Finding Aids

The National Industrial Distributors Association (NIDA) was a trade organization representing wholesalers of industrial supplies and hardware that attempted to address some of the problems which stemmed from their relationship with manufacturers, whom they accused of excessive price cutting and attempting to deal directly with retailers. The National Industrial Distributors Association was created in 1905 with thirty-eight members. The records briefly document the history, goals, legal issues, and governmental impact on professional associations of companies that manufacture, supply, and distribute the nation's goods and materials.

The National Negro Licensed Beverage Association (NNLBA) was a trade organization, members of which were Black-owned bars, taverns, and package liquor stores. The NNLBA was organized in 1959 to increase the economic power of the Black community and enhance its bargaining power within the industry. This small collection of NNLBA, Western Pennsylvania Branch records consists primarily of agendas and meeting minute notes of meetings that took place between March and July of 1961; they are a mixture of typescript and handwritten.

The Natrona Alkali Company was incorporated to hold title to 1,600 acres of sodium carbonate deposits in Natrona County by the descendants of chemist, Lammot du Pont (1831-1884), who developed B blasting powder, using Chilean sodium nitrate and had hoped that the sodium carbonate might become a substitute for imported sodium nitrate in the manufacture of explosives, but the deposits turned out to have no commercial application. The Natrona Alkali Company records are primarily the corporate records related to a second incorporation of the company due to a clerical oversight, the materials date from 1950 to 1980, though there are some documents from the ealier company.

Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945), known as N.C. Wyeth was one of America's foremost illustrators and painters. This poster shows a figure in the center holding up a torch. A pageant of historically costumed figures surrounds her with a log cabin on the left and a modern city on the right.

Nesbitt Aire, Inc. is one of the leading manufacturers of school heating and cooling systems. The Nesbitt Aire, Inc. records are a collection of product catalogues from the heating and cooling business of the company dating from 1933 to 2001. There is also a small portion of business correspondence, meeting minutes, employee newsletters, manuals and other publications.

The New Castle County Mutual Insurance Company was incorporated on February 6, 1849, as a mutual fire insurance company in Wilmington, Delaware. It was later renamed the New Castle Mutual Insurance Company. This small collection consists of seven portrait photographs of presidents and vice presidents of the New Castle County Mutual Insurance Company dating from around 1849 to 1912.

The New England Fireworks Manufacturing Co. manufactured fireworks and created displays for theatrical performances and civic celebrations throughout New England. The company was incorporated in 1925. Its headquarters were located on Union Street in Springfield, Massachusets. The company also had a plant in neighboring North Thompsonville, Connecticut. This collection documents the business transactions of New England Fireworks Manufacturing Co.

E. C. Kellogg and Co. was a lithography firm in Hartford, Connecticut between 1851 and 1854. The item is a hand-colored lightograph of the New York Crystal Palace for the New York Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations.

These photographs show an exhibit sponsored by the New York State Home Bureau Managers' Association that went on display at the New York State Fair in Syracuse from August 30th to September 6th in 1952. The exhibit was intended for use by professionals in the field of home demonstration to showcase principles of home economics and domestic skills to State Fair attendees.

The exhibit was developed under the supervision of Professor Mary Koll Heiner (1890-1956), of the College of Home Economics at Cornell University, and fabricated using Crosley and Bendix brand appliances and cabinets. At the time these photographs were taken, these two brands were produced by the Crosley Division of the AVCO Manufacturing Corporation of Coldwater, Ohio.

The Waterworks in Cooperstown, New York was built on the side of a mill in 1870, with an addition built in 1890. The ship "Mohican" was built circa 1900 and scrapped in 1936. This collection consists of two items: one black and white photograph of Waterworks, Cooperstown, New York and black and white postcard view of ship "Mohican."

The New York World’s Fair of 1939 was held in Flushing Meadows on Long Island between April 30, 1930 and October 31, 1939. This small collection consists of three official postcards of the 1939 New York World's Fair.

J.A. (Joshua Appleby) Williams (1817-1892) was a photographer working in Newport, Rhode Island from 1847 to 1885. The item is a panoramic photograph most likely of Newport, Rhode Island, view may cover almost a complete 360 degree circuit.

The Niagara Falls Power Company began in 1890, the power plant harnessed waterpower to deliver electricity to Buffalo, New York. The company's two power stations were closed after more than sixty years of service in 1961. This collection's photographs document the erection of wooden poles for power transmission lines between Niagara Falls and Buffalo. There are also interiors and exteriors of power hosues and transformer buildings.

RCA Victor was an American electronics company. Nicholas F. Pensiero (1918-2003) worked for RCA's Marketing Division. This collection contains sixteen photographs in which Gladys McHugh is the model posed using RCA Victor appliances. The remainder of the photos are candids, some taken inside or near RCA offices.

Nicholas F. Pensiero (1918-2003) worked in the Marketing Division of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), a leading American electronics company. The papers comprise a portion of Pensiero’s files retained by him after retirement in 1984. They include a variety of pieces relating to the history of RCA and its predecessor, the Victor Talking Machine Company. There are memoirs (copies) of two RCA engineers, an advertising scrapbook dating from 1938 to 1942, and a set of dust jackets for 78rpm records dating from 1912 to 1938.

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.  

Two nineteenth-century pharmacists formula books, one from William King (1823-1903), of Philadelphia, and one from Edward S. Townsend (1844-1913), of Philadelphia and Dover, Delaware. William King was a Philadelphia druggist and worked in the oil business, first as a jobber and then as a refiner. Edward S. Townsend was a druggist in Philadelphia and Delaware.

Nora C. Edwards (1869-1962) was the manager and inventor for the Edwards Skirt Supporter Company, established around 1903 in Spooner, Wisconsin. Her papers are both personal and business and consist of letters she received from family members, agents, friends, and patent attorneys.

The North Brothers Manufacturing Company was an iron and brass foundry that developed an expertise in manufacturing metal kitchen appliances. The records consist of a sample preserved at the time of the company's transfer to The Stanley Works in 1946. The bulk of the records concerns the manufacture of appliances, largely ice cream freezers. In particular, the records relate to the assignment and registration of patents and trademarks under which they were manufactured and sold.

The Philadelphia, Easton and Water-Gap Railroad Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania on April 6, 1852, and renamed the North Pennsylvania Railroad Company on October 3, 1853. The collection consists of nineteenth and twentieth century portraits of officers and presidents.

North Pennsylvania Railroad was a railroad company which served the Pennsylvania counties of Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, and Northampton. It was incorporated as the Philadelphia, Easton and Water-Gap Railroad Company on April 6, 1852, and renamed the North Pennsylvania Railroad Company on October 3, 1853. Their records consist of corporate records such as minute books, annual reports, account books and statements.

Northern Delaware (current day New Castle County) was settled by Swedes in the seventeenth century. This collections contains ten aerial photographs of the Northeastern Delaware border with Pennsylvania, along the Delaware River.

The Northern Liberties & Penn Township Railroad Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania on April 23, 1829, to build a railroad from Front Street at the Delaware River through what was then the independent District of Northern Liberties and Penn Township (now both part of the City of Philadelphia) to connect with the state-owned Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad near Broad and Vine Streets. This volume is the basic surviving record of the company's monetary transactions during its period of construction and independent operations.

Northwest Airlines was a major commercial airline in the United States from 1926 to 2010. From 1947 until 1986, the airline was known as Northwest Orient Airlines. This small collection consists of a publicity kit for the Lockheed Super Constellation airplane. It contains several booklets and brochures about the airline's new aircraft, routes, and services. Materials date from around 1955.

NVF Company was a manufacturer of laminated plastic plates and sheets composed of only cellulose; the material is called vulcanized fibre. Initially named the National Vulcanized Fibre Company, it was formed in 1922 by Israel Way Marshall (1850-1911) and Thomas Elwood Marshall (1855-1929) in Yorklyn, Delaware. NVF Company was one of the three largest fibre companies in the country and eventually dissolved in the early twenty-first century. The NVF Company collection consists of records beginning in the 1870s, before the official creation of the company, and continues until the dissolution of the company. These materials include the history of the Marshall family, the formation of the National Vulcanized Fibre Company, administrative and presidential papers, publications and reports, marketing and publicity materials, subject files, labor contracts, employee grievances, and arbitration cases.

N.W. Ayer & Son, Inc. lays claim to being the first and oldest advertising agency in the United States. Established in Philadelphia by Francis Ayer (1848-1923) in 1869. The Kellett Aircraft Corporation was a manufacturer of airplanes, specifically autogiros, helicopters, and aircraft for the U.S. military. This item is a thin booklet style scrapbook containing newspaper articles about a publicity stunt where a golfer flew a Kellet autogiro to each hole on the golf course at Locust Grove Country Club in Westfield, New Jersey. The demonstration was arranged by N.W. Ayer & Son to promote the Kellet autogiros. All of the articles include a photograph image.

In the spring of 1934 the Senate's Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry chaired by Senator Gerald P. Nye (1892-1971) began to examine the role that the munitions manufacturers had played during the First World War. This collection consists of photographs of P. S. du Pont, Irénée du Pont, Lammot du Pont, and A. Felix du Pont testifying before the Nye Committee in September of 1934.

John R. McGrath (1923-2002) was a patent attorney who worked for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company for most of his career. McGrath worked primarily on nylon and its products. This collection consists of a notebook McGrath assembled and titled "Collection of Nylon Art," containing all of the nylon patents of the DuPont Company that he could find.

J. Edward Norton (1925-2009) worked for the DuPont Company in the Textile Fibers Department as a technical marketing specialist. The notebook he maintained includes company technical memoranda and bulletins covering the processing of Nylon, Orlon, and Dacron, the production of wool-polyester blends, and the carding, spinning, knitting, and finishing of artificial fibers.

Richard Hunt Brown (1903-1978) was an engineer and president of Automation Consultants, Inc., a firm that provided a subscription updating service for monthly newsletters, with pages containing reviews and descriptions, prices, and images of new equipment and appliances. This collection consists of five volumes of "Office Automation: Integrated and Electronic Data Processing," published in 1955 with updated content provided as newsletters/supplements between 1955 and 1960.

The office of Alien Property Custodian was created by the Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917. According to the act, the right to seize enemy property was vested in the president, which was then delegated to the Alien Property Custodian. This collection consists of nine volumes, fifty-eight booklets, and foldouts concerning U.S. patents vested in the Alien Property Custodian (1943-1946). The materials specifically deal with mechanical and electrical patents, as well as chemical patents.

Old Swedes Church (now known as Holy Trinity Church) was dedicated on July 4, 1699 in Wilmington, Delaware, built for the Swedish colony that settled there. One exterior view of Old Swedes Church in Wilmington, Delaware, showing the portico, steeple, and grave yard.

Oliver Evans (1755-1819) was a Delaware-born inventor who pioneered the high-pressure steam engine and created the first continuous production line. The collection consists of documents assembled by C. Walter Mortenson's (1915-1996) campaign to have Evans inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Oliver M. Hayden (1893-1991) was a chemist who specialized in rubber and worked for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company as manager of the laboratory where he was part of the team that developed Neoprene. His papers document his work on the Neoprene project, the activities of the Rubber Chemicals Division, and a draft of an oral history interview.

The collection comprises approximately 200 oral history interviews with 152 individuals conducted by museum staff between 1954 and 1990. The majority of the individuals interviewed had either worked at the DuPont Company powder yards on Brandywine Creek during the yards’ final decades of operation or had lived in the surrounding communities, although the collection also includes interviews with those who worked in other local industries. The interviews are largely biographical in nature covering a period from about 1900 to 1960 and address a wide range of subjects relating to daily life and work in the Brandywine Valley.

William "André" Harvey (1941-) is an American sculptor and artist primarily known for finely detailed realistic bronze casting, in particular, animals. He also works in stone, casts sculptural jewelry in gold, watercolors, photography, and creates collages. He is a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society. His wife and business partner, Roberta Rush "Bobbie" Harvey (1941-), manages the Harveys’ sculpture gallery and art business, maintaining client lists and provenance records, managing sales and exhibition loans, and promoting André’s work. In this interview, André and Bobbie Harvey discuss the training, experiences, and travels that led them to the art world, the sculpture business they built together beginning in the 1970s, and the process of bringing a piece of art into the world, from conception to execution to exhibition to sale. They also reflect on the cultural and historical conditions that influenced their decision to pursue careers in art, and the personal and mutual satisfactions of following artistic passion and cultivating community connections.

Frederick Orthlieb (1945?-) is a mechanical engineer, professor, and tradesperson who has rehabilitated, upgraded, and modernized historical telescopes. While the telescopes are obsolete for current research work, after rehabilitation they are capable of productive and effective use for familiarization, secondary and higher education, and institutional and public outreach. In this interview, Orthlieb talks about his career and work refurbishing telescopes.

James Cortada (1946-) is a management consultant and business historian. In this interview, Cortada discusses the collection of computing history books that he donated to Hagley Library.

Kenneth M. White (1923-2020) was an industrial designer who formed his own design firm in 1947 called Ken White Associates, Inc., which developed plans and designs for thousands of independent and academic bookstores throughout the United States, as well as many other types of retail businesses. This collection is a two-part interview in which Ken White discusses the early parts of his life and career as an industrial designer.

Marshall B. Johnson (1938-) is an industrial designer who worked for some of the most well-known small appliance companies and designed many popular consumer products, as well as often doing their graphic and packaging design. This is an interview with Marshall Johnson in which he talks about his life and career as an industrial designer.

Over half the mushrooms in the United States are grown in and around the town of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, which proudly calls itself the mushroom capital of the world. This oral history collection brings together interviews with individuals whose experiences capture the many different kinds of work and knowledge involved in mushroom cultivation, harvesting, packing, distribution, and marketing, and how those processes have changed over time.

Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) was 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 contains five interviews conducted in July and August of 1978 with Wallace Carothers’s friends and colleagues. The interviewees primarily share stories and focus on their feelings surrounding Carothers’s personality, work, and suicide.

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.

The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company was established in 1936 as the Rayon Department, which specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Nylon, Orlon, Dacron, and Lycra. The collection consists of oral history interviews conducted by Joseph Plasky, with former employees of DuPont's Textile Fibers department.

John Raskob (1879-1950) was a financial executive for the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., General Motors, and financier of the Empire State Building. During the 1920s Raskob became active in Democratic Party politics and from 1928 to 1932 served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He was an important financial backer of Governor Alfred E. Smith (1873-1944) when he ran for president in 1928. This collection consists of seven oral history interviews conducted between 2004 and 2005 with members of John J. Raskob’s immediate family, primarily his children and grandchildren. The interviews are largely personal in nature and often focus on family relationships.

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. The records include the handwritten transcripts of a series of interviews with persons who knew and worked with Carothers, conducted in 1978 and 1979. The interviews were conducted by Adeline Bassett Cook Strange (1917-2004), a teacher, researcher, and volunteer who spent her life dedicated to various charitable projects around Wilmington, Delaware.

Commercial art, or advertising art, is art created for an enterprise to communicate reasons to buy goods and services, to create a recognizable logo, or to detail the correct performance of a task. This album consists of examples of original commercial art including lettering, letterheads, labels, a postcard, point-of-sale advertising, newspaper advertising, sketches of people, color separation examples, and a drawing of tableware.

Commercial art, or advertising art, is art created for an enterprise to communicate reasons to buy goods and services, to create a recognizable logo, or to detail the correct performance of a task. The collection consists of original drawings, sketches, and paintings for unidentified cosmetic, powder, and perfume packaging.

The firm of Orrick, Grubbs & Parker, iron merchants, was formed in Philadelphia around 1839, succeeding the firm of Samuel D. Orrick & Co. The records consist of 26 letters addressed to Orrick & Fox, Samuel D. Orrick & Co., Orrick, Grubbs & Parker and E. B. & C. B. Grubb concerning shipments of iron from the Grubb furnaces and its resale to manufacturers along the east coast.

The Otis Elevator Company manufactures, installs and maintains elevators, escalators and moving walkways. Elisha Otis (1811-1861) founded the company in 1853 in New York. This collection consists of thirteen tear sheets of advertisements with sketched illustrations for Otis Elevator Company elevators (8) and escalators (5). The escalators are shown in five different styles for department stores installations.