The Hagley Vault

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

July 5, 2022
Black and white image of a locomotive built in 1921.



The Vulcan Iron Works was founded in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1849 to produce specialty iron products for the local coal industry. It would later establish additional shops in West Pittston and Tamaqua, Pennsylvania.


In 1888, Vulcan acquired the Wyoming Valley Manufacturing Company, makers of locomotives. This soon became a major part of Vulcan's activities. The Works built this locomotive, construction #3145, for the Melchior, Armstrong, & Dessau Co. for export in January 1921.

Read more...

Archive

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

Black and white image of a locomotive built in 1921.
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
The Vulcan Iron Works was founded in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1849 ....
The Vulcan Iron Works was founded in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1849 to produce specialty iron products for the local coal industry. It would later establish additional shops in West Pittston and Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. In 1888, Vulcan acquired the Wyoming Valley Manufacturing Company, makers of locomotives. This soon became a major part of...
Black and white group portrait of automobile industry workers posed in front of a stars and stripped patterned banner backdrop
Friday, July 1, 2022
Hagley Library will be closed on Monday, July 4 for the Independence Day holiday ...
Hagley Library will be closed on Monday, July 4 in celebration of Independence Day. In the spirit of the holiday, we're posting this ca. 1920(?) photograph today of employees of the General Motors Corporation, posed in front of a stars and stripes themed banner. This photograph is part of Hagley Library's P.S. du Pont Longwood photograph...
Black and white photograph of a woman in a calf-length cocktail dress, with a red fabric sample
Thursday, June 30, 2022
This 1956 photograph and fabric sample shows a cocktail dress by Mary Matise for Jimmae ...
This 1956 photograph and fabric sample shows a cocktail dress by Mary Matise for Jimmae in Everglaze Minicare 'Bengalane' cotton faille by ABC Fabrics. We're featuring it today because you might soon see it somewhere else! We were happy to supply this image to the White House Historical Association's first-ever virtual fashion exhibit, staged in...
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Industrial design—the practice of optimizing the function, value, and appearance of products ...
Industrial design—the practice of optimizing the function, value, and appearance of products—is a central component in America’s culture of consumerism as well as the source of many beautiful objects now in the collections of leading art and history museums. It has influenced the public sphere as well as the private economy, doing much to...
Ad for Cunningham Radio Tubes advertisement with an illustration of a man playing saxophone.
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Roll up the rugs! Today, we're celebrating the invention of the saxophone, patented #OTD in 1846 ...
Roll up the rugs! Today, we're celebrating the invention of the saxophone, patented #OTD, June 28, in 1846 by the Belgian inventor and musician Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax (1814-1894), who also invented the less popular saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba. This April 1925 advertisement for E.T. Cunningham Inc. radio tubes was one of six in a series...
Color ilustration of an armless woman wearing a corset
Monday, June 27, 2022
Let's see ... head (check), neck (check), teeny tiny waist (check) ....
Let's see ... head (check), neck (check), teeny tiny waist (check), yeah, that's all the parts. Send it to print, boys! This image is from an 1893 pamphlet published as a souvenir of the Royal Worcester WCC exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The pamphlet touted the company's corsets ("fashion's most approved requisite") for...
Black and white glass negative showing a group of young people in 1880s beachwear seated on porch steps.
Friday, June 24, 2022
We're digging out some old summer vacation photos this Friday ....
We're digging out some old summer vacation photos this Friday. This ca. 1887 glass negative shows Lammot du Pont (1831-1884) with family and friends at a summer home retreat at No. 5 Beach Avenue in Cape May, New Jersey. The people in the photograph are (starting at the rear, left to right) Pierre S. du Pont, Louis du Pont, and Edith Booth; (...
Trade card for farm and garden tools. Color ilustration shows a planet Earth with farmers and tools.
Thursday, June 23, 2022
This ca. 1890(?) trade card is from Hagley Library's Fingerman ephemera collection ...
This ca. 1890(?)  trade card is from Hagley Library's Fingerman ephemera collection (Accession 2009.213).  Assembled by collectors Arlene and Gerald Fingerman, the collection consists of mixed-format ephemera from various endeavors within American culture, primarily the manufacturing and selling of products or services. Advertising cards like...
Black and white photograph of workers building a large underground tunnel.
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
This #WorkerWednesday photo shows workers in ....
This #WorkerWednesday photo shows workers in the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's B tunnel from Pennsylvania into New York City during its construction in 1905. Between 1855 and 1874, the PRR underwent rapid expansion and emerged as one of the two largest railroad systems in the area east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. By the end of that...
Black and white photograph showing a man aiming a very large television camera at a woman seated on the floor
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Today's #TechTuesday brings us the beauty of color in monochrome ...
Today's #TechTuesday brings us the beauty of color in monochrome. This black and white photograph from ca. 1953 was used to promote RCA's first color television camera, the RCA TK-40. This photograph is part of Hagley Library's collection of RCA News and Information Department photographs (Accession 2464.68). This collection consists of...
Cyanotype photograph showing a shipyard's fitting out shop and sheers
Monday, June 20, 2022
This cyanotype of the Maryland Steel Company of Baltimore County's fitting out shop was taken on this date ...
This cyanotype of the Maryland Steel Company of Baltimore County's fitting out shop was taken on this date, June 20, in 1892, shortly after the shipyard was built. In 1887, the Pennsylvania Steel Company constructed a steel plant at Sparrow's Point, Maryland on the mouth of the Patapsco River. Shortly after construction was completed, the plant...
Black and white photograph of people swimming and canoeing in the Brandywine River
Friday, June 17, 2022
A summer weekend lies on the other side of the workday ....
A summer weekend lies on the other side of the workday, so we're joining our neighbors across time to go have some fun with this undated photograph taken along the Brandywine Creek. This item, probably created between 1890 and 1920, is from Hagley Library's collection of DuPont Company Brandywine powder yards and neighboring worker communities'...
Work titled 'Windows Can Be Beautiful', showing a picture of furniture placed in front of a large window
Thursday, June 16, 2022
How are you feeling about your windows this #ThursDIY?
How are you feeling about your windows this #ThursDIY? If you could use a little more beauty in your life, maybe this ca. 1960 guide to window treatments is just the thing you need. Created under the aegis of Mary L. Brandt, General Manager of the Stanley Drapery Hardware division of the The Stanley Works company, the guide featured curtains made...
Black and white image of a woman wearing work clothes, posed in front of a locomotive
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Today's #WorkerWednesday visitor is ....
Today's Worker Wednesday visitor is Rose C. Penna. She was captured in this 1943 photograph while working a the Long Island Railroad in Jamaica, N.Y. Text associated with the photograph reads: Mrs. Rose C. Penna, 20, whose husband is entering the Signal Corps, is typical of the women now filling jobs of men who have gone into military service. The...
Black and white locomotive with Navy Yard - New York printed on the side.
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
The Vulcan Iron Works was founded in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1849 ...
The Vulcan Iron Works was founded in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1849 to produce specialty iron products for the local coal industry. It would later establish additional shops in West Pittston and Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. In 1888, Vulcan acquired the Wyoming Valley Manufacturing Company, makers of locomotives. This soon became a major part of...
Glass negative image of two women in a rowboat, draped dramatically on top of one another.
Monday, June 13, 2022
Monday? Again? And so soon ....
Monday? Again? And so soon .... While Phoebe Pyle (1886-1949) and her friend probably weren't trying to provide us with #MondayMood content, I think they nailed it anyway. This undated (ca. 1905?) negative is part of Hagley Library's collection of Frank E. Schoonover negatives (Accession 2017.239). Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972), a prolific...

Pages