Finding Aids

The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 celebrated the one hundreth anniversary of American Independence. Held in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, it was the first major U.S. world's fair. This collection contains Centennial Exhibition photographs, albums, scrapbooks, and ephemera

Edward Henry Kemp (1868-1948) and Josephine A. Kemp (1868-1941) were commercial photographers and traveling lecturers. The Kemps were best known for their photographic and motion picture travelogues, as well as their work in Camera Craft magazine. In 1912, the Chamber of Commerce invited its members to join an excursion to the Isthmus of Panama, with the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce being the guide in charge of the trip and planning. The San Francisco Chamber chartered the SS Sonoma of the Oceanic Steamship Company from April 25, 1912, to return on May 21, 1912. The album is a travelogue of the SS Sonoma voyage from San Francisco to the construction site of the Panama Canal locks. The images show views of railroad construction, dredges, street views of Balboa, Panama la Vieja, bull fights, and Old Panama City. The album itself does not contain either Kemp's name or other identifying information, however, three of the photographs in the album match photographs that have been positively identified as being taken by the Kemps.

Frank R. Zebley (1883-1960) was a Delaware native collector, photographer, author, and one-time speaker of the Delaware House of Representatives. He published Along the Brandywine and The Churches of Delaware. The Frank R. Zebley photograph albums includes nearly 1500 black and white photographs from the city of Wilmington, locations around Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania, and other places of interest in the mid-Atlantic region.

The pulp keg mill was built around 1904 to manufacture an experimental design of black and smokeless powder container made essentially from paper. This album contains photographic prints of the construction of the pulp keg mill in the Hagley Yard of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. near Wilmington, Delaware around 1902 through 1905.

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.