Finding Aids

This collection includes ephemera, postcards, films, advertisements, photographs, documents and objects relating to the history of salt. The collection was assembled by Carol Litchfield (1936-2012), a biologist and biochemist with an interest in halophiles and salt history. These items document the history and development of salt manufacturing throughout the world. Historic and modern methods of salt harvesting are depicted from various areas around the world.

Additionally, this collection includes documentation of Carol’s personal research and participation in salt related conferences and programs.

Keystone Mushroom Farms, Inc. was a producer, canner, and distributer of mushrooms in Coatesville, Chester County, Pennsylvania. It was the successor of two previous businesses, L.F. Lambert Spawn Co. and Keystone Mushroom Company, Inc., which were formed in the early 1920s with complementary functions of spawn research; production and sales; and mushroom propagation, canning, and distribution. These records document the L.F. Lambert Spawn Co. and the Keystone Mushroom Company, Inc. The collection includes financial records, correspondence, payroll, reports, and shipment and inventory information. Of special interest are the records documenting Lambert's work with the War Production Board to produce penicillin.

William du Pont (1855-1928) was an industrialist and member of the promienent du Pont family of Delaware, whose family business was the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, also known as the DuPont Company which was a large manufacturer of gunpowder. He worked for the first DuPont dynamite manufacturer, Repauno Chemical Company, as secretary and treasurer (1880-1884) and after the tragic death of Lammot du Pont (1831-1884), as president (1884-1892). This small group of papers encompass both correspondence and various financial and investment accounts, largely covering his ten years spent in England after leaving the United States in 1893.