The Hagley Vault

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

April 16, 2021

Some Fridays are for made for Freewheelin', nothing you can do about it.


This 1975 film, sponsored by the B.F. Goodrich Company and made by Cinecraft, documents the many splendors of the 4th Annual National Truck-In, a celebration of vans and vanning hosted by the National Street Van Association in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The film shows van owners from all over the country congregating in Bowling Green to socialize, show off their customized vehicles, compete in races and obstacle courses, watch musical performances by the JTS Band, and so much more. The video includes interviews with several participants, as well as plugs for B.F. Goodrich tires and the company's "project van," an automobile outfitted with the newest van technology.

Read more...

Archive

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

Tuesday, February 9, 2021
This #TechTuesday, we're taking a look at your friend and mine,...
This #TechTuesday, we're taking a look at your friend and mine, television. These ca. 1930s photographs show publicity stills from RCA of television and television broadcasting components. The photographs above and below, two of which are dated January 16, 1937, shows RCA high frequency tubes and other equipment used in the transformer room of NBC...
Monday, February 8, 2021
It's National Clean Out Your Computer Day! We're marking...
It's National Clean Out Your Computer Day! We're marking this solemn holiday, which was started in 2000 by the Institute of Business Technology, with a can of our finest compressed air and this ca. 1975(?) draft of a children's book by computing pioneer Joe Weisbecker (1932-1990). Weisbecker was an engineer at RCA who invented an 8-bit...
Friday, February 5, 2021
New desserts, pea soup, and noodle dishes ... we're hungry...
New desserts, pea soup, and noodle dishes u2026 we're hungry for #FoodieFriday this week and this oddly aggressive advertisement for DuPont cellophane from 1940 hits the spot. This tear sheet from The Saturday Evening Post is part of Hagley Library's collection of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Advertising Department records (Accession...
Thursday, February 4, 2021
On this date (February 4) in 1941, Kinetic Chemicals, Inc., a...
On this date (February 4) in 1941, Kinetic Chemicals, Inc., a partnership founded by General Motors and DuPont, received a patent for "tetrafluoro-ethylene polymers". DuPont began marketing the polymer commercially in 1944 and filed to trademark it under the name of Teflon in February 1945. The polymer was accidentally discovered by chemist Roy J...
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Oh, those Florida trains. February has gotten off to a snowy...
Oh, those Florida trains. February has gotten off to a snowy start here at Hagley, and I'm ready for some warmer weather, just like the sunshine state bound snowbirds seen taking in a fashion show on this 1966 cover of The Pennsy, a newsletter for active and retired employees. of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Hagley Library's collection of The...
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
As the snowflakes continue to fall on the scenic grounds of the...
As the snowflakes continue to fall on the scenic grounds of the Hagley Museum and Library, we're continuing our wintry weather theme with this glass negative image of the Reading Railroad Schuylkill River Viaduct in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The image comes from a small collection of thirty-five glass negatives depicting scenes from Wissahickon...
Monday, February 1, 2021
We're looking at a winter wonderland at Hagley Library. Or we...
We're looking at a winter wonderland at Hagley Library. Or we would be, if we weren't working from home, due to today's winter storm. We hope you're all staying similarly safe and cozy, bundled up in blankets or cuddled down with some cocoa.We're marking today's snowfall with the cover of this 1956 comic book. Clear the Track! was created and...
Friday, January 29, 2021
Brr! It's a chilly day here at Hagley Library, so we hit the...
Brr! It's a chilly day here at Hagley Library, so we hit the Digital Archive looking for some winter weather #FashionFriday inspiration. We found it in this 1963 photograph of Olympic medalistalpine ski racer Betsy Snite, seen here modeling a sweater made of Orlon from the Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company. The department,...
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Get your children interested in chickens this #Feathursday with...
Get your children interested in chickens this #Feathursday with these dandy birds from Harvey A. Souder's Highland Poultry Farm in Sellersville, Pennsylvania. According to Perkasie, Pennsylvania's Central News, at the time of his death at age 47 in 1939, Souder's 100-acre farm was the largest shipper of day-old turkeys in Pennsylvania. This 1912...
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
We're taking a #WWIIWednesday trip to the Ballistics Labof...
We're taking a #WWIIWednesday trip to the Ballistics Labof the Indiana Ordnance Workstoday with this 1941 photograph. The Indiana Ordnance Works was built near Charlestown, Indiana by DuPont for the U.S. government. Construction began in 1940, and by 1941, the Works was manufacturing military explosives, propellants, and smokeless powder. The...
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Next stop, #TransitTuesday. This photograph shows New York...
Next stop, #TransitTuesday. This photograph shows New York City's 14th St. elevated line station, and was taken to document the work of Ward and Gow, a New York advertising agency credited as being among the first firms to systematize advertising in New York's transit network stations and trains. This photograph was included in an album compiled...
Monday, January 25, 2021
On this date, January 25, in 1915, Alexander Graham Bell...
On this date, January 25, in 1915, Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) made the first American transcontinental telephone call, reaching his assistant Thomas Watson (1854-1934) at 333 Grant Avenue in San Francisco from Bell's Telephone Building at 15 Dey Street in New York City. Watson would later leave Bell's service. He resigned in 1881 at the...
Friday, January 22, 2021
We could all use a bit of #FridayFun this week, so I was tickled...
We could all use a bit of #FridayFun this week, so I was tickled to come across this affectionate photograph from 1891 of Elenora Lammont Churchman (1876-1913) and Pierre S. du Pont (1870u20131954)with Pierre's aunt, Paulina du Pont(1827-1914), on the veranda of Goodstay, a du Pont family estate in Wilmington, Delaware purchased by Pierre's...
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Happy National Squirrel Appreciation Day! This bushy-tailed...
Happy National Squirrel Appreciation Day! This bushy-tailed holiday is a recent one, having been created in 2001 by Christy Hargrove, a wildlife rehabilitator in Asheville, North Carolina. And, while it's a little a corny, we'd be nuts not to take this perfect opportunity to post this small news item from the July 1953 issue of Newport News,...
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
When President Richard Nixon resigned from office in disgrace in...
When President Richard Nixon resigned from office in disgrace in 1974, he left behind a complicated and tarnished legacy. But one thing was certain; the man loved his dogs. We're welcoming the return of the tradition of presidential pets in the White House today, and what we hope is a will become a new tradition of welcoming rescue dogs (from...
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
On this date in 1883, the first electric lighting system used...
On this date in 1883, the first electric lighting system used overhead wires began service in Roselle, New Jersey. The system was built by Thomas Edison as part of an experiment; he wanted to see whether he could light an entire neighborhood with electricity using a shared central generating station. Thirty-two years later to the day, in 1915,...

Pages