World War, 1939-1945
Found in 42 Collections and/or Records:
A. Starr King papers
Alexander Starr King Jr. (1916-2013) was a jet engine field service engineer at Westinghouse Electric Co. He began working at the Westinghouse gas turbine division in 1945, which at that time was called Aviation Gas Turbine (AGT) division. These materials document early gas turbine development.
American Car and Foundry Company and Hamilton Watch Company sheet music for company songs
This collection contains two pieces of sheet music: "Volume for Victory," the song of the A.C.F. (American Car and Foundry Company) and "Hamiltonia," song of the Hamilton Watch Company. The American Car and Foundry, Company was founded in 1899 and is still considered a leading American manufacturer of railcars and railcar parts. The Hamilton Watch Company was founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1892. Among other milestones, it produced the first electric wristwatch in 1957 and the first digital watch in 1970. The Hamilton brand is currently owned and manufactured by the The Swatch Group out of Switzerland.
American Car and Foundry Company World War II era photographs
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.
Anheuser-Busch, Inc. anti-Prohibition ephemera
Anheuser-Busch, Inc. (now Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC) is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. This small collection consists of three items seeking support against an upcoming Prohibition bill: an explanatory letter, a blank petition form against the bill, and a newspaper article reprint about the Dry Movement.
Baldwin Locomotive Works World War Two workers group photograph
Baldwin Locomotive Works was a manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 until 1972. This image shows group of about forty male employes and fifteen factory visitors or managers posed on a 8-inch (?) railway gun mount in the Eddystone, Pennsylvania, plant.
Bethlehem Ship Corporation division
Bethlehem Steel Corporation records
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.
Business files, 1923-2004
The Business files series contains documents related to Jennings’ career. His military service in World War II is recorded here with ration cards, identification cards, and service records. Following the war, Jennings relocated to occupied Japan for RCA, and this series contains his occupation identity cards and memoranda related to communications issued by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP).
The majority of this series consists of records related to Jennings’ daily operations for RCA which includes correspondence on tariffs and accounting, cable agreements, meeting notes from cable carrier groups, and reference publications and regulations.
After he retired, Jennings signed a contract with Japanese carrier KDD to write a book on Japanese telecommunications. The full draft of this book is in this series, as are two original copies of a book of anecdotes Jennings wrote about life in Japan.
These folders are arranged alphabetically by subject.
Crawford H. Greenewalt's Manhattan Project diaries
Crawford H. Greenewalt (1902-1993) was an executive with the DuPont Company and president of the firm from 1948 to 1962. In 1942, when the DuPont Company agreed to participate in the Manhattan Project, Greenewalt was named chief liaison, working with the physicists at the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory, including Arthur Compton (1892-1962) and Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), who were developing techniques for plutonium separation. The collection consists of eight volumes of Greenewalt's diaries, which describe the history of the Manhattan Project and the development of the United States' first atomic bombs that were used to end the Second World War. The diaries describe the technical history of the project, as well as the relationships that developed between scientists.
Donald F. Carpenter papers
Donald Fell Carpenter (1899-1985) was general manager of the Film Department at the DuPont Company. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a degree in engineering in 1922. Between 1927 and 1933 he held increasingly important managerial positions with the DuPont Viscoloid Company, and between 1933 and 1948 with the Remington Arms Company. In 1947 to 1948 he was a member of the Industrial Advisory Group to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Broadly speaking, the materials in this small collection of his papers cover Carpenter's entire career, from his senior thesis at MIT (the design for an addition to his father's tinsmithing shop) to his involvement with political and civic affairs during his retirement.
DuPont Company Engineering Department, Louviers Building photographs
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company, established in 1802. DuPont broke ground on the Louviers office building, located near Newark, Delaware, in June 1951 and was occupied by DuPont's Engineering Department beginning in August 1952. This collection consists mostly of photographs of DuPont's Louviers office building. There are some photographs showing the Engineering Department's move from Wilmington to the Louviers Building.
DuPont Company photographs
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 for the production of black powder. This collection includes publicity photographs from the DuPont Company, many relating to nylon and its uses in World War II. Other subjects include company executives, employees, and stock holders; various factories and facilities; general World War II production awards; high explosives workers; and hunting.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Engineering Department records
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly known as the DuPont Company. It was established in 1802 and began by manufacturing gunpowder, later moving into chemical compounds. The company's Engineering Department was initially organized in 1903 as a division of the High Explosives Department, with the purpose of designing and constructing high explosives plants, powder machinery, and extensions to existing plants. This collection of DuPont Engineering records is fragmentary in nature. The surviving records are divided into four series that document a wide range of functions and represent several different time periods in the department’s evolution. The series are: Engineering Department history file; Engineering Research Laboratory; Construction Division; and Design Division, Corfam Poromeric Technology.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Explosives Department records
In the years leading up to the Second World War, the United States government initiated a massive effort to ensure that adequate supplies of essential materials would be readily available should the country's armed forces become actively engaged in military conflict. At the request of the Army Ordnance Department, the DuPont Company participated in these procurement programs by undertaking the design, construction, and operation of plants for the manufacture of military explosives and other chemical products essential to the successful prosecution of the war. The records of the Explosives Department consist of special reports to the Executive Committee, the files of general manager Edward B. Yancey, and the files of powder superintendent Charles E. Seymour.
Ephemera
The items in this series were collected by Carter Litchfield. The series consists of a wide range of paper ephemera arranged alphabetically including ration stamps, advertisements, articles, letterheads, pamphlets, postcards and prints, stamps, stock certificates, and trade cards.
Ferracute Machine Company records
The Ferracute Machine Company of Bridgeton, New Jersey was a press and die business founded by Oberlin Smith (1840-1926), inventor, writer, manufacturer in 1863. The collection consists of materials assembled by Arthur J. Cox for the preparation of the company history, Ferracute: The History of an American Enterprise (1985). This collection has been arranged into seventeen series: Administration; Advertising; Employees; History; Machine tools; Military work; Unions; Patents; Press work; Frederick A. Parkhurst (FAP) Time Studies; Miscellany; Scrapbooks; Drawings; Orders; Payrolls; Press cards; and Account books.
Genevieve Pittner collection of roller skating rink stickers
Genevieve Pittner (1917-2007) of Monroe, Michigan, collected roller skating rink stickers between 1941 and 1942, amassing a large collection by exchanging stickers by mail with other collectors. This collection consists primarily of roller skating rink stickers during the World War II era. A large album contains most of the stickers in the collection; stickers are attached to album pages and arranged alphabetically by state.
Guard the Home Front, World War II poster
Numerous United States Federal agencies issued posters throughout World War II in order to support the war effort. The Railway Labor Executives' Association (RLEA) was founded in 1926 as a lobbist group for railroad labor unions. This item is a poster issued by the RLEA titled "Guard the Homefront" and is designed to encourage people to vote.
Heintz Corporation records
The Heintz Manufacturing Company was originally organized by Leo Heintz in Philadelphia in 1921. The firm initially manufactured all-steel pre-assembled truck bodies but later expanded to produce a wide range of pressed sheet-metal products. The records primarily focus on the company’s contractual obligations with the US Navy during World War II; employee retirement and pension plans; descriptions of various welding processes and tools, and material related to the licensing of cold welding under the trademark, "Koldweld."
Herbert Belar papers, 1943-1967
The Herbert Belar papers are composed of schematics, notes, and compositions from Belar’s work on acoustical electronics, including a music composing machine, a phonetic typewriter, and the music synthesizer, at RCA Laboratories, from 1943 to 1967. They also include schematics and reports on several projects Belar did for the military during World War II as part of a secret RCA working group called “MAD Lab.” Of special note is a 1955 letter from Robert Moog, then a student at Queens College, requesting information on RCA’s electronic music synthesizer.
Thirty-seven of Belar's lab notebooks (1948-1966) can be found in Record group 26.
Historical miscellany from the DuPont Building
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The DuPont Building occupied an entire block bound by 10th, 11th, Orange and Market Streets and was one of the first high-rises in Wilmington, Delaware. Until early 2015 the building housed DuPont's headquarters. This small collection of files on DuPont Company history and biographies were removed from the company's downtown headquarters building prior to its move to the suburbs.
Indiana Ordnance Works, Ballistics Laboratory photographs
The Indiana Ordnance Works was built by the DuPont Company for the U.S. Government beginning in 1940. It manufactured military explosives, propellants, and smokeless powder. This collection consists of photographs of the Ballistics Lab of the Indiana Ordnance Works.
Indiana Ordnance Works panoramic photographs
The Indiana Ordnance Works was built by the DuPont Company for the U.S. Government beginning in 1940. It manufactured military explosives, propellants, and smokeless powder. The panoramic photographs show overviews of the Indiana Ordnance Works facilities, Charlestown, Indiana.
Keystone Mushroom Farms, Inc. records
Keystone Mushroom Farms, Inc. was a producer, canner, and distributer of mushrooms in Coatesville, Chester County, Pennsylvania. It was the successor of two previous businesses, L.F. Lambert Spawn Co. and Keystone Mushroom Company, Inc., which were formed in the early 1920s with complementary functions of spawn research; production and sales; and mushroom propagation, canning, and distribution. These records document the L.F. Lambert Spawn Co. and the Keystone Mushroom Company, Inc. The collection includes financial records, correspondence, payroll, reports, and shipment and inventory information. Of special interest are the records documenting Lambert's work with the War Production Board to produce penicillin.
Leonard W. Walton collection of Milprint, Inc. photographs
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.
Leonard W. Walton collection of Milprint, Inc. records
Leonard W. Walton (1911-2005) was a printing industry executive with Milprint, Inc., which specialized in printing packaging materials, between 1936 and 1976. His collection of Milprint records primarily consists of printing samples including candy wrappers, cigarette boxes, potato chip and bread bags and bacon boxes.
Lukens Steel Company corporate records
The Lukens Steel Company was a medium-sized, non-integrated steel company and one of the top three producers of steel plates in the United States. Lukens operated continuously at its Coatesville, Pennsylvania, site since 1810 and was one of the few successful survivors of the many nineteenth-century iron works that once dotted southeastern Pennsylvania. This collection of Lukens Steel Company records consists of corporate records, mostly from the Secretary's Office. The records are comprised of seven series: Shareholders' meeting agendas; Stockholder lists; Proxies for annual meetings; Board and committee meeting agendas; Financial statements; Secretary's correspondence; and Counsel's correspondence.
Mark C. Walker & Son Co. scrapbook
Mark C. Walker & Son Co. was a general contractor firm in the early to mid-twentieth century. The company was founded as Callahan-Walker Construction Company in Omaha, Nebraska, by Mark Connell Walker (1889-1966) and his father-in-law, William F. Callahan (1856-1930), a railroad contractor. Upon Callahan's death, Walker took on his son, Mark Callahan Walker (1911-1999), as a partner. This album, compiled by Walker Jr., documents construction projects during World War II, as well as the post-war western United States. It highlights the impact of public works in the twentieth century. The album contains photographs, text, and newspaper clippings detailing several key construction projects: the Gary Armor Plate Steel Mill in 1942, the Harlan County Dam between 1946 and 1947, and the Orange County Sanitation Plant in 1953. The album also contains photographs and trade catalogs from the company's Polair Mobile Refrigerator Division, which designed and built refrigerated truck trailers for the U.S. Army.
Miscellany
Series IV. Miscellany is comprised of five subseries.
Subseries A. Trade Association Literature; These magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, reports, articles, and addresses pertain to alcoholism, bootlegging, and economics.
Subseries B. Seagram War Effort; This small subseries documents Seagram's poster and advertising campaigns in support of the war effort and the conversion of their distilleries to war production during World War II.
Subseries C. J. E. Frowde Seagram Family; This small subseries contains clippings, articles, histories and other materials documenting J.E. Frowde Seagram, Joseph Emm Seagram and their family.
Subseries D. Vertical File; This subseries contains book reviews and excerpts; publications and clippings about the beverage alcohol industry, The Seagram Company, Ltd. and the Bronfmans; press releases; and miscellany.
Subseries E. Ephemera and Artifacts; The subseries includes plaques, awards, paperweights, printing plates, and a few other artifacts.
National Association of Manufacturers Radio Division scrapbook
John Drake Fitzgerald (1902-1969) was the chief of the Radio Division at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in the early 1940s. While at NAM, Fitzgerald oversaw the “Defense for America” radio series that aired on NBC Red Network and “Your Defense Reporter” series which aired on Mutual Network. This scrapbook (digital copy), created by Fitzgerald, documents some of the work the Radio Division of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) did in 1941. Particular emphasis is on two radio programs: "Defense for America" and "Your Defense Reporter." Fitzgerald was the chief of the Radio Division.
National Bronze and Aluminum Foundry Co. records
National Bronze and Aluminum Foundry Company was a manufacturer of cast aluminum products, primarily for the automotive industry, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. During World War II, the company was part of the nation's defense, producing aluminum castings for airplanes and tanks. This small collection consists of directors meeting minutes and shareholders meeting minutes dating from 1937 to 1941 and 1945 to 1949. This collection would be of interest to those researching pre- and post-war financial and legal issues surrounding manufacturers required to produce goods during wartime and recovering from major turnover.
Office of Alien Property Custodian records
The office of Alien Property Custodian was created by the Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917. According to the act, the right to seize enemy property was vested in the president, which was then delegated to the Alien Property Custodian. This collection consists of nine volumes, fifty-eight booklets, and foldouts concerning U.S. patents vested in the Alien Property Custodian (1943-1946). The materials specifically deal with mechanical and electrical patents, as well as chemical patents.
Pennsylvania Railroad women workers' oral histories
The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) was chartered in 1846 to completing an all-rail road across the state. Between 1855 and 1874, the PRR underwent rapid expansion and emerged as one of the two largest railroad systems in the area east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. This collection consists of two interviews conducted in 1998 in West Chester, Pennsylvania with five women who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
"Pierre S. Dupont" Liberty ship photograph
A Liberty ship was a World War II EC2 type cargo ship designed for the emergency ship building program. Over 2,700 of these ships were built. This item is a photograph which shows a stern of EC-2 Liberty ship.
Plant Patrol Division, Military Explosives plant panoramic photograph
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.
R. Douglas Caney scrapbook on the atomic bomb
Richard Douglas Caney (1918-1994) was a chemical engineer with E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, working in the Explosives Department on the Manhattan Project. To remember his participation in the Manhattan Project, Caney prepared a scapbook of newspaper clippings of articles that flooded the media after the atomic bombs were dropped and the secrecy around the project ended.
Sperry Gyroscope Company Division photographs and films
The Sperry Gyroscope Company researched, developed, and manufactured navigation equipment; three of the premiere products were the marine gyrostabilizer, the gyrocompass, and the high-intensity searchlight. The company was founded by Elmer A. Sperry (1860-1930) in 1910. Sperry Gyroscope Company photographs and films consists primarily of images of products and inventions developed between 1912 and 1965, a bulk of materials date from 1940 through 1960. The collection has been organized into five series: Personnel; Plants, Sperry School, and Museum; Products; Public Information Department; and Visitors, exhibits, models, and patents.
Sperry Gyroscope Company Division records
The Sperry Gyroscope Company was originally organized by electrical inventor Elmer Ambrose Sperry for the purpose of manufacturing and marketing his ship gyrostabilizer, gyrocompass, and high-intensity searchlight. The records describe the development and marketing of the marine and airplane stabilizer, the high-intensity searchlight, fire control systems, the gyrocompass, airplane automatic pilot, bombsights, and the aerial torpedo. They trace the evolving relationship between Sperry and the military and the impact of World Wars I and II.
Strawbridge and Clothier photographs and audiovisual materials
Strawbridge & Clothier was the last family-owned major department store chain in the Greater Philadelphia area. The store was founded as a partnership by Justus C. Strawbridge (1838-1911) and Isaac H. Clothier (1837-1921) on July 1, 1868 at 8th and Market Streets in Center City Philadelphia. This collection contains photographs, negatives, transparencies, lantern slides, glass negatives, slides, audio tapes, videotapes, and films from Strawbridge & Clothier. It is valuable to those researching all aspects of retail: history, architecture, department stores, shopping malls, employment, operations, promotion, advertising, fashion, and merchandising. Other topics include family-owned businesses, distinguished Quaker families, business response on the homefront during World War II, the Gallery and Market East, and Philadelphia and its environs. There are also proposal albums from the Pavlik Design Team of store design for the Cherry Hill, King of Prussia, and Willow Grove stores and from Neil/Carter Design Associates for Heritage Hall
in the Market Street store.
Wallis G. Hines notes and procedures for use in the azide laboratory
Wallis Gartside Hines (1919-2014) was a chemical engineer employed at the Kankakee Ordnance Works from 1942 to 1943, a war plant of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company located south of Joliet, Illinois. His notes describe the steps to be followed in the manufacture and refining of sodium and lead azide and for the laboratory analysis necessary for quality control.
Women at work World War II posters
The collection consists of four World War II posters related to women in the workforce. Women on the Home Front worked in war industries and volunteered for war-related organizations, excelling at historically male-dominated trades such as welding, riveting, and engine repair. Their contribution was essential for the production and supply of wartime goods.
World War II appointments
Reed's papers from the War Production Board pertain in large part to the 1941-1942 Congressional investigation into the “dollar-a-year” program. There are statements by Reed, WPB director Donald Nelson, and Robert Guthrie, head of the Textile Division whose public criticism of the “dollar-a-year” men prompted an investigation. Included are the working papers that Reed used to prepare for his testimony, a record of the proceedings, newsclippings, and copies of the statements and Congressional committee reports, as well as related correspondence between Reed and his attorney Henry H. (Joe) Fowler.
Mission for Economic Affairs (MEA) papers include correspondence with British members of Parliament and United States business leaders relating to Anglo-American trade policy. Also included are MEA policy manuals and correspondence relating to General Electric's economic relations with the Soviet Union. Reed's letters to his wife (in Series Five) describe the operation of the Mission to Economic Affairs and provide a vivid description of life in wartime London.
Following his resignation as head of the MEA, Reed continued in public service, acting as consultant to the U. S. Delegation, San Francisco Conference on World Organization in 1945. Reed's statements before Congressional committees, and correspondence with Edward Stettinius, Averell Harriman, and Dean Acheson, among others--all contained in Series One--reflect Reed's position on post-war U.S. economic commitments to the European countries, as well as the Soviet Union and Eastern Block countries.
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