Sample books

Decalcomania is the process of transferring pictures or designs from specially prepared paper to glass, ceramic, metal, or other material. The American Decalcomania Company was a major decalcomania company in the early twentieth century in the United States. This collection is an undated loose leaf album showing samples of American Decalcomania Company's commercial decal products.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 and began with the production of gunpowder. Throughout the 1900s and 1910s, the company shifted its focus away from gunpowder production and towards chemistry innovations. During the 1910s, the DuPont Company decided to enter the film and photographic supply market. In 1924, it entered into a joint venture with Pathé Exchange, called DuPont-Pathé Film Manufacturing Corporation. This collection consists of a booklet with seven short strips of tinted 35mm motion picture film stock.

Commercial art, or advertising art, is art created for an enterprise to communicate reasons to buy goods and services, to create a recognizable logo, or to detail the correct performance of a task. This album consists of examples of original commercial art including lettering, letterheads, labels, a postcard, point-of-sale advertising, newspaper advertising, sketches of people, color separation examples, and a drawing of tableware.

Henry A. Goffe (1846-1906) was a stationer and engraver who operated his business in Albany, New York in the 1880s. This item is a bound sample book of wedding invitations, envelopes, and visiting cards.

Printing companies often produce sample books, which contain actual samples, not just illustrations. This album contains mostly small pre-printed cards either folded or meant to be folded and used as invitations, dance cards, and programs.

The William Pahlmann papers provide a rich insight into the world of interior design in the middle of the twentieth century. Pahlmann (1900-1987) was well known for his use of bold colors, textures and mix of antique and modern furnishings. Stressed in all of his work, were the conventions of comfort and functionality as well as his clients individual tastes. The William Pahlmann Papers are organized into thirty unique series of varying sizes. The papers are organized into correspondence, publicity files, renderings, samples, artifacts, design plans, and client invoices.

William Young (1755-1829) was a Philadelphia bookseller and later a manufacturer at Rockland, Delaware. Miscellaneous papers including genealogical and biographical information, letter, and paper samples produced by Young.