Cover of the 1910 catalog for Lloyd's Jubilee Fireworks, featuring a child setting off a rocket.

Here's wishing everyone a safe and happy July 4th weekend, especially those of you celebrating with home explosives. 

This 1910 fireworks catalog was produced by the Lloyd Manufacturing Company of New York City. The company was one of a handful of fireworks manufacturers that was later caught up in a minor scandal over municipal graft when the city's 1911 July 4th fireworks displays were found to have been padded. The Lloyd Manufacturing Company supplied the city with fireworks for thirty-three sites in Manhattan at a cost of $14,000, which the city's Commissioner of Accounts later concluded contained about $5,000 worth of skyrocketing costs in unaccounted for and unwarranted charges. 

That said, the company's "Radium Bombshells" sure do sound neat. 

Our country is commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. While Hagley may not have a copy of the Declaration in its collection, there are other documents bearing the signatures of several of those men who, in signing the Declaration, “mutually pledge[d] to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor”.

Others were signed by members of that same generation that became known as the Founding Fathers who helped shape our early republic.

As I approach the halfway mark of my internship here at Hagley, I reflect on some of the patent models that I have researched, including a coal-oil stove to keep food warm, or a model that was packed with the wrong patent tag. The one I chose to highlight here is a stop and waste-valve – not necessarily for the invention itself but the inventor associated to the patent.Patent 127,616

 

Summer is blockbuster movie season, but that wasn't always the case. Prior to the invention of motion pictures, audiences might gather instead for a magic lantern show. Developed in the 17th century as an entertainment, magic lantern shows used a light source, which reflected off of a concave mirror, to direct light through a glass slide bearing an image. 

Cropped image from a panoramic photograph of the attendees of the Convention of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union

It's been a hot one for the last few days here at Hagley Museum and Library, so we're headed for the shore!

This image was cropped from a panoramic photograph taken on May 16, 1948 and shows the attendees of the 17th biennial convention of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union of the United States and Canada. The convention took place in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the photograph was taken on the city's famous 'Steel Pier', a 1,000 foot long pier of the boardwalk that featured an amusement park, concert space, and touring exhibitions.

The International Fur and Leather Workers Union (IFLWU) was founded in 1913. A major player in the early labor movement, the union was represented and led by a number of far-left union organizers and political activists, including members of the Communist Party. This eventually led to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) expelling the union in 1949, along with ten other unions. In 1955, the IFLWU dissolved via merger into the union of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America.

a group of boys running, paper in hand

Last week’s Vault dive into the psychological secrets of Fascinating Womanhood, or, The Art of Attracting Men was certainly engaging, but don’t think we forgot about the fellas.

This ca. 1905 pamphlet aimed to recruit “live boys” (what?) to assist General Motors in a viral marketing campaign for their Oldsmobile Runabout, Touring car model, delivery vehicles, and Wagonette. Successful children would be eligible for cash prizes and the most successful child was promised a Runabout of their very own.

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