By the time this article is published, my internship will be over. I learned a lot during my 10 weeks at Hagley—especially the importance of careful, extensive research. Each day, I used online resources to research inventors and their patents. This article describes my most challenging research assignment and my process for uncovering its secrets.

This summer, three tightly folded pieces of parchment arrived in Hagley's Library Conservation lab, each one a land document connected to the Penn family and Colonial Pennsylvania. Folded down to the size of a notecard and stiffened by three centuries of storage, none of them could be opened without risking damage to the parchment or the ink. Over the course of the summer, I had the chance to treat all three by relaxing their folds, stabilizing fragile ink, and finally letting them lie flat for the first time in generations.

Illustration of various sea creatures arranged around a quote from The Ancient Mariner.

We're gonna need a bigger Vault ... Hagley is observing Shark Week today (and a happy, healthy one to those who celebrate). This 1895 illustration is from "Wonders of the Deep”, an pamphlet issued. by the New York City patent medicine firm of Scott and Bowne, founded by Samuel W. Bowne (1842–1910) and Alfred B. Scott (1946–1908).

The pamphlet advertised Scott’s Emulsion cod liver oil, the company's flagship product and details a great variety of “slimy things did crawl with legs upon the slimy sea” off American coastlines. It was illustrated by Daniel Carter Beard (1850-1941), an American illustrator, author, and social reformer.

The pamphlet is part of the Hagley Library’s collection of Carter Litchfield Collection on the History of Fatty Materials (Accession 2413). 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. 

August 24 to September 4, 2026 — To allow Hagley to complete important preservation work, the historic powder yard area of the museum is closed to all museum guests, including members, from August 24 to September 4, 2026.

Aerial photograph of the Brown-Bonnell Iron Co., Youngstown, Ohio

Smokestacks are standing in for candles this week to note the 216th birthday of the co-founder and first president of the Brown-Bonnell Iron Company of Youngstown, Ohio, shown here in a ca. 1892 photograph.

Joseph Henry Brown (1810-1886) was born on July 24, 1810 in Wales. Around 1820, his family emigrated to Franklin County, Pennsylvania, where they established one of the region's early ironworks. As an adult, Joseph Henry Brown's efforts to establish himself in the family business led him first to an appointment as foreman of an iron plant in Franklin County, then to work in the mercantile iron trade in New Castle, Pennsylvania. In 1855, Brown moved to Youngstown, Ohio, where he partnered with William Bonnell to establish small guide mill, which grew into a nail and nail plate mill factory with a puddling department. 

The company continued to expand, adding a rolling mill with multiple blast furnaces and a staff of around five hundred. In 1876, Joseph Henry Brown sold the company and moved to Chicago, where he founded the Joseph H. Brown Iron & Steel Company.

Division: Executive Administration
Reports To: CEO

The Executive Assistant provides high-level, confidential administrative and organizational support to the CEO and the Board of Trustees. This position plays a critical role in supporting effective communication, coordination, and decision-making across all levels of leadership.

Color photograph of a steelworker in protective clothing

One of the oldest trade associations in the United States has a home at Hagley Library. Our American Iron and Steel Institute photographs and audiovisual materials (Accession: 1986.268) collection consists of photographs, research notes, audio, film, and video documenting the Institute and the history of the North American iron and steel industry.

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) was established under the leadership of United States Steel Corporation co-founder and chairman Elbert H. Gary (1846-1927) in 1908 after the Panic of 1907 brought an end to industry-wide consolidations. But its precursors date back to 1855, starting with the American Iron Association, which became the American Iron and Steel Association in 1864 following the American adoption of the Bessemer steel-making process.

Isabelle Marina Held will offer our second author talk on December 3. Her book, Atomic Bombshells: How Plastics Shaped Postwar Bodies, deftly traces how nylon and other technologies moved from wartime use into domestic life.

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