Finding Aids

World's Columbian Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair which was staged from May to October, 1893, commemorated 400 years since Columbus's New World arrival. These two stereographs show two different views of the lagoon area at the World's Columbian Exposition.

World's Columbian Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair which was staged from May to October, 1893, commemorated 400 years since Columbus's New World arrival. The cover of the pop-up toy shows a bird's eye view of some buildings at the Exposition. The interior is composed of three facades.

The World's Columbian Exposition, named in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, was a World's Fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893. One of those exhibitors was the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR). Founded in 1846, the PRR was a leading industrial and transportation force throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company's exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition was housed in a dedicated pavilion located near the fairground's 64th Street entrance, immediately northeast of the fairground's station for passengers arriving by rail. This collection of photographs contains a selection of images that were once exhibited alongside similar photographs throughout the eastern half of the exhibition pavilion. These photographs document industries located along PRR and subsidiary rail lines (section 28 of the exhibition) as well as views of wharves, docks, and stations used by PRR (section 41 of the exhibition).

World's Fairs or International Expositions are large-scale exhibitions that highlight technology, agriculture and other innovations of national or cultural significance. World's Columbian Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair which was staged from May to October, 1893, commemorated 400 years since Columbus's New World arrival. This small collection consists of four "pop-up books" from the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

World's Columbian Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair which was staged from May to October, 1893, commemorated 400 years since Columbus's New World arrival. This is a flyer advertising the American Aristotype Paper and G. Cramer photographic dry plates.

World's Fairs or International Expositions are large-scale exhibitions that highlight technology, agriculture and other innovations of national or cultural significance. This small collection consists of nine postcards primarily of buildings and exhibits from World's Fairs.

World's Fairs or International Expositions are large-scale exhibitions that highlight technology, agriculture and other innovations of national or cultural significance. These fairs are open to the general public and can run for three weeks to six months. This is a small collection of ephemera from various World's Fairs.

World's Fairs or International Expositions are large-scale exhibitions that highlight technology, agriculture and other innovations of national or cultural significance. World's Columbian Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair which was staged from May to October, 1893, commemorated 400 years since Columbus's New World arrival. This item is a book containing a collection of thirty-nine marching songs written as instrumentals for the piano.

The Worth Steel Company was a manufacturer of steel plates in Claymont, Delaware. Its records consist of papers from its operations and from its predecessor companies (Viaduct Iron Works and Worth Brothers Company, both of Coatesville, Pennsylvania). Items include correspondence, accounts, datasheets, agreements, closing papers in sale to Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation in 1951, and the sale of land in 1958.

Samuel Gardiner Wright (1781-1845) was a West Jersey Quaker merchant and ironmaster who conducted a wide-ranging mercantile business based in Philadelphia, iron furnaces in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and in southern Delaware and maintained a country house and farm in Monmouth County, N.J. The papers document his varied business interests, especially iron manufacture and sales. There are smaller quantities of papers from his wife, sons and grandson.

Papers of four generations of the Wright family of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, particularly of Samuel G. Wright (1781-1845), Philadelphia merchant and general entrepreneur, and his son, Harrison Gardiner Wright (1810-1885), a gentleman farmer.

The Wurts family were involved in the anthracite coal industry. In 1823 four brothers: Maurice Wurts (1783-1854), William Wurts (1788-1858), Charles Stewart Wurts (1790–1859), and John Wurts (1792-1861) founded the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company originally to mine anthracite coal and transport the resource to New York. The company built the Delaware and Hudson Canal and later became the Delaware and Hudson Railway. The Wurts family papers were collected by John Sparhawk Wurts (1876-1958) and reflect both family papers and business records.

William Winder ‘Chick” Laird, Jr. (1910-1989) was a director of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and a financial advisor, starting his own brokerage firm in Wilmington, Delaware. This collection includes photographs of interiors and exteriors of du Pont family estates and homes in Delaware, as well as portraits and snapshots of du Pont and Laird family members. The collection also contains a large number of lantern slides, blueprints, maps, and film reels of home movies and family skits.

William Winder ‘Chick” Laird, Jr. (1910-1989) was a director of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and a financial advisor, starting his own brokerage firm in Wilmington, Delaware. He was the son of William Winder Laird (1878-1927) and Mary Alletta Belin DuPont Laird (1878–1938). He had four siblings. His mother was great granddaughter of Eleuthere Irenee du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. His father, William Winder Laird (1878-1927) was actively involved in the DuPont Company as well as an advisor to his brother in law, Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954). This is small collection of various items belonging to W. W. Laird Sr. and W.W.'Chick' Laird, Jr.

The Wyomissing Development Company was a housing development firm for the employees of a manufacturer of knitting machinery, the Textile Machine Works. Both companies were incorporated by Henry Janssen (1866-1948) and Ferdinand Thun (1866-1948). The collection contains two minute books which document the organization of the Wyomissing Development Company, the acquisition of land for the company town and other public facilities including stores, parks, playgrounds, schools, and hospitals.

The York Oil Burner Company was a manufacturer of oil-fired residential and commercial oil heating equipment. This collection consists of one album containing 80 black & white photographic prints of industrial equipment of the York Oil Burner Co., Inc. Many of the photographs are interior views of building basements showing York Oil Burner Co. equipment installed in the building's furnace system.

The York Safe and Lock Company manufactured safes and vaults. The firm was established in 1882 in York, Pennsylvania, by Israel Laucks (1827-1918). This small collection consists of five photographs of bank vault doors built by the York Safe & Lock Co. of York, Pennsylvania, in around 1935.

The Young and McAllister families were prominent families in the Associate Presbyterian community in Philadelphia. William Young (1755-1829) was a Philadelphia bookseller and later a manufacturer at Rockland, Delaware. John McAllister Jr. (1786-1877) ran the Philadelphia optical firm of that same name. This small collection of papers relate to the Young, McAllister, and Warner families. Approximately half of the material are correspondence from John Young, William Young, John McAllister Jr., and Joseph T. Warner; the other half are miscellaneous documents related to the families and businesses they were involved with including Rockland Manufacturing Company and McAllister Spectacle Company.

Consists of Z. Taylor Vinson's collection of transportation ephemera, which focuses primarily on automobile history but also documents other forms of transportation. Includes trade catalogs, books, magazines, and artifacts in addition to manuscripts relating to Vinson's career at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

For over sixty years, Zachary Taylor Vinson (1933-2009) amassed a large and comprehensive collection of printed material documenting on the history of transportation, particularly automobiles. This small collection of French lithographs depicts early aeronautical and motor vehicle subjects. All but one were designed by either Ernest Montaut (1879-1909) or his wife, Marguerite Montaut (1883-1936). The final print is by poster artist Georges Hamel (1900-1972).

The Zanol Products Company was a door-to-door consumer goods distributor. Founded in Cincinnati, Ohio circa 1908, Zanol developed its own line of household products which the company sold directly to consumers via door-to-door representatives. This collection consists of one salesman's case containing pamphlets, trade cards, trade catalogs, sewing needle cases, books of blank order forms, and other ephemera from the Zanol Products Company.