The Hagley Vault

Selections from Hagley Museum and Library's archives and published collections on the history of American business, technology, and innovation.

Archive

For posts prior to October 2020, visit the Hagley Vault on Tumblr.

Industrial site with large structures and chimneys.
What's this? Can it be?
What's this? Can it be? IT IS! We're thrilled to announce that the first new digital collection to be Hagley Library's Digital Archive since our relaunch project began last winter has arrived. The Pennsylvania Railroad exhibit photographs, World's Columbian Exposition (Accession 2022.226) collection contains a selection of photographs that were…
Black and white image of a young man playing a banjo
It's back to school season, and the Hagley Vault is going way, way back ...
It's back to school season, and the Hagley Vault is going way, way back to school this week. All the way back to ca. 1890, to join John Augustus Fisher (1890-1944), a classmate of Henry Belin du Pont (1873-1902) at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. This glass negative portrait is part of Hagley Library's collection of P.S. du Pont…
Panoramic photograph of women from DuPont Village at the community's bathing beach.
The long holiday weekend may be over ....
The long holiday weekend may be over, but let's sneak in just a little more time at the beach. This ca. 1916 panoramic photograph shows residents of DuPont Village at the community's bathing beach in Carney's Point, New Jersey.  The DuPont Company purchased the land for a smokeless powder plant at Carney's Point, New Jersey in 1890. In 1892,…
Street scene of a protest with women wearing signs reading "Strike Now - Live Later" and "We all must change."
This week's Hagley Vault post is sourced from our collection of National Association of Manufacturers photographs and audiovisual materials ...
This week's Hagley Vault post is sourced from our collection of National Association of Manufacturers photographs and audiovisual materials (Accession 1973.418) and documents a November 1962 protest against the trade association. In the years after World War II, NAM encouraged its membership to participate in the growing military-industrial…
Black and white photograph of a group of workers posed inside a large dredge dipper.
There's always room for one more at the Hagley Vault ....
There's always room for one more at the Hagley Vault! This week, we're cozying up with workers inside a 5 cu. yard dipper being used on one of the big dipper dredges during the construction of the Panama Canal. This photograph, taken between 1904 and 1914, is part of Hagley Library's collection of Chamber of Commerce of the United States…
A black and white photograph depicts a group of men and women on the beach in 1920s swimwear
Hagley's staff may be at work today, but the Hagley Vault can go to the beach whenever it wants ...
Hagley's staff may be at work today, but the Hagley Vault can go to the beach whenever it wants. This week, it's traveling to 1930 to join the employees of Joseph Bancroft & Sons' Eddystone Print Works Division in Wildwood, New Jersey. The Eddystone Manufacturing Company began its corporate life in 1877, when William Simpson and John Halliday…
Sticker with black and red text reading "Come on / Let's go / Chicago / Roller Skate / Just for Fun / Skate your date at the Crescent Roller Rink / Cedar Lake, Indiana"
This week's Hagley Vault post is just for fun ....
Here's a Hagley Vault post that's just for fun. This ca. 1940s sticker for the Crescent Roller Rink in Cedar Lake, Indiana was collected by Genevieve Pittner of Monroe, Michigan. This is one of over 500 roller rink stickers collected by Pittner through exchanging stickers by mail with other collectors in groups like the Universal Roller Skating…
All aboard for summer fashion!
When does ANY party start? When you get there! This week's party comes to you via the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, whose 1969 short industrial film "Dresswear Potpourri", filmed on luxury liner the 'Hamburg', featured resort wear fashions made of the company's Orlon and Dacron fibers. The full 9-minute film is now part of Hagley Library'…
Cover of a pamphlet titled "Manufactured Weather". Abstract design.
Oops! This Hagley Vault post is a bit belated ....
Oops! This Hagley Vault post is a bit belated. In our defense, time moves differently when you're living on the surface of the sun. This week's heatwave has inspired this post; a love letter to air conditioning.'Manufactured Weather: Nothing More Modern' is a ca. 1932 pamphlet that promotes the modern heating and cooling systems of the…
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Here's to making falling asleep on the bus look classy.
Here's to making falling asleep on the bus look classy. This ca. 1930s photograph of the inaugural run of the New York City to Chicago sleeping coach operated by the Great Lakes Stages company is from Hagley Library's collection of Chamber of Commerce of the United States photographs and audiovisual materials (Accession 1993.230).…
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Spring weather means wonderful things for the Hagley Museum and Library grounds ...
Spring weather means wonderful things for the Hagley Museum and Library grounds, so this week's post is for all the gardeners, grounds crew, and green thumbs here at Hagley. This ca. 1880s glass negative shows a woman, likely to be Elise Wigfall du Pont  (1849-1919), the wife of Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) wielding a shovel in a…
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Some famous architecture is celebrating an anniversary this week ...
Some famous architecture is celebrating an anniversary this week. The lights went on for the first time at the Empire State Building on May 1, 1931 when President Hoover pressed a button to electrify the building as part of its dedication ceremony. The 102-story building, which had begun construction on January 1930, was the first skyscraper…
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This week's visitor to the Hagley Vault is the E.S. Wells Medical Company ...
This week's visitor to the Hagley Vault is the E.S. Wells Medical Company, which produced this ca. 1890 advertising card for it's "Rough on Rats" pesticide. The New Jersey firm manufactured a strange combination of products: medicines for the general public, as well as rat poison. The company's founder, Ephraim S. Wells (1841-1913) began…
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Still dawdling over those W-2s? 
Still dawdling over those W-2s? Need a reminder to dig up those 1099s? Tuesday's tax deadline is the inspiration for this week's Hagley Vault post.  Published by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company in 1957, The Story of Taxes provided a brief, business-friendly overview of the history of taxation worldwide, along with the current…
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Marital ... well, something short of bliss, at just 0.25 cents a bottle.
Marital ... well, something short of bliss, at just 0.25 cents a bottle. This trade card was produced by the Tenexine Company, a Boston company that was founded in 1880 by Charles H. Brown. The company promised on the back of the card that its Egyptian Te-Nex-Ine glue was "the most powerful adhesive known", but it was not quite strong enough to…
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This week's Hagley Vault post documents a train wreck that occurred in February 1917 ...
This week's Hagley Vault post documents a train wreck that occurred in February 1917 in Mount Union, Pennsylvania. The accident occurred when the locomotive shown in this photograph, engine No. 614 carrying a freight train of coal cars, collided with the sleeper car of the Mercantile Express No. 6 passenger train. The impact killed all …