Finding Aids

This is a hand-colored lithograph by Thomas Sinclair (1807-1881) of Philadelphia showing the wharf area and in the background the town area of Florence, New Jersey, a nineteenth century leisure destination on the Delaware River in Burlington County.

Floyd Hamilton Fish Jr. (1923-2009) was a mechanical engineer and inventor at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company between 1954 and 1986. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. Fish helped invent pneumacel, an inflated polyester foam. These records are a small group of documents relating to Fish's role in the pneumacel project and his attempt to revive it after his retirement, as well as the hiring process for engineers at DuPont and the activities of the Kennett Pike Association.

Floyd Hollenbeck (1920-2002) worked for Trimfit Hosiery, a Hanes Hosiery Mills Company distribution company. Hanes Hosiery Mills Company was established in 1901. Hanes was an early adoptor of manufacturing nylon hosiery, created in 1938. Hanes Hosiery Mills researched and developed seamless pantyhose by the mid-1960s. This collection contains twenty-four Hanes Hosiery Mills Company Winston-Salem manufacturing plants and office stereoviews.

The Foote Concrete Machinery Co. manufactured road building machinery. Brothers, Chester T. Foote (1863-1918) and Charles E. Foote (1858-1938) were inventors and concrete contractors in Nunda, New York. They founded the Foote Concrete Machinery Co. in 1903. Foote Concrete Machinery Co. photographs is a small collection of images of road building machinery showing various angles, details of equipment, and pavers in use with workmen crews.

World's Fairs or International Expositions are large-scale exhibitions that highlight technology, agriculture and other innovations of national or cultural significance. The New York World's Fair took place in Flushing Meadows, Queens from April 30, 1939 to October 31, 1940. The theme was "The World of Tomorrow." This item is the sheet music for the official song of the 1939/1940 New York's World's Fair.

Built in 1899, Fort DuPont was the headquarters for the Coastal Defense command area which included the Delaware River and Bay. This panoramic photograph shows an exterior view of buildings (including officers quarters) and parade grounds at Fort DuPont.

The Forwood family were farmers whose homestead comprised 124 acres located on Marsh Road in Brandywine Hundred, north of Wilmington, Delaware. Corn, oats, and wheat were grown on the property, which had been a marsh. During the first decade of the nineteenth century, the Forwood family began to purchase and sell livestock. The Forwood farm was a major timber supplier to the DuPont Company. The Forwood family account books, spanning the century between 1790 and 1889, were kept by various family members. There are records for the Brandywine Hundred Horse Company and a book of sketches and poems by women in the circle of Du Pont family and friends.

Francis Bannerman Son was a major purveyor of military goods to sportsmen and collectors in New York City over three generations. The collection consists of photographs of Francis Bannerman and his family, including his wife, Helen "Nellie" Boyce Bannerman (1852-1931), and his sons, Francis VII (1873-1946) and David (1875-1957). The collection also includes photographs of Bannerman's Island Arsenal, including images of the 1969 fire in full blaze and its destructive aftermath.

Francis Bannerman Son was a major purveyor of military goods to sportsmen and collectors in New York City over three generations. The collection consists of miscellaneous photographs, negatives, postcards and ephemera pertaining to the weapons and military memorabilia business run by Francis Bannerman and to Bannerman's philanthropic and leisure activities.

Francis Bannerman Son was a major purveyor of military goods to sportsmen and collectors in New York City over three generations. The Francis Bannerman Son records demonstrate the operation of a small family business and a lack of formal structure. They document Bannerman's purchase of military goods from state and federal arsenals and their resale to individuals, with other regular purchases of arms and military antiques made on buying trips to Europe. The bulk of the collection consists of over 143 bound volumes of order books and outbound letters, and correspondence of incoming letters containing customer orders and inquiries. This collection would be useful to researchers interested in the resale costs and designs of military goods, especially arms and uniforms, as well as family-run small business performance and operations.

Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was the youngest son of Alexis I. du Pont (1816-1857) and Joanna Smith du Pont (1815-1876), and grandson of Éleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The collection consists primarily of correspondence from du Pont to his wife, Elise Wigfall Simons (1849-1919), but include items from other family members, as well as a journal of du Pont's, manuscripts written by him, and plays and novels by Alice Simons (1849-1891).

Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was the youngest son of Alexis I. du Pont (1816-1857) and Joanna Smith du Pont (1815-1876), and grandson of Éleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. Walter G. Tatnall Jr. (1882-1949) was an engineer at the DuPont Pulp Keg Mill and president of the Department of Elections for New Castle County. The memorandum books from du Pont and Tatnall document their work for the DuPont Company, including data on the manufacture of pulp kegs.

Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was the youngest son of Alexis I. du Pont (1816-1857) and Joanna Smith du Pont (1815-1876), and grandson of Éleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The collection contains two letter books of du Pont to F.G. Thomas (-1901) of the Iowa Powder Mills, photocopies of selected documents by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) on gunpowder, and on awards to John Paul Jones (1747-1792) for his victory over HMS Serapis, and letter from Samuel Courtauld (1752-1821) to Captain Joseph H. Rees (1789-1821).

Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was the youngest son of Alexis I. du Pont (1816-1857) and Joanna Smith du Pont (1815-1876), and grandson of Éleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The papers consist of du Pont's student lecture and laboratory notes; letters; technical notes and papers; records of gunpowder production; patent specifications and drawings; patent correspondence; and printed patents related to gunpowder.

Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was the youngest son of Alexis I. du Pont (1816-1857) and Joanna Smith du Pont (1815-1876), and grandson of Éleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The papers of du Pont describe both his business activities at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, his family life, and his activities in the Episcopal Church.

Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was the youngest son of Alexis I. du Pont (1816-1857) and Joanna Smith du Pont (1815-1876), and grandson of Éleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The collection consists of a volume containing a record of rifle scores of du Pont.

Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was the youngest son of Alexis I. du Pont (1816-1857) and Joanna Smith du Pont (1815-1876), and grandson of Éleuthère Irénée "E.I." 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 scrapbook includes newspaper clippings on a variety of subjects, including astronomy, religious and church matters, DuPont Company fires and explosions, the statue of Samuel Francis du Pont in Washington, Swedish colonists in Delaware, and obituaries.

Francis I. du Pont (1873-1942) was a chemist, inventor, and stockbroker most celebrated for his involvement with the partnership of Francis I. du Pont and Company, stockbrokers in New York, and the Delaware Chemical Engineering Company in Wilmington. This collection contains a color photograph of a portrait of Francis I. du Pont painted by Gordon Stevenson (1892-1984).

Francis Victor du Pont (1894-1962) was a civil engineer and political figure in Delaware and Maryland. This collection combines papers and memorabilia of Francis Victor du Pont and those of his parents and ancestors.

Francoise Robin du Pont (1748-1841) was the second wife of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) a promienent French political economist, writer, publisher, and public administrator. The collection contains a letter from du Pont to Marc Antoine Jullien (1775-1848), "Ancien Inspecteur aux Revues" asking for copies of recent reviews or journals.

Francoise Robin du Pont (1748-1841) was the second wife of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) a promienent French political economist, writer, publisher, and public administrator. The collection contains a letter from du Pont to Marc Antoine Jullien (1775-1848), "Ancien Inspecteur aux Revues" asking for copies of recent reviews or journals.

Francoise Robin du Pont (1748-1841) was the second wife of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) a promienent French political economist, writer, publisher, and public administrator. The collection contains a letter from du Pont to Monsieur Pierre Didot (1761-1853), seeking the address of Marguerite Charlotte Desiree de la Fite de Pelleport (1780-1847).

Francoise Robin du Pont (1748-1841) was the second wife of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) a promienent French political economist, writer, publisher, and public administrator. The collection contains letters from du Pont to Baron (1757-1830) and Baronne Desmousseaux de Givre (1768-1843). The letters contain discussion of religious societies, his trip to Italy, and personal matters.

Francoise Robin du Pont (1748-1841) was the second wife of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) a promienent French political economist, writer, publisher, and public administrator. The letters are from du Pont to Madame Clarice Aublay (nee Hortode) and cousin Albert.

Francoise Robin du Pont (1748-1841) was the second wife of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) a promienent French political economist, writer, publisher, and public administrator. The collection includes photocopied letters from du Pont to Jacques Henri Bernardin de St. Pierre (1737-1814). The letters are entirely personal, with social and literary references, all general in character.

Frank A. Weer (1932-2019) was an employee of the Reading Company and an enthusiastic photographer of all things related to railroads, specifically in Pennsylvania. Fascinated by trains from a young age, Weer spent time taking photographs of the passing rolling stock. He developed his own photographs, and over time, he established a vast collection of photographic prints of steam locomotives and other rolling stock, as well as the railroad tracks and structures with which the railroad was affiliated. The Reading Company, where Weer worked for thirteen years, was an influential railroad company that served the economic development of the Greater Philadelphia area for over 100 years. Before it became a booming passenger railroad, the Reading Company began transporting anthracite coal. The passenger "ridership" of the Reading Company reached its peak in the 1950s. The company went bankrupt in 1971, and the passenger services were taken over by the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority by 1974. This collection documents the construction and expansion of the Reading Railroad and the company's tangible property and human resources throughout the twentieth century. The collection consists of negatives (glass plate and film), photographic prints, and color slide transparencies. The creator established a chronological order, which has been maintained. The collection is arranged into five series: Structures and objects, Passenger stations, Rolling stock, People, and Frank A. Weer's personal slides.

Frank A. Weer (1932-2019) was a white-collar railroad employee who spent most of his career with the Reading Company, and after the transfer of railroad operations in 1976, with Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail). This collection is a small portion of a much larger collection of official railroad company documents, maps and drawings. Documents are primarily those of the Reading Company, Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Penn Central Transportation Company and Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail).

Frank Elwin Ebersole (1871-1933) was a contract electrical engineer who installed automatic telephone systems throughout the United States during the early twentieth century. Ebersole was the proprietor of the Ebersole Construction Company; president of the Independent Telephone Company; and the general manager of the Northeastern Telephone Company, Lincoln Telephone Company, Evansville Telephone Company, Houston Home Telephone Company, and other related businesses. He engaged in the construction and installation of telephone services and support structures of each system, including their power plants. This small collection documents the business interests of an early telephone engineer and construction manager. The documents include telegrams and letters that provide detailed information on business relations, corporate financing, and equipment processing for installing early telephone service, as well as the challenges faced by suppliers of equipment used in said process.

Based in Wilmington, Delaware, Frank Earle Schoonover (1877-1972) was a prolific commercial illustrator, artist, and avid photographer. Over the course of a six-decade career, he completed more than twenty-five hundred works, primarily illustrations for magazines and books but also landscapes, portraits, murals, book plates, sculpture, and stained-glass windows. This collection consists of negatives taken by Schoonover, largely for use as source material for his artwork. There are also images of his artwork, restoration projects, and him, his family, and friends.

Frank G. Tallman (1860-1938) was an executive of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. The collection includes personal and business papers of Tallman such as diaries, letter books, and correspondence files.

Francis “Frank” Pierre Gentieu (1876-1950) was a ballistic engineer at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. Gentieu worked at DuPont's Carney's Point Plant in New Jersey from 1901 to 1941. This small collection contains an account by Gentieu entitled "The First Fifty Years at Carney's Point" (1891-1941); correspondence with du Pont family members; a list of his father Pierre Gentieu's photographs of the DuPont Company and Brandywine area; and a recollection written by Samuel Brown of a conversation with Sophie M. du Pont (1810-1888) related to the Brandywine Manufacturers Sunday School.

Frank R. Zebley (1883-1960) was a Delaware native collector, photographer, author, and one-time speaker of the Delaware House of Representatives. He published Along the Brandywine and The Churches of Delaware. The Frank R. Zebley photograph albums includes nearly 1500 black and white photographs from the city of Wilmington, locations around Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania, and other places of interest in the mid-Atlantic region.

Frank Siedel (1914-1988) was a writer, educator, and broadcaster. He founded the firm Storycraft, Inc., an industrial writing company, in 1947 and wrote scripts at Storycraft until his death in 1988. This small collection documents a sample Siedel's work. The two largest groups of materials relate to The Ohio Story television series and the "In the Ohio Heritage" educational series. The materials date from 1947 to 1967, with a few items dated 1988.

Colonel Franklin T. Matthias (1908-1993) was commanding officer and area engineer of the Hanford Engineer Works of the Manhattan Engineer District. These are Colonel Matthias's personal papers documenting his work on the Manhattan Project. They include original declassified documents from Hanford and a variety of newspaper clippings and magazine articles collected by Matthias between the time he left Hanford to his death, reflecting his continuing interest in the Manhattan Project and nuclear power.

Franklin “Frank” T. Matthias (1908-1933) served as commanding officer and area engineer of Hanford Engineer Works from 1943 to 1945. He oversaw production of plutonium at Hanford to create the world’s first nuclear weapon, the atomic bomb. The bulk of the collection consists of photographs taken during the construction of the nuclear facilities at Hanford and the village of Richland in Washington state. Researchers interested in World War II, the Manhattan Project, industrial chemistry, nuclear energy, and company towns would find this collection useful.

Fred C. Ielfield (1864-1948) was a mechanical engineer and inventor. This collection consists of twelve patents for mail canceling and postmarking machinery, corn-husking machinery, and a cereal cutter, all invented by Ielfield.

Fred L. Bechly (1924-2004) was an electrical engineer who worked for RCA's Camden, New Jersey, plant, where he aided in the invention of the Tricolor Kinescope Monitor, which became the standard for color television. His papers describe his work with RCA in television and video recording from 1944 to 1983.

Frederick J. LeMaistre (1879-1944) was a chemical engineer employed by the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company at its Eastern Laboratory for fourteen years. This collection consists of ten volumes; seven are LeMaistre's laboratory notebooks documenting his work on nitrates, nitroglycerin, artificial silk (rayon), pyralin, and solvents. Also included are two souvenir logbooks of tours by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and one Niagara Oil Company of Philadelphia cashbook.

Frederick G. Singer (1897-1971) was a manager for the Tariff Division of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Development Department, working out of the foreign office in Paris, France. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. This small collection consists mostly of organizational charts and lists of officers and products of the DuPont Company and the Grasselli Chemical Company, as well as the products of their competitors, between 1936 and 1937.

For over fifty years the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was one of the country's leading manufacturers and vendors of radios, phonographs, televisions, and a wide array of consumer and military electronics products. The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and the Victor Talking Machine Company merged in 1929 becoming the RCA Victor Company in 1930. This merger allowed RCA to consolidate the research, engineering, manufacturing and sales of RCA products. This collection consists of negatives, a majority of which feature sound and television equipment manufactured by RCA. These images include phonographs, radios, radio-phonograph combinations, records, speakers, amplifiers, microphones, facsimile machines, televisions, equipment involved in the transmission and reception of television and radio waves, radio equipment created for use by government agencies and motion picture equipment.

Frederick William Wood (1857-1943) was an executive and engineer in the steel and shipbuilding industries. His papers constitute a major source on the history of the American steel industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The papers are primarily official records of the various companies with which Wood was associated.

Frederick William Wood (1857-1943) was an executive and engineer in the steel and shipbuilding industries. The Frederick W. Wood photographs document the career of Frederick W. Wood in the steel and shipbuilding industries, most notably his time working for Pennsylvania Steel Company at Steelton, Pennsylvania, Maryland Steel Company and Bethlehem Steel Company at Sparrows Point, Maryland, and the American International Shipbuilding Corporation at Hog Island Shipyard, located in Pennsylvania on the Delaware River. Researchers interested in the steel and iron industries, the shipbuilding industry, company towns, and the regional history of the greater Philadelphia and Baltimore areas would find this collection useful.

The Exposicion Internacional del Centenario commemorated the centennial of the May Revolution in Argentina and its consequent independence from Spain. It was an international exhibition that was held in 1910 between May and November in the capital of Buenos Aires. The photographs in the album consist of views of France's exhibit and include the exterior and interior of the pavilion.

Frigidaire Corporation manufactures and distributes major appliances for domestic and industrial use. Gilead Elijah Turner (1903-1929) worked for the company's Advertising Stock Department from 1928 until his death in 1929. The scrapbook was assembled by Turner and dedicated to his co-worker, Dean M. Livingston (1903-1963), who worked in the same department. The album contains sales catalogs, sales forms, and pitches for the company refrigerators focusing on food preservation and avoiding food spoilage due to mold, yeast, and bacteria. Numerous newspaper clippings are about sales executives and company founders, developments in food safety, and the importance of hard work for company success.

G.C. Murphy Co. was a chain of discount variety stores. George Clinton Murphy (1868-1909) founded the G.C. Murphy Co. in 1906 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. it grew to more than 500 stores before its acquisition by Ames Department Stores Inc. in 1985. These photographs document window displays at a G.C. Murphy store in Washington, D.C. In 1906.

Gabriel Manigault (1758-1809) was a Charleston merchant, plantation owner, architect, and South Carolina state Representative. In 1805, Manigault sold part of his property in South Carolina and moved to Clifton, an estate near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These are copies of Manigault's letters relating to members of the du Pont family.

Gabrielle Crofton (1873-1952) was the daughter of Gabrielle Josephine Shubrick (1835-1894) and Robert Erskine Anderson Crofton (1834-1898), and the great-granddaughter of Victor Marie du Pont (1767-1827), a prominent French American diplomat and businessman. The collection consists of two diaries, dating from 1917 to 1926, and reflect the leisured life of a middle-class, unmarried woman in the first quarter of the twentieth century United States.

Gabrielle Josephine de La Fite de Pelleport (1770-1837) was the wife of Victor du Pont (1767-1827), a French American diplomat, politician, and businessman. He was the brother of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834), the founder of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. The account book is supposedly the household account book of du Pont and contains handwriting of various people, including her son Charles I. du Pont (1797-1869). Entries include purchases of coal, whiskey, soap, candles, and other items, as well as construction materials and tools.

Gabrielle Shubrick Crofton (1835-1894) was the daughter of Irvine Shubrick (1797-1849) and Julia du Pont (1806-1882), and the wife of Colonel Robert Crofton (1834-1898). His military service meant the family moved to where he was stationed. The papers consist primarily of correspondence between Crofton and her husband and mother, including an eight-year span living in army posts in the Dakota Territory.

Alfred Irénée du Pont (1864-1935) was the eldest son of E.I. du Pont (1829-1877). He joined the family gunpowder firm in 1884. Gabrielle Shubrick Crofton (1835-1894) was the daughter of Alfred I. du Pont's first cousin, Julia Sophia du Pont (1806-1882) and Irvine Shubrick (1797-1849). This collection consists of two individual portraits, one of Gabrielle Shubrick Crofton and the other of Alfred I. Du Pont.