Finding Aids

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. John McShain's personal and business papers document his business career, the construction industry, and his investments in hotels, car dealerships, parking garages, transit lines, and racehorses.

The Pennsylvania Water & Power Company formed in 1910 to finish construction of the Holtwood hydroelectric facility along the lower Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. The company achieved numerous advancements in hydroelectric and steam power development in the early twentieth century, and helped bring about the electrification of Baltimore and, later, much of the Chesapeake and eastern Pennsylvania area. The records largely consist of correspondence to and from Pennsylvania Water & Power's chief engineer and later president, John Abbet Walls, and other company heads relating to operations, customers, dam construction, and numerous subjects associated with the hydroelectric industry.