Image: 1961 Ban-Lon fashions.

1662 items.

A career civil engineer with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Joseph T. Richards (1845-1933) participated in several large construction projects in the first decade of the twentieth century. One of these projects was Pennsylvania Station in New York, for which Richards chaired three committees of PRR operating officers that set the operating parameters for the design. This collection consists of the contents of a small portfolio of documents relating to the construction of the station and its associated yards and terminals. Image: 8th Avenue Elevation of Pennsylvania Station

42 items.

The leather manufacturing firm of Joshua Conner & Son was founded in 1848 by James Conner (1813-1880). It moved to Wilmington, Delaware, in 1858. After 1915, it operated under the name of Joshua Conner & Son, as the business was continued by Joshua Conner’s son, Joshua Conner (1842-1917), and grandson, Joshua Christy Conner (1883-1964). Early operations included the manufacture of harness, saddles, and trunks. Later the firm sold all types of trunks, luggage and athletic equipment, leather novelties, equestrian equipment, blankets and flags. It was recognized as one of the leading retail establishments in Delaware. This collection consists of five photographs of the storefront, store interiors and portraits of the proprietors. There are two views of the Conner storefront at 235-237 Market St., Wilmington, Delaware, and one interior view showing a display counter and two clerks. In addition, there are studio portraits of Joshua Conner and Joshua Christy Conner, his son.

5 items.

Lammot du Pont, Jr. (1909-1964) assembled a large collection of books, manuscripts, prints, drawings and photographs relating to the history of aeronautics from the first balloon flights through the 1940s. The online collection primarily consists of photographs that depict subjects such as airplanes, balloons and dirigibles, seaplanes, male and female pilots, long-distance and round-the-world flights, airplane crashes, air races, flying instruction, and the Arctic schooner Effie M. Morrissey. Nearly all of the photographs are news service images, many accompanied by original caption information. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: New World's Record for Helicopter.

677 items.

Born in 1831, Lammot du Pont was one of the most eminent chemists in the history of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. An engineer by training, he introduced sodium nitrate to the manufacture of powder for blasting and mining purposes and made important improvements in machinery and manufacturing techniques. By 1865, he led all the company’s manufacturing units outside of Delaware, and in 1880 he organized the Repauno Chemical Company for the manufacture of high explosives in New Jersey. He was killed in an explosion while conducting experiments with nitroglycerin in 1884. This online collection is a small selection of items from the Lammot du Pont papers and comprises gunpowder labels, correspondence related to gunpowder explosions, and other business papers. Image: Lammot du Pont engraving by Samuel Sartain.

24 items.

This letterbook contains tissue copies of the outgoing correspondence dating from 1899 to 1903 of inventor and manufacturer E. E. Hendrick (1832-1909). Although nominally dealing with his actions as president of the Hendrick Manufacturing Company, most of the letters concern personal business, such as purchases of household goods and cigars. Most importantly, they reveal Hendicks' interest in early automobiles, with correspondence with dealers and suppliers. Hendrick tried both electric and steam automobiles, and many of the letters are in the nature of complaints over such things as inadequate horsepower, poor riding quality, or the wrong size of tires. The letterbook has not been digitized in its entirety. The online collection comprises only the correspondence relating to automobiles. Image: E. E. Hendrick to American Electric Vehicle Company, 1900-08-01.

217 items.

The Link-Belt Company was founded by William Dana Ewart (1851-1908), who had invented the detachable link-belt in 1874. The flexible metal belt provided a superior system of power transmission and was first used widely in farm machinery. It was later introduced in industry wherever endless-belt motion was required, particularly for elevating and conveying grain, coal, etc. Out of this grew the manufacture and design of machinery used in all sorts of conveyors and elevators, making the company the foremost of its kind in the world. This item is a booklet of 11 cyanotype photographs of locomotive coaling stations designed, erected, and equipped by the Link-Belt Engineering Company. The views include coaling stations in Croton, East Albany, and Lyons, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and New Buffalo, Michigan built for the New York Central and Hudson Railroad, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and the Chicago and Western Michigan Railway Company. The photographs show details of conveyor belts and bottom dumping coal cars. Every photograph has a caption.

5 items.

The Longwood Manuscripts comprise the manuscript collections of P. S. du Pont (1870-1954). They made up the core collection of the former Longwood Library, and later the collection became known as The Longwood Manuscripts after the library merged with the Hagley Museum in 1961. The collection is an invaluable resource, tracing the history of the du Pont family from eighteenth-century France to 1954. This online collection is a small selection of materials from the Longwood Manuscripts. Many of the items digitized to date relate to the early history of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company and include correspondence, other business papers, and drawings of powder mills and machinery by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. Additional items relate to other early du Pont business ventures in the United States, including Du Pont, Bauduy & Company; Du Planty, McCall & Company; and Brandywine Mill Seat Company. Image: E. I. du Pont drawing of sieves used for graining gunpowder, detail.

449 items.

The brothers Louis Edward Levy (1846-1919) and Max Levy (1857-1926) founded a photoengraving business in Baltimore in 1875. In 1877 they moved to Philadelphia and reorganized the firm as the Levytype Company. Here, they introduced their invention of a new photochemical engraving process, which they called "Levy-type". Other inventions followed, including the engraved glass grating known as the "Levy line screen," which became universally used for producing half-tone photoengravings; the acid blast, or etching machine; and the etch-powdering machine. In 1900, the firm was renamed the Graphic Arts Company, and the brothers added a printing and publishing department to their business. This album contains personal cyanotype photographs. Included are views of a house in Philadelphia; the Pennsylvania Academy of Natural Science; scenes in Boston, Roxbury, Dedham, Concord, Northboro, and Nantucket, Massachusetts, including exterior photographs of the Alcott House and the Hawthorn house in Concord, and the Jonathan Fairbanks House in Dedham; a biology class at M.I.T.; snapshots of children and other people; an unidentified photographer and his camera; and various interiors.

10 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 online collection includes woodcuts showing the early history of the mill, interior and exterior views of factory buildings, various depictions of machinery, employees both at work and leisure, floods in 1955 and 1973, and twentieth-century aerial views of the Coatesville plant. Other items depict the owning families, company anniversary celebrations, and philanthropic activities supported by Charles Lukens Huston. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Multiple flame cutting.

887 items.

MCI Communications Corporation (MCI) was a large telecommunications company. It was organized in October 1963 in Joliet, Illinois as Microwave Communications, Inc. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety.

1781 items.

This digital collection features a selection of maps, largely dating to the first two decades of the twentieth century, of the Brandywine Works of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, now the site of Hagley Museum and Library. Image: Lower Yard of Brandywine Mills.

64 items.

This collection includes 135 images dating largely from 1901 to 1912 from the Matheson Automobile Company, a small automaker headquartered out of Holyoke, Massachusetts and later Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Matheson automobiles were particularly popular for the power they provided, winning trophies in numerous hill climb competitions in the first decade of the twentieth century. The company's hand-built and custom-made cars were eventually pushed out of the market by smaller, cheaper, more mass-produced vehicles. The images in the collection depict automobile races, a Matheson European tour, and Matheson automobiles being manufactured and in use. Image: H.N. Harding at wheel during 1907 Giant's Despair Hillclimb.

135 items.

The images in this collection document the construction of the town and mine buildings of Boswell, Pennsylvania, a mining town founded by Thomas Taylor Boswell (1861-1929), the first president and supervisor of the Merchants Coal Company. The town was developed to serve as housing for the company’s slope-mining operations. The town consisted of 1,600 lots laid out over 14,000 acres. The town and its mine were serviced by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. The mine, Orenda Mine #1, extracted semi-bituminous coal. A steam engine hoisted the coal cars up a mining slope. At its peak in the 20th century, the mine employed 900 workers and extracted over 3,000 tons of coal a day. Merchants Coal was a subsidiary of United Coal Company, which also operated the neighboring company town of Jerome, Pennsylvania. In 1919, the company became the Hillman Coal and Coke Company, named after the United Coal Company’s primary stockholder, J.H. Hillman, who then merged the company with the mining operations of J.H. Hillman & Sons.

22 items.

Following the repeal of national Prohibition in 1933, many Americans were eager to once again legally purchase beer, wine, and liquor. It was not long before a domestic alcoholic beverage industry soon re-emerged to meet this consumer demand. These industries and businesses would soon get a further economic boost in the years after World War II, as an increasingly affluent white middle class relocated to the nation's growing suburbs, where larger living spaces combined with disposable income to create new opportunities for private entertaining and the accumulation of consumer products. The items in this digital collection represent a portion of the Hagley Library's holdings documenting liquor manufacturers' and distributors' activities and outreach to these consumers, as well as the attitudes, trends, and material objects that made up American cocktail culture during this era.

38 items.

The Morris family of Philadelphia were brewers, merchants, land speculators, manufacturers, and prominent participants in public affairs. John Thompson Morris (1847-1915) founded the Morris Arboretum in Germantown, PA and served as overseer of public schools in Philadelphia. He and his sister Lydia (1849-1932) traveled around the world together on several Grand Tour trips from 1881 to 1906. This collection contains fourteen albums of photographs and postcards from their travels. Currently, only two of the albums have been digitized.

2 items.

The Morse Dry Dock Dial was an in-house periodical for employees of the Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company of New York City. The company was a leading shipbuilder and refit facilities during the early 20th century. Among the artists whose illustrations appeared on the cover included Edward Hopper. The digitized collection of the Morse Dry Dock Dial owned by the Hagley Library covers a period from 1919 to 1923. Image: Cover of February 1919 issue.

59 items.

The National Automobile Dealer's Association (NADA) was founded in 1917 to represent the interests of auto dealers in the United States. NADA currently represents 16,000 new car and truck dealers encompassing 32,500 franchises. The material in this archive includes NADA publications covering 1934 to 2014. In addition the archive includes NADA convention materials, press releases, and video content. Access to this collection was made possible through the generous support of the National Automobile Dealers Association, www.nada.org

3445 items.

The Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes in New York was established in 1910 to assist black migrants arriving from the rural South in adjusting to life in the urban North. Following a series of mergers, the organization's name was changed and shortened to the National Urban League in 1920. The interracial coalition of civil rights advocates that made up the League adopted a mission to help African-Americans "to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights." This mission was manifested through the provision of community-based social services, advocacy on the behalf of black workers, and other efforts to address the problems black Americans faced in securing equal access to employment, recreation, education, housing, medical care, and government services. This digital collection contains publications in the Hagley Library's catalog that were issued by the national and regional branches of the Urban League. In addition to the publications below, the Library also carries Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, an academic and literary journal published by the National Urban League from 1923 to 1949.

14 items.

Series of photographs taken by De W. C. Ward, a New York City photographer, and compiled into the photobook "New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad," ca. 1910. They document the recently completed tunnel extension with images of the exterior and interior of Pennsylvania Station in New York City as well as freight yards, railroad tunnels, rail stations, and railroad service buildings in the surrounding area. This album is part of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company photograph collection, which has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Pennsylvania Station: Main Concourse - General View, c. 1910.

37 items.

The story of harnessing the great waterpower of Niagara Falls dates from 1890 when a 'power tunnel' was dug to bring the water to a central power station from which it was distributed as electrical energy. Westinghouse built three AC dynamos for Power Station No. 1 located 1.5 miles above Niagara Falls. In 1895, the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company started building Power Station No. 2. The obvious success of utilizing Niagara's waterpower began when electricity was first delivered to Buffalo an impressive twenty-two miles away on November 16, 1898. These two power stations were closed after more than sixty years of service in 1961. Many of the photographs in this collection document the erection of wooden poles for power transmission lines between Niagara Falls and Buffalo. There are also photographs showing the power houses and transformer building, which was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White; these include exteriors as well as interiors. The latter includes 3 phase rotary AC generators made by General Electric and air blast transformers. There are some photos of the Niagara River Rapids, and two views of the interurban trolley line that was powered by the Niagara Falls Power Company.

36 items.

Nora C. Edwards established the Edwards Skirt Supporter Company around 1903 in Spooner, Wisconsin to market and sell her patented invention. The purpose of the skirt supporter was to fasten a dress skirt and a shirt waist together, preventing the shirt waist from slipping up the back and the dress skirt from dropping below the waistline. From 1903 to early 1905, Edwards traveled throughout the Southern and Midwestern United States, making contacts and hiring women agents to sell the skirt supporters. By September 1905, Nora Edwards permanently relocated to Buffalo, New York, where she maintained the company's headquarters. The collection comprises personal and business correspondence received by Nora Edwards between 1887 and 1917 from family members, agents, friends, and patent attorneys. The letters often combine personal and business matters. Letters from friends and family members mention Edwards’ business as well as family matters and give descriptive accounts of life in rural Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Indiana. Letters from agents for the Edwards Skirt Supporter Company contain orders for additional supporters and descriptions of working habits and efforts to interest customers. Image: Printed flyer for the Edwards Skirt Supporter Company, on top of which a sales agent has written to Nora Edwards.

156 items.

A selection of images and documents related to Nylon from the Hagley Digital Archives selected by our staff. This does not include all material we have on this topic. This does not include all material we have on this topic. For a more thorough search, start on our Search Hagley Collections page. If you have additional questions please contact us at AskHagley@hagley.org.

15 items.

This collection includes a compilation of oral histories that have been digitized and are available online. This is not a comprehensive collection of all oral history content at Hagley. For more information, please contact us at research@hagley.org.

11 items.

The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company, established in 1936 as the Rayon Department, specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Rayon, Nylon, Teflon, Corian, and Kevlar. Between 2007 and 2015, former DuPont Company employee Joe Plasky interviewed individuals who worked in all sectors of the business, from research and engineering to marketing, during the period from approximately 1950 to 2000. The development of new materials, products, and processes; construction of new plants; changes in marketing and personnel systems; and the introduction of computer systems are among the topics covered in the interviews.

160 items.

A selection of images and documents related to Pierre S. (Pierre Samuel) du Pont (1870-1954) from the Hagley Digital Archives chosen by our staff. This does not include all material we have on this topic. For a more thorough search, start on our Search Hagley Collections page. If you have additional questions please contact us at AskHagley@hagley.org.

11 items.

This collection of over 6400 photographs includes images collected by Pierre S. du Pont during his life. Over 1000 images from the collection show the development of Longwood Gardens. Also included are photographs of the du Pont family, travel images, and a variety of other photos documenting the interests and activities of P.S. du Pont. Image: P.S. du Pont at Longwood, circa 1931.

6584 items.

Joseph Elkinton began the Elkinton Company in 1831 as a Philadelphia candle and soap shop. After successfully marketing synthetic silicate-based soap during the Civil War, the company acquired a new plant in Anderson, Indiana, and began manufacturing lye, fertilizers, oils, greases, adhesives, fiber, and wall board. In 1888, the company name changed to the Philadelphia Quartz Company, and, in 1978, the name changed again to PQ Corporation when company headquarters moved to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. The online collection largely consists of images of unidentified employees dating from approximately 1860 to 1940. Image: Employees at Kansas City, Missouri works.

38 items.

Construction on the PSFS building in Philadelphia began in 1931 under architects George Howe and William Lescaze with the design slogan, "Nothing More Modern." The online PSFS Building collection includes images of the building's design, construction, and interiors, along with articles and promotional materials about the building. This collection is a small selection from the PSFS Collection that is open for research at the Hagley Library. Image: Rooftop sign plan for PSFS building.

878 items.

Incorporated in 1882 as the Virginia Coal & Iron Company, the Penn Virginia Corporation began as a large south Appalachian coal and land company. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. The online collection is a curated selection of items consisting largely of glass plate negatives which depict the McCorkle Lumber Co. and its activities, a limestone quarry, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, and the Interstate Railroad in Andover, Virginia. Image: Sawmill in Virginia.

43 items.

In preparation for its 1946 centennial, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company commissioned the engineering firm of Coverdale & Colpitts to prepare a comprehensive history of the company. The commission involved the creation of two products. The first was this detailed four-volume history of the PRR System as it existed in 1946 for the use of management only. The data collected was subsequently utilized to produce the second product, Centennial History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, which was mass distributed. The former work was printed in a limited edition of 100 copies which were strictly controlled and issued only to certain corporate officers, making it an essential but extremely rare source for PRR history. As its title indicates, this is not a narrative history, but rather a statistical compilation which accounts for the construction, financing and corporate succession of every segment of the PRR System to 1946. As very little mileage was added after that date, it practically covers the entire railroad. The volumes are arranged in the form of a chart of corporate succession, with the successor company followed by all of its predecessors in chronological order.

4 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. This collection of 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 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. Image: Locomotive 3535.

5281 items.

This collection consists of two interviews conducted in 1998 in West Chester, Pennsylvania with five women who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad. They describe how they acquired their positions and their experiences working for the company. Topics discussed include wages, uniforms, sexism in the workplace, and the working environment during World War II. Image: Female Pennsylvania Railroad employee with steam derrick, 1943.

3 items.

The Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad was a rail line connecting Philadelphia with Pittsburgh via Harrisburg. It is still an important cross-state corridor, composed of Amtrak's Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line, SEPTA's Paoli/Thorndale Line and the Norfolk Southern Railway's Pittsburgh Line. This collection comprises images of thirty-nine bridges on the Philadelphia Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The photographs were taken by or for the company as a form of property documentation. The original photographs were digitized and the scans donated to Hagley Museum and Library by Conrail employee Stephen J. Agostini. Image: Penn Street bridge.

40 items.

The Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company was the largest producer of anthracite coal in the United States from 1871 through the 1920s. This collection primarily shows the company's operation in Locust Summit near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, and comprises 86 photographs that detail the steps of mining and processing anthracite coal. Image: Fuel from the Depths.

86 items.

This collection documents some of the activities of the various public and private transportation agencies that were active in Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs in the years between 1927 and 1965. These include the Pennsylvania Railroad (1846-1968), the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company (1936-1970), the Passenger Service Improvement Corporation (1960-1965), the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Compact (1961-1965), and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA (1963- ). The majority of this small collections consists of photographic materials depicting transportation centers, buses and trains, and other mass transit infrastructure, including Philadelphia's Suburban Station, 30th Street Station, and the Penn Center complex. Other photographs document promotional activities conducted by transit agencies. There is also an undated rental brochure for the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Building and promotional material from the Laclede Steel Company.

28 items.

Incorporated in 1884, the Phoenix Bridge Company specialized in railroad bridges, both long-span truss bridges and movable bridges of the swing, bascule and vertical lift type. In the early 20th century, Phoenix built a number of very large bridges, the most notorious of which was the Quebec Bridge over the St. Lawrence (1900-1907). This collection, largely comprising twentieth-century photo prints of bridges and construction projects, has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Quebec Bridge during construction.

30 items.

This collection documents DuPont Company exhibitions produced for a consumer audience and displayed at Atlantic City, New Jersey; Wilmington, Delaware; and other sites. The DuPont Company began a products exhibit in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1916 as a way of reaching the city’s large numbers of tourists and convention attendees, and the company viewed its presence as both an advertising opportunity and educational public service. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. The online collection includes images dating from 1946 to 1949 of plastic product displays at the company’s Boardwalk site in Atlantic City. Image: Polythene plastic food containers by the Tupper Corporation.

19 items.

Edith N. McConnell was a confectioner and caterer in Wilmington, Delaware from the 1920s through the 1950s. The collection consists of 13 photographs, mostly dating from circa 1945, of wedding cakes, table settings, and the interior of Edith McConnell's confectionery business. Some photographs show members of bridal parties, waiters, and restaurant staff, and a few of the individuals pictured are identified. Image: Unidentified woman with E.N. McConnell Resturant store display window.

13 items.

This collection is comprised of 326 images taken by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company employee Pierre Gentieu from approximately 1880 to 1920. Gentieu's images document the DuPont Company Powder Yards along the banks of the Brandywine River in Wilmington Delaware. The collection documents the surrounding community along the Brandywine including worker's families, du Pont family homes, churches in the area, DuPont Company exposition displays, and other facets of social and work life in the area. Image: Employees at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company powder yards.

356 items.

The Plymouth Cordage Company of North Plymouth, Massachusetts, was founded in 1824 by Bourne Spooner (1790-1870), an ardent abolitionist whose commitment to free labor ideology led the company to implement generous employee benefits and facilities for its workers. By the late 19th century, the company had become a major international manufacturer of rope and twine. Its products were in heavy use within shipping and fishing industries, though its binder twine was also in widespread use on farms. After serving as the largest employer in Plymouth for over 100 years, the company went out of business in 1964. Its assets were purchased by the Columbian Rope Company in 1965. This album documents the company's operations in the years around 1900. It contains sixteen photographs of plant interiors showing machinery and manufacturing processes, and two exterior views of the building.

16 items.

This collection consists of thirteen unused postcards with halftone photographic illustrations showing views of the Philadelphia plant of the hat manufacturer, John B. Stetson Company. Images depict plant facilities as well as employees at work and participating in recreational activities. The postcards date to approximately 1913. Image: Flanging Stetson soft hats.

12 items.

This collection comprises 130 postcards dating from approximately 1930 to 1960. The postcards depict motels (including motor courts and cabins), restaurants, roadside attractions, and scenic views from across the United States. Image: Dutch Haven Family Style Restaurants.

130 items.

This collection features nearly 500 aerial photographs of the Brandywine valley taken in 1970 in a project conceived and sponsored by Ellice and Rosa McDonald. These images feature aerial views of Brandywine River valley locations in southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware including factories, cities and towns, historical sites, natural landmarks, bridges, neighborhoods, and other places of importance. A project dedication states that the photographs are "for all of the people who have lived or worked on the Brandywine and for those who have loved it." Image: Brandywine Creek Valley at Smith Bridge in New Castle County, Delaware.

495 items.

The items in this collection offer a selection of the promotional comic books held in the Hagley Library's collection. These works were generally, though not always, produced by corporations and other business entities for the purposes of advertising a product, managing a company's public image, or providing consumer education. A number of these works were also produced with the goal of influencing public opinion regarding socioeconomic political issues such as organized labor and government regulation of businesses. This digital collection does not include all of the Hagley's holdings of promotional comic books. New items may be added periodically.

66 items.

This digital collection includes more than 2,100 of the approximately 6,700 images in the Pusey & Jones Photograph Collection. Pusey and Jones specialized in ship and machine building. Pusey and Jones Company's main facility was located in Wilmington, Delaware on the Christina River. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Cape Diamond built for U.S. Maritime Commission, 1943.

2218 items.

The Victor Talking Machine Company was a Camden, New Jersey company founded in 1901 by Eldridge Reeves Johnson (1867-1945), a former machinist for the Berliner Gramophone Company. It quickly became a leading U.S. manufacturer of phonographs and phonograph records by many of the leading musical artists of the day.. In 1926, Johnson sold controlling interests in the company to a banking firm, who, in 1929, sold the company to the Radio Corporation of America. Successive name and management changes would include the Radio-Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America, the RCA Manufacturing Company, the RCA Victor Division and, in 1968, RCA Records. The records in this collection come from the Camden administration building. There are ten volumes of corporation committee minutes dating from 1912 to 1931, which cover a wide range of corporate activities. Additional volumes consist of reports from the President to the Board of Directors and production contracts from 1945-1946.

13 items.

Most of the postcards from this collection date from 1900 to 1940 and depict railroad station exteriors, although some show waiting rooms, lobbies, or terminals. Many of the postcards identify the railroads serving the station depicted as well as the station itself. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Santa Fe Depot in Oakland, California.

1036 items.

A small selection of items from Hagley's extensive collection of materials related to industrial designer Raymond Loewy. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Automobiles of the Future sports car design by Raymond Loewy.

286 items.

Reports and billings for Pinkerton detectives employed by Franklin B. Gowen, president of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, on three different missions. The first involved violence in the Anthracite Coal Region, 1873-1880. James McParlan was commissioned to infiltrate the alleged Molly Maguires, a secret Irish organization that practiced retributive murders and beatings against bosses and rival ethnic gangs. Two other agents were sent to collect information and infiltrate the miners’ union during the Long Strike of 1875, and Robert J. Linden was sent to organize a company police force to protect property and arrest suspects. Gowen also had Pinkertons shadow a committee of the state legislature investigating the Reading’s activities during the strike. Lastly, Gowen used Pinkertons to track lobbyists of the rival Pennsylvania Railroad and legislators suspected of receiving bribes to have the state assume the claims arising out of riot damage during the great 1877 railroad strike and to report on the progress of their trials in 1880. Note: This online collection includes the Molly Maguire materials in Hagley Library’s collection of Reading Company records (with the exception of 8 volumes of stenographic reports of trial proceedings for John Donohue, Patrick Hester, Martin Bergen, James McDonnell and Charles Sharpe). The Reading Company collection has not been digitized in its entirety.

104 items.

The Robert K. Austin collection consists of a picture reference file of American automobiles built between 1877 and 1979. Most pictures are illustrations clipped from magazines and other publications, but there are also some postcards, photographs, and ephemera items. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. The online collection includes images dating from 1958 to 1962 and depict automobile assembly lines at General Motors Corporation plants. Image: Inspecting final product during automobile assembly.

40 items.

A selection of images and documents related to Civil War figure Samuel Francis du Pont (1803-1865) from the Hagley Digital Archives chosen by our staff. This does not include all material we have on this topic. For a more thorough search, start on our Search Hagley Collections page. If you have additional questions please contact us at AskHagley@hagley.org.

12 items.

Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, Inc. was one of the world's largest alcoholic beverage firms. This collection is composed of photographs used as illustrations in The Seagram Spotlight, a monthly magazine published by the staff of Seagram Distiller's Corporation and which targeted Seagram's national salesforce and Seagram distributors. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. The online collection is a small selection of images depicting the design and construction of the Seagram Building in New York, N. Y., and some of the images feature architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Phyllis Lambert, and Philip Johnson. Image: Mies van der Rohe and Phyllis Lambert.

11 items.

Sewing Machine Times was a bi-monthly trade journal published during the height of sewing machine manufacturing. The journal provided space for sewing manufacturers, retailers, marketers, and other related professionals to discuss changes and advancements in home and factory sewing machines. This digital collection comprises seventeen volumes spanning 1891 to 1911 but does not include the entire run of the journal. Image: April 25, 1911 issue.

404 items.

Before the rise of phonographs and radio, publishers of sheet music dominated the American music industry. The biggest music publishing houses were those of ‘Tin Pan Alley’ in New York City. But throughout the United States, publishing houses, lyricists, arrangers, and composers, often working in partnership with local musical instrument stores, emerged to serve both national and regional consumers. As the American middle class grew during the mid-19th century, musical instruments and the ability to play them (and pianos in particular), became widespread signifiers of respectable middle-class status, and publishers responded to meet this emerging market. By the early 20th century, however, as phonographs became more commercially popular, sheet music was replaced by recorded music. This decline was further hastened by the public’s embrace of radio within the home in the years after 1920. The scores assembled here have been drawn from a variety of collections within the Hagley Library. New items may be added as they are scanned.

49 items.

Memoirs of brothers Harry and Raymond Sooy documenting their time as recording engineers for the Victor Talking Machine Company. While trained and hired as machinists, the brothers spent their careers at Victor testing, developing, and operating the technology for recording musicians, performers, comedians, and political figures. Covering a period from 1898 to 1931, the memoirs offer unique insight into the early era of recorded sound. Image: Birds-eye view of the Victor Factories, Camden, New Jersey (From the 1911 Victor Records catalog)

2 items.

Stephanie Louise Kwolek (1923-2014) was an American chemist best known for her role in inventing Kevlar. Kwolek began her career in 1946. After graduating from what is now Carnegie-Mellon University with a B.S. in Chemistry, she was hired as a research chemist at DuPont's textile fabrics laboratory in Buffalo, New York. Six years later, she transferred to Wilmington, Delaware to work in the newly launched Pioneering Research Laboratory. Kwolek has been named on a total of twenty-eight patents and won a number of awards for her work, including the National Medal of Technology and Perkin Medal. Kwolek was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1995 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2003. This digital collection contains photographs related to Kwolek and her career and achievements. Most of the photographs were between 1970 and 1990. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Stephanie Kwolek, March 10, 1999, Box 1, Folder 7, Stephanie Kwolek photographs and videotapes (Accession 2014.248), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807.

11 items.

This digital collection includes 94 color glass stereo photographs from the Stereo photographs of Longwood Gardens. The images, dating to circa 1922, depict interiors and exteriors of the garden, conservatory, and residence of Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954) at Longwood gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Image: Conservatory greenhouse at Longwood Gardens

94 items.

Store Chat was the employee magazine of Strawbridge & Clothier, a department store founded by Justus C. Strawbridge (1838-1911) and Isaac H. Clothier (1837-1921) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The magazine published communications from management, news about workers' lives, reports on company and company-sponsored activities, instructions to employees about fashion trends and consumer preferences, and light commentary on matters of local and national import. As the operation grew into a major regional retail chain, the magazine added dispatches from suburban branch stores. Store Chat was first published in June 1906 and was released at irregular intervals until 1909. After 1909, it maintained a more regular publication schedule, though it did not operate continuously, and ceased publication entirely in the early 1930s during the Great Depression. After it resumed publication in 1943, it ran continuously and on a monthly to bimonthly basis until 1996, when the Strawbridge & Clothier's was purchased by May Department Stores Company. The library's holdings of Store Chat are incomplete, but span its entire run of publication.

475 items.

The gallery includes selections from the digital archives arranged around frequently requested subjects and topics. The items in this collection have been curated by Hagley staff. If you need assistance with your research, please contact us at askhagley@hagley.org

13 items.

The Taylor-Wharton Iron & Steel Company, incorporated in 1912 at what is now High Bridge, New Jersey, produced frogs, switches and other railroad fittings as well as ordnance during both World Wars. The company added the manufacture of dredge buckets after acquiring an interest in the Yuba Manufacturing Company of California in 1933. The films in this digital collection, dating from the mid 1930s to the early 1940s, contain imagery of Taylor-Wharton dredge buckets and other equipment associated with the company. The films were shot in California and Alaska, as well as internationally in Southeast Asia, Australia, and Colombia. Many of these films include landscape scenery, aerial footage, and scenes of indigenous people, animals, and cities. There is also an instructional film on sliding and base running in baseball. Image: Still frame of Yuba #17 gold dredge in California.

24 items.

A selection of images, documents, and video related to Teflon from the Hagley Digital Archives chosen by our staff. This does not include all material we have on this topic. This does not include all material we have on this topic. For a more thorough search, start on our Search Hagley Collections page. If you have additional questions please contact us at AskHagley@hagley.org.

16 items.

Employee newspaper for Hanford Engineer Works.

This digital collection includes more than 1,000 of the approximately 1,100 images from the collection of Thomas C. Marshall photographs. The images largely feature Marshall family members, friends, and employees. The collection also includes images of T. Clarence Marshall's prominent collection of Stanley Steamer automobiles; the Marshall Brothers Paper Mill; the family home, Auburn Heights; family trapshoots; and buildings and landscapes near Yorklyn, Delaware and neighboring Chester County, Pennsylvania.

975 items.

This digital collection contains a selection from Hagley Library's collection of trade catalogs and pamphlets. The materials date from 1783 to 1988 and vary in size. The trade catalogs contain lists, often illustrated, of items sold by an assortment of manufacturers, mostly American. The pamphlets largely consist of promotional materials, although other subjects are included. A comprehensive view of Hagley's trade catalogs and pamphlets can be found by searching our online catalog. Image: Cover of 1977 catalog for Dinky Die Cast Toys.

1651 items.

The first use of air mail in the United States occurred in September, 1911 from Garden City, New York to Mineola, New York. Other experimental airmail flights followed. In 1918, Congress appropriated funds to set up an experimental air mail route between New York City and Washington, D.C., with a stopover in Philadelphia. Although initially operated with the cooperation of the War Department, the Post Office Department assumed full control of this service later that year. With the success of this air mail route, plans were made to complete a transcontinental route from New York to San Francisco. Congress passed the Kelly Air Mail Act in 1925, which got the government out of the air mail business. It required private carriers to bid on Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes set up by the Post Office. The collection consists of photographs taken during the first years of the United States Post Office Department air mail service. Many of these photographs are portraits of individual air mail service pilots. Several photographs taken in 1911 at Garden City, New York, on the occasion of the first official air mail flight, are also part of the collection. Airplanes used by the Air Mail Service appear in many of the images.

31 items.

Universal design principles prioritize accessibility for people regardless of age and ability in product and environment creation. The origin of these concepts can be traced to the rehabilitation engineering and assistive technologies that were developed during and after World War II to meet the needs of veterans with disabilities. This online collection explores the industrial design careers of two pioneers of universal design, Thomas Lamb (1896-1988) and Marc Harrison (1936-1998), and features approximately 500 documents and images digitized in conjunction with a web exhibit on the subject. To learn more about Hagley Library collections associated with universal design, view the following finding aids and collection descriptions: Thomas Lamb papers, Marc Harrison papers, Marc Harrison photograph collection. Image: Coffee pot with Wedge-Lock handle designed by Thomas Lamb.

496 items.

This collection contains nearly 200 images of estate and private gardens in and around Wilmington, Delaware. Photographed between 1920 and 1925 by William C. Spruance, an amateur photographer and advisory member of the Wilmington Garden Club, many of the images are either hand colored lantern slides or color Lumiere Autochrome lantern slides. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Alice Lea Spruance's town garden.

199 items.

The collection consists of Christmas and other holiday postcards, including New Year's, birthday, 4th of July, Halloween, Washington's Birthday, Decoration Day, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter postcards. The 556 items in this collection date from ca. 1900 to 1950, with the bulk of items dating from 1905 to 1930. This collection was donated to the Hagley Library in 1973 by Maxine Maxson Waldron (1898-1982), an artist and educator once employed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in its department of education, by various private schools as an art teacher, and as a ceramics specialist at the Greenwich House Pottery Shop. After her marriage to William R. Waldron, an employee at Du Pont's Chambers Works, she pursued her interests in art, fashion, and interior decoration through her activities as a collector This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. A small number of incomplete postcards were omitted from scanning, as were a small number of duplicative negative film images and photographic reproductions.

507 items.

Ward and Gow, a New York advertising agency, is credited as one of the first firms to "systematize" advertising in the New York subway and elevated marketplace. Their office address is listed as 1 Union Square, New York on the cover of the album. These fifteen photographs document advertising on New York City elevated train platforms and on subway cars. Each photo's location is given in the lower right side of the image. Since many of the advertisements are for theater or vaudeville shows for which Ward and Gow also did advertising, it is possible to date some of these images within a month's time. Most of the images are devoid of people.

17 items.

The Warren-Ehret Company was a roofing company founded in 1852. This online collection consists of 178 images from three unbound albums (circa 1900) which were used as sales portfolios to show the variety and extent of Warren-Ehret's roofing jobs on a variety of buildings. The buildings are predominately industrial structures, but the collection also includes: railroad company buildings, offices, stores, apartments and private homes. The collection covers buildings in the greater Philadelphia area and the surrounding areas of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York City, and Connecticut. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: American Horse Exchange in New York.

179 items.

Wawa, Inc., operators of a large chain of convenience stores in the mid-Atlantic region, was formed in 1974 through the merger of three antecedent family businesses: Millville Manufacturing Company, Wawa Dairy Farms, and Wawa Food Markets. This digital collection includes a small selection of approximately 275 images covering a period from the 19th through the 21st centuries. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Wawa Dairy Farms billboard advertising home milk delivery service.

335 items.

This digital collection features over 1,000 photographs from the Westinghouse Electric Corporation Steam Division photograph collection from 1898 to 1964. These photographs cover a variety of subjects including building construction, turbine manufacturing, research facilities, machinery, executives and employees, and visitors to the facility in eastern Pennsylvania. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Core makers in foundry.

1037 items.

The Westinghouse Machine Company began in 1880, and the company's first contract to build a turbine dates to 1896. In 1945, the company's name was changed to Westinghouse Electric Corporation. The album contains a variety of images of products and facilities related to the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. These include photographs of equipment such as boilers, generators, mechanical stokers, pumping machinery and turbines. Most of this equipment is shown already installed in assorted power plants. Images showing electric locomotives and trains using air breaks designed by Westinghouse are also featured. Facilities featured include an aerial photograph of the Westinghouse works at East Pittsburgh and a view of the meter testing department at the Newark, New Jersey works. Employees appear incidentally in several of these photographs.

1 items.

The Westmoreland Coal Company is the oldest independent bituminous coal producer in the United States and usually ranks among the top twenty producers in terms of output and sales. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. The online collection primarily comprises photographs of the Stonega Coke and Coal Company mine and hospital at Stonega, Virginia as well as images related to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company . The online images cover a period from 1915 to 1960. Image: Coke being pulled from oven.

304 items.

In 1809, the textile manufacturer Henry Whitaker relocated his firm of Whitaker & Sons in Rochdale, England to Hudson, New York. In 1813, he relocated again, this time to Cedar Grove, Pennsylvania, along the Tacony branch of the Frankford Creek. Here he established Cedar Grove Mills, one of the region’s earliest textile mills. Whitaker retired in 1822, passing the business on to his sons, Robert and William, who turned it over to their cousin, William Whitaker, who continued to operate the business as William Whitaker & Sons.From the 1840s until World War II, the Cedar Grove Mills specialized in mattress ticking, though, during the Civil War, the firm also manufactured woolen blankets for the war effort. In 1876, it purchased the nearby Tremont Carpet Mills and expanded into carpet manufacture. After World War II, the firm went into decline as the mattress ticking business moved south. They closed for the last time in 1970. This collection consists of photographs related to the life of William Whitaker. They document life, landscapes, and the built environments of eastern Pennsylvania’s rural manufacturing villages from around 1860 to 1913, particularly the region around Cedar Grove, now a part of Philadelphia. They also include images of the friends, family, travel, and property of the Whitaker family. Exterior and interior photographs of the Whitaker’s mansion are featured in several of these images, as are exterior views of Cedar Grove Mills.

36 items.

William Henry Radebaugh (1909-1996), was a public relations executive at the DuPont Company for over twenty years. He wrote, produced and directed many films about the company during his tenure there and for several years after his retirement. Several of the films are concerned about safety in the plants and in the use of DuPont products. Also included are four compilation reels of short news segments about different products, plants and services of the DuPont Company. There are also films about specific DuPont plants and laboratories including the Haskell Laboratory, the Spruance plant in Richmond, Va.; the Tecumseh plant in Tecumseh, Kansas, the Washington plant in Washington, West Virginia and the twenty fifth anniversary of the Victoria, Texas plant.

53 items.

William du Pont, Jr. (1896-1965) was a thoroughbred horse breeder, horse track designer, foxhound breeder, tennis enthusiast, and prominent local financier in Delaware. This online collection comprises material, largely relating to property and horses, selected from the personal papers and photographs of both William du Pont, Jr., and his father, William du Pont (1855-1928). The collections have not been digitized in their entirety. Image: William du Pont, Jr. during steeplechase horse race.

361 items.

The Henry Francis du Pont collection of Winterthur Manuscripts contains the oldest surviving du Pont family documents and comprises the personal papers of those portions of the du Pont family that descended to Colonel Henry Algernon du Pont and his son, Henry Francis du Pont of Winterthur. This online collection is a small selection of materials from the Winterthur Manuscripts. Among the digitized materials are a few items relating to Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, including his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson concerning the Louisiana Purchase. The online collection also contains selected business correspondence of Eleuthére Irénée du Pont and Alfred Victor du Pont dating from 1802 to 1863 as well as the correspondence of the marine painter Xanthus Russell Smith with Sophie du Pont dating from 1863 to 1887. Image: Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, 1803-11-01, detail.

260 items.

This digital collection contains a selection of items from the Hagley Library documenting 19th century American women's participation in household handicrafts. It was commonly expected that these women would take up such crafts as part of their domestic duties, particularly needlework, a skill set most of them would begin training in as young girls. Some contemporary feminist critics considered this work to be a frivolous use of women's time and a waste of their intellectual capacity. In Mary Wollstonecraft's <em>A Vindication of the Rights of Woman</em>, the author argued that needlework limited the potential of young girls by stifling their minds and instilling an obsession with ornament over matters of import. For other women, however, such work provided rare opportunities. Household handiwork could offer outlets for artistic self-expression, a chance to socialize outside the home, and a way to commemorate valued emotional bonds. Viewers of the patterns created by the women of the Du Pont family will note a number of designs devoted to family names and monograms. Women's handiwork also offered economic opportunity through the creation of personal property with real monetary value. Additionally, it opened spaces for entrepreneurial women. Many of the items shown here bear the names of women who leveraged gendered expectations about household handicrafts into occupations as pattern designers, authors, and shop owners.

51 items.

The Woodlawn Trustees, Incorporated, is a non-profit real estate development firm responsible for maintaining affordable housing in the city of Wilmington and for ensuring the orderly development of large tracts of suburban land, mostly located in Brandywine Hundred. The online collection is a small sampling of images from the collection, which has not been digitized in its entirety. Image: Woodlawn Houses in Wilmington, Delaware.

20 items.

This digital collection includes 78 workplace posters from the first half of the twentieth century. Many are employee motivational posters printed by Mather & Company and focus on personal work ethic and behavior. Others are defense industry posters produced during World War II. Also included are copies of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms published in The Saturday Evening Post. The online collection is a selection of posters from Hagely's Audiovisual Collection. Image: Poster by Robb Beebe, printed by Mather & Company.

84 items.

A small selection of materials from the Vinson collection documenting the history of the automobile and transportation. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety.

839 items.