The Hagley Vault

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

June 5, 2023
Black and white image showing a crowd assembled at the start of a hot air balloon race. A number of grounded balloons are in the image.

This past weekend marked a historic highlight in aviation history. One June 4th, 1783 the brothers Joseph-Michel (1740-1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (1745-1799) conducted the first public demonstration of a new technology. While the two brothers earned their living running a paper factory they had inherited from their father, they both collaborated on scientific experimentation in their spare time.


On this historic date, the two launched the world's first hot air balloon from a marketplace in Annonay, France. The unmanned balloon achieved a height of about 3,000 feet and traveled for ten minutes before landing about a mile and a half away. The two continued to experiment with the technology, and, on November 21, 1783, a Montgolfier balloon sent the first manned untethered balloon flight aloft.

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Archive

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

Children and police officers posing with car decorated with anti-Prohibition slogans.
Monday, December 5, 2022
Happy Repeal Day! On this day, December 5, in 1933, the repeal of thirteen years of Prohibition ...
Happy Repeal Day! On this day, December 5, in 1933, the repeal of thirteen years of Prohibition in the United States was accomplished with the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution. This photograph was taken in the early 1930s, probably in front of DuPont Building in Wilmington, Delaware. It is part of a small...
Black and white fashion photograph of two women in glittery evening gowns.
Friday, December 2, 2022
Let's go glamorous this #FashionFriday ....
Let's go glamorous this #FashionFriday with a photograph from the 'New York Couture' folder of Hagley Library's collection of Dupont Textile Fibers Product Information photographs (Accession 1984.259). The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company, established in 1936 as the Rayon Department, specialized in researching and developing...
Photograph collage of a soda counter at Strawbridge & Clothier's, ca. 1898.
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
'Tis the season for shopping, but we could all use a break ...
'Tis the season for shopping, but we could all use a break. We're taking a post- Black Friday and Cyber Monday rest today in one of the retail world's pioneering establishments. This 1898 photo-collage shows the soda counter of Strawbridge & Clothier, a family-owned major department store chain in the greater Philadelphia area. The company...
Black and white oimage of a man and two women working in an office, ca. 1910.
Monday, November 28, 2022
We're back in the office after our long holiday weekend ...
We're back in the office after our long holiday weekend, and we're recognizing that Monday feeling across time and space with this 1905 photograph from the offices of the California Perfume Company. This image is part of Hagley Library's collection of Avon Products Inc. photographs and audiovisual materials (Accession 1997.209). Avon is one of the...
Postcard will illustration of a child dressed as a chef carrying a large platter of turkey.
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Hagley Library will be closed on November 24th and 25th for the Thanksgiving holiday ....
Hagley Library will be closed on November 24th and 25th for the Thanksgiving holiday. So today, we're celebrating a four day weekend with this undated cordial greeting from our collection of Travel, holiday and miscellaneous postcards (Accession 2013.201).  
Two men and a woman, arrayed around a 'color organ', which resembles a small, if unusual, piano.
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Today's #TechTuesday post features Mary Elizabeth Hallock Greenewalt
Today's #TechTuesday post features Mary Elizabeth Hallock Greenewalt (1871-1950) and her "color organ". This ca. 1920 photograph shows Greenewalt and the organ, an instrument of her own invention that was designed to project a sequence of colored lighting when played in arrangement with selected musical programs. Greenewalt was born in Beirut,...
Toby Wing, screen and stage star, watches herself in the television receiving set as she performs before the new television equipment in the Philco Radio television station
Monday, November 21, 2022
Today's photograph is being posted in recognition of World Television Day ...
Today's photograph is being posted in recognition of World Television Day, an observance created by the United Nations in 1996 in conjunction with the organizations first World Television Forum. Text associated with the image, created on March 29, 1938, states that it shows "Toby Wing, screen and stage star" as she "watches herself in the...
Advertising card for Morton's Salt. Features vegetables collecting salt from a pouring can.
Friday, November 18, 2022
It’s iconic and ionic …ranging from literature on salt mining to theses on halophilic enzymes ...
It’s iconic and ionic …ranging from literature on salt mining to theses on halophilic enzymes, Hagley Library’s Carol Litchfield collection on the history of salt (Accession 2012.219) is one of the world’s greatest resources on the subject of salt. This advertising card featuring anthropomorphic veggies that "know what's good for them" is one of...
Black and white photograph of a baby, warmly dressed, in a baby carriage.
Thursday, November 17, 2022
Brr!!! We're off to a chilly start at Hagley Library this morning ...
Brr!!! We're off to a chilly start at Hagley Library this morning. Today's image, much like today's weather, is a reminder to bundle up in something cozy as we head into winter. This ca. 1924 photograph shows a wee little Thomas C. Marshall, Jr. and comes from Hagley Library’s collection of Thomas C. Marshall photographs (Acc. 1990.270). The...
Black and white photograph of Black workers seated in the a dining room; all are wearing uniforms
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Today's #WorkerWednesday post joins a November 1951 event celebrating employees of Strawbridge & Clothier ...
Today's #WorkerWednesday post joins a November 1951 event celebrating employees of Strawbridge & Clothier, a family-owned major department store chain in the Greater Philadelphia area. The company was founded by Justus C. Strawbridge (1838-1911) and Isaac H. Clothier (1837-1921) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It first opened on July 1, 1868,...
Ad for a rendering company featuring children surrounded by living animals in a bucolic landscape.
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Absolutely nobody was asking for a #TallowTuesday, but here it is anyway ...
Absolutely nobody was asking for a #TallowTuesday, but here it is anyway. This poster for the Myerstown Hide & Tallow Company of Myerstown, Pennsylvania is part of Hagley Library's collection of Carter Litchfield photographs and ephemera on the history of fatty materials (Accession 2007.227). This is undated, but was probably created in the...
Black and white aerial photograph of the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse and surrounding landscape.
Monday, November 14, 2022
We're starting off a new week with this atmospheric photograph of the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse ...
We're starting off a new week with this atmospheric photograph of the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse at the entrance of the Delaware Bay near Lewes, Delaware. This image was captured around 1925 by the Dallin Aerial Surveys Company, an aerial photography service founded in 1924 by Colonel J. (John) Victor Dallin (1897-1991). Dallin was a Royal Flying...
Black and white image of a courthouse decorated with bunting in honor of the Union Veterans Legion (Wilmington, Del.)
Friday, November 11, 2022
This bunting-draped courthouse in downtown Wilmington, Delaware is being posted in recognition of ...
This bunting-draped courthouse in downtown Wilmington, Delaware is being posted in recognition of today's Veterans' Day holiday. The building was decorated to honor a Union Veteran Legion National Encampment in the city, held from September 12-16, 1905. The Union Veteran Legion was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 5, 1885, and...
Black and white photograph of Howard Ellsworth Seal, Jr. and Lewis Welch on Harley Davidson motorcycle at Locust Knoll Farm
Thursday, November 10, 2022
On this date, November 10, in 1885 the 17 year old son of the German inventor and engineer Gottlieb Daimler ...
On this date, November 10, in 1885 the 17 year old son of the German inventor and engineer Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) made the first long-distance test run of the world's first motorcycle. Paul Daimler traveled from Cannstatt to Unterturkheim and back on the "Reitwagen", a motorcycle prototype with a wooden frame and wheels, no suspension system...
Black and white group photograph of a large number of people, mostly women and young girls.
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
This 1910 #WorkerWednesday photograph comes from Hagley Library's collection of Photographs of child labor in Delaware ...
This 1910 #WorkerWednesday photograph comes from Hagley Library's collection of Photographs of child labor in Delaware (Accession 2002.252), a small collection that documents some of the work of the sociologist and muckraking documentary photographer Lewis Wickes Hine (1874 - 1940). Hines's photographic exposés of child labor were generated...
Color poster with illustrations of a railroad station and railroad workers holding ballots.
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
The Railway Labor Executivess Association (RLEA) is joining you at the polls this Election Day ...
The Railway Labor Executives' Association (RLEA) is joining you at the polls this Election Day with this ca. 1944 poster. The RLEA was founded in 1926 to lobby on behalf of a federation of railroad labor unions in the United States and Canada. It served this purpose until 1997, when it was disbanded in favor of a newly formed rail division of the...

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