Finding Aids

John McShain (1898-1989) was a Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.-based building contractor, whose firm, John McShain, Inc., was by 1950 the fifth largest construction firm in the United States. The collection contains graphic materials documenting John McShain's family life and personal interests, his career as a building contractor, and his involvement in horse racing.

Advertising, both print and radio, developed as a prominent industry in the early decades of the twentieth century as popular magazine circulation exploded and the radio became ubiquitous in American households. This collection consists of digital access copies of publications, including employee magazines, and magazine advertisements for radios and other related household electronics dating from 1912 to 1980.

John Oscar Skiles (1895-1960) was a longtime employee of Bethlehem Steel Corporation, where he worked as an analyst in the Metallurgical Department of the company's Sparrows Point, Maryland, plant, beginning in the 1920s until his retirement in 1960. This small collection consists of one folder of materials related to Skiles' employment at Bethlehem Steel.

His business records consist of four time and board books and one day book from the Greenwood Iron Works and a single day book from the District Forge.

John Potts (1760-1809) was a Pennsylvania businessman and member of the Potts family of ironmasters. This collection documents copper and iron ore mining and land speculation in Pennsylvania and Virginia by John Potts Jr. between 1767 and 1830. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence between Potts and his brother-in-law, Robert E. Hobart (1768-1826). It describes the initial operation of the Keeptryst Furnace and the operations of the Copper Mine Company of Pennsylvania.

John Raven Johnson (1900-1988) was a professor of chemistry at Cornell University from 1930 until his retirement in 1965. He also served as a consultant to E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company from 1937 until 1951, where he worked for the Organic Chemicals Department. Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) was a chemist and inventor of Neoprene artificial rubber and Nylon synthetic fiber. He worked as a chemist in E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Fundamental Research Program from 1928 until his death in 1937. This collection consists of correspondence between Johnson and Carothers, who were close friends as well as colleagues. The letters are both professional and personal in nature. Several letters discuss laboratory research work in polymer chemistry and the role of the catalyst.

John T. Houlihan (1944-) is an industrial designer who worked for General Motors, SCM Corporation, General Electric, South Bend Toy, and Timex. His papers consist of sketches, drawings, and renderings from those companies, spanning nearly forty years.

John Trageser Steam Copper Works manufactured galvanized and copper range boilers, expansion tanks, hot water tanks, as well as; sinks, drainboards and bathtubs. This item is a page (March 1926) from a calendar of the John Trageser Steam Copper Works of New York. A humorous color illustration by Tony Sarg shows four men golfers "Limbering up at the first tee."

John W. Macklem (1867-1948) began working for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company as an errand boy at a young age and remained with the company his entire career. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. This collection comprises photographs of buildings and scenes in DuPont Company explosives manufacturing plants along the Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware, including the Eleutherian Mills (or Upper) yard, the Upper Hagley yard, and the Lower Hagley yard.

In 1875, Philadelphia merchant, John Wanamaker, bought a freight railroad depot at 13th and Market Streets and made it Philadelphia’s first department store. In 1909, Wanamaker bought a huge pipe organ and installed it in Grand Court of the new building. Octave Denis Victor Guillonnet (1872-1967) was a French painter and medallic artist. This collection is a folded momento with of a reproduction of "Adoration of the Magi" triptych painted by O. D. V. Guillonnet which was exhibited in the Organ Loft, Grand Court of the John Wanamaker store, Philadelphia.

John Watson (1774-1864), a Quaker, worked as a land surveyor in Pennsylvania during the early nineteenth century. The collection consists of five volumes relating to the construction of the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal.

John Zimmermann & Sons, Inc. was a manufacturer of upholstery fabrics in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for more than fifty years. This collection consists primarily of financial records from the company's founding through its sale to Merion Securities, Inc. It contains rich payroll and pension data of potential interest to labor historians. The collection also contains records from Zimmermann Mills, Inc. and J-Z, Inc., a division of Merion Securities. These materials are also primarily financial in nature.

Jonathan H. Klein (1949-) spent his professional career as a specialist in passenger railroad and rail transit equipment economics. The papers consist of a small sample of reports and memoranda written or collected by Klein in his role as a manager in charge of rail passenger equipment procurement, performance and maintenance. The agencies represented are SEPTA, Chicago Transit Authority, BART, LAMTA and Amtrak.

The Jones Brokerage Company was a food brokerage business founded by Otis V. Jones Jr. (1915-2003) in 1946, as Associated Foods in Raleigh, North Carolina. This small collection contains samples of packaging for bread, coffee, desserts, produce, meats, sausages, and salt.

Joseph A. Speel (1810?-1891) was a bookbinder in Philadelphia. This advertisement shows an interior view of the bindery printed in at least two colors with hand tinting.

Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company began operation in 1831 as a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware. After the Civil War, the company concentrated on finishing cotton cloth. In later years it became famous for its Ban-lon artificial fiber but eventually withdrew from manufacturing in favor of licensing its processes and trademarks to other companies. The records consist of miscellaneous correspondence and reports, possibly from W. Ralph MacIntyre (1897-1984), president. The records include research reports and notebooks on dyeing, bleaching, printing, and finishing of fabrics.

Joseph Bancroft, an Englishman trained in textile weaving in Lancashire, established his own cotton mill on the Brandywine near Wilmington, Delaware in 1831. This operation became the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company in 1889, and in 1929 it absorbed the Eddystone Manufacturing Co. These images include plant exteriors and interiors, officials and employees, aerials, workers' housing, machinery, floods, and dams and races on Brandywine Creek as well as many Ban-Lon and Miss America fashion photographs. This collection includes approximately 1060 images covering a period from the late 19th century to the 1960s.

Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company manufactured, bleached, dyed, and finished a variety cotton-made goods. In July of 1958, The Spunize Company of America filed a lawsuit against one of Bancroft's licensees, the Duplan Corporation. The Spunize Company alleged that Duplan Corp. had committed patent infringement of a yarn crimping process that Duplan licensed from Bancroft. This collection consists of photographs and motion picture film depicting the yarn crimping process and the crimped yarn. A majority of the materials were created with the intention of being submitted as evidence in the court case.

Joseph Bancroft (1803-1874), an Englishman trained in textile weaving in Lancashire, established his own cotton mill on the Brandywine near Wilmington in 1831. The operation became the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company in 1889. The photographs consist of images related to the Joseph Bancroft & Sons textile mills in the Rockford and, later, Kentmere areas on the banks of the Brandywine River. These images include plant exteriors and interiors, officials and employees, aerials, workers' housing, machinery, floods, and dams and races on Brandywine Creek.

Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company manufactured, bleached, dyed, and finished a variety cotton-made goods. A panoramic view of Bancroft Mills in Wilmington, Delaware.

A small sample of engineering sketch sheets from a large Wilmington, Delaware, cotton textile and textile finishing firm.

Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company began operation in 1831 as a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware. After the Civil War the company concentrated on finishing cotton cloth. In later years it became famous for its Ban-lon artificial fiber but eventually withdrew from manufacturing in favor of licensing its processes and trademarks to other companies. This portion of the Bancroft records documents Bancroft's efforts to license and defend the Ban-lon, Everglaze and other trademarks in the United States, the British Commonwealth, Europe, Japan, and Latin America.

The records consist of a small batch of company documents preserved by an individual after the end of operations by the Wilmington Finishing Company. They include copies of the company's charter and supplements, bylaws and amendments, and files of agreements covering water rights, easements for sewer, gas and water lines, and plant access for the Wilmington and Northern Railroad Company.

Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company began operation in 1831 as a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware. After the American Civil War, the company concentrated on finishing cotton cloth, purchasing the Kentmere Mills adjoining their original site in 1895 and a third plant for manufacturing at Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1910. The company acquired another textile firm, the Eddystone Manufacturing Company, in 1925. This collection comprises records from both the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company and the Eddystone Manufacturing Company, along with records from several predecessors and subsidiaries. The Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company records trace the firm's history from 1831 through 1961, with the Managing Director's letter books, in particular, giving a very detailed picture of the company's operations. The records of the Eddystone Manufacturing Company and its predecessors are relatively complete and offer a good picture of a medium-sized textile firm that was typical of the mid-Atlantic states.

Joseph Dugan (1766-1845) was a Philadelphia merchant of the early nineteenth century. The collection is a receipt book of Dugan's household expenses, including fuel (cordwood), specialty foodstuffs such as wine, and furniture.

Joseph H. Hanson (1820-1858) was a farmer in St. Georges Hundred near Delaware City, Delaware. The volume is a combined ledger and memorandum book covering the operation of Hanson's farm and the employment of tenants and/or farm laborers. There are pages for the accounts of individuals employed, mostly boys and young white men but also some women and some African Americans, with lists of chores performed.

Joseph Horn (1861-1941) and Frank Hardart (1850-1918) founded Horn & Hardart, a food service company, in 1888. In 1902, Horn and Hardart opened their first Automat in Philadelphia. The first New York City Automat opened in 1912, and other locations followed in both cities. The Automat became a huge success in Philadelphia and New York City, daily serving hundreds of thousands of people in its heyday. This item is a framed portrait photograph of Joseph Horn from around the 1930s.

Joseph Lawrence Kochka (1892-1952) and Mary Murray Kochka (1893-1984) were high school teachers in the Washington, D.C., area from the 1920s through the 1940s. Mary Kochka continued teaching through the 1950s. The couple was married in 1926. This collection consists of a travelogue photograph album detailing the Kochkas' two-week tour through Syracuse and Palmyra, New York, with Holman Rides Inc., an outdoor amusement ride and carnival business, in August 1950. The Kochkas were hosted by company owners Lucy Holman Sprague (1894-1954) and Leonard "Speed" Sprague (1902-1970). There are images of the Spragues' home, their neighbors' homes, ride erection/disassembly crews, ticket booths, crew quarters, transport trucks, and views of the fairgrounds. Rides pictured include the Tilt-a-Whirl, Merry-go-Round, Ferris Wheel, and Baby Tug. Lucy and Speed Holman are often seen along with their dog, Dundee. Most images have extensive captions.

Joseph Lincoln Gillson (1895-1964) was the chief geologist for the DuPont Company's Development Department from 1929 to 1960. As chief geologist he traveled all over the world making explorations in search of sulfur, ilmenite, fluorspar, barytes, celestite, and other raw materials, as well as conducting investigations in search of ground water supplies, foundations, and general site studies. This is a small collection that consists of a set of notebooks and related documents from Gillson's time working for the DuPont Company, as well as a set of papers and related documents from consulting projects he did during his retirement.

Joseph N. Borglin (1899-1976) was a chemical engineer in the Agricultural Chemicals Division at Hercules Powder Company. The records include typescripts for two works by Borglin: "Treatise on Vinsol Resin" and "Treatise on Rosin" both from the 1940s.

Joseph P. Hornor (1785-1845) was a merchant in Philadelphia in the early nineteenth century. The collection is comprised of a letter book of Hornor's outbound letters, describing mercantile business spreading throughout the Philadelphia hinterlands.

Joseph M. Rule (1922-2017) was a chemist and industrial marketing analyst in the Marketing Research Division of the Development Department at the DuPont Company. Later he became senior community affairs consultant in the Public Affairs Department. This small collection consists of materials from Rule's work for the Marketing Research Department. The materials include market research reports, DuPont Elastomers architectural files, and advertisements.

Joseph T. Richards (1845-1933) was a career civil engineer with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company who participated in several of their large construction projects in the first decade of the twentieth century. The records consist of the contents of a small portfolio of documents relating to the construction of Pennsylvania Station and its associated yards and terminals.

Joseph W. Lynch was a textile chemist at the DuPont Company from 1954 to 1994. Lynch's papers document his forty-year career at DuPont. Some company records in Lynch's possession antedate his employment, while others describe his job searches from 1952 to 1954. The bulk of the records deal with customer relations, including identifying and resolving problems concerning DuPont's textile fiber products and providing technical assistance to customers.

Josephine Anderson du Pont (1853-1943) was a suffragist and the wife of Victor du Pont Jr. (1852-1911), vice president and general manager of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. The memoirs, written between 1928 and 1932, contain a record of her life in mid-19th century Philadelphia, including details of the Civil War years.

The leather manufacturing firm of Joshua Conner & Son was founded in 1848 by James Conner (1813-1880). This collection consists of five photographs of the storefront, store interiors and portraits of the proprietors.

Joshua Gilpin (1765-1841) was a merchant and paper manufacturer. Thomas Gilpin (1776-1853) went into business with his brother, Joshua, establishing Delaware's first paper mill on the Brandywine Creek. James Riddle (1802-1873) owned James Riddle Son & Co., a cotton mill along the Brandywine. This collection contains miscellaneous papers from the three men, including deeds, property agreements, and a copy of Riddle's will.

Joshua Gilpin (1765-1841) was a merchant and paper manufacturer. Article written by historians Harold B. Hancock and Norman B. Wilkinson, "Joshua Gilpin: an American manufacturer in England and Wales, 1895-1801," based on Gilpin's journals.

Merchant and paper manufacturer Joshua Gilpin (1765-1841) established the first paper mill in Delaware near Wilmington in partnership with his brother, Thomas (1776-1853), and uncle, Miers Fisher. Gilpin traveled extensively abroad from 1795 to 1801. The collection consists of 62 pocket journals and notebooks, the bulk of which date from Gilpin's European tour from 1795 to 1801.

Joshua Gilpin (1765-1841) was a merchant and paper manufacturer in Delaware. This collection is a microfilm of letters in a scrapbook, including correspondence from Gilpin, Thomas Gilpin (1776-1853), and others.

Joshua Gilpin (1765-1841) was a merchant and paper manufacturer. The papers consist of copies of four typescript letters written to Matthew Boulton (1728-1809), a British engineer from Joshua Gilpin.

Joshua Gilpin (1765-1841) was a Philadelphia merchant and paper manufacturer. His notebook describes the process of chlorine bleaching, with drawings and formulae.

Joshua Gilpin (1765-1841) was a Philadelphia merchant and paper manufacturer. The collection includes microfilm copies of Gilpin's notes on the bleaching of pulp in the manufacture of paper, with others on the same subject by Lawrence Greatrake (manager of the Gilpin mills) and William Stidolph.

The Joy Manufacturing Company was a major manufacturer of mining and materials handling machinery built upon the invention of the first practical coal loading machine by Joseph F. Joy (1883-1957). It is a somewhat random collection of documents assembled and preserved by the former corporate secretary James Packer (1920-2008) for the purpose of writing a never-completed company history. They include the sorts of documents normally in possession of a corporate secretary, such as copies of meeting minutes, corporate family tree information, historical notes, and promotional publications.

Jules Guex (1833-1918) was a Swiss national who was caught in the German siege of Paris from September 1870 to January 1871. He and his wife, Louise Adele Begue Guex (1839-1884) helped to organize a Swiss ambulance in the Collège Chaptal (now the Lycée Chaptal). His activities in rescuing the wounded enabled him to view the movements of both French and Prussian troops. In this 250-page journal Guex describes the siege of Paris from September 19, 1870 to January 28, 1871 during the war between France and the German states (North German Confederation led by Prussia) which began in July 1870. It reports on the establishment of the Paris Commune, a socialist government, which lasted from March to May of 1871.

Kenneth A. Browne (1905-1985) was the research director attached to the president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway system. This collection consists of his files and documents the history of the development of Train "X" from its beginnings in 1945 to the point at which the New York Central's "Xplorer" was introduced in 1956.

The Kaehni brothers, William "Bill" L. Kaehni (1895-1950) and Francis "Frank" J. Kaehni (1897-1986) were electronics engineers, inventors, and entrepreneurs. The brothers invented radio transmitters, navigational devices for airplanes and ships, transistorized car ignitions, and heat control systems. They also built and installed public address systems. This small collection primarily consists of the Kaehni brothers' class notes from courses taken at the Case School of Applied Science (now folded into Case Western Reserve University). The notes are most likely Bill Kaehni's, but could also be Frank Kaehni's, as they are mostly undated. Of significance is a bound biography written in 1998 by David C. Barnett using documents from the Kaehni family and firsthand accounts from their sister, Marie Kaehni, who provides her own memories in the afterword.

Karen du Pont Farquhar (1947-) is the great-granddaughter of T. Coleman du Pont (1863-1930), president of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company in the early 20th century. This collection of photographs is part of a larger group of du Pont family papers, which are housed in the Manuscripts and Archives Department. The photograph collection includes many photographs of the du Pont family from 1882 to 1960.

Karl Gabosch (1932-2008) was an employee of Pennsylvania Railroad Company and its successors, Penn Central and Conrail. The collection consists of a sample of company manuals, internal publications, and maps that were issued to him over the course of his career.

Peter Arnold Karthaus (1765-1840) immigrated to the United States from Hamburg, Germany in 1796 and established a mercantile business in the West Branch of the Susquehanna River Valley. The collection documents Karthaus' mercantile business, land development in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and his partnership with fellow German immigrant, Frederick W. Geissenhainer, a pioneer in using coal to smelt iron.