The Hagley Vault

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

March 31, 2023
Hand colored lantern slide of a rose garden with shrubs and a floral arch.

April is just one day away and we're looking forward to a week of Springtime weather on the grounds of Hagley. This calls for some #FridayFlowers!


This lantern slide shows a hand-colored lantern slide, created from a black and white photograph taken on June 10, 1922, of the hybrid perpetual rose garden at Longwood, the garden estate of Alice Belin and Pierre S. du Pont. 


The image is the work of William Corbit Spruance, Jr. (1873-1935). Spruance was an electrical engineer, a company executive on the board of directors of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, and a civic leader in Wilmington, Delaware. Spruance was also an amateur photographer and used these skills to photograph his wife Alice's gardens, as well as the gardens of other wealthy residents of New Castle County between 1920 and 1925.

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Archive

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

Hand colored lantern slide of a rose garden with shrubs and a floral arch.
Friday, March 31, 2023
April is just one day away and we're looking forward ...
April is just one day away and we're looking forward to a week of Springtime weather on the grounds of Hagley. This calls for some #FridayFlowers! This lantern slide shows a hand-colored lantern slide, created from a black and white photograph taken on June 10, 1922, of the hybrid perpetual rose garden at Longwood, the garden estate of Alice Belin...
People working in a corridor of a storage room or warehouse of a Strawbridge & Clothier store.
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Today's #WorkerWednesday has us joining the employees of ....
Today's #WorkerWednesday has us joining the employees of the Strawbridge & Clothier department store. This undated image comes from a group of photographs, dating from 1907 to 1974, sent to the company by Dolores Beiriger, a former elevator operator for the store. These photographs are now part of Hagley Library's collection of Strawbridge and...
Advertisement for portable radios; illustrations of four radios and a man and woman.
Monday, March 27, 2023
It's starting to feel like Springtime here at Hagley ...
It's starting to feel like Springtime here at Hagley, so we're celebrating a pleasant day with this 1950 advertisement for portable radios from Motorola. This version was sourced from a June 17th issue of the Saturday Evening Post, but the advertisement also ran in a May 5th issue of Life Magazine and a June issue of Better Homes and Gardens that...
Friday, March 24, 2023
This weekend will mark the historic anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire ...
This weekend will mark the historic anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City. The tragedy, one of the most infamous industrial disasters in American history, killed 146 workers on March 25, 1911. This film, The Crime of Carelessness, was made in 1912 for National Association of Manufacturers by Thomas Edison Studios, warned of...
Photograph of an autogiro lifting from the ground at an airfield
Monday, March 20, 2023
Lots of things can be U.F.O.s if you're just not that curious about aircraft ...
Lots of things can be U.F.O.s if you're just not that curious about aircraft. Not this autogiro, though! Text associated with this photograph, taken on January 4, 1925, offers an explanation, stating that: "Photo shows a new helicopter invented by the Spanish engineer Don Juan Dela Cierva and called the autogiro, while it was being tried out...
Print shows a mother pinning clover on son's suit and a girl standing a standing at an open window
Friday, March 17, 2023
This 1872 lithograph depicted a domestic scene of Saint Patrick's day celebrations in 19th century America ...
This 1872 lithograph depicted a domestic scene of Saint Patrick's day celebrations in 19th century America. Text a the bottom of the image reads "Commemorative of Irland's [sic] unswerving fidelity to her ancient religion and the devotion of her exiled children to the sacred principles of her freedom and redemption as a nation". The image also...
Looking down to street level from stairway and escalator in PSFS Building
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
On March 15, 1892, the American inventor and engineer ....
On March 15, 1892, the American inventor and engineer Jesse Wilford Reno (1861-1947) patented his design for "moving stairs", or an "inclined elevator" (now known as an escalator), which he designed as part of a proposal for an underground New York City subway station. Reno's U.S. Patent No. 470,918 was similar in some ways to to a design for "...
Gif showing a parrot in flight made from motion capture photographs.
Monday, March 13, 2023
On March 13 in 1882, the English photographer Eadweard J. Muybridge ...
On March 13 in 1882, the English photographer Eadweard J. Muybridge (1830-1904) debuted his zoopraxiscope to a full house at the Royal Institution in London, where guests included the future King Edward VII and other members of the royal family. The device, an optical apparatus invented by Muybridge, presented projected images from a rotating...
Poster showing infographics about income distribution in the United States.
Friday, March 10, 2023
This ca. 1943 poster was produced and distributed by the National Association of Manufacturers as one of ten posters ...
This ca. 1943 poster was produced and distributed by the National Association of Manufacturers as one of ten posters in the trade association's 'American Way' campaign. This campaign, launched with the goal of delegitimizing the New Deal and labor unions, promoted a free enterprise, pro-business agenda through sustained deployment of visual-based...
Carney's Point Works Smokeless Powder Cutting Machine with two women operators
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
This #WorkerWednesday threatens to become a real blast ...
This #WorkerWednesday threatens to become a real blast - this ca. 1917 photograph shows DuPont employees operating the cutting machine during the smokeless powder production process. The Carney's Point plant produced smokeless powder, a munitions propellant, for the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, who built the facility across the Delaware...
Image of a mouse with cheese marked 'Wisconsin' & 'Ohio'. Rodent themed puns in background.
Monday, March 6, 2023
The newest addition to Hagley Library's Digital Archive is small but mighty ...
The newest addition to Hagley Library's Digital Archive is small but mighty. This undated, ca. 1953 photograph is a film still from our Frank Siedel papers (Accession 2022.215) collection. Frank Siedel (1914-1988) was a writer, educator, and broadcaster. In 1947, he founded the firm Storycraft, Inc., an industrial writing company, where he...
Friday, March 3, 2023
This clip is from Discovering Electronic Music, a 1977 film ....
This clip is from Discovering Electronic Music, a 1977 film produced by BFA Educational Media about the physical basis of music and how it is created and altered by electronic means using synthesizers imitating musical instruments and computer-controlled music and composition created with a computer. The film includes interviews with F. Richard ...
Photograph of a pig in a pen.
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
In 1972, sisters Ellen Stanley and Mary Lynne Rave registered March 1st as "Pig Day" in Chase’s Calendar of Annual Events ....
In 1972, sisters Ellen Stanley and Mary Lynne Rave registered March 1st as "Pig Day" in Chase’s Calendar of Annual Events as a special, designated day to "accord the pig its rightful, though generally unrecognized, place" in American life, and Stanley, a schoolteacher, began incorporating the new holiday into her classroom in Lubbock, Texas. The...
Bessemer converter for making steel with workers, Pennsylvania Steel Company, Steelton, Pennsylvania.
Monday, February 27, 2023
This undated (ca. 1895?) image shows workers and a Bessemer converter for making steel ...
This undated (ca. 1895?) image shows workers and a Bessemer converter for making steel at the Pennsylvania Steel Company's plant in Steelton, Pennsylvania, where the frog and switch division and a rail mill plant were located. This item is part of Hagley Library's collection of Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Bethlehem Ship Corporation...
Black and white glass negative image of four children on an outdoor swing seat, with three adults behind them.
Friday, February 24, 2023
Swinging into the weekend with a cozy #FamilyFriday glass plate negative ...
Swinging into the weekend with a cozy #FamilyFriday glass plate negative from Hagley Library's collection of Charles Murray glass plate negatives of Wilmington, Delaware and Albany, New York (Accession 1975.242). Charles B. Murray (1872-1947) worked as a foreman in building construction and was a resident of Wilmington, Delaware with his wife...
Black and white photograph of three women in work clothes riding bicycles.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
We're sharing our commute this #WorkerWednesday with three employees of the Hanford Engineer Works ...
We're sharing our commute this #WorkerWednesday with three employees of the Hanford Engineer Works commuting between work and home in Richland Village. Hanford Engineer Works, also known as the Hanford Site, was home to the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor. The construction of the site was handled by DuPont engineers, working...

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