The Hagley Vault

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

January 30, 2023
Illustrated border of cotton flowers surrounding a drawing of a woman's head and shoulders.

Can you keep a secret? Because I can't. So I'll tell you right now - this illustration served as the cover for A Public Secret, a ca.1900 advertising pamphlet for Cottolene, a brand of shortening made by the N. K. Fairbanks Company. The product, made from beef suet and cottonseed oil, was manufactured from 1868 until the early 20th century.


The pamphlet included instructions for cooking and frying with Cottolene, testimonials, and relayed the story, in poem form, of a "fair maiden" whose purchase of Cottolene brings her fame amongst her friends and leads to marriage.

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Archive

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

Illustrated border of cotton flowers surrounding a drawing of a woman's head and shoulders.
Monday, January 30, 2023
Can you keep a secret? Because I can't. So I'll tell you right now ...
Can you keep a secret? Because I can't. So I'll tell you right now - this illustration served as the cover for A Public Secret, a ca.1900 advertising pamphlet for Cottolene, a brand of shortening made by the N. K. Fairbanks Company. The product, made from beef suet and cottonseed oil, was manufactured from 1868 until the early 20th century. The...
Ad for children's activity books and games showing a little girl perusing a large rack of products.
Friday, January 27, 2023
It's all fun and games this Friday ....
It's all fun and games this Friday, thanks to this advertisement from the Whitman Publishing company of Racine, Wisconsin. After taking over the business of Chicago's Hamming-Whitman Publishing Company when it went bankrupt in 1915, Whitman found early success in the business of publishing low-cost children's books and games. This became...
This 1900 glass negative shows the Wilmington Friends School's football team in uniform ...
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
This 1900 glass negative shows the Wilmington Friends School's football team in uniform ...
This 1900 glass negative from Hagley Library’s collection of Thomas C. Marshall photographs (Acc. 1990.270) shows the Wilmington Friends School's football team in uniform. The Marshall family’s patriarch, Israel W. Marshall (1850-1911), founded the Marshall Brothers Paper Mill in Yorklyn in 1890. The wealth generated by this family business...
Cover for sheet music titled "Keep Away from the Fellow who owns an Automobile". Cover depicts a ca
Monday, January 23, 2023
We're starting the week off with a jaunty little warning for #MotorMonday enthusiasts ...
We're starting the week off with a jaunty little warning for #MotorMonday enthusiasts. This cover accompanied sheet music and lyrics written and composed by the composer, songwriter and lyricist Irving Berlin (1888-1989). It was published in 1912 by Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co., a music publishing house founded by composer Ted Snyder (1881–...
Two long rows of tables covered in breakfast foods with diners and wait staff.
Friday, January 20, 2023
It's sometimes said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day ...
It's sometimes said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so we're starting our day with a breakfast hosted by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company on this date, January 20th, in 1920. The breakfast feast was held at Philadelphia's Broad Street Station for employees of the Engineering Department of the company's...
Posed portrait of two well-dressed women attending a ship launching. One is holding a ceremonial bottle and bouquet.
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
This photograph was taken on October 21, 1943 at the launching of the S.S. U.S.O., a Liberty Ship ...
This photograph was taken on October 21, 1943 at the launching of the S.S. U.S.O., a Liberty Ship built by the Bethlehem Ship Corporation. Liberty Ships were cargo ships, mass-produced by American manufacturers using simple, low-cost construction during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Between 1941 and 1945, the eighteen...
Group of anti-poverty and racial justice activists in an office and consulting a transit map.
Monday, January 16, 2023
Today's image from our archives is a photograph taken by photojournalist Dennis Brack (1939- ) from the headquarters of a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ...
Today's image from our archives is a photograph taken by photojournalist Dennis Brack (1939- ) from the headquarters of a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) led protest in Washington, D.C. In 1965, SNCC organized with local anti-poverty activists and other civil rights workers to protest a fare hike by the city's Metro Area Transit...
Posed portrait of William and Charles Green, and Albert Studebaker, with powder container
Friday, January 13, 2023
Today's tintype photograph comes from Hagley Library's collection of ...
Today's tintype photograph comes from Hagley Library's collection of LeCarpentier, Green and Baker family photographs (Accession 1985.256). This collection contains photographs of the LeCarpentier, Green, and Baker families. The families were farmers and merchants in the Delaware valley area. Most of the photographs are portraits and snapshots of...
Two men at work in an office, circa. 1895.
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Today's #WorkerWednesday is a real blast ...
Today's #WorkerWednesday is a real blast. This 1895 photographic negative was taken inside the office of the Aetna Powder Company, a dynamite works in Aetna, Indiana. This item is part of Hagley Library's Edward M. Harrington collection of Aetna Powder Company and DuPont Company material (Accession 1968.007). Edward M. Harrington (1866-1933) was a...
Black and white image of two children on either side of a man holding a striped sphere.
Monday, January 9, 2023
Children, gather round. Grampa wants to tell you about his sphere again ...
Children, gather round. Grampa wants to tell you about his sphere again ... today's photograph dates to 1907 and shows Albert Henry Munsell (1858-1918) and his family observing a Munsell color sphere in motion. Munsell was a painter and art teacher whose studies of color led to the creation of the Munsell Color System, an attempt to organize,...
Ad for Zenith portable radios showing women with radios in various travel destinations.
Friday, January 6, 2023
On this date, January 9th, in 1951, Zenith Radio Corporation ...
On this date, January 6th, in 1951, Zenith Radio Corporation (KS2KSBS) began experimental transmissions of the first pay television programming to a small group of test homes. The 300 subscribing families were chosen from a pool of 51,000 applicants in the Chicago, Illinois area. During the 90-day test period, Zenith Radio Corporation sent a...
Thursday, January 5, 2023
Are you ape for fake snake?
Are you ape for fake snake? If so, today's film from Hagley Library's collection of William Henry Radebaugh films and scripts (Accession 1975.412) is for you. Radebaugh (1909-1996), was a public relations executive at the DuPont Company for over twenty years. He wrote, produced and directed many films about the company during his tenure there and...
Advertisement for pink lipstick. Woman holding a balloon, overwhelmingly pink-hued color scheme.
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Here's hoping our first post of 2023 helps you start the New Year with a happy smile and tickled pink ...
Here's hoping our first post of 2023 helps you start the New Year with a happy smile and tickled pink. This advertisement comes from the January 1964 issue of Avon Outlook, a magazine distributed to Avon sales representatives that contained motivational essays, updates on new and discontinued product lines, and instructional materials. Avon...
Poster from a mining company about a prize contest for recommendations regarding safety
Friday, December 30, 2022
We're using this last post of 2022 to ...
We're using this last post of 2022 to wish you all a safe, happy, and healthy New Year! This 1920 poster from the Stonega Coke and Coal Company's Department of Safety is part of Hagley Library's Westmoreland Coal Company photograph and video collection (Accession 1993.233). The Westmoreland Coal Company is the oldest independent bituminous coal...
Group of men and women drinking outside the Ardgowan Distillery
Thursday, December 29, 2022
It's not Dry January yet ....
It's not Dry January yet, so we're squeezing in one last Thirsty Thursday this year with a trip to the Ardgowan Distillery in Glasgow, Scotland. This photograph, taken on July 26, 1901, is part of a set of photographs and prints that once belonged to or featured the French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889). Often considered the founder of...
Newspaper clipping advertising "One Thousand Young Canaries" with illustrations of a bird and squirrel.
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
We're back! And we're returning to the stacks with this clipping ...
We're back! And we're returning to the stacks with this clipping from a very, *very* extended remix of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". This image was part of a Woolworth's advertisement that ran in a special section of the Camden Courier-Post on October 10, 1961. The section focused on the newly opened Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill, New Jersey....

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