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.

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We're taking flight this #TravelTuesday and brushing up on our airline etiquette after a long year on the ground ...
We're taking flight this #TravelTuesday and brushing up on our airline etiquette after a long year on the ground. This magazine advertisement was made by the Curtiss-Wright company to promote its Commando airliner. The Commando, a 36-seat twin-engine transport plane that the company began developing in 1936, was expected to be a passenger aircraft…
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Take your pick of early autos this #MotorMonday with a visit to the Atlas Automobile Company ...
Take your pick of early autos this #MotorMonday with a visit to the Atlas Automobile Company. The Atlas Automobile Company was founded by Andrew Kirkpatrick and William H. La Fountain, who became the sole owner after Kirkpatrick left the company on July 31, 1904. The dealership and machine shop operated out of a storefront at 6235 Penn Avenue in…
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We're welcoming the return of tomato season today with this illustration of "three luscious tomatoes" ...
We're welcoming the return of tomato season today with this illustration of "three luscious tomatoes", sourced from the 1924 issue of Burpee’s Farm Annual (also known as Burpee’s Annual, Burpee’s Annual Garden Book, Burpee’s Seeds, and Burpee Gardens), published by W. Atlee Burpee & Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia became an…
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No, I'm totally not daydreaming about a beach vacation during work hours, why do you ask?
No, I'm totally not daydreaming about a beach vacation during work hours, why do you ask? This ca. 1887 glass negative is from the Hagley Library’s P.S. du Pont photographs (Longwood) collection (Accession 1969.002) and is part of a subseries documenting vacations spent at a Cape May, New Jersey summer home associated with the family of Lammot du…
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On this date, June 2, in 1940, over 160,000 people gathered in Philadelphia’s Municipal Stadium for Cardinal Dennis Joseph Dougherty’s Golden Jubilee Mass...
On this date, June 2, in 1940, over 160,000 people gathered in Philadelphia’s Municipal Stadium for Cardinal Dennis Joseph Dougherty’s Golden Jubilee Mass. The gathering, the city’s largest assembly of Catholics since the 1926 Solemn Pontifical Mass for the Sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence, was documented in this aerial…
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On this date, June 1, in 1494, John Cor, a Tironensian monk at Lindores Abbey in Fife, Scotland, recorded the first known written reference to scotch whisky ...
On this date, June 1, in 1494, John Cor, a Tironensian monk at Lindores Abbey in Fife, Scotland, recorded the first known written reference to scotch whisky. Cor recorded the reference in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, a government record maintained by the exchequer, which oversaw royal finances. We’re offering a toast to Cor’s contribution to…
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The Hagley Library will be closed on Monday, May 31, in observance of Memorial Day. As we head out the door on this holiday weekend, we’re leaving you with this May 26, 1944 Memorial Day issue of Lukens Plate, a newsletter of the Lukens Steel Company.
The Hagley Library will be closed on Monday, May 31, in observance of Memorial Day. As we head out the door on this holiday weekend, we’re leaving you with this May 26, 1944 Memorial Day issue of Lukens Plate, a newsletter of the Lukens Steel Company. Lukens Steel is located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. First established in 1793, it is the oldest…
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On this date, May 27, in 1927, the Ford Motor Company ceased manufacturing its iconic Ford Model T automobile ...
On this date, May 27, in 1927, the Ford Motor Company ceased manufacturing its iconic Ford Model T automobile. The Model T, which had been a staple of Ford’s line of vehicles since it first rolled off the production line on October 1, 1908, was the first automobile whose price tag put it within reach of middle-class American families. Plants that…
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Today's #WorkerWednesday post features Helen Anderson, a crane operator at DuPont's Wilmington Shops
Today's #WorkerWednesday post features Helen Anderson, a crane operator at DuPont's Wilmington Shops. Mrs. Anderson was photographed for the February/March 1943 cover of DuPont Magazine as part of a short inside cover article looking at women in war work at the company, where “one in every five Du Pont employees today, is a woman”. Established in…
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teacher tuesday
We're making a #TeacherTuesday stop today to visit the faculty of Kentucky's Lincoln Institute, seen here with their spouses in a photograph published in the April 1920 issue of The Lincoln Institute Worker. This quarterly publication was issued by the school to provide alumni and supporters with news about student activities, recent…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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…
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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…
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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…