Arch Oboloer (center), NBC author, producer, and director, oversees falling tree sound effects using a real tree and real undergrowth for episode No. 262, 'An American is Born'.

The broadcasting industry has a major milestone to celebrate this week - September 9th marks the 100th anniversary of the formation of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) as a radio network.

The broadcasting company was formed when the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T), which had been operating a collection or radio stations in major cities of several states decided to withdraw from the business, and so sold it's radio broadcasting division to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for approximately $1 million. 

The new network began broadcasting out of New York City on November 15, 1926, with a four-hour program featuring Will Rogers and the Metropolitan Opera. The program was transmitted through twenty-two stations across the nation to homes as far west as Kansas City, Missouri.

Hagley is pleased to release a newly restored copy of Invitation to Ohio. The film is a promotional piece sponsored by Ohio Bell Telephone and the Ohio Department of Development, created to attract businesses to the state by highlighting Ohio's advantages across a range of industries. Hollywood actors Wally Cox and John Dehner star in the film. The restoration was made possible by a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation, which funded a new 16mm preservation print and a digital version.

Cover of a 1954 issue of Lukens Life featuring majorettes and drum major of the Scott High School band

Summer vacation time is wrapping up for the year, and we're getting into the school spirit with a back to school season issue of Lukens Life from September 1954.

This issue's cover celebrated the "crowded football stadiums and snappy bands" of Scott High School with the school band's majorettes and drum major (also drum major of the Lukens band). 

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. The company operated continuously out of its Coatesville, Pennsylvania site since 1810 and was one of the few successful survivors of the many nineteenth-​​century iron works that once dotted Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Do you have concerns about family treasures under your care? On November 19th, join Hagley conservation staff to learn how they combat ten common foes—the agents of deterioration—and how you can apply their approaches to increase the longevity of cherished photographs, books, works of art on paper, and ephemera at home.

Prevention is at the heart of preservation. Be it a library book, a historic manuscript, or a cherished family photo, conservators at Hagley know they must identify and arrest ten common agents of deterioration. Every historic artifact or piece of artwork has different vulnerabilities, but almost nothing will remain in pristine condition without proper handling, display, and storage. 

Black and white photograph of a worker coating cast iron pipes with bitumen (Birmingham, Ala.)

This week's Hagley Vault is visiting an iron-works in Birmingham, Alabama, where a metalworker is coating cast-iron pipes with bitumen. Bitumen was, and still is, used to coat pipes intended for water and sewage lines as well as seawater intake and outflow pipes, as it is resistant to microbial activity, as well as corrosion from rust and other chemicals found in soil and water. 

This undated photograph was probably taken some time between 1910 and 1940, and is part of Hagley Library's collection of American Iron and Steel Institute photographs and audiovisual materials (Accession: 1986.268), which consists of photographs, research notes, audio, film, and video documenting the Institute and the history of the North American iron and steel industry.

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