World's Fairs or International Expositions are large-scale exhibitions that highlight technology, agriculture and other innovations of national or cultural significance. The 1964 New York World's Fair was held in Flushing Meadows, New York from April 22, 1964 to October 18, 1964, and then again from April 25, 1965 to October 17, 1965. The theme was "Peace Through understanding." This small collection consists of four ephemera items from the 1964 New York World's Fair.

An advertising blotter is a small sheet of absorbent paper, printed with advertisement and created as a giveaway for promoting the business. The collection consists of advertising blotters from a variety of Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware businesses including a tailor, insurance companies, the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, stationery stores, and food suppliers.

In the mid-1850's major cities in the United States began publishing pictorial envelopes with patriotic themes. This collection consists of envelopes with printed cover illustrations from the American Civil War.

Coffee production and consumption boomed in America during the nineteenth century. Coffee producers and distributers advertised their brands on trade cards, small advertising cards often produced via the color printing method chromolithography. This small collection consists of trade cards related to coffee, mostly localized to Ohio, including cards from twenty-two coffee companies.

Account books were maintained by individuals and business as a way to keep track of financial transactions. This collection includes thirty-eight account books from twenty-five different businesses and individuals in the Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania area, with one additional account book from San Francisco County, California.

This collection is three photographs of the razing of Delaware Memorial Hospital. When originally founded in 1887, it was called Homeopathic Hospital since that was the branch of medicine that was practiced there. In 1940, it was renamed Memorial Hospital. It continued to serve the public also providing allopathic care until it was razed in 1985.

A needlebook is a small pocket-sized case used for keeping sewing needles in; it is made of fabric or paper and folded to look like a book. The trend of making needlebooks began in the 1800s and rose in popularity through the 1950s. The needlebook would store all the various sizes and types of needles needed for a project. This small collection consists of six packages containing sewing needles, with illustrated covers.

Match cover or a matchbook cover is a thin piece of cardboard that is folded around a set of match sticks. Chemist, John Walker (1781-1859) invented the match stick in 1827. Joshua Pusey (1842-1906?), an inventor and attorney patented matchbook covers in 1892. Within a short time hotels, restaurants, airlines, and all kinds of stores began advertising using matchbook covers. This collection is eight volumes of matchbook covers, each volume contains approximately 330-570 matchbooks. The matchbooks are graphic advertisements for various businesses, services, or products. The industries most represented are hotels, restaurants, clubs, and bars. There are a large amount of matchbooks from banks/insurance companies, automobile companies, airlines, food stores, drug stores, clothing stores, among others.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, Pennsylvania was already a leader in the coal, iron, steel, railroad, and petroleum industries. As the manufacturing industries grew in the cities, so did the small businesses of craftsman and artisans that populated the surrounding areas selling their goods. These merchants played an important role in trade, community relationships, and the economy.  This is an artificial collection of account books, cash ledgers, and receipt books of nineteenth-century merchants of various industries in Pennsylvania. Minimal correspondence is included as well as a poem.  Mineral, iron and leather industries are represented as well as organ building which includes two treatises written in German.  

Patent medicines, also known as proprietary medicines, are non-prescription medicinal remedies that are trademarked and whose ingredients have been granted protection for exclusivity. The term "patent medicine" has become particularly associated with drug compounds manufactured during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In actuality, the patent medicine recipes were not officially patented. Patent medicine promoters pioneered many advertising and sales techniques; this small collection primarily features trade cards and almanacs.

Ice and coal companies delivered ice in summer and coal in winter to meet the growing demands of consumers and businesses for refrigeration and heat. The collection consists of trade cards from seventy-one companies that were used as advertisements and as order tickets for ice and coal.

The Hagley Portrait file is an artificial collection (e.g., created and assembled by the archivist) composed almost entirely of photographic reproductions and copy negatives, with very few original prints. The Portrait file is intended to be a resource to assist in locating images of individuals. The images are not always of high quality, nor does Hagley own the copyright or the originals of all the images. The portraits are primarily formal individual portraits; there are some informal snapshots or group portraits. More than half of the collection depicts du Pont family members or those associated with the du Pont family. The du Pont family is a prominent Delawarean family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817), who founded E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company with his son, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834), in 1802. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical research and manufacturing company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company.

Anthony C.F. Wallace (1923-2015) was an anthropology professor at the University of Pennsylvania between 1951 and 1988. The Eddystone Manufacturing Company operated a cotton prints factory in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. The company was founded, owned, and operated by the Simpson family until 1929. This small collection consists of student papers written for the course Anthropology 703 Cultural Change in the Industrial Revolution. The papers all focus on the history of the Eddystone Manufacturing Company or the Simpson family and were written in the spring of 1986.

Collectors of railroad memorabilia often also collected postcards. Railroad postcards generally picture stations, engines, bridges, route scenery, railcar interiors, and accidents. Some collectors sought specific railroads. This collection is over a thousand postcards related to railroads. The collection has been arranged into two series: Railroad stations and Railroad cars and trains. This is an artificial collection assembled from various donors.

'Sponsored film' defines a variety of motion picture productions funded by businesses, organizations, or governments that dictate the film's point of view, audience, and intent. Industrial or business films are a subgenre of sponsored films with content that markets products and ideas, touts a particular company or industry, trains employees, and explains manufacturing or transactional processes around creating and selling products and ideas. The Sponsored and Industrial Motion Picture Film Collection at Hagley is an artificial collection compiled by curators that includes single motion picture films or small sets of films acquired via purchase or donation.

Wilmington is the largest city in Delaware located on the Christiana and Brandywine Rivers. Postcard views of miscellaneous sights in and around Wilmington, Delaware.

Wilmington is Delaware’s largest city and can be found where the Christina River and the Brandywine Creek meet near the Delaware River. The city prospered throughout the Industrial Revolution, but the period of rapid economic growth came with the Civil War. By 1920, the population had reached over 110,000 residents. Wilmington experienced significant population loss after World War II as the suburban areas grew and I-95 dissected some of the city’s more stable neighborhoods. These items are postcards are of miscellaneous views of Wilmington, Delaware sites.