Here's wishing everyone a safe and happy July 4th weekend, especially those of you celebrating with home explosives.
This 1910 fireworks catalog was produced by the Lloyd Manufacturing Company of New York City. The company was one of a handful of fireworks manufacturers that was later caught up in a minor scandal over municipal graft when the city's 1911 July 4th fireworks displays were found to have been padded. The Lloyd Manufacturing Company supplied the city with fireworks for thirty-three sites in Manhattan at a cost of $14,000, which the city's Commissioner of Accounts later concluded contained about $5,000 worth of skyrocketing costs in unaccounted for and unwarranted charges.
That said, the company's "Radium Bombshells" sure do sound neat.
The catalog is part of Hagley Library's large collection of trade catalogs, which contains catalogs, trade literature, and lists, often illustrated, of items sold by an assortment of manufacturers, mostly American, ranging from the 18th to 21st century. Selections from this collection have been digitized and made available in our Digital Archives.