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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Today is Read Across America Day, an event promoted by the...
Today is Read Across America Day, an event promoted by the National Educational Association since 1998 as a way to promote and encourage children's reading. Which is as good a reason as any to share this illustrated cover from the 1917 Maxwell Book for Kiddies, a small collection of nursery rhymes compiled by Detroit, Michigan's Maxwell Motor…
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Today's train wreck of a post features photographs taken on this...
Today's train wreck of a post features photographs taken on this date, March 1st, in 1906, showing the aftermath of a railroad accident at Emporium, Pennsylvania. The accident, which occurred on the same day, occurred when a Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive tender backed into a box car carrying dynamite manufactured by the Emporium Powder…
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On this date, February 26, in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson...
On this date, February 26, in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act of Congress establishing the Grand Canyon National Park as the 15th park in the U.S. national parks system. As a 102nd birthday present, we're offering this 1917 photograph of a mule ride on the Bright Angel Trail, a six mile trail still traveled by mules and humans alike…
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The National Society of Professional Engineers has been...
The National Society of Professional Engineers has been sponsoring Engineers Weekevery February since 1951 as a means of calling attention to engineers' contributions to society and advocating for the importance of education in math, science, and technical skills. Today's Engineers Week theme is Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, so we're…
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We're excited to announce that tonight, February 24, Hagley, in...
We're excited to announce that tonight, February 24, Hagley, in partnership with Clark Atlanta University andBloomfield College, will be premiering Dr. Wesley Memeger, Jr., Science Into Art, a special documentary chronicling the lifeof Dr. Wesley Memeger, Jr. Memeger was a long-time DuPont chemist at the Pioneering Research Laboratory. He began…
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Today's #TradeCardTuesday is quite the sticky situation. This...
Today's #TradeCardTuesday is quite the sticky situation. This advertising card was produced by the Tenexine Company of Boston, Massachusetts to promote its line of Egyptian Te-nex-ine glue. The item is undated, but was probably created between 1880 and 1913. This card is part of Hagley Library's Fingerman ephemera collection (Accession 2009.213),…
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Here's a #MotorMonday pitch I can get behind right now. This...
Here's a #MotorMonday pitch I can get behind right now. This image graced the cover of a ca. 1950 promotionalpamphlet touting the new u2018Venti-Heater' feature on automobiles from the General Motors Corporation's Buick Motor Division. The pamphlet is part of Hagley Library's Z. Taylor Vinson collection of transportation ephemera (Accession…
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It's another chilly, snowy winter Friday at Hagley Library, so...
It's another chilly, snowy winter Friday at Hagley Library, so here's a literal icebreaker to move us along to the weekend and, hopefully, warmer days ahead. This photograph shows the SS Manhattan, a ship built in 1962 as an oil tanker at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, but which began retrofitting operations in 1968 for a new…
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National Battery Day was established around the year 2000 on the...
National Battery Day was established around the year 2000 on the birth date of the Italian chemist and physicist Alessandro Volta (1745-1827). Volta's 1799 experiments on u2018voltaic piles' of salt and covered piles of zinc and silver, cloth, or paper proved that electricity could be generated via chemical reaction and earned him a place in…
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Today's #WorkerWednesday shows employees of the Joseph Bancroft...
Today's #WorkerWednesday shows employees of the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Co. etching designs on textile rollers at the company's Print Works Division in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. This circa 1937 photograph is part of the Hagley Library's collection of Joseph Bancroft and Sons Company photographs (Accession 1969.025). Joseph Bancroft, an…
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We're celebrating Mardis Gras today with this ca. 1940 postcard...
We're celebrating Mardis Gras today with this ca. 1940 postcard showing the recently renovated famous French Market in New Orleans, Louisiana's French Quarter. This covered market was built around 1813 on the site of an older market run by Chapitoulas, Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Houma people prior to European colonization of the area. This undated…
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We're observing ENIAC day today and the people that made IT...
We're observing ENIAC day today and the people that made IT happen. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer(ENIAC), developed at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering, was the first all electronic, programmable computer.ENIAC was formally dedicated seventy-five years ago today, on February 15, 1946. The…
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#ValentinesDay is this Sunday, \u00a0and this post goes out to our...
#ValentinesDay is this Sunday, and this post goes out to our oldest, truest love u2026 the weekend. This February 1953 magazine cover and hopeful editorial is from Newport News. This publication was edited and printed for the Newport Plant employees of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. in Newport, Delaware. Hagley's holdings of this magazine…
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Today is National Inventors' Day in the United States, and has...
Today is National Inventors' Day in the United States, and has been since 1982, when Senate Joint Resolution 140designated the date as such, choosing this specific day on account of it also being anniversary of the birth of Thomas Alva Edison. We're marking the date with this undated photograph of chemist and inventor Hudson Maxim (1853-1927).…
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On this date, February 10, in 1989 Ron Brown (1941-1996) was...
On this date, February 10, in 1989 Ron Brown (1941-1996) was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The election made Brown the first Black person to lead a major American political party. Following his chairmanship, Brown served as the first Black United States Secretary of Commerce from January 1993 to April 1996, during the…
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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…