Finding Aids

A 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 is a small collection of matchbook covers from hotels, museums and restaurants. Most the businesses represented are from Las Vegas, Nevada, there are a few from other places in the United States.

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) became a giant in the field of electronic data processing by the mid-1950s after having achieved great success in the punch-card tabulating machine business in the 1930s. This is a sales film for IBM about the history of information technology.

The Link-Belt Company was founded by William Dana Ewart (1851-1908), who had invented the detachable link-belt in 1874. The flexible metal belt provided a superior system of power transmission and was first used widely in farm machinery. This item is a booklet of cyanotype photographs of locomotive coaling stations designed, erected, and equipped by the Link-Belt Engineering Company.

This collection consists of glass plate negatives and photographic copy prints which were made directly from the negatives. The images document an array of subjects, though the majority of the images are of locomotives, railroad cars, railroad stations, and other railroad infrastructure. Various landscape and cityscape photographs are also included. Where it is possible to identify the locations, the majority of images document sites in Pennsylvania, though photographs of sites in New York state and Ontario are also present.

Lois Kathryn Herr (1941-) joined Bell Laboratories in 1964, and, during her twenty-six-year career with Bell and AT&T, she was a prominent advocate for women's rights in the workplace. The collection supplements the corresponding manuscript collection and primarily comprises material Lois Herr gathered as source material for her book Women, Power, and AT&T: Winning Rights in the Work Place. It also includes audio recordings of some of Herr's public appearances and other materials concerning Herr's involvement with the National Organization for Women (NOW) and efforts to challenge discriminatory attitudes and practices toward women in the workplace.

Longwood Gardens is a series of formal display gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, that was developed by Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954) after he purchased the site from the Peirce family in 1906. In 1921 he constructed an extensive network of conservatories which contained plantings from many locales, including species from Africa and South America. This collection consists of two homemade stereographs showing different interior views of the conservatory.

The brothers Louis Edward Levy (1846-1919) and Max Levy (1857-1926) founded a photoengraving business in Baltimore in 1875. In 1877 they moved to Philadelphia and reorganized the firm as the Levytype Company. Here they introduced their invention (jointly patented on January 4, 1875) of a new photochemical engraving process, which they called "Levy-type". This album contains personal cyanotype photographs of their homes, travels, friends and family.

Louis Forman (1908-2002) was a liquor broker who managed the creation and distribution of several different liquor and whiskey brands, including Michter’s. This collection documents the operations of Mitcher's Distillery in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania as well as Forman's efforts to import Kotobukiya Kabushiki Kaisha Japanese whiskies and wines to the United States.

Louis T. Klauder and Associates (LTK) is a professional rail transportation engineering consulting firm. LTK were hired to work as consulting engineers for a joint project of the United States Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Railroad called the Northeast Corridor Demonstration Project. This collection contains aerial photographs of the Northeast Corridor railroad route from New York to Boston taken between 1951 and 1965. These images were used to aid in the project. These aerial photographs make up a bulk of the collection. There are several sets of images that show train station exteriors along several routes on the Northeast Corridor. Thirty-eight photographs show the projects test track at Pueblo Army Depot in Colorado. There are four press photographs for Inflight Motion Pictures Inc. and a few renderings of proposed trains.

Louise Evelina du Pont (1877-1958) was an heiress and preservationist, who was the great granddaughter of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771–1834), the founder of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. She was the last du Pont to live on the Eleutherian Mills estate. This collection consists of photographic and graphic materials primarily of Crowninshield's extended du Pont family and friends. The collection has been organized into four series: Family portraits, Travel photographs, Residences, and Mary Pauline Foster du Pont sketches and collection of travel souveniers.

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition or the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904 as it was popularly called, was put on to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. Three postcards show buildings from the exposition.

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition or the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904 as it was popularly called, was put on to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. Seven stereoviews show scenes from the fair.

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition or the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904 as it was popularly called, was put on to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. Exhibitions covered achievements in the fine arts, science, technology, manufacturing, agriculture, government, and education. This souvenir viewbook shows buildings at the fair and is accordion folded and in color.

This is a collection of photographs and drawings of interiors designed by the firm of Lyman W. Cleveland, Interior Architecture & Design, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Major Reybold was an iron excursion steamer, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This collection contains a photographic copy print of a painting of the steamship.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) the company began with the production of gunpowder. This item is the film Making Blasting Caps which documents the process of making blasting caps.

The Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway, which takes passengers to the summit of Pikes Peak mountain in Colorado, is the highest rack railway in the world and the highest railway in North America. This collection consists of a viewbook consisting of eight pages with photographs of the railway.

Marc Harrison (1936-1998) was an industrial designer and pioneer of universal design. As a child, he experienced a traumatic brain injury during a sledding accident that required surgery and significant rehabilitation. Inclusivity and accessibility, therefore, played central roles in Harrison's personal life and career. The Marc Harrison photographs documents Harrison's career from the 1950s to the late-1990s, including various designs, product development, finished products, trade shows, and personal trips and events. The collection documents his tenure at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and the various projects he completed through his design firm, Marc Harrison Associates. This collection's major companies and organizations well documented include the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the American Red Cross, the International Lead and Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO), Krups, Chemex, and Cuisinart. Researchers interested in industrial design, universal design philosophy, and the history of accessibility will find this collection useful.

Dr. Margaret (Meg) M. Mulrooney is Associate Professor of History and Associate Vice-Provost of University Studies at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The collection consists of research data supporting Mulrooney's doctoral dissertation "Labor at Home: The Domestic World of Workers at the du Pont Powder Mills, 1802-1902."

Marguerite du Pont Lee (1862-1936) 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 Eleuthere Irenee 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. This small collection consists of four items belonging to Marguerite du Pont Lee. Two individual portraits, a photograph of a gate, and a decorative leaf.

Mark C. Walker & Son Co. was a general contractor firm in the early to mid-twentieth century. The company was founded as Callahan-Walker Construction Company in Omaha, Nebraska, by Mark Connell Walker (1889-1966) and his father-in-law, William F. Callahan (1856-1930), a railroad contractor. Upon Callahan's death, Walker took on his son, Mark Callahan Walker (1911-1999), as a partner. This album, compiled by Walker Jr., documents construction projects during World War II, as well as the post-war western United States. It highlights the impact of public works in the twentieth century. The album contains photographs, text, and newspaper clippings detailing several key construction projects: the Gary Armor Plate Steel Mill in 1942, the Harlan County Dam between 1946 and 1947, and the Orange County Sanitation Plant in 1953. The album also contains photographs and trade catalogs from the company's Polair Mobile Refrigerator Division, which designed and built refrigerated truck trailers for the U.S. Army.

Mary A. Ferraro (b. 1851) is presumably the mother of Pierre Ferraro (b. 1878) and Eugene Ferraro, both of which worked for the DuPont Company and were all residents of Walkers Bank at Hagley Mills. This item is a portrait of a woman identified only as the mother of Ferraro.

Mary Hemphill Bush Rieffel (1908-1991) was a nurse, philanthropist, and descendant of the du Pont family, who founded E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company in 1802, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. Mary Hemphill Bush Rieffel's collection documents her academic progress, travels, and family life growing up, as well as her own family as an adult. The collection is organized into two series: Family papers and Family photographs. The material dates from 1845 to 1995.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.