The Hagley Vault

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

July 27, 2021
Color illustration of a cupid child in a top hat and tuxedo jacket flying around the world with a line of thread. The caption says, ‘I’ll put a girdle (of WILLIMANTIC THREAD) round about the Earth in forty minutes"

Today's #TradeCardTuesday features the front side of a ca. 1881 advertising card for thread produced by the Willimantic Linen Company of Willimantic, Connecticut. The company was incorporated in 1856 to manufacture linen cloth, but switched to manufacturing cotton thread when supply lines of flax proved unreliable. By around the time that this advertisement was created, the company was one of the largest cotton mills in the world, with a workforce of approximately two thousand employees. The company was absorbed by the American Thread Company in 1898, and the manufacturing site continued to produce thread until 1985.

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

Color illustration of a cupid child in a top hat and tuxedo jacket flying around the world with a line of thread. The caption says, ‘I’ll put a girdle (of WILLIMANTIC THREAD) round about the Earth in forty minutes"
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Today's #TradeCardTuesday features the front side of a ca. 1881 advertising card ...
Today's #TradeCardTuesday features the front side of a ca. 1881 advertising card for thread produced by the Willimantic Linen Company of Willimantic, Connecticut. The company was incorporated in 1856 to manufacture linen cloth, but switched to manufacturing cotton thread when supply lines of flax proved unreliable. By around the time that this...
Undated color photograph of a three-wheeled U.S. Mail delivery vehicle.
Monday, July 26, 2021
Happy birthday to the U.S. postal system!
Happy birthday to the U.S. postal system! The United States Post Office, the forerunner of today’s United States Postal Service, was established by the Second Continental Congress on this date, July 26, in 1775. The former postmaster of Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), served as its first postmaster general. We’re observing the date...
Magazine cover featuring a black and white photograph of a woman pulling a shopping cart and holding a popsicle
Friday, July 23, 2021
Summer fashions are just so hot right now ...
Summer fashions are just so hot right now, so here's a very cool #FashionFriday post. This July/August 1955 issue of Better Living magazine's cover story focuses on how Du Pont employees are staying "neat despite the heat" with the assistance of new synthetic fabrics and air conditioning technology. Better Living was a Du Pont employee magazine...
Black and white photograph of a woman in a hammock on a porch
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Doing work to uncover the commercial roots of Hammock Day ...
Doing work to uncover the commercial roots of Hammock Day seems to violate the spirit of today's hashtag holiday, so I'll just promise that I didn't work very hard on this one. It appears to have entered the crowd of other unofficial internet holidays in 2008, and was the very meta creation of Holiday Insights, a website that appears to exist for...
Black and white photograph, taken from a height, of a seaside amusement park. Main feature is the Parachute Jump ride.
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Here's a little midweek celebration of summer weekends!
Here's a little midweek celebration of summer weekends! This April 1946 photograph was taken on Coney Island, New York and shows one of the resort town's amusement parks. Text accompanying the photograph describes the seashore resort on the Atlantic Ocean as featuring "two and one half mile stretch of beach, a 13,000 foot long boardwalk and a...
Advertisement showing and identifying a cross-section of 21 layers of fabric materials that made up the 1969 moon walk space suit.
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Today marks the anniversary of the July 20, 1969 date when Apollo 11 ....
Today marks the anniversary of the July 20, 1969 date when Apollo 11 carried astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin to the world's first lunar landing and moon walk. In the years since, various public and private figures, beginning with President Richard Nixon in 1971, have encouraged state governments and the...
Black and white advertisement for an automobile show featuring an automobile and a woman holding a pennant.
Monday, July 19, 2021
It's a #MotorMonday kind of morning ...
It's a #MotorMonday kind of morning, and we're starting the week off with this 1911 advertising card from the Matheson Automobile Company, Matheson was a small automaker headquartered out of Holyoke, Massachusetts and later Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Matheson automobiles were particularly popular for the power they provided, winning trophies in...
Close up black and white photograph of a food vending machine offering potato salad and fruit cocktail in cherry jello.
Friday, July 16, 2021
This #FoodieFriday may be as American as cherry pie, but ...
This #FoodieFriday may be as American as cherry pie, but today's internet holiday, National Cherry Day, is a British one. The observance was created in 2008 as part of CherryAid, a campaign to save rapidly declining cherry orchards in the country. This ca. 1955 photograph of a vending machine offering up potato salad and fruit cocktail in cherry...
Black and white photograph of a woman in a stewardess uniform standing in front of a decorated airplane body. Plane body shows a globe with directional markers running from London to Melbourne.
Thursday, July 15, 2021
On this date, July 15, in 1916 ....
  On this date, July 15, in 1916 U.S. Navy engineer George Conrad Westervelt (1879-1956) and industrialist William Edward Boeing (1881-1956) incorporated Pacific Aero Products in Seattle, Washington. The aircraft company was renamed in 1917, becoming the Boeing Airplane Company, which operates today as the Boeing Company. This 1934 photograph...
Black and white photograph of two women transporting material in wheelbarrows along a wooden walkway next to buildings.
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Today's #WorkerWednesday is just a step outside our front door.
Today's #WorkerWednesday is just a step outside our front door. This ca. 1918 photograph shows employees of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Brandywine Works transporting sewed ballistite bags to building for loading into tin cans. During World War I, the company operated gunpowder and military explosives plants nationwide, as well as...
Black and white group portrait of the Pusey and Jones Company baseball team
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
We're getting warmed up for the 91st annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game today with this photograph of the Pusey and Jones Company's baseball team.
We're getting warmed up for the 91st annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game today with this photograph of the Pusey and Jones Company's baseball team. The photograph, taken on July 12, 1913, documents the team on the day of their Industrial League game against the Malleable Iron company's team. They faced off that day for the first time that...
Black and white image of a steam-powered locomotive operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad on the elevated Octoraro Bridge near Oxford, Pennsylvania
Monday, July 12, 2021
We're starting the week off on the right track today with this photograph of steam-powered Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive traveling over the Elkview Viaduct near Oxford, Pennsylvania.
We're starting the week off on the right track today with this photograph of steam-powered Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive traveling over the Elkview Viaduct near Oxford, Pennsylvania. This image was captured on this date, June 12, in 1941 by David Harrison Cope (1913-2001). The bridge, built in 1897, was part of the railroad's Octoraro Branch,...
Autochrome transparency showing a trellised garden with candytuft, tulips and ionicera.
Friday, July 9, 2021
Bring on those summer blooms!
Bring on those summer blooms! This #FridayFlowers post is a scan of a photograph on glass plate documenting the town garden of Alice Lea Spruance (1876-1967). Her blooming trellis and garden of candytuft, tulips and ionicera was photographed by William Corbit Spruance, Jr. (1873-1935) on May 5, 1925. The image's distinctive aesthetic is the result...
Black and white photograph of a group of men wading through heavily flooded streets.
Thursday, July 8, 2021
As Hurricane Elsa continues her creep up the east coast, we’re hosting a little #WeaThursday in anticipation of her arrival.
As Hurricane Elsa continues her creep up the east coast, we’re hosting a little #WeaThursday in anticipation of her arrival. This photograph shows the effects of flooding in Coatesville, Pennsylvania in 1973. This photograph is part of Hagley Library’s collection of Lukens Steel Company photographs (Accession 1972.360). Lukens Steel Company was a...
Black and white image of a woman in work clothes standing by a bolt threading machine in a workshop.
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Today's #WorkerWednesday excursion takes us to the Pennsylvania Railroad's yards in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Today's #WorkerWednesday excursion takes us to the Pennsylvania Railroad's yards in Altoona, Pennsylvania. This negative, created on March 14, 1919, shows a railroad employee staffing a bolt threading machine in the eastbound repair yard. This item is part of Hagley Library's Pennsylvania Railroad negative collection (Accession 1993.300)....
Advertising card for malt bitters by the Malt Bitters Company of Boston, Massachusetts. Illustration shows cartoons illustrating the story of the House that Jack Built.
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
Returning from a three day weekend with a little dyspepsia, debility, wasting, dropsy, piles, feeble digestion, or impoverishment of the blood?
Returning from a three day weekend with a little dyspepsia, debility, wasting, dropsy, piles, feeble digestion, or impoverishment of the blood? Do you have that tired, languid, exhausted feeling common to delicate women, clergymen, and brain workers? I feel you. That's why we're starting the workweek off with a #TradeCardTuesday featuring this ca...

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