The Hagley Vault

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

November 29, 2021
Black and white photograph of two children on a bicycle and a toy car play-acting a traffic stop.

The first U.S. patent for a traffic signal was issued on this date, November 29, in 1910. Patent No. 976,939 for a "Street Traffic System" was granted to Ernest E. Sirrine, an engineer from Chicago, Illinois.


The design, based on an earlier system designed by English engineer and railway manager John Peake Knight, featured crosswise-mounted sign arms that rotated to showing "Stop" and "Proceed" signs alternately in each direction, with each sign mounted on glass panels and illuminated by electric lights.

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Archive

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

Black and white photograph of two children on a bicycle and a toy car play-acting a traffic stop.
Monday, November 29, 2021
The first U.S. patent for a traffic signal was issued on this date ...
The first U.S. patent for a traffic signal was issued on this date, November 29, in 1910. Patent No. 976,939 for a "Street Traffic System" was granted to Ernest E. Sirrine, an engineer from Chicago, Illinois. The design, based on an earlier system designed by English engineer and railway manager John Peake Knight, featured crosswise-mounted sign...
Poster features a large gray turkey in front of corn stalks on a red background. Poster text in black and white.
Wednesday, November 24, 2021
Hagley Library will be closed on November 25th and 26th ...
Hagley Library will be closed on November 25th and 26th for a Thanksgiving break, and wish a happy and healthy holiday to all of you who celebrate. While we're out, we're leaving you with this 1950 poster from Japan’s Ministry of Telecommunications, which encouraged servicemen and other Americans in occupied Japan to send home radiogram greetings...
Black and white photograph of a woman with is shown with two sides of beef and a pile of one pound tins that are equal in meat content.
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
Everyone knows that the best cranberry sauce is the kind that comes from a can ...
Everyone knows that the best cranberry sauce is the kind that comes from a can, and it’s definitely been on our minds this week. Beef from a can, not so much. This ca. 1942 photograph is part of Hagley Library’s collection of Chamber of Commerce of the United States photographs and audiovisual materials, Series II. Nation's Business photographs (...
Cover of "Salads for health : sunshine from mediterranean olive groves" Color illustration of a smiling child and workers in an olive grove.
Friday, November 19, 2021
Nice try, salads ...
Nice try, salads. This 1929 recipe booklet advertising olive oils from the Pompeian Corporation is part of Hagley Library's collection of Carter Litchfield photographs and ephemera on the history of fatty materials (Accession 2007.227). As an organic chemist, Carter Litchfield (1932-2007) studied and specialized in edible fats. Over the course of...
Magazine cover featuring a color photograph of a baby saras crane with leg casts. Cute, not sad.
Thursday, November 18, 2021
We have a wee visitor this #Feathursday ...
We have a wee visitor this #Feathursday, courtesy of the January/February 1977 issue of DuPont Magazine. This cover photograph shows a baby saras crane from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. The little one was featured in the magazine as part of a feature story on exotic animal radiology. The casts on its...
Cover to the pamphlet "Diana of the Traps" showing an illustration of women trapshooters.
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
I wouldn’t say that this #WomenWednesday is strictly for the birds ...
I wouldn’t say that this #WomenWednesday is strictly for the birds. More for the clay pigeons. Diana of the Traps is a pamphlet published by the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company in 1915 to help promote its smokeless powders with testimonials from women trapshooters and profiles of renowned women in the sport, like “the famous woman shot”...
Interior view of a late 19th century hydroelectric power plant.
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
On this date, November 16, 1896, the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power & Manufacturing Company ...
On this date, November 16, 1896, the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power & Manufacturing Company sent the first long-distance transmission of hydroelectricity to Buffalo, N.Y., over twenty miles away. The story of harnessing the great waterpower of Niagara Falls dates from 1890 when a 'power tunnel' was dug to bring the water to a central power...
Cover to sheet music titled "I'll Wait For You 'till the Cows Come Home". Color illustration of a young woman walking with cows in a rural landscape.
Monday, November 15, 2021
This #MusicMonday (or, perhaps #Moo-sicMonday), we’re sharing the cover to the 1911 sheet music composition ...
This #MusicMonday (or, perhaps #Moo-sicMonday), we’re sharing the cover to the 1911 sheet music composition I'll Wait for You Till the Cows Come Home. This work was created by American vaudeville composer, manager, and violinist Thomas S. Allen (1876-1919). Allen was an early and moderately successful figure in America’s Tin Pan Alley, a...
Pamphlet for light fixtures titled "The Case of the Shapely Blonde". Illustration in noirish style of a well-dressed woman and a inset illustration of a private eye's headshot.
Friday, November 12, 2021
For those of you that prefer your household shopping to come with a touch of noir ...
For those of you that prefer your household shopping to come with a side of noir, here’s a ca. 1945(?) illustrated brochure from the Lightolier Company of Jersey City, New Jersey. Now, I could tell you the company was founded in 1904 as the New York Gas and Appliance Company. Or that it pivoted to becoming a specialty decorative light fixture...
City street and an arch reading "Welcome" decorated in patriotic bunting and American flags
Thursday, November 11, 2021
This Welcome Arch is being posted in recognition of Veterans’ Day ...
This Welcome Arch is being posted in recognition of Veterans’ Day. It was constructed at 2nd and Market Streets in downtown Wilmington, Delaware to honor a Union Veteran Legion National Encampment in the city, held from September 12-16, 1905. The Union Veteran Legion was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 5, 1885, and offered...
Black and white image of a large group of women in work clothes posing for a photograph on the grounds of the Brandywine Mills
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
We’ve got the women of the DuPont Company’s night shift dropping by ...
We’ve got the women of the DuPont Company’s night shift dropping by this #WorkerWednesday. The workers in this ca. 1918 film negative would worked 6 ½ hour shifts, from 3pm to 10pm, at the company’s powder yards at Brandywine Mills along the Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware. This photograph is part of Hagley Library's collection of ...
Black and white illustration in a catalog of a machine that knits ribbed underwear .
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
It’s #TextileTuesday, bringing you the greatest and (not so) latest on the textile industry ...
It’s #TextileTuesday, bringing you the greatest and (not so) latest on the textile industry. So here’s a patented ribbed underwear machine. This page is from Scott & Williams, Inc.’s 1928 “Underwear Knitting Machinery” catalog. Scott & Williams, Inc. originated out the Fidelity Machine Works, a business founded in Philadelphia in 1865 by...
Black and white image of three men standing in front of a building and a horse-drawn wagon with 'Du Pont Powder' written on the side.
Monday, November 8, 2021
On this date, November 8, in 1875 ...
On this date, November 8, in 1875, Frank Bryant, Henry Coder and William Cudney staked out the first of two nearly simultaneous ‘Discovery Claims’ of gold near what would become the town of Deadwood, South Dakota. The second claim was made the following day by a team of eight prospectors led by John B. Pearson. And so began the Deadwood gold rush...
Black and white image of a baby bundled in warm clothing standing in his carriage
Friday, November 5, 2021
Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend and, as the days get darker and chillier ...
Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend. As the days get darker and chillier, I’m taking my #FashionFriday cues today from this cozy cutie. Bundle up, everyone! This ca. 1924 negative is part of the Hagley Library’s collection Thomas C. Marshall photographs (Acc. 1990.270) collection and features a little Thomas C. Marshall, Jr. The family’s...
Newsletter page advertising Ready-Made Window Displays for store windows
Thursday, November 4, 2021
You may have known that the Victor Talking Machine Company was a pioneer in the fields of sound recording and phonograph manufacturing . . .
You may have known that the Victor Talking Machine Company was a pioneer in the fields of sound recording and phonograph manufacturing . . . but did you also know that they were early adopters in the field of Christmas Creep? This page is from a September/October 1910 issue of The Voice of the Victor, the company’s newsletter. It advertises the...
Black and white image of a crashed air mail plane
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
This photograph shows the crashed U.S. Air Mail flown by a 24-year-old Charles Lindbergh ...
This photograph shows the crashed U.S. Air Mail plane flown by a 24-year-old Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974). Lindbergh crashed the plane on a mail route on this date, November 3, in 1926, not long after crashing a similar plane on the same route on September 16 of that year. The planes were two of four fabric wing, plywood fuselage De Havilland DH-...

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