At Hagley, researchers can explore the changing roles that business, technology, and industrial design have had in shaping the built environment and in defining how humans interact with the natural world.
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Commercial and industrial architecture
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Hagley’s collections shine a spotlight on the commercial and industrial structures that define modern America—like skyscrapers, factories, department stores, office buildings, and railroad stations. You’ll also find treasures on iconic landmarks, including the Seagram Building, the PSFS headquarters, and New York City’s Pennsylvania Station. |
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Industrial and aerial photography |
Hagley's rich visual collections include twelve thousand aerial photographs taken by Philadelphia’s Dallin Aerial Survey Company between 1925 and 1940 depicting factories, city and town centers, housing, rivers, and golf courses in the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. Another standout collection is that of American Iron and Steel Institute, which depicts sites or ruins of early ironworks. |
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Urban and suburban planning |
Hagley holds multiple collections on 20th-century planning efforts, including reports from the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (1950s–1970s) created during the peak era of urban renewal and federal-sponsored planning. The Greater Wilmington Development Council’s records highlight projects on school desegregation, economic growth, environmental management, health services, transportation, and historic preservation. The archives of Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. dive into suburban planning, affordable housing, conservation, and the impacts of racial segregation in Delaware’s land development. |
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Travel materials |
America’s changing landscape is captured in the collections of travel ephemera, photographs, and postcards of John Margolies, whose fondness for novelty architecture led him to acquire materials related to the United States’ most popular tourist destinations of the early to mid-twentieth century. |
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| Environmental impact |
Gain insight on business' relationship with the environment with Hagley collections. Check out Green Capitalism?, edited by Hartmut Berghoff and Adam Rome, from the series Hagley Perspectives on Business and Culture. |
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| Railroad building, use, and abandonment |
The extensive railroad networks across the country played a crucial role in shaping the American landscape. Hagley’s rich railroad collections provide insight into how and where these railroad corridors developed and into why and how many lines were later abandoned. The role railroad lines play in society’s relationship with the natural world continues to evolve today as many have been preserved and readapted into nature trails. |
Research guidesLearn more about our collections relating to the built environment. |
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| An out-of-this world postcard of Roswell, New Mexico, from John Margolies travel collection (Acc. 2017.254). |
Explore Further |
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Selected digital resources related to the built environment at Hagley.
A Bird's Eye View of the Delaware Valley: The Dallin Aerial Survey Company Associated Factory Mutual Fire Insurance Companies maps and plans Philadelphia Saving Fund Society (PSFS) photographs How Florida Happened: History Hangout Conversation with Anna Andrzejewski New York City’s Urban Heat Island, 1860-2020: History Hangout Conversation with Kara Schlichting
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Brochure for PSFS Building in Philadelphia, circa 1932 (Acc. 2062). |
Top image credits (left to right): The Powder Manufactory of E.I. du Pont, detail of painting by Bass Otis, 1840 (Object number 56G24/P18-4). "View of Messrs. Du Pont de Nemours & Co.'s Upper Brandywine Gun Powder Mills, Near Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A." detail of engraving by George H. Adams & Sons as appearing in Rail Road Atlas and Pictorial Album of American Industry, 1881 (Call number ff G1106.P3 A8 1879). Interstate Railroad at Mudlick Junction, Westmoreland Coal Company, circa 1930 (Acc. 1993.233). Hemlock Forest with Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks, hand-colored lantern slide by William H. Rau, circa 1895 (Acc. 1971.360).