Finding Aids

American Car and Foundry Company is a manufacturer of railroad rolling stock and railcar parts, founded in 1899. In 1901, the company began leasing the facilities of a railroad rolling stock and shipbuilding manufacturer the Jackson and Sharp Company. From the end of World War One to 1938, the plant built small pleasure boats. These photographs document different activities at the American Car and Foundry Company Jackson and Sharp Plant shipyard in Wilmington, Delaware, during World War II. There are several photos taken on the occasion of the presentation of the Army-Navy "E" award in 1942.

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was the number two steel producer in the United States between 1916 and 1984. For a time it was also the largest shipbuilding firm in the world. The records of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation (parent company) are a series of fragments, lacking the complete runs of corporate and executive documents that normally comprise a business archive, and largely consist of fragmentary corporate records and files from executive officers.

Howard Potts (1900-1978) was a supervisor for the American Car and Foundry shipyard. In the oral history done by Hagley Museum curatorial staff with Potts, he comments on a series of photographs taken at the yard during the time he worked there and describes the process involved in wooden shipbuilding and sailmaking.

John Elgar was a Quaker master mechanic employed in the York, Pa., foundry of Phineas Davis, Israel Gartner and James Webb. The letter is an order for sheet iron used to build the hull of the steamboat Codorus.

John Farrell Metten (1873-1968) was a marine engineer and shipbuilding industry executive. This collection contains photographic prints, postcards, documents, drawings, and an identification card pertaining to the career of John Farrell Metten and views of Naval ships built at the New York Shipbuilding Company, Camden, New Jersey.

The Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company operated cotton textile mills in Wilmington, Delaware, where they manufactured, bleached, dyed, and finished a variety of cotton-made goods. The Pusey & Jones Corporation were shipbuilders, founders, and machinists of Wilmington, Delaware, which later expanded into papermaking machinery manufacturing. This collection consists of eleven small notebooks from the two companies regarding their work.

The Pusey & Jones Corporation were shipbuilders, founders, and machinists of Wilmington, Delaware, which later expanded into papermaking machinery manufacturing. This collection includes the files of John Biggs III (1927-), attorney, who oversaw the bankruptcy proceedings and dissolvement of the company.

The Pusey & Jones Corporation were shipbuilders, founders, and machinists of Wilmington, Delaware, which later expanded into papermaking machinery manufacturing. The collection is a plat of the property around Pusey and Jones Company plant in Wilmington, Delaware.

This collection reflects material from a small amount of manufacturers operating in the Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey, largely in the early-to-mid 19th century. The records primarily include correspondence, bills, receipts, and accounts. There are also various legal papers and testimonies concerning suits involving land and water rights in Burlington County, New Jersey, with descriptions of miscellaneous dams, saw, grist, woolen, and fulling mills.

The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard occupied two different locations. The second site at League Island was the larger of the two sites and saw the greatest amount of shipbuilding activity. The Dravo Wellman Company was a pioneer manufacturer of steel plant equipment with an international reputation for engineering some of the largest material-handling projects ever built. Photographs show tests of a revolving crane ship (perhaps manufactured by Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Company) in the Philadelphia Navy Yard.