Finding Aids

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 item is an advertising place mat printed in two colors with drawings of scenes from the upcoming 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.

Capital Airlines was a commercial airline for the eastern, southern, southeastern, and midwestern United States from 1936 to 1961. In the 1950s, it was the fifth-largest airline in the United States. The airline was the first to offer service from the west to Washington D.C., coach class service, in-flight television, and jet-powered commercial aircraft. This collection is of material that would have been presented to a passenger on a flight around 1957, apparently from Buffalo, New York, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then back again.

Helen Baker Cushman (1922-) was the founder and manager of H.M. Baker Associates, consultants in business archives and records from 1958 to 1993, headquartered in Westfield, New Jersey. In the course of conducting her business, Cushman collected a wide variety of business publications, trade cards, ephemera, and other memorabilia with special emphasis on world expositions. She also assembled her own general picture archive for use in her business.

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.

This oral history project was initiated to provide supplementary material for Hagley’s 2015 exhibit, Driving Desire, that feature items from the Z. Taylor Vinson Transportation Collection. The three interviewees are; Rick Shnitzler, Fred Simeone, and Yann Saunders, all were personal acquaintances of Z. Taylor Vinson as well as highly involved in either collecting or dealing auto ephemera and/or automobiles.

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.

The Pleasant Valley Wine Company is a historic winery founded near Hammondsport, New York, on Lake Keuka in 1860. This brochure is illustrated with seven color lithographic views of wine production and three black-and-white illustrations of the company's wine bottles.

The Singer Company was once the world's leading producer of sewing machines that achieved peak domestic and foreign influence by the late nineteenth century. The collection consists of photographs, trade cards and other ephemera related to the Singer Company. Most of the photographs feature Singer sewing machines and many of these are identified by date and model number.