Digital Collections

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.

In 1887, the Pennsylvania Steel Company constructed a steel plant at Sparrow's Point, Maryland on the mouth of the Patapsco River. Shortly after construction was completed, the plant was incorporated as the Maryland Steel Company of Baltimore County. That same year, 1891, the Marine Department, which included a shipyard, was created. The steel-works and shipyard continued to operate as the Maryland Steel Company until 1916, when Bethlehem Steel acquired the Pennsylvania Steel Company and its subsidiary, Maryland Steel. This collection consists of 3 albums containing 204 cyanotype photographs taken at the Maryland Steel Company's steel plant and shipyard between 1890 and 1894. The first album contains exterior and interior photographs of buildings involved in steel production and steel workers. The second album consists of photographs of the company’s shipyard. This album includes many views of the construction of the shipyard, as well as interior and exterior photographs of shipyard buildings in use. The third album documents the construction and launch of ships built by the company, primarily tugs and coastal passenger steamships.

207 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 Midvale Steel Company manufactured steel parts for the railroad and the armaments industries. The company was established in 1867 in the Nicetown area of Germantown, Philadelphia by William Butcher. Upon his death in 1871, the Butcher Steel Works was taken over by the principal stockholders. The renamed Midvale Steel Works became best known for its its early experimentation with alloy steels and for its production of railroad wheels cast from open-hearth steel, one of the earliest uses of this type of steel in the United States.. In 1880, it was renamed the Midvale Steel Company. It began manufacturing ordnance in 1895 and marine engines in 1900. Expansion during World War I led to a new name in 1915; the Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company, and additional plants in Johnstown and Coatesville, PA. In 1923, these new plants were acquired by the Bethlehem Steel Company. In 1955, the Philadelphia works merged with the Heppenstall Steel Company to become Midvale-Heppenstall Company. The Philadelphia plant closed in 1976.. This album contains photographs showing exteriors and interiors of Midvale Steel facilities in the Nicetown area of Germantown. There are also close-ups of machinery, products (including naval guns, railroad wheels, propellers, and miscellaneous castings), and tests of armor plate.

82 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 publication of the United States Chamber of Commerce. All issues from 1914 to 1999 have been digitized.

1114 items.

Organized in Ohio in 1895 with the goal to protect American goods from foreign competition and to promote trade expansion, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) continues today as the largest manufacturing association in the United States. This digital collection contains a selection of images primarily dating to the 1960s and 1970s. The collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Read more about the collection on the NAM Project News site.

1949 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 1934 National Electrical and Radio Exposition was held in New York City at Madison Square Garden from September 19th to the 29th. The Electrical Association of New York organized the exposition. It was one of the annual radio and electronic products trade shows held in the city in the 1920s through the 1940s. Similar radio expositions during the era were hosted in other major U.S. cities sponsored by local trade associations that brought together manufacturers, retailers, and customers. The expositions included national manufacturers and large retailers from around the country to display, demonstrate, and sell their products. Among the more prominent products featured at the expositions during this period were radios, household appliances (vacuums, ovens, refrigerators, etc.), home/industrial lighting, and heating/air conditioning technology. This item is an album forty-five photographs taken during the exposition. The photographs are primarily of various companies individual displays. Companies represented include RCA, Westinghouse Electric, Singer Sewing Machine, General Electric, Hoover, Leonard, among others.

45 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.

An oral history project initiated to provide supplementary material for Hagley’s 2015 exhibit, 'Driving Desire', that features items from the Z. Taylor Vinson Transportation Collection. The three interviewees, Rick Shnitzler, Fred Simeone, and Yann Saunders, all were personal acquaintances of Z. Taylor Vinson as well as highly involved in either collecting or dealing auto ephemera and/or automobiles.

3 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.

12 items.

A collection of approximately 200 interviews conducted between 1953 and 1990 with people who lived and worked in New Castle County, Delaware. The recollections of the subjects cover a period from about 1900 to 1960. While the majority of the interviews are with those who have a connection with the DuPont Company or du Pont family either as employees or inhabitants of the area surrounding the company's operation on the Brandywine River, the collection also includes interviews with those who worked in other industries in Delaware during this era such as Hodgson Woolen Mill, Lobdell Car Wheel Company, Hoopes Brother & Darlington, and Joseph Bancroft & Sons. In addition to documenting work and labor during this period, the interviewers delve deeply into the social and cultural lives of their subjects. Issues related to domesticity, gender, education, childhood, ethnicity, medicine, etc. are among the topics covered in the interviews. Also of note are interviews with a journalist (Fred Reybold) and an early broadcaster (Willard Wilson) who worked in Delaware. Image: Vance Mitchell during 1968 interview.

501 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. 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.

177 items.

The Otis Elevator Company manufactures, installs and maintains elevators, escalators and moving walkways. Elisha Otis (1811-1861) founded the company in 1853 in New York. In 1862, the company began selling elevators internationally, starting in Canada, then expanding to Mexico and Europe as early as 1873. Sales offices were established in London in 1884. The London Underground Railroad purchased 140 electric elevators from the company and had them installed between 1905 and 1907. The album contains images of elevators and elevator equipment being installed at subway stations in London. Most of the images show the equipment used to raise, lower and brake the elevator, often already installed at the top of the elevator shaft or in a machine room. Other images feature workers installing or inspecting this equipment. Some photographs feature the completed elevator entrances' in the stations or images of Otis Elevator Company employees.

41 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.

6916 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 of twenty-five pamphlets dating from 1936 to 1956 contains the Hagley Library’s holdings of the publications of the Public Affairs Committee. Founded in 1936, the Committee’s editorial and publishing mission was to synthesize and summarize contemporary research on social and economic problems in the United States for popular public consumption in the form of accessible, affordable pamphlets. Between 1936 and 1986, the Committee published over two hundred pamphlets on topics ranging from industrial policy, war and society, medical science, income distribution, consumer protection, economic policy, gender inequality, the social sciences, and more. While its approach to these topics sometimes led to accusations of socialist or un-American sympathies, its most controversial publications addressed race relations, particularly ‘The Races of Mankind’ (1946), which was banned from use in the U.S. Army for its rejection of biological theories about racial hierarchy.

25 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.

Ralph S. Yourison (1898-1988) worked as the Power Consultant at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Spruance Plant in Richmond, Virginia, from the 1940s through the early 1960s. The Spruance Plant had been in operation since 1927, when it was established to produce rayon. In 1935, it was renamed the Spruance Plant in honor of rayon pioneer and Dupont executive, William C. Spruance. Over the decades, it continued to expand. By the 1950s and 1960s, it was producing cellophane as well as new products such as Tyvek, Nomex, and Teflon. During this time, Yourison was named the Spruance Plant's Power Consultant, largely spearheading an effort to reduce energy use through the evaluation of coal by utilization cost. His efforts led to the modernization of the plant's power facilities, resulting in an eventual savings of a half a million dollars a year. Yourison retired from the Dupont Company on March 31, 1963.

17 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.