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The Hagley Vault

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

September 28, 2026

Man operating a mine haulage train

In 1854, the Westmoreland Coal Company began mining coal in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, primarily for sale to steelmakers, railroads, and coal gasification plants. Within a few decades, the company was providing coal to fifty-eight gasworks along the east coast. Today, the company is one of the coal industry’s oldest independent companies.

The company's biggest growth period occurred after World War I, when it began a period of acquisition and expansion well beyond its original Westmoreland County fields, beginning with a 1917 merger with the Penn Gas Coal Company and the Manor Gas Coal Company.

This ca. 1935 photograph is from the company's colliery in Stonega, Virginia. The colliery was originally part of the Stonega Coke & Coal Company, a company on founded in 1902, for the purpose of acquiring an operating a colliery plant leased the Virginia Coal & Iron Co., a land company partly owned and managed by John S. Wentz, a coal magnate who was also…Read more...

Archive

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

Fri, 03/05/2021 - 12:00

Happy Industrial Design Day! Industrial design the practice of...

Happy Industrial Design Day! Industrial design, the practice of optimizing the function, value, and appearance of products, is a central component in America's culture of consumerism as well as the source of many beautiful objects now in the collections of leading art and history museums. Industrial Design Day first entered into the U.S.…

Thu, 03/04/2021 - 12:00

When Dr. Wesley Memeger Jr. started at DuPont in 1964, he was...

When Dr. Wesley Memeger Jr. started at DuPont in 1964, he was only the fourth African American with a doctorate in chemistry to join the company. Over the course of a thirty-two-year career, Memeger amassed fourteen patents and left his mark on some of DuPont's most famous products, like Kevlar, the synthetic fiber found in bulletproof vests. His…

Wed, 03/03/2021 - 12:00

Today's #WorkerWednesday post brings us inside the tool room of...

Today's #WorkerWednesday post brings us inside the tool room of the Hoopes Brothers & Darlington sawmill in Brooksville, Florida. A note on the reverse of this ca. 1907 photograph identifies the person on the far right asFrank Orville Reagan(1869-1937), the son of Owen Wily Reagan(1847-1909), the sawmill's manager. The company that owned the…

Tue, 03/02/2021 - 12:00

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…

Mon, 03/01/2021 - 12:00

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…

Fri, 02/26/2021 - 12:00

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…

Thu, 02/25/2021 - 12:00

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…

Wed, 02/24/2021 - 12:00

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…

Tue, 02/23/2021 - 12:00

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),…

Mon, 02/22/2021 - 12:00

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…

Fri, 02/19/2021 - 12:00

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…

Thu, 02/18/2021 - 12:00

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…

Wed, 02/17/2021 - 12:00

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…

Tue, 02/16/2021 - 12:00

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…

Mon, 02/15/2021 - 12:00

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…

Fri, 02/12/2021 - 12:00

#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…