The Hagley Vault

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

Archive

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

Black and white photograph from inside a Bethlehem Steel factory, showing workers and large industrial shearing equipment.
Here's a photograph from one of the Hagley Digital Archives' newer collections ...
Here's a photograph from one of the Hagley Digital Archives' newer collections; this image, captured in August of 1921, shows workers operating guillotine shears at the Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company's Coatsville Works. The photograph was taken by George A. Richardson (1886-1976), who was an engineer with an expertise in metallurgy and a…
Fashion photograph of a woman in a ski parka.
Brrrrr!!!!
Brrrrr!!!! The staff of Hagley Library are returning from our long holiday weekend to find that December is greeting us with a chilly Monday. This weather calls for a warm coat, perhaps even a ski parka by Ernst Engel in RSL Everglaze sasheen cotton like the one being modeled by Miss America pageant winner Nancy Anne Fleming in this 1961…
Postcard showing a boy young boy dressed in historical garb with a long gun in a snowy forest, with a rabbit and turkeys nearby.
We're starting off what's going to be a short work-week for Hagley Library staff with this seasonally-themed postcard ...
We're starting off what's going to be a short work-week for Hagley Library staff with this seasonally-themed postcard from the Alcan Moss Publishing Company of New York City. This undated item is part of Hagley Library’s Waldron collection of Christmas and holiday postcards (Accession 2000.223). This collection of over 500 items was…
The image is a vintage-style book cover titled "Cigarette Tricks" against an orange background with an illustration of a cigarette.
Impress your friends and wow your enemies with a little bit of smoke and mirrors this week (or, well, mostly smoke) ...
Impress your friends and wow your enemies with a little bit of smoke and mirrors this week (or, well, mostly smoke).  This new addition to the Hagley Digital Archives is a ca. 1933 pamphlet released by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The pamphlet promoted Camel cigarettes with 8 magic tricks, including explanations of the props and…
November 1939 cover of The Sohioan magazine, showing an illustration of a service station.
Leaves are dropping this November morning, and so are new digital collections ...
Leaves are dropping this November morning, and so are new digital collections. One of our new additions is a small collection of magazines published by the Standard Oil Company (Ohio) for its current and former employees, as well as dealers, distributors, and stockholders.  Standard Oil Company (Ohio), or Sohio, was created out of the 1911…
Page of advertisements from Descriptive Catalogue of Standard Works, Treating on Occultism, Theosophy, Astrology, Mesmerism, Mind-cure, Spiritualism, Psychology, Physiology, Hygiene, Etc.
Welcome to the spookiest time of the year, earth mortals!
Welcome to the spookiest time of the year, earth mortals! This week, the Hagley Vault is offering the black arts, mesmerism, and witchcraft at a low, low price, courtesy of the ca. 1902 Descriptive Catalogue of Standard Works, Treating on Occultism, Theosophy, Astrology, Mesmerism, Mind-cure, Spiritualism, Psychology, Physiology, Hygiene, Etc. The…
Glass negative image of a large beech tree being moved for transplantation.
Leaf-raking season is here ....
Leaf-raking season is here, but here's an arboreal chore to put that work into perspective.This 1923 photograph shows workers hired by Pierre S. "P.S." du Pont (1870-1954) moving a beech tree from a nearby property to the north corner greenhouse of his Longwood Gardens estate. The gardens had their roots in Peirce's Park, an arboretum created by…
Record from the Cleveland Recording Company for the 'Ghosts of Mac-O-Chee' episode of the Ohio Story.
If Christmas Creep is real, surely the creepiest season ...
If Christmas Creep is real, surely the creepiest season deserves some creep of its own, no? This week's Hagley Vault offers a spooky campfire tale from the Ohio Bell Telephone Company's Ohio Story television and radio series, issued as a Halloween episode in 1947.  In its time, the Ohio Story was the longest running regional scripted program…
Cover of a November 1940 issue of The Brown American.
The Hagley Digital Archives are alive and growing again ...
The Hagley Digital Archives are alive and growing again, and one of it's newest additions is a recently acquired publication in our collection of rare pamphlets. This November 1940 issue of The Brown American was one of the many publications spearheaded by Joseph V. Baker Associates, a public relations firm founded by Joseph V. Baker (1908-1993).…
Group photograph with David Sarnoff at RCA Transoceanic Station at New Brunswick, N.J.
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the world's first intercontinental radio transmission ..
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the world's first intercontinental radio transmission. On September 29, 1915, a U.S. naval radio station in Arlington, Virginia initiated a transmission to another naval radio station on Mare Island in San Francisco, California, which then relayed to Honolulu, Hawaii. The demonstration was a joint public-…
Cover for Store Chat magazine, featuring illustration of falling autumn leaves.
Falling into autumn with a cover from Store Chat magazine ...
Falling into autumn with a cover from Store Chat magazine this week. Store Chat was the employee magazine of Strawbridge & Clothier, a department store founded by Justus C. Strawbridge (1838-1911) and Isaac H. Clothier (1837-1921) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1906, the company begin publishing and distributing Store Chat to its…
Industrial site with large structures and chimneys.
What's this? Can it be?
What's this? Can it be? IT IS! We're thrilled to announce that the first new digital collection to be Hagley Library's Digital Archive since our relaunch project began last winter has arrived. The Pennsylvania Railroad exhibit photographs, World's Columbian Exposition (Accession 2022.226) collection contains a selection of photographs that were…
Black and white image of a young man playing a banjo
It's back to school season, and the Hagley Vault is going way, way back ...
It's back to school season, and the Hagley Vault is going way, way back to school this week. All the way back to ca. 1890, to join John Augustus Fisher (1890-1944), a classmate of Henry Belin du Pont (1873-1902) at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. This glass negative portrait is part of Hagley Library's collection of P.S. du Pont…
Panoramic photograph of women from DuPont Village at the community's bathing beach.
The long holiday weekend may be over ....
The long holiday weekend may be over, but let's sneak in just a little more time at the beach. This ca. 1916 panoramic photograph shows residents of DuPont Village at the community's bathing beach in Carney's Point, New Jersey.  The DuPont Company purchased the land for a smokeless powder plant at Carney's Point, New Jersey in 1890. In 1892,…
Street scene of a protest with women wearing signs reading "Strike Now - Live Later" and "We all must change."
This week's Hagley Vault post is sourced from our collection of National Association of Manufacturers photographs and audiovisual materials ...
This week's Hagley Vault post is sourced from our collection of National Association of Manufacturers photographs and audiovisual materials (Accession 1973.418) and documents a November 1962 protest against the trade association. In the years after World War II, NAM encouraged its membership to participate in the growing military-industrial…
Black and white photograph of a group of workers posed inside a large dredge dipper.
There's always room for one more at the Hagley Vault ....
There's always room for one more at the Hagley Vault! This week, we're cozying up with workers inside a 5 cu. yard dipper being used on one of the big dipper dredges during the construction of the Panama Canal. This photograph, taken between 1904 and 1914, is part of Hagley Library's collection of Chamber of Commerce of the United States…