Finding Aids

A small sample of engineering sketch sheets from a large Wilmington, Delaware, cotton textile and textile finishing firm.

Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company began operation in 1831 as a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware. After the American Civil War, the company concentrated on finishing cotton cloth, purchasing the Kentmere Mills adjoining their original site in 1895 and a third plant for manufacturing at Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1910. The company acquired another textile firm, the Eddystone Manufacturing Company, in 1925. This collection comprises records from both the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company and the Eddystone Manufacturing Company, along with records from several predecessors and subsidiaries. The Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company records trace the firm's history from 1831 through 1961, with the Managing Director's letter books, in particular, giving a very detailed picture of the company's operations. The records of the Eddystone Manufacturing Company and its predecessors are relatively complete and offer a good picture of a medium-sized textile firm that was typical of the mid-Atlantic states.

The Laflin & Rand Powder Company was one of the largest gunpowder manufacturers during the nineteenth century. Frederick W. Beers (1839-1933) was a New York map publisher. This item is a lithograph depicting the powder mills and surrounding landscape, and it is pages 16 and 17 of "County Atlas of Ulster, New York: From Recent and Actual Surveys and Records," by author F.W. Beers.

Leonard W. Walton (1911-2005) was a printing industry executive with Milprint, Inc., which specialized in printing packaging materials, between 1936 and 1976. This collection of photographs related to Milprint, Inc was collected by Leonard W. Walton. A majority of the photographs show Milprint employees attending events, banquets, and dinners, including Quarter Century Club celebrations.

Lepley & Joswick Photographers was a commercial photographic studio in Chicago, Illinois, between 1946 and 1952. The firm was a partnership between Alden D. Lepley (1911-2003) and Gerald "Jerry" J. Joswick (1923-1990). In 1946, Lepley and Joswick opened a photography studio at 5121 W. Devon Ave. in Chicago. Their clients were mainly industrial ones. Both partners continued to pursue side projects and give lectures separately. This small collection of photographs features a range of commercial images depicting different areas of industry in Chicago between 1940 and 1952. It includes food factory assembly line workers, canned and boxed food products, home appliances and electronics, and interior home designs.

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.

The Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Useful Arts was a membership organization of Philadelphia's political, mercantile, and manufacturing elite to promote the causes of domestic manufacturers, particularly textiles. The Pennsylvania Manufacturing Society accounts include a ledger of both the general and special accounts of the manufacturing fund. The bulk of the transactions are from the period of active operations, with the settlement of accounts taking place between 1790 and 1801.

Penrose Robinson Hoopes (1892-1976) was a mechanical engineer, inventor, author, and horologist. He specialized in the design of factory equipment, particularly high-production automatic machinery. This collection consists of documents pertaining to Penrose R. Hoopes' career as an engineer and inventor. Hoopes' work includes machine designs for the American Chicle Company, Campbell Soup Company, Johnson and Johnson, and the Ferracute Machine Company. The bulk of the collection material spans from 1923 to 1968, with some patent material and typescript excerpts from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection includes correspondence and blueprints related to Hoopes' work as a designer and inventor, as well as employee records, manuscript material, photographs, trade pamphlets, and bibliographic information.

The lithographs include the following Philadelphia printers' names: E. Beaulieu; Herline & Co.; King & Baird; Wagner & McGuigan; and W. H. Rease. This is a group of nine mid-nineteenth century lithographs showing illustrations of Philadelphia factories.

The Phillips family were prominent Philadelphia merchants and manufacturers over four generations. The records consist of four volumes of merchant and importer William Phillips (1771-1845), a daybook from the textile firm of Lewis, Phillips & Co., and an unrelated receipt book of Philadelphia wine merchant Francis Coppinger, dating from 1794 to 1795.

During World War II, the DuPont Company was contracted to produce smokeless powder, TNT and DNT explosives for the military. This panoramic photograph is a group portrait of uniformed guards at a military explosives plant in Memphis, Tennessee, 1941.

The Plymouth Cordage Company of North Plymouth, Massachusetts, was founded in 1824 and was involved, as their name implies, in the rope-making industry, particularly for use by the shipping and fishing industries. This album contains sixteen photographs of plant interiors showing machinery and manufacturing processes, and two exterior views of the building.

The Remington Arms-Union Metallic Cartridge Company was a manufacturer of cartridge ammunition for fire arms. This collection consists of copy photographs of Remington Arms-Union Metallic Cartridge Company facilities in Bridgeport, Connecticut, including interiors of a laboratory and exteriors of various buildings.

DuPont Company Repauno Works manufactured high explosive dynamite. The company began as the Repauno Chemical Company on June 7, 1880, by Lammot du Pont (1831-1884), a chemist working for the family business, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company which originally produced gunpowder. This collection of photographs includes numerous views of the buildings, facilities, employees, and plant operations and activities.

This print is an aerial photograph showing the full expanse of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company factory in North Tonawanda, New York. The company initially imported musical instruments from Europe, but moved into manufacturing instruments by 1880. Shortly after the turn of the century, Wurlitzer moved to North Tonawanda, New York. By 1934 it had produced the first jukebox. In 1973, Wurlitzer sold its jukebox brand to a German company and closed the North Tonawanda factory.

The Spreckels Sugar Refining Company was the Philadelphia branch of the Spreckels family sugar refining combine. The records are primarily accounts for the construction and operation of the Philadelphia refinery under Claus Spreckels Jr. (1858-1946) between 1888 and 1895.

The Allentown Non-Freezing Powder Co. built this plant in 1903 to manufacture commercial explosives using its proprietary ingredient, nitrostarch. The panoramic photograph shows employees of the Trojan Chemical Company explosives plant in Seiple, Pennsylvania.

The Warren-Ehret Company was a Philadelphia roofing company founded in 1883. This collection consists of 259 images from three unbound albums which were used as sales portfolios to show the variety and extent of Warren-Ehret's roofing jobs on a variety of buildings.

The Whitaker family of Philadelphia founded and operated William Whitaker & Sons, Inc., one of the oldest Philadelphia textile mills. The collection consists of photographs related to the family of William Whitaker. A number of the photographs feature buildings and bridges in and around Cedar Grove, Pennsylvania, now a part of Philadelphia. William Whitaker's mansion is featured in several of these images, with family gathered on the porch.

William H. Horstmann & Sons was a manufacturer and retailer of silk products for civilian and military clothing between 1815 and 1940. This item is a steel engraving by Samuel Sartain of the William H. Horstmann & Sons manufactory and sales room building in Philadelphia.

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.