The Hagley Vault

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

June 5, 2023
Black and white image showing a crowd assembled at the start of a hot air balloon race. A number of grounded balloons are in the image.

This past weekend marked a historic highlight in aviation history. One June 4th, 1783 the brothers Joseph-Michel (1740-1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (1745-1799) conducted the first public demonstration of a new technology. While the two brothers earned their living running a paper factory they had inherited from their father, they both collaborated on scientific experimentation in their spare time.


On this historic date, the two launched the world's first hot air balloon from a marketplace in Annonay, France. The unmanned balloon achieved a height of about 3,000 feet and traveled for ten minutes before landing about a mile and a half away. The two continued to experiment with the technology, and, on November 21, 1783, a Montgolfier balloon sent the first manned untethered balloon flight aloft.

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Archive

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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....
Gif showing four sides of a Christmas card with paper cut outs of holiday and peace themed symbols. Text on each side reads 'peace', 'love', 'happiness', and 'Irv Koons'
Thursday, December 22, 2022
We're heading out for the holidays today with one last post featuring our newest digital collection ...
We're heading out for the holidays today with one last post featuring our newest digital collection in the Hagley Digital Archives, which offers a selection of materials from Hagley Library's collections of  Irvin Koons photographs (Accession 1996.315), Irv Koons papers (Accession 2132), and Irv Koons memorabilia (Accession 2716), all originating...
Sketch of Garfield the cat on an ALPO cat food label. Garfield is criticizing the food.
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
We're continuing to share images this week from a new digital collection ...
We're continuing to share images this week from a new digital collection in the Hagley Digital Archives. Our Irv Koons digital collection offers a selection of materials from Hagley Library's collections of  Irvin Koons photographs (Accession 1996.315), Irv Koons papers (Accession 2132), and Irv Koons memorabilia (Accession 2716), all originating...
Gif showing a selection of containers of Comet, each with a slightly different graphic design.
Monday, December 19, 2022
This week, we're sharing images from a new digital collection in the Hagley Digital Archives ...
This week, we're sharing images from a new digital collection in the Hagley Digital Archives, which offers a selection of materials from Hagley Library's collections of  Irvin Koons photographs (Accession 1996.315), Irv Koons papers (Accession 2132), and Irv Koons memorabilia (Accession 2716), all originating from the life and work of the graphic...
Cover of the 1930 yearbook for the Boy Council of Philadelphia.
Friday, December 16, 2022
This post is for all our pals out there ...
This post is for all our pals out there. Today, we're sharing the cover of the Boy Council of Philadelphia's 1930 yearbook. The yearbook documented the organization's annual celebration, "Boy Week", which entailed citywide events such as the Boy Loyalty Parade, Boy Safety Day, a map drawing contest sponsored by the Automobile Club of Philadelphia...
A skilled dye maker at DuPont's Organic Chemicals Department's Chambers Works at Deepwater Point, New Jersey is shown with a lab technician checking dye shades.
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Our #WorkerWednesday visitors this week are employees of the DuPont company's Organic Chemicals Department ...
Our #WorkerWednesday visitors this week are employees of the DuPont company's Organic Chemicals Department at the Chambers Works plant in Deepwater Point, New Jersey. This ca. 1955 photograph shows a dye maker in the laboratory with a lab technician, checking dye shades. The plant was established by the DuPont Company in 1892 for the purpose of...
Black and white photograph of a woman at a diner adjusting a display case for pies.
Monday, December 12, 2022
There's always room for pie, especially if you've got the Pastri Tower ...
There's always room for pie, especially if you've got the Pastri Tower. This undated (ca. 1945?) photograph was created by DuPont to showcase the company's Lucite brand transparent acrylic resin, and is part of Hagley Library's DuPont Company Product Information Collection (Accession 1972.371). In 1952, the DuPont Company organized a Product...
Ad for sewing notions; image shows a woman at a product display, pair of hands reaching for products. Prominent text reads: "Am I Lazy?"
Friday, December 9, 2022
It's not Saturday just yet ...
It's not Saturday just yet, so Hagley is still hard at work this Friday morning. But we're getting the jump on a lazy weekend with this advertisement from The Spool Cotton Company, which appeared in a May 25, 1940 issue of Department Store Economist. The publication, which is call number f TS1760 .U58 in our collections, was a trade journal for...
Photograph of a long line of women in a factory, each working on a machine part in front of them on a conveyor belt.
Wednesday, December 7, 2022
sts this #WorkerWednesday are the women of the Sperry Gyroscope Company ...
Our guests this #WorkerWednesday are the women of the Sperry Gyroscope Company, seen here in a photograph taken on July 18, 1944. Text associated with this image associates the work being done in this photograph with the synchronized motor assembly for "Ford Instrument #4". This image is part of Hagley Library's collection of Sperry Gyroscope...

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