Finding Aids

Maryland Steel Company was a steel-works and shipyard operated from 1891 until 1916, when Bethlehem Steel acquired the Pennsylvania Steel Company and its subsidiary, Maryland Steel. This collection consists of 3 albums containing 204 cyanotype photographs taken at the Maryland Steel Company's steel plant and shipyard between 1890 and 1894. The photographs show steel buildings, steel workers, shipyard buildings, ship construction, tugs and steamships.

Masters & Markoe was a mercantile house which operated throughout the early nineteenth century. Most of the records date from the period 1810 to 1814 and document the West Indian trade of Markoe & Masters. The collection consists of the business correspondence and accounts records which shows that the firm was primarily involved with the importation of sugar from Santa Cruz (St. Croix). The company also imported molasses, rum, coffee, mahogany, and logwood. There are also personal papers of the firms co-founder, Thomas Masters (1781-1844) and members of his family.

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.

Mather & Company was a printer of motivational workplace posters, based out of Chicago, Illinois between 1923 and 1929. This item is a poster designed by Frank Beatty (1899-1984) and used to motivate workers after the Stock Market Crash.

Mather & Company was a printer of motivational workplace posters, based out of Chicago, Illinois. Between 1923 and 1929, the company produced approximately 350 work-incentive posters. The posters were color lithographs containing vivid images accompanied by witty captions that demonstrated workplace interpersonal interactions, appropriate behaviors, ideals, and guidelines. This artificial collection consists of twenty-six Mather & Company work-incentive posters. The design of each poster follows a standard format; each includes a three-part message and a single image using a colorful pallet.

Mauch Chunk, a town in northeastern Pennsylvania now known as Jim Thorpe, was founded in 1818 by Josiah White (1781-1850). It grew up around the coal industry. This is a colorful view looking down on Mauch Chunk with Mount Pisgah in background.

The Chisholm Bros. was a publishing company that produced railway, travel and tourists guides, and souvier albums which depicted routes of travel. This item is a hard cover souvenir with eighteen views of sights in Mauch Chunk, the "Switzerland of America." Images are on 12 unpaginated folded panels.

The patriarch of the Johnson family of Cape May New Jersey was Eldridge Johnson (1838-1929), a prominent merchant, trustee of the Presbyterian Church, and president of the Cape May Saving Fund and Building Association. The Johnson family of Cape May resided at 225 Congress Place, a house which was moved to 33 Perry Street in the 1970s and is today known as the Pink House. This collection consists of postcards from a states in the United States and a few from Canada. The postcards depict landscapes, street scenes, prominent buildings and monuments, as well as Presbyterian Churches from a variety of cities. These postcards were sent to members of the Johnson family between 1910 and 1949.

Maurice du Pont Lee (1885-1974) was the General Advisor to the Chief Engineer of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. The collection includes photographs of Maurice du Pont Lee's family members. The collection also includes a group of public relations photographs of Maurice du Pont Lee, dating from 1950 to 1969.

The Maxim Silencer Company was the first company to manufacture gun silencers for commercial use. The company was founded in 1908 as the Maxim Silent Firearms Company by Hiram Percy Maxim (1869-1936) in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1912 Maxim incorporated his business as the Maxim Silencer Company. Maxim was an engineer and inventor. This small collection consists of photographs of rifles with silencers, the company's World War II Army E. Navy award ceremony, and a few images of Hiram Percy Maxim and his son Hiram Hamilton Maxim.

The Maxim Silencer Company was the first company to manufacture gun silencers for commercial use. The company was founded in 1908 as the Maxim Silent Firearms Company by Hiram Percy Maxim (1869-1936) in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1912, Maxim incorporated his business as the Maxim Silencer Company. Maxim was an engineer and inventor. The records of the Maxim Silencer Company consist of directors' minute books from October 18, 1912, to October 19, 1956. There are a small payroll book showing payments; newsclippings and magazine articles on the company's history; issues of the company magazine from the World War II years; and good selection of the company's trade catalogs, both for the firearms silencers and snowplows and snow blowers.

Contains photographic prints from a family who once resided in Laurel, Delaware.

May du Pont Saulsbury (1854-1927) was a leading hostess in Washington, D.C. during the Wilson administration, philanthropist, and wife of Senator Willard Saulsbury (1861-1927). The journal covers the couple's summer trip to Europe in 1919, coinciding with the signing of Treaty of Versailles.

McCullough Iron Company produced the first galvanized sheet iron in the United States, and then went on to produce charcoal blooms and iron bars. The Octoraro Rolling Mill was built in 1828, originally owned by Joseph Roman and purchased by McCullough & Co. in 1857. It operated until 1893. This item is a panoramic-type nineteenth century albumen photograph showing the town of Rowlandsville, Maryland, on Octoraro Creek in Cecil County. The iron-works may be in the distance, and the houses may be predominantly worker's housing.

MCI Communications Corporation (MCI) was a large telecommunications company. It was organized in October 1963 in Joliet, Illinois, by John D. (Jack) Goeken (1930-2010), as Microwave Communications, Inc. Goeken and his partners were planning to provide point-to-point private line microwave communications between Chicago and St. Louis to small businesses. This large collection documents the activities of the MCI Communications Corporation and its subsidiaries as well as the development of a competitive telecommunications industry in the United States and worldwide. The materials focus on MCI corporate life, public relations, technical operations, and sales and marketing activities. A vast amount of videotapes makes up a significant portion of the MCI collection, however, there are also photographs, slides, digital files, and audio cassette tapes.

MCI Communications Corporation (MCI) was one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. It was incorporated in Delaware in 1968 as Microwave Communications of America, Inc., to provide businesses with nationwide microwave telecommunications services at low prices. Being confronted by industry de facto monopoly AT&T in the interconnection of its lines to local facilities owned by AT&T affiliated regional Bell companies, MCI challenged the telecommunications giant with competitive long-distance telephone services, both in courts and at the marketplace. MCI-AT&T antitrust litigation (1974-1985) led to AT&T's divestiture of its regional carriers and changed the previously regulated telecommunications industry into a business open to competition. The collection documents all facets of MCI history from 1968 to the end of the 1990s, as well as changes in the American telecommunications regulatory policy, legislation, and public perception of the industry. Documents also include records of MCI's subsidiaries and their predecessors starting as early as 1849.

MCI Communications Corporation (MCI) was a large telecommunications company. It was organized in October 1963 in Joliet, Illinois, by John D. (Jack) Goeken (1930-2010) as Microwave Communications, Inc. Goeken and his partners were planning to provide point-to-point private line microwave communications between Chicago and St. Louis to small businesses. This small collection of MCI documents primarily concerns customer service support, branch service, billing/system problems, and internet services.

John McShain (1898-1989) was a Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.-based building contractor, whose firm, John McShain, Inc., was by 1950 the fiftieth largest construction firm in the United States, with contracts in excess of $100,000,000. This collection consists of thirteen audiotapes of oral history interviews with John McShain's family and friends. People interviewed include Mary McShain, Polly McShain, Vincent and Jacqueline O'Brien, and Cardinal Krol.

The papers document the lives and careers of three generations of the immediate and extended family that began with famed Civil War officer Montgomery C. Meigs (1816-1892). The most notable members include his son, engineer Montgomery Meigs (1847-1931) and granddaughter and author Cornelia Meigs (1884-1973). The materials are about equally divided between professional activities and domestic family concerns.

Christian Schussele (1824-1879) was an artist and teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. John Sartain (1808-1897) was a Philadelphia printmaker and engraver, and director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The engraving is a group portrait of nineteen nineteenth-century American inventors and industrialists, collected around a table with examples of their inventions, and beneath a portrait of Benjamin Franklin.

Mendes Cohen (1831-1915) worked for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, chiefly in the Motive Power Department, from 1851 to 1855, where he adaptated wood-burning locomotives to coal-burning and devised the method for handling traffic on the 10% temporary grade over the Kingwood Tunnel. The report covers a series of tests and improvements conducted in 1853 and 1854 with the aim of reducing flue wear and tear and fuel consumption in the large coal-burning engines

The Merchants Coal Company mined semi-bituminous coal in the early twentieth century. These are images of early construction at the Merchants Coal Company in Boswell, Pennsylvania.

Trading stamps were small paper coupons, given to customers by merchants, that had a minimal cash value. Customers could save these coupons and exchange them with the trading stamp company for premiums. The use of these coupons grew with the proliferation of chain gas stations and supermarkets in the early 20th century. Two perforated sheets of "merchant's coupons" (possibly trading stamps) are included, one with fifteen stamps and the other with ten. The coupons in this collection have no markings to determine the merchant or trading stamp company of origin.

Margaretta “Meta” du Pont Coleman (1862-1938) was a descendant of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) who founded the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company with his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) in 1802. The E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. She collected family portraits while compiling a family genealogy. This collection includes daguerrotypes, tintypes, ambrotypes and other early portrait photographs of various family members.

The Metropolitan Steamship Co. was a steamship line which provided service between Boston and New York and later between San Francisco and Los Angeles. This item is a prnt of the steamship "General Whitney" from the Metropolitan Steamship Co.'s Outside Line between New York and Boston.

Lobdell Car Wheel Company was a producer of cast railroad car wheels in Wilmington, Delaware. This collection contains one photographic reproduction depicting employee Michael Munroe (1879-1969) pouring steel.

Michael Somerville Withers (1926-1985) was a mechanical engineer and an inventor. He worked at the DuPont Company from 1953 to 1983. Withers is the holder/co-holder of fourteen United States patents for plastic laminates and heat exchangers. Withers's papers document his career with the DuPont Company on plastic laminates, heat exchangers, and seal rings. The papers are organized into seven series: Sabine River Works; Experimental Station; Nafion Laminator; Heat exchangers/heaters; Vespel seal rings; Pneumatic tension device; and Trade catalogs, pamphlets, and articles.

Michael Tenenbaum (1913-2005) was a metallurgist and President of the Inland Steel Company from 1971 to 1978. This small collection of his papers consist of a series of his writings and speeches and a small number of Inland Steel Company publications.

During his lifetime, French botanist Michel Adanson (1727-1806) assembled a large number of notes and documents for a projected but never completed scientific encylcopedia. This collection of Adanson's notes focuses on nitrates, including saltpeter.

The Midvale Steel Company manufactured steel parts and was known for casting, forging, and machining high-quality steels, including alloy steels, and precision steel products for a wide array of industries. Their primary business came from work related to railroad and ordnance manufacturing. This small collection consists of five reels of film that document operations at the Midvale Steel Plant in the Nicetown section of Philadelphia. While the reels are not dated, they are believed to be from 1919. The films document the various stages of production at the plant with a focus on the precision steel making processes for which Midvale was known.

The Midvale Steel Company manufactured steel parts for the railroad industry and the armaments industry. The company was known for casting, forging, and machining high-quality steels, including alloy steels. This album contains photographs showing exteriors and interiors of Midvale Steel facilities in the Nicetown area of Germantown.

The Budd Company began in Philadelphia as the Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company specializing in the manufacturing of all-steel body automobiles and then later railcars. This collection contains two enlarged reproduction black and white photographs taken at the Hunting Park plant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One is of the Budd Company's drafting room and the second is of the Budd Band float during a parade.

Mildred I. McCormick (1911-1993) was president of the Business Professional Women's Club, Wilmington, Delaware, in 1973-1974, and an executive secretary at Hewlett-Packard Corporation. The collection contains miscellaneous items from the Business and Professional Women's Club of Wilmington, Delaware (BPWC).

The Millerstown Iron Company, organized in 1873, constructed the Macungie Furnace in Macungie, Pennsylvania, and was a small anthracite iron company. The microfilmed letterbook documents the business correspondence of the company and includes outgoing correspondence from the Macungie furnace's superintendents.

The Millerstown Iron Company, organized in 1873, constructed the Macungie Furnace in Macungie, Pennsylvania, and was a small anthracite iron company. The minute book records the activities of the directors of the company, primarily concerning company finances and the efforts to raise money by the sale of bonds.

The Milton Bradley Company is a creator and manufacturer of board games located in Springfield, Massachusetts. 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 two Milton Bradley products, the Official World's Fair Game and the Official World's Fair Jigsaw Puzzle.

Historically, a stock certificate is a paper record of ownership in a company. Certain information is included on a stock certificate: number of share, identification number, a corporate seal, and signatures. This collection consists of predominantly unissued stock certificates for American railroad companies. There are also four certificates of tax free municipal bonds of the City of Philadelphia.

Mittleman Robinson Inc. is an image management consulting firm. Its records consist of company brochures and press clippings advertising their services.

The Mixobeater was a machine developed for the baking and food processing industries by the Meteor Mixing Machine Company and Mixobeater Machinery Company, of New York. The collection pertains mainly to the sale of machine parts and business dealings to Fitchburg Machine Works and include lists of patents, drawings and instructions, and correspondence.

The Detroit Mohawk Liqueur Corporation formed in 1933 at the end of Prohibition and operated through 1966. This album consists of three groups of images. The first group of photographs show a working American liquor company in Detroit, Michigan. The second group consists of different Mohawk bottled liquor products. The third part is eighteen pages of original Mohawk Liqueur labels attached to scrapbook pages.

Montchanin is an unincorporated community located near Greenville, Delaware. It is named for Anne Alexandrine de Montchanin (1720-1756), mother of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817), who was a French political economist and diplomat who emigrated to Delaware with his sons. The plat depicts the area between Brandywine Creek, Barley Mill Road, and Kennett Pike and includes 85 buildings and residents' names.

Mordecai Lewis & Company (Philadelphia) was a merchant firm that owned several ships and specialized in imports of European goods, including white lead and, eventually, paint. The account sheet documents the sales of powder to William Bingham (1752-1804).

Morgan Paper Company plant manufactured tissue paper. The plant located in Lititz, Pennsylvania was built by John H. Wickersham Engineering and Construction Company. The collection contains four photographic prints of Morgan Paper Company plant.

In 1932, Morris Sayre (1885-1953) became a director of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which he became president of in 1948. The collection contains speeches given by Morris Sayre on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

The Morris family of Philadelphia were brewers, merchants, land speculators, manufacturers, and prominent participants in public affairs. This collection contains fourteen albums of photographs and postcards of foreign scenes between 1881 and 1906.

The Lea family were among the largest flour mill operators at the Brandywine Falls, north of Wilmington, Delaware, since the 1770s, when Thomas Lea (1757–1823) joined in partnership with Joseph Tatnall (1740–1813). The album contains considerable genealogical information on the Lea family, as well as thirty-eight silhouette portraits of members of the Lea and related families. These include family names such as Tatnall, Baily, Bellah, Warner, Pusey, and Rodman.

This collection consists of five publicity photographs from the motion picture Stars and Stripes Forever. It was produced by 20th Century Fox and released in 1952. It tells the story of John Philip Sousa, portrayed by Clifton Webb.

The Mount Carbon Railroad Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania on April 20, 1829, for the purpose of building a railroad from the Schuylkill Canal at Mount Carbon up Norwegian Creek to the forks and thence to Wadesville on the East Branch and Mount Laffee on the West Branch. The collection consist of thirteen laborers receipts issued for the construction of the railroad in 1829 and 1830 by William R. Hopkins, superintendent.

Whittier Cleaning & Dye Works was a small, dry cleaning business in Whittier, California. Mrs. Willhoit operated the business and eventually put her name in the title. This album contains images of the exteriors of the store, the interiors of the store showing Mrs. Whitter working, Whittier exiting a company car with clothing on hangers, a worker at the press, and Mrs. Whittier with an armed serviceman. There are several snapshots of Mrs. Whittier with a group of young women.

More than half of the mushrooms in the United States are grown in and around the town of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, which calls itself the "mushroom capital of the world." Walter W. Maule (1892-1964) and Charles C. Brosius (1930-), both Chester County, Pennsylvania, mushroom growers, were active in professional trade associations and advocates for their industry. This small collection on the mushroom industry consists of papers that document mushroom industry educational courses and professional trade associations. The collection provides insight into the role profession trade associations such as the Mushroom Growers Cooperative Association, the Mushroom Cooperative Canning Association, and the American Mushroom Insitute agriculturual play in affecting legislation and mushroom farming practices.