The Hagley Vault

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

May 5, 2025
Black and white image of a woman holding a shovel in a greenhouse conservatory

Spring weather means wonderful things for the Hagley Museum and Library grounds, so this week's post is for all the gardeners, grounds crew, and green thumbs here at Hagley. This ca. 1880s glass negative shows a woman, likely to be Elise Wigfall du Pont  (1849-1919), the wife of Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) wielding a shovel in a greenhouse conservatory. 


Elise was born in Charleston, South Carolina to John Hume Simons (1818-1876) and Eliza Moore Wigfall (1823-1897). In 1871, Simons married Francis Gurney du Pont, the the youngest son of Alexis Irénée du Pont (1816-1857) and a grandson of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.

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Archive

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

Friday, April 2, 2021
Rayon! Rayon, rayon, everywhere this #FashionFriday!This photo...
Rayon! Rayon, rayon, everywhere this #FashionFriday! This photo spread comes courtesy of the June 1947 issue of DuPont Magazine, a publication first printed by DuPont in 1913 to help publicize the company's products and progress. This article highlighted, you guessed it, rayon, one of the many synthetic textiles the company manufactured (others...
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Hagley Library's John Gordon Rideout papers(Accession 2701)...
Hagley Library's John Gordon Rideout papers(Accession 2701) documents the life and career of noted industrial designerJohn Gordon "Jack" Rideout (1898-1951). Rideout began his career in sales, moved into advertising, and eventually opened industrial design firms in Toledo and then Cleveland, Ohio. In 1944, Rideout became one of the fifteen co-...
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Spring has sprung and love is in the air this...
Spring has sprung and love is in the air this #WeddingWednesday. This June 20, 1935 photographic negative shows Emilie Lynam Mitchell on the day of her wedding to Gates Cooper Gilmore. The wedding was held at Woodside Farms in Hockessin, Delaware, the home of Emilie's brothers Paul and Joseph. This item is part of Hagley Library's collection of...
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
On this date in 1822, the U.S. Congress merged the recently...
On this date in 1822, the U.S. Congress merged the recently seized territories of East Florida and West Florida into the Florida Territory. The region would later become the U.S.'s 27th stateon March 3, 1845. Much, much later, on May 29, 1941, the state would become home to the Club Pier Casino in Daytona Beach. This undated postcard described the...
Monday, March 29, 2021
"What do you want to do for lunch today?""Oh, I dunno. Something...
"What do you want to do for lunch today?" "Oh, I dunno. Something normal" We're sharing this miraculous little concoction from ca. 1963 today as an apertif to our one of our newest collections in process, a historical archive from the renowned advertising agency of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn Inc. (BBDO). The records cover the entire...
Friday, March 26, 2021
It's iconic and ionic ...ranging from literature on salt...
It's iconic and ionic u2026ranging from literature on salt mining totheses on halophilic enzymes, Hagley Library's Carol Litchfield collection on the history of salt(Accession2012.219) is one of the world'sgreatest resources on the subject of salt. This advertising card is one of twenty-five in our Litchfield Collection created by Boston'sDonnelly...
Thursday, March 25, 2021
William Henry Radebaugh (1909-1996), was a public relations...
William Henry 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 for several years after his retirement.He began his career in public relations and in 1942, founded and was executive director of, the South...
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
This #WorkerWednesday, we're making a visit to the Camphor...
This #WorkerWednesday, we're making a visit to the Camphor Plantof E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Chambers Worksfacility. The site, located on the Delaware River in Deepwater Point, New Jersey, was established by the DuPont Company in 1892 for the purpose of manufacturing gunpowder. Between then and when it closed in 2018, the site was...
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
March 23rd is National Agriculture Day, and has been since...
March 23rd is National Agriculture Day, and has been since 1973, when the date was established alongside its sponsor, the Agriculture Council of America. But prior to National Ag Day, we had u2018Tommy Looks at Farming', a ca. 1962 comic produced by the B.F. Goodrich Companyto inform young people about "the vital role of agriculture in our health...
Monday, March 22, 2021
This #MotorMonday finds a new kind of car at the end of the...
This #MotorMonday finds a new kind of car at the end of the rainbow; the Nash 600. This model was the first mass-produced American car featuring unibody construction. Pioneered by European manufacturers like Lambda in the early 1920s, unibody construction consisted of a manufacturing design in which the body of the vehicle, its floor plan, and its...
Friday, March 19, 2021
Today's #FashionFriday post sees us preparing for tomorrow's...
Today's #FashionFriday post sees us preparing for tomorrow's Spring Equinox, the beginning of the beginning of astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Opened by marketing pioneer John Wanamaker (1838-1922) at 13th and Market Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in April, 1876, Wanamaker's department storewas one of America's first modern...
Thursday, March 18, 2021
March has been delivering both lion and lamb this week at the...
March has been delivering both lion and lamb this week at the Hagley Museum and Library. So, on this drizzly, wet #WeaThursday, we're sharing this seasonally appropriate cover of the March, 1952 issue of Philco News, featuring Joan Mundy, an employee of Philco Corporation's TechRep Division. Philco News was the monthly employee newsletter of the...
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
It's true that the three-leafed shamrock clover is the...
It's true that the three-leafed shamrock clover is the traditional choice for celebrating Saint Patrick's Day, we're testing our luck today and posting this four-leafed clover pattern for an embroidered "good luck pillow" from the 1905 Good Housekeeping Needlework Manualinstead. The Good Housekeeping Institute described this pattern, advertised...
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Today's #TechTuesday brings us a Pallo-Photo-Phone, a device...
Today's #TechTuesday brings us a Pallo-Photo-Phone, a device developed by Charles A. Hoxie (1867-1941)of the General Electric Company for the purpose of "photographing" and reproducing the human voice. The text accompanying this photograph, captured on November 6, 1922, declared that the Pallo-Photo-Phone would become "the apparatus which will...
Monday, March 15, 2021
This ca. 1965 photograph shows one side of a stereoview slide...
This ca. 1965 photograph shows one side of a stereoview slide used to promote Hanes Hosiery Mills Company's seamless nylon stockings. This was once part of a sales kit belonging to Floyd Hollenbeck (1920-2002). Hollenbeck worked for Trimfit Hosiery, a distribution company for Hanes Hosiery Mills Company. Working out of Los Angeles, California, he...
Friday, March 12, 2021
We've been happily welcoming the early signs of Spring this week...
We've been happily welcoming the early signs of Spring this week at the Hagley Museum and Library. In anticipation of warmer, more pleasant days to come, here's a #FloralFriday celebration of Spring blooms. This illustration of canna lilieswas sourced from the 1924 issue of Burpee's Farm Annual (also known as Burpee's Annual, Burpee's Annual...

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