Finding Aids

Wilmington is Delaware’s largest city and can be found where the Christina River and the Brandywine Creek meet near the Delaware River. This panoramic color photograph shows office buildings in the city center.

Wilmington is the largest city in Delaware located on the Christiana and Brandywine Rivers. These are sixteen small, gummed, and perforated stamps showing sepia photographic views of Wilmington, Delaware.

Wilmington is Delaware’s largest city and can be found where the Christina River and the Brandywine Creek meet near the Delaware River. The city prospered throughout the Industrial Revolution, but the period of rapid economic growth came with the Civil War. By 1920, the population had reached over 110,000 residents. Wilmington experienced significant population loss after World War II as the suburban areas grew and I-95 dissected some of the city’s more stable neighborhoods. These items are postcards are of miscellaneous views of Wilmington, Delaware sites.

Wilmington is the largest city in Delaware located on the Christiana and Brandywine Rivers. The collection consists of eight postcards featuring scenes in and around Wilmington, Delaware. The postcards were published by Julian B. Robinson, a Wilmington printer.

Based in Wilmington, Delaware, the Wilmington Public Library has been serving the public since it was established in 1754. This collection consists of eighty eight films, dating from 1914 to 1984, donated by the Wilmington Public Library. These films were de-accessioned from the library’s non-circulating collection. This collection is organized into nine series based on the film’s subject or type of production: American History, Archaeological, Business, Commercial films/television, Educational, Environmental, Experimental, Political Science and Urban/Rural Studies.

The Wilmington Trapshooting Association (WTA) was organized in 1910 and continues to be active today. This collection consists of photographs of members of the Wilmington Trapshooting Association at various events from the early 1900s through the 1980s.

The Wilson family were owners of the Wilson Line, a steamboat company that was popular for traveling between Philadelphia, Pennslyvania, Wilmington, Delaware and Riverview Beach, New Jersey. This collection contains portraits of groups and individuals, as well as snapshot of family members and their estate and documents related to Frances W. Richardson's volunteer work for hospitals and the American Red Cross.

Andrew Gray Wilson (1844-1905) was well-known among shipbuilders as a preeminent marine engineer and naval architect. This small collection consists primarily of individual and group portraits and snapshots of the Wilson family and the family of one of the daughters, Natalie Wilson du Pont. The collection is organized into three series; family photographs; home interiors and exteriors; and family cars and dogs photographs.

The Wilson Lines was a steamboat company that was popular for traveling between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wilmington, Delaware and Riverview Beach, New Jersey. This small collection of copy photographs contains mostly exterior views of several Wilson Lines steamboats between 1890 and 1955.

Wm. Rogers & Son was a trademark used by the International Silver Company in silverplate. Various independent New England silversmiths came together and formed the International Silver Company in 1898. These items are point-of-sale advertising display cards for Wm. Rogers & Son silverplate.

The Wolf Envelope Company was an envelope, stationery, and novelties manufacturer in Cleveland, Ohio, during the twentieth century. Founded in 1899 by Louis Littman (1855-1937), the company was greatly expanded by Harry Fleishman Affelder (1881-1963), who joined in 1913 and eventually became President. This collection consists of one silent 16mm film, commissioned by Affelder, primarily documenting the daily operations at the Wolf Envelope Company's facilities in 1935. Also included are a few short clips showing the manufacturing processes employed by other envelope industry companies, including the Berkowitz Envelope Company in Kansas City, Missouri, a paper mill in Berlin, New Hampshire, and John Dickison & Company in Washington, Tyne and Wear, England.

The collection consists of four World War II posters related to women in the workforce. Women on the Home Front worked in war industries and volunteered for war-related organizations, excelling at historically male-dominated trades such as welding, riveting, and engine repair. Their contribution was essential for the production and supply of wartime goods.

Angling is a method of fishing by means of using an angle or fish hook. The hook itself can be dressed with lures or bait to attract the fish. F. Earl Christy (1883-1961) was an illustrator whose early works glorified the society college girl. After the college girl craze ran its course, he painted more mature men and women, movie stars, and political figures in his romantically idealized style. These three items show women with fishing poles. One of the postcard illustration's artwork is by F. Earl Christy.

The Woodlawn Trustees, Incorporated, is a non-profit real estate development firm incorporated in Delaware on December 12, 1918, by textile manufacturer William Poole Bancroft (1835-1928). Records consist primarily of 35mm slides, mostly dating from 1989 to 2002, documenting Woodlawn Trustees properties throughout Wilmington and Brandywine Hundred, including low-income city housing, preserved farmland, greenways along the Brandywine Creek, and commercial properties on Concord Pike and the Wilmington waterfront.

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 printed tickets to the World's Columbian Exposition, each bearing a different portrait: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, a Native American.

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. Souvenir paper fan containing a colored lithographic bird's-eye-view of the fairgrounds.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.