The Hagley Vault

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

August 2, 2021
Photo of two men and a woman in a room full of large electronic equipment.

It's almost a #MusicMonday, but I can't seem to remember the tune . . . This image is from an article in a September 1950 issue of Nation's Business focusing on the rise of Muzak.


While Muzak has since become a generic description of a genre of background music, it emerged as a brand name in 1934. Over the years, the Muzak name has been owned by large corporations like Warner Bros., the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and the Fields Company of Chicago.

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Archive

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

Cigarette ad. Color illustration of a woman with the tagline "Consider your Adam's Apple!!!"
Monday, May 24, 2021
While I have been considering my Adam's Apple lately ...
While I have been considering my Adam's Apple lately, I'm not so sure this advice holds up. This advertisement for Lucky Strike cigarettes is from the October 1931 issue of Nation’s Business, a monthly magazine published between 1912 and 1999 by  the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. The Chamber, a private lobbying group representing...
Catalog cover featuring a color illustration of two women in dresses - one appears to be a wedding dress.
Friday, May 21, 2021
Looking for some #FashionFriday inspiration for Spring?
Looking for some #FashionFriday inspiration for Spring? Is your home decor ready for renovation after a long year spent indoors? Maybe this Spring 1928 Store and Home catalog from John Wanamaker can help. Opened by marketing pioneer John Wanamaker (1838-1922) at 13th and Market Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in April, 1876, Wanamaker’s...
Black and white photograph of two women modeling "Disco Bodywear"
Thursday, May 20, 2021
On this date in 1873, Levi Strauss (1829-1902) and Jacob W. Davis (1831–1908) made fashion history ...
On this date in 1873, Levi Strauss (1829-1902) and Jacob W. Davis (1831–1908) made fashion history when they received their U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets. The pants were designed by Davis, a Latvian immigrant working as a tailor in San Francisco. Many of his clients were railway workers laboring on a nearby project for the Central...
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
This film from Cinecraft documents the General Electric Company's 1935 corporate retreat in Cleveland, Ohio's Nela Park ...
This film from Cinecraft documents the General Electric Company's 1935 corporate retreat in Cleveland, Ohio's Nela Park, so named for the National Electric Lamp Association (NELA), a company founded in 1901. An early stakeholder in the company, General Electric eventually came to hold a large enough controlling interest in the corporation that...
Black and white photograph of people canoeing and swimming in what is probably the Brandywine River.
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
We're expecting beautiful weather here at Hagley today ...
We're expecting beautiful weather here at Hagley today, and we're celebrating today's warmth and the sunny days ahead with this undated photograph of swimmers in the Brandywine Creek, probably captured between 1890 and 1920. This image is part of Hagley Library's collection of DuPont Company Brandywine powder yards and neighboring worker...
Black and white photo of young, Black schoolchildren outside a one room schoolhouse.
Monday, May 17, 2021
Today, we marking the anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
Today, we marking the anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This ca. 1925 silver gelatin print shows the students of Blockson Colored School, once located northwest of Seaford and near Cannon in Sussex County, Delaware. While most people today associate segregated...
One side of a color stereoview showing three women modeling Hanes proportioned fit undergarments.
Friday, May 14, 2021
Today's #FashionFriday posts rests on not just one, but three firm foundation(al garments) ...
Today's #FashionFriday posts rests on not just one, but three firm foundation(al garments). This ca. 1965 image shows one side of a stereoview slide used to promote Hanes Hosiery Mills Company’s Hanes proportioned fit undergarments.This was once part of a sales kit belonging to Floyd Hollenbeck (1920-2002). Hollenbeck worked for Trimfit Hosiery, a...
Cover for a pamphlet featuring a secretary at a desk, with title on an illustration of a memo pad.
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Do you look beautiful over the telephone? Then maybe you've got what it takes to be a Super Secretary.
Do you look beautiful over the telephone? Then maybe you've got what it takes to be a Super Secretary. You can find out for sure with this 1945 pamphlet from the Typewriter Division of Remington Rand, Inc., which offers all the dos and don'ts you need to embark on a campaign of "steady, planned improvement that makes any girl the Super-Secretary...
Black and white photograph of four women in work clothes, standing in front of large industrial gears.
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Today's #WorkerWednesday visits the gear filers in the Reduction Gear Erecting Shop of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company's South Philadelphia Works.
Today's #WorkerWednesday visits the gear filers in the Reduction Gear Erecting Shop of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company's South Philadelphia Works. This photograph of her was taken by staff photographer Charles Yessel (1877-1953) on March 28, 1919 for publication in the company’s newspaper, Machine News. This image is part of...
Black and white photograph of Blackfeet on shore of Two Medicine Lake Glacier National Park
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
On this date in 1910, the U.S. Congress created Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana. 
On this date in 1910, the U.S. Congress created Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana.  The formation of the park would set off a decades long legal battle between the U.S. government and the Blackfeet people whose homeland the park's footprint encompassed. The eastern portion of the newly designated parkland was a longtime home to the...
Black and white photo of a bell jar display containing a large number of small ornaments carved from nutshells.
Monday, May 10, 2021
On this date in 1876, the Centennial International Exhibition opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
On this date in 1876, the Centennial International Exhibition opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Exhibition was the first major U.S. world's fair and celebrated the one hundreth anniversary of American Independence. Held in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, it welcomed nearly ten million visitors visitors during its run from May 10 to...
Black and white photograph of a woman in a pilot's gear hugging a woman holding flowers.
Friday, May 7, 2021
Don't forget about the moms in your life this Sunday!
Don't forget about the moms in your life this Sunday! We're getting an early jump on Mother's Day today with this photograph of pilot Elinor Smith and her mom, captured by Acme Newspictures on April 25, 1931. Text on the back of this item reads: “While their sons and daughters occupy the public eye, mothers of famous personages are, for the most...
Black and white photograph of nurses and patients in machine shop dispensary.
Thursday, May 6, 2021
May 6th is National Nurses Day! The observance, which kicks off National Nurses Week, was timed to coincide with the May 12th birthdate of Florence Nightingale (1820 -1910).
May 6th is National Nurses Day! The observance, which kicks off National Nurses Week, was timed to coincide with the May 12th birthdate of Florence Nightingale (1820 -1910). National Nurses Week was the brainchild of Dorothy Sutherland, an official in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare office. In 1953, Sutherland proposed...
Black and white photograph of a cathedral in the city of Puebla, Mexico.
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Cinco de Mayo
In the United States, the Cinco de Mayo holiday was popularized nationwide in the 1980s via advertising campaigns led by beer, wine, and liquor industries. But in Mexico, the holiday is a largely local ceremonial observance, commemorating the Battle of Puebla, which took place on May 5, 1962 during the Second Franco-Mexican War. The war, initiated...
Catalog cover showing men in a laboratory being visited by a female spirit personifying technology.
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Let's go shopping this #TechTuesday ...
Let's go shopping this #TechTuesday. This 1922 cover is from the Wireless & Electrical Cyclopedia, a publication of the Electro Importing Company.  The Electro Importing Company was founded in 1905 by Lewis Coggeshall, a railroad telegraph operator, and Hugo Gernsback, an electrical engineer. The two men met while living in a New York City...
Black and white photograph of two men in a rudimentary automobile driving up a hill.
Monday, May 3, 2021
It's the first #MotorMonday of May and we're digging deep into automotive history today ...
It's the first #MotorMonday of May and we're digging deep into automotive history today to bring you this photograph of automotive pioneers Ransom Eli Olds (1864-1950) and Jonathan Dixon Maxwell (1864-1928) driving what is probably the first or second version of an 1899 Oldsmobile in Detroit's Belle Isle. Olds founded Olds Motor Vehicle Company in...

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