The records of Betts & Seal cover the operation of the foundry from 1828 to 1867. the result is a rare time-capsule look at the workings of a small but innovative foundry during the first phase of American industrialization.

As might be expected of a small, one-building operation, account books predominate. There is, however, one wage book covering the years 1848-1868; other enteries for wages are scattered through the other account books. The latter also contain data on the partners' earnings and expenses, business travel, inventory and furnance operations. They record the purchase of scrap iron and brass for remelting, coal and charcoal for fuel, oyster shells for flux, and moulding sand from Dutchess County, New York, and Gloucester County, New Jersey. The Works Diaries are actually a kind of daily accounting journal with notations of castings made with the weight in pounds. The cupola account (1851-1867, incomplete) shows the consumption of raw materials and the output of the melting furnance. The Debit Ledger No. 2 (1844-1846) contains an apprenticeship agreement for E. B. Taggart. The Order Books (1828-1849) are a chronological list of orders, usually with dimensioned sketches of the pieces to be made. These include gears, pulleys, shafts, flywheels, axles, pipe, flywheels, anchors, railroad car wheels and pump parts.

The records render a good description of the relationship among different partners in the firm and between the firm and its workers, customers and suppliers. The foundry's customer list reads like a who's who of early New Castle County industries, including the DuPont Company powder mills, the textile mills of the Bancrofts, Deans, Puseys and Riddles, the paper mills of Jessup & Moore, turbine inventor Emile Geyelin and the iron works of the Alan Wood family. Of course, the partners dealt heavily with businesses owned by related families such as Harlan & Hollingsworth and Pusey & Jones. The firm also enjoyed good trade with the millowners along the streams lying between Wilmington and Philadelphia, such as the Crozers, Leipers, Daniel Lammot, and even Joseph Ripka of Manayunk, the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Thomas Wood's Fairmount Machine Works, and the new metalworking industries of Chester. Its long-distance trade is skewed to the south--to points around the Chesapeake basin--rather than to the north and east, which were well-supplied with foundries of their own. Even so, the records show an exchange of tools and parts with important northern foundries and machine shops, such as Corliss in Rhode Island, the Novelty Iron Works in New York and Cyrus Alger's South Boston Iron Works.

Perhaps most importantly, the records include good runs of both incoming and outgoing correspondence for the years of Betts & Seal's tenure. These include fairly detailed descriptions of castings being ordered, usually with dimensioned sketches in the margins, that give a good sense of the work involved in making the individual pieces. In addition to orders for castings, there is also correspondence relating to the purchase of tools and supplies and freight bills for shipments by rail and water.

Clients and/or Correspondents:

Joseph Bancroft (1803-1874); Samuel Bancroft (1804-1891); James Antoine Bidermann (1790-1865); John Price Crozer (1793-1866); Joseph Dean (1784-1861); Alfred Victor du Pont (1798-1856); Charles Irénée du Pont (1797-1869); Lammot du Pont (1831-1884); William Evans Garrett (1798?-1885); Emile Camile Geyelin (1828?-1900); Richard Pim Gibbons (1819-1904); Barclay Haines; John Paxson Harlan (1809-1860); Samuel Harlan (1808-1883); Edmund A. Harvey (1821-1911); Elijah Hollingsworth (1806-1866); Alfred Jenks (1793-1854); Augustus E. Jessup; John Jones (1818-1897); Daniel Lammot (1782-1877); George Gray Leiper (1786-1868); George G. Lobdell (1818-1894); Rebecca W. (Rebecca Webb Lukens (1794-1854); Henry S. McComb (1825-1881); Joseph Mendenhall (1809-1880); Charles Moore (1807-1890); John Morton Poole (1812-1879); James E. Price (1842-1919); Jonas Pusey (1791-1851); Joshua L. Pusey (1820-1891); Jacob Pusey (1792-1871); Samuel N. Pusey (1814-1885); James Riddle (1803-1873); Joseph Ripka (1788-1864); John Sellers (1826-1906); Evan Canning Stotsenburg (1807-1882); Edward Tatnall (1782-1856); Henry Lea Tatnall (1829-1885); Joseph Tatnall (1816-1895); Isaac Ridgeway Trimble (1802-1888); Charles Warner (1816-1891); Alan Wood (1800-1881); Thomas Wood (1814-?); Waters Dewees Wood(1826-1899); Alan Wood & Brother; Alan Wood & Company; Atlantic Iron Works (Norfolk, Va.); Baldwin Locomotive Works; Bancroft and Sellers (Philadelphia, Pa.); Betts, Harlan & Hollingsworth; Betts, Pusey & Harlan; Betts, Pusey, Jones & Seal; Bush & Lobdell (Wilmington, Del.); C. & J. Marshall; Cabeen & Company; Camden Iron Manufacturing Company; Catasauqua Manufacturing Company; Charles B. Campbell & Company; Charles I. du Pont & Company; Charles Warner Company; Corliss Steam Engine Company; Delaware Iron Works; Diamond State Rolling Mill; E. & A. Betts; E.C. Stotsenburg & Son; E. Haldeman & Company; E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company; Fairmount Machine Works (Philadelphia, Pa.); Ferris & Garrett; Franklin Iron Works (Reading, Pa.); Great Central Fair for the United States Sanitary Commission (1864 : Philadelphia, Pa.); Harlan & Hollingsworth; Hollingsworth, Harvey & Company; Hoopes & Townsend; J. Morton Poole & Company; J. Pusey & Sons; J. Wood & Bros. (Conshohocken, Pa.); Jackson & Sharp; Jessup & Moore; Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company; Marshall, Phillips & Company; Marshallton Iron Works; McCullough Iron Company; Merrick & Sons; Miller & Allen, Machinists & Engineers (Chester, Pa.); Nathan Trotter & Company; National Iron Armor & Ship Building Company; Novelty Iron Works; Pascal Iron Works (Philadelphia, Pa.); Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail Road Company; Pusey & Jones; Pusey, Jones & Betts; Pusey, Jones & Company; Reaney, Son & Archbold; Riddle & Maxwell; Rockland Manufacturing Company on the Brandywine; Schuylkill Iron Works; Sellers Brothers; South Boston Iron Company; Tatnall & Lea; William Lea & Company; Wood & Lukens (McKeesport, Pa.).