The Hagley Vault

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

November 24, 2021
Poster features a large gray turkey in front of corn stalks on a red background. Poster text in black and white.

Hagley Library will be closed on November 25th and 26th for a Thanksgiving break, and wish a happy and healthy holiday to all of you who celebrate.


While we're out, we're leaving you with this 1950 poster from Japan’s Ministry of Telecommunications, which encouraged servicemen and other Americans in occupied Japan to send home radiogram greetings to distant families and friends for the holiday.

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Archive

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

Illustrated cover for a patent medicine pamphlet
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Cocaine was first used as a local anesthetic on this date in 1884 ...
Cocaine was first used publicly as a local anesthetic on this date, September 16, in 1884 by the Austrian ophthalmologist Karl Koller (1857-1944). The surgical demonstration, conducted in front of peers in the medical community, ushered in a new era of surgical possibilities and his discovery was also adopted by professionals in the fields of nose...
Black and white image of two workers with bleaching machines at Joseph Bancroft & Sons Co. mill
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
This #WorkerWednesday excursion brings us to the floor of a textile mill ...
This #WorkerWednesday excursion brings us to the floor of a textile mill, where these employees of the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company were photographed with alongside the company's bleaching machines. This photograph was probably taken around 1890. The company's namesake, Joseph Bancroft (1803-1874) began manufacturing cotton cloth using ...
Black and white, 3/4 view of a railroad box car. Stenciling on side reads "Cushioned car".
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
We've chosen this 1963 negative for today's #TrainTuesday post ....
We've chosen this 1963 negative for today's #TrainTuesday post because, well, who doesn't love a well-cushioned caboose? (yes, I know this isn't a caboose, don't @ me). This X56 box car was photographed on January 4, 1963. The negative is part of Hagley Library's Pennsylvania Railroad negative collection (Accession 1993.300). Incorporated in 1846...
Black and white image of children lined up at a table, in front of an audience, for a pie eating contest.
Monday, September 13, 2021
Here's a little fun for a Monday morning ....
Here's a little fun for a Monday morning .... this photograph of a children's pie eating contest was taken on this date, September 13, in 1919. The contest was a part of a company picnic hosted by the South Philadelphia Works of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. The picnic, documented by staff photographer Charles Yessel (...
Black and white image of a fitness room with workout equipment on board the S.S. Lurline.
Friday, September 10, 2021
We're feeling the burn this #FitnessFriday ....
We're feeling the burn this #FitnessFriday, but we're at least doing it in style. This ca. 1932 photograph of exercise equipment was taken in the fitness room of the SS Lurline, a luxury ocean liner built for the Matson Navigation Company's cruise lines running from the West Coast of the United States to destinations in Hawaii and Australasia. The...
Colorized postcard of Hollywood Boulevard, California.
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Happy birthday, California!
Happy birthday, California! America's Golden State was admitted to the Union as the 31st state on this date, September 9, in 1850. This ca. 1940s postcard from the Longshaw Card Company of Los Angeles shows a view of Hollywood Boulevard. The reverse of the card reads "The celebrated street of gala premieres, world fashions, movie stars and extras...
Black and white image of workers on assembly line in wheel factory
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
Today's #WorkerWednesday post ....
Today's #WorkerWednesday post is of workers on assembly line in a Budd Company wheel factory in 1918. The company was a manufacturer of steel automobiles, passenger rail cars, and other transportation products. Founded in 1912 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company, the manufacturer began its life as a...
Black and white image of three young people in their late teens; two young men and a woman.
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
We've been seeing a lot of back to school photos ....
We've been seeing a lot of back to school photos in our personal social media feeds, and decided to participate in the trend. No kids? No problem! Our collections are our babies! Today's Hagley Vault photo features a ca. 1900 image of three students of  Wilmington, Delaware's Alexis I. du Pont School; Alfred Mathewson, left, and siblings Annie and...
Black and white image of two people attending a ship launching.
Friday, September 3, 2021
The Hagley Library will be closed on Monday ...
The Hagley Library will be closed on Monday, September 6, 2021, for the Labor Day holiday. But we’re open today, and we’re sharing a Labor Day celebration from 1918. This photograph shows a launching party for the tanker ship SS Brandywine on Labor Day at a Gloucester, N.J. shipyard. The 7,000 ton SS Brandywine was built by the Pennsylvania...
Black and white image of a woman painting a refrigerator
Thursday, September 2, 2021
Hagley Museum & Library is closed today ....
Hagley Museum & Library is closed today due to some storm-related flooding on the property, giving our staff an unexpected opportunity for some #ThursDIY home projects. I don't think this one will be high on anyone's list, though. This 1952 photograph of a woman painting a refrigerator was created for DuPont. Text accompanying the image reads...
Magazine cover featuring an illustration of a head visualizing various visual displays.
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Hello, September ....
Hello, September! We're celebrating a new calendar page today with this September 1953 cover from Business Screen magazine, a trade publication that began servicing the industrial film industry with its first issue in 1938. Hagley Library's Digital Archive offers a run of 273 issues of this publication dating from its first issue in 1938 to 1973,...
Black and white image of cadets dressed in nautical uniforms examining large machinery in a factory..
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
This photograph shows a class of engineering cadets ...
This photograph shows a class of engineering cadets from the USS Nantucket, a school ship run by the Massachusetts Nautical Training School, examining marine type thrust bearings. The cadets visited the South Philadelphia Works of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company on this date, August 31, in 1921. Their visit was documented by...
Design drawing for an experimental hover-car
Monday, August 30, 2021
Today's #MotorMonday vehicle is ....
Today's #MotorMonday vehicle is the Curtiss-Wright Air Car. This design drawing shows the Model 2500, a 21-foot-long, 8-foot-wide, and 5-foot-tall functioning hover car designed under contract for the department of Army Transportation Research Command. After the military declared them unsuitable for military use (the vehicles were unreliable on...
Cover of a typewriter catalog featuring an illustration of a typewriter on a yellow background
Friday, August 27, 2021
On this date in 1878 ....
On this date, August 27, in 1878, printer and inventor Christopher Latham Sholes (1819-1890) received U.S. Patent No. 207,559 for an "improvement in type-writing machines". The patent marked the first documented appearance of the QWERTY keyboard layout. The key configuration was first intended for use on Sholes' own Sholes & Glidden brand...
Black and white image of a woman walking on beach with back to camera at Ventnor, New Jersey, or Rehoboth, Delaware
Thursday, August 26, 2021
As we get ready to say goodbye to August ....
As we get ready to say goodbye to August, we’re having a little #ThrowbackThursday to summers past. This negative image of a woman walking on a beach was probably taken around 1930 in either Ventnor, New Jersey, or Rehoboth, Delaware by Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972). Schoonover, a prolific commercial illustrator and artist, was also an avid...
Black and white image of a young man looking into the end of equipment assembled on a tabletop.
Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Today's #WorkerWednesday is a work in progress ...
Today's #WorkerWednesday is a work in progress. This 1917 negative of from the Pennsylvania Railroad is titled "Apprentice school boys at work in test department". It was taken in the Pennsylvania Railroad's Altoona Works, a large railroad complex that began construction in 1950 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and which built and repaired rolling stock...

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