Abstract:

Anthracite is a metamorphosed type of coal that contains a high carbon content and is extremely hard, it burns slowly producing little smoke. This item is a viewbook or fold-out packet of twenty-seven black and white halftone photograph reproductions of various activities at a coal mine, images are connected by accordion folds published by Jones & Evans; Scranton News Company, distributors.

Abstract:

This collection consists of photographs documenting many of the processes used to make bricks in Centre County, Pennsylvania, and some coal mining images. Brick works existed in Coleville, Wingate, Milesburg, Howard, Port Matilda, Snow Shoe, Orviston and Monument. By the 1960s, all the brick works have shut down for mostly economic reasons.

Scope and Content: This series describes Sperry's inventions and entrepeneurial activities in the two decades (1880-1900) when he was considered one of America's electrical pioneers. It documents his efforts to develop arc lighting systems, stationary power, mining machinery, and electric traction. The records describe the operation of the Sperry Electric Light, Motor, and Car Brake Company, which was founded in 1883 to set up electric power stations and manufacture component parts. These are fragmentary, but they do contain copies of Sperry's agreements with his financial backers and correspondence that traces his efforts to patent his inventions and secure customers.Records documenting Sperry's associations with the Electric Mining Machine Company and Independent Electric Company are far more complete. These files, which include incoming correspondence, letter books, sales books, and account books, trace Sperry's efforts to develop electric mine cars and undercuttting equipment. Sperry's letter books contain copies of a large number of reports he sent to the engineers at General Electric for analysis and comment. These letters show that Sperry was able to draw on the expertise of many of GE's young engineers who were, during the 1890s, graduating from engineering schools in relatively large numbers. These young engineers helped orient Sperry to the early twentieth-century world of professional engineering.The Chicago-Cleveland records document Sperry's relationship with the Link-Belt Company, which rented him space to manufacture his electric mine cars. The records also show that Link-Belt provided his company with both technical support and legal advice when he became embroiled in a number of patent infringement suits during the mid-1890s.The correspondence of the Goodman Manufacturing Company traces Sperry's continued involvement with coal-mining machine industry through the 1920s. These records show that Sperry continued to help make policy decisions and served as a consulting engineer long after he left Chicago.During the late 1890s, Sperry's primary interest was in street railways. His correspondence from this period describes his effort to develop and patent his electric governor and car brake. Correspondence with GE engineers show that Sperry's street car employed a mode of power transmission similar to that in his mine locomotive. The records describe Sperry's efforts to market his street cars as well as his...

Abstract:

Coal Lands Securities Co. was one of several mining companies owned in large portion by Thomas J. Foster (1843-1936), a publisher. Lackawanna Coal and Lumber Company and Highland Lumber Company were also part of Foster's holdings. The album contains photographs taken during an inspection trip made by a party from the Coal Lands Securities Company to properties in West Virginia owned by the Lackawanna Coal and Lumber Company and the Highland Lumber Company.

Abstract:

Daniel Cauffiel (1867-1930) was a merchant, real estate developer, and entrepreneur of Johnstown, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware. The Daniel Cauffiel papers depict his career as a small business entrepreneur and as an agent or employee of the du Pont family and in their various businesses.

Abstract:

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad was one of the largest and most prosperous anthracite mining and transporting companies in Pennsylvania. Their records consist of minutes of the DL&W and its two direct predecessors.

Abstract:

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) Railroad was one of the largest and most prosperous anthracite transporting and mining companies in Pennsylvania. This collection consists of dated and undated views of a boiler, breakers, collieries, fan houses, hoist, mule barns, pumps, shafts, steam plant, tunnels and an electric power plant in the anthracite mining areas in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties of eastern Pennsylvania.

Abstract:

E.B. (Edward Barnes) “Ted” Leisenring Jr. (1926-2011) was the CEO of a fourth-generation family coal-mining business. He was president of Westmoreland Coal from 1961 to 1988, and remained as chairman of the board until 1992. This small collection of photographs is from Leisenring’s personal office files, which date between 1954 and 1994. The photographs consist of group and individual portraits, snapshots. The bulk of the material centers around two events: the 1964 Westmoreland Coal Company expansion and the 1970 delegation to the USSR.

Abstract:

George A. Richardson (1886-1976) was an engineer with an expertise in metallurgy, he spent his career primarily involved in technical publicity and sales for major steel manufacturers such as the Midvale Steel & Ordnance Company and the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. This collection of photographs and negatives was primarily taken by George Atwell Richardson throughout the course of his career while working for Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company and the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. The images document views of steel plants and operations, as well as steel products mostly taken between 1913 and 1929. The collection has been organized into five series: Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company; Cambrian Steel Company; Bethlehem Steel Corporation; Exhibits, and Other steel and coal companies.

Abstract:

The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company was a major anthracite mining and transporting firm in eastern Pennsylvania between 1822 and 1954. This collection consists of one outbound letterpress copybook dating from 1844 to 1848 of Edwin A. Douglas (1805-1859), Chief Engineer & Superintendent; three outbound letterbooks of William Reed, Chief Clerk at Mauch Chunk, dating from 1852 to 1859; thirteen outbound letterbooks of George Ruddle (1828-1904), Chief Clerk, Treasurer, and Real Estate Agent, dating from 1860 to 1878; and four inbound letterbooks of George Ruddle dating from 1870 to 1874. The letterbooks contain the correspondence of some of the chief field officers at Mauch Chunk, much of it regular exchanges with the officers at the Philadelphia headquarters.

Abstract:

Lehigh Coal Mine Company was an unincorporated joint-stock company, established in 1792, with the intention of developing a deposit of anthracite coal discovered by Jacob Weiss (1750-1839) and others at what is now Summit Hill in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. The collection consists of documents relating to land ownership and governance of Lehigh Coal Mine Company.

Abstract:

The Link-Belt Company was founded by William Dana Ewart (1851-1908), who had invented the detachable link-belt in 1874. The flexible metal belt provided a superior system of power transmission and was first used widely in farm machinery. This item is a booklet of cyanotype photographs of locomotive coaling stations designed, erected, and equipped by the Link-Belt Engineering Company.

Abstract:

Lukens Steel Company was a medium-sized producer of specialty steel products and one of the top three U.S. producers of steel plate. The Lukens Steel Company records documents all aspects of the business from the early nineteenth century through the 1970s.

Abstract:

The Merchants Coal Company mined semi-bituminous coal in the early twentieth century. These are images of early construction at the Merchants Coal Company in Boswell, Pennsylvania.

Scope and Contents:

Mining and mining town photographs include images from Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The images include coal and ore mines and company towns: Cokesburg, Cornwall, Ellsworth, Marianna, Naginey (all in Pennsylvania) and Barrackville, Carolina, Idamay (all in West Virginia). There are also materials from Cornwall Ore Mines and Furnace in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, which Bethlehem Steel Corporation owned completely in 1921.

Abstract:

Penn Virginia Corporation was an oil and gas company, incorporated as the Virginia Coal & Iron Company on January 6, 1882. It was one of many firms established by a group of interrelated entrepreneurs headed by John Leisenring (1819-1884), a Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, civil and mining engineer. The name changed to Penn Virigina Corporation in 1967. The records of Penn Virginia Corporation cover the development and operations of the Virginia Coal & Iron Company, a large southern Appalachian land company, with some information on its immediate neighbors and local support facilities.

Abstract:

Pennsylvania Power & Light traces its origins to the various water and gas light companies that began operating in the eastern part of the state during the mid-nineteenth century. The records of the Pennsylvania Power & Light Company predecessor and subsidiary companies document the history of the gas and electric utility industry in eastern Pennsylvania in the years between 1853 and 1957. The collection includes both the administrative and operating records of more than 1100 companies that merged to form the PP&L system.

Abstract:

William Gouverneur Ramsay (1866-1916) was a civil engineer for railroads and explosives corporations, including Repauno Chemical Company, Great Northern, and DuPont Company. His wife, Caroline “Lena” Johnston Canby (1872-1958) was interested in cultural and educational institutions and traveled extensively. The Ramsay family papers primarily consist of William G. Ramsay's personal and business papers, as well as his family's personal papers which primarily consist of correspondence, much of it between William Ramsay and Lena Ramsay prior to and after their marriage. the letters describe social life in Wilmington, literature, courtship and marriage, household administration, family life, child rearing and health.

Abstract:

Chartered in 1871, Reading Company was the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coal mines assembled by the predecessor Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company between 1833 and 1896. The collection consists of the corporate records of the Reading Company (1871-1976), the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company (1833-1896), the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company (1896-1923), and 159 predecessors and subsidiaries.

Abstract:

The St. Clair Coal Company was a medium-sized independent anthracite producer located near Saint Clair, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Photographs from St. Clair Coal Company show miners at work, collieries, storage banks, an aerial view of the operation, strip mining, a yard locomotive (probably built by Vulcan Locomotive), and the office.

Abstract:

This photograph is of a coal camp in Stonega, Virginia built and operated by the Stonega Coke and Coal Company. The Stonega Coke & Coal Company was a typical large southern Appalachian bituminous coal producer with mines in Virginia and West Virginia. Coal operations and their associated towns, or coal camps, consisted of company-built houses, churches, schools, theatres, dance halls, and even graveyards. The company provided each camp with a doctor, nurse, and hospital.

Abstract:

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was the largest railroad in the United States in terms of corporate assets and traffic from the last quarter of the nineteenth century until the decline of the Northeast's and Midwest's dominance in manufacturing. This unpublished report is a survey containing an analysis of seven large tracts near the company's lines in western New York State that were available for factory sites, including labor availability, population, climate, energy, and water supply.

Abstract:

Thomas Ellwood Gillingham, Jr. (1912-2004) was a geologist, he worked as an independet consultant and for the Atomic Energy Commission and the W.R. Grace & Company. The collection documents Gillingham's career as a geological consultant. The collection is arranged into six series: W.R. Grace & Co.; Uranium Mining; Phosphate Mining; Reports; Education; and Reference cards.

Abstract:

The Wurts family were involved in the anthracite coal industry. In 1823 four brothers: Maurice Wurts (1783-1854), William Wurts (1788-1858), Charles Stewart Wurts (1790–1859), and John Wurts (1792-1861) founded the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company originally to mine anthracite coal and transport the resource to New York. The company built the Delaware and Hudson Canal and later became the Delaware and Hudson Railway. The Wurts family papers were collected by John Sparhawk Wurts (1876-1958) and reflect both family papers and business records.