Textile industry
Found in 61 Collections and/or Records:
"A Century of Fine Cloth, 1831-1931"
Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company began operation in 1831 as a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware. After the Civil War, the company concentrated on finishing cotton cloth. "A Century of Fine Cloth, 1831-1931" is a typescript history of the first 100 years of the company, with emphasis on the personal life of the company's founder, Joseph Bancroft (1803-1874), and his immediate successors.
Antietam Woolen Manufacturing Company records
The Antietam Woolen Manufacturing Company was a small textile mill in Funkstown, Maryland, and operated a domestic store in Hagerstown. The collection contains an incomplete record of a small textile mill company in the early nineteenth century. The records include bills, orders, accounts, inventories, and cost estimates. Of particular interest are a series of reports on visits to similar mills operated by Du Pont, Bauduy & Company near Wilmington, Delaware, and by Fisher & Gougher in Germantown, Pennsylvania, with notes on workers, machinery, and administrative methods.
Apollo 15 photograph
Apollo 15 was the fourth manned lunar landing mission. The three-man crew was made up of David R. Scott (1932-), Alfred J. Worden (1932-), and James B. Irwin (1930-1991). The E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. DuPont materials were used in whole or in part for twenty of the twenty-one layers of the Apollo spacesuits. This is a NASA photograph of James Irwin on moon, August 1, 1971. Attached are strips naming the twenty-one different layers of his space suit.
Bancroft family account books
The Bancroft family owned and operated the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company, a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware, beginning in 1831. The volumes help document the activities of two generations of the Bancroft family in England and America and the operations and employees of two early Delaware Valley textile mills.
Bancroft family and company miscellany
Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company began operation in 1831 as a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware. After the Civil War, the company concentrated on finishing cotton cloth. The collection contains material related to the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company, Eddystone Manufacturing Company, genealogical notes on the Bancroft-Wood family, and the Delaware postal system.
Bancroft family business papers
The Bancroft family owned and operated the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company, a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware, beginning in 1831. The records document the activities of two generations of the Bancroft family in England and America and consist primarily of account books from the various family businesses, including the Todmorden and Brandywine woolen mills and the Rockford cotton mill.
Barton H. Jenks papers
The Jenks family produced talented inventors over many generations. Between the 1820s and the 1870s the family businesses were the leading cotton textile machine builders in Pennsylvania. During the Civil War, the firm operated a rifle factory as part of the Union war effort. The collection consist of a series of fragments handed down in the Jenks family related to several of their business ventures.
Bridesburg Machine Works lithograph
The Bridesburg Machine Works of Alfred Jenks & Son were manufacturers of cotton and wool carding spinning and weaving machinery, shafting and millgearing. The lithograph shows the plant exterior, people in the street, and a delivery wagon carrying textile machinery. Vignettes of machines surround the main view.
Charles H. DeMirjian collection of DuPont Company records on STAINMASTER®
Charles H. DeMirjian (1925-) was a packaging design manager with E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Accompanied by creative marketing with the assistance of DeMirjian and his team, DuPont launched the largest advertising and promotion campaign in the history of the carpeting industry. This collection consists of materials related to the marketing and success of DuPont STAINMASTER® carpet fiber.
Charles H. Rutledge papers
Charles H. Rutledge (1901-1978) was the manager of the Product Information section for the Textile Fibers Department at the DuPont Company from 1944 to 1966. He authored numerous papers and was a contributor to textbooks and encyclopedias on textile fibers. This collection consists of two sets of files, those Rutledge maintained while at DuPont and those he compiled for a book he had planned to write following his retirement about the history of fibers.
Crawford H. Greenewalt papers
Crawford H. Greenewalt (1902-1993) was an executive with the DuPont Company and president of the firm from 1948 to 1962. This collection consists of Greenewalt's papers from his time as president and chairman of the board. There is a broad range of external correspondence, internal company communications and reports, presidential working papers, transcripts of speeches, and published articles that make up the collection.
Donald R. Hull papers
Donald Robert Hull (1911-1995) was a longtime employee at the DuPont Company mainly working with nylon and textile fibers. The collection pertains to his work at DuPont and Hull's consulting firm, Fiber Concepts, Inc.
Donald R. Hull photograph collection
Donald Robert Hull (1911-1995) was a longtime employee at the DuPont Company mainly working with nylon and textile fibers. The collection consists of four scrapbook albums of material from Donald Hull's career with the Du Pont Company.
DuPont (China), Inc. records
DuPont (China), Inc. was a firm established to manage the exports of dyestuffs manufactured in China by the DuPont Company's Organic Chemicals Department. The collection consists of materials from DuPont's Organic Chemicals Department in China and a group of reports and notebooks describing the beginnings of DuPont's dyestuffs ventures in East Asia.
DuPont Company, Chambers Works papers
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The Chamber Works was constructed as a dyeworks at Deepwater Point, New Jersey, in 1914. This small collection consists of materials about dyes and dyeing maintained by the analytical services technical supervisor at Chambers Works. Included are dye notebooks on silk, knitting, and hosiery; dye methods; a nylon textiles report; modern dye chemistry lecture notes; and translations of the Azo dye sections of a seminal German publication, "Fortschritte der Teerfarbenfabrikation," by P. Friedlaender.
DuPont Company, Chestnut Run management training materials
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The DuPont Company opened the Chestnut Run Textile Research Laboratory in 1954 near Wilmington, Delaware, as a research facility to test the effects of normal wear and tear on DuPont's line of synthetic fibers and fabrics. This small collection consists of two management training course materials.
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.
DuPont Company Pioneering Laboratory organization charts
The Pioneering Research Laboratory was the research and development facility for the DuPont Company's Textile Fibers Division. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company, established in 1802. The collection consists primarily of an incomplete set of organizational charts for departments at the Pioneering Research Laboratory in the Experimental Station, particularly DuPont Fibers and its predecessors (Fibers Department, Textile Fibers Department, Rayon Department).
DuPont Company Pioneering Research Laboratory technical photographs
The Pioneering Research Laboratory was the research and development facility for the DuPont Company's Textile Fibers Division. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company, established in 1802. The collection consists of technical photographs related to fibers research.
DuPont Company product information collection
In 1952, the DuPont Company created the Product Information section within the Public Relations department. Its function was to produce news releases with photographs about DuPont and its products for indirect publicity and advertising purposes. This collection contains photographs of DuPont Company corporate events and proceedings, product trade shows and fairs, development and manufacturing processes, and the employees and facilities where the products were created. Most of the photographs were taken from the 1930s through the 1950s.
DuPont Company Textile Fabrics Department videotapes, photographs, slides and promotions
The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company, established in 1936 as the Rayon Department, specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Rayon, Nylon, Teflon, Corian, and Kevlar. This collection primarily contains video tapes (VHS and U-Matic). Most of the content on the VHS videotapes are different than that on the U-Matic videotapes, there are a few duplicate videos that are in both formats. The videotapes content are employee training videos related to management, customer service and safety, as well as, informational videos about product and services, company history and events. Additionally the collection contains photographs, slides, advertising and promotional materials.
DuPont Company Textile Fibers Product Information photographs
In 1952, the DuPont Company organized a Product Information section within the Public Relations Department. Its main purpose was to create news releases accompanied by photographs that would be run editorially by trade journals and newspapers to create inexpensive publicity and indirect advertising. This collection consists of the Fabric master files and Textile reference files maintained by the Product Information Department. The majority of the photographs in the Fashion master files are posed fashion images featuring women modeling clothing made from DuPont synthetic fibers. There are images that feature children’s and men’s clothing as well. The fashion categories have been used as subseries and are as follows: Children and teens; Dress wear; Exports; Home furnishing; Home sewing/fashion fabrics; Hosiery; Intimate apparel; Italian couture; Knit wear; Men’s wear; New York couture; Paris couture; Sportswear/activewear; Swimwear; Touring kits; and Uniforms. Textile reference files contain press releases organized by fiber and then chronologically. The subseries are: Acetate, Dacron, Lycra, Multi-Fibers, Nylon, Orlon, Rayon, Reemay and Zepel.
DuPont Corfam® photographs
Corfam® was a synthetic substitute for leather. Collection consists of photographs related to the development and manufacture of DuPont's Corfam® synthetic leather at the Newburgh, New York Corfam® pilot plant and research facility.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Chestnut Run Technical Library materials
DuPont Company's Chestnut Run Laboratories first laboratory was the Textile Research Laboratory whose purpose was to test the effects of normal wear and tear on DuPont's line of synthetic fibers and fabrics, it opened in 1954 near Wilmington, Delaware. The Chestnut Run Technical Library is a branch of the DuPont Technical Libraries, which began in 1958. This collection consists of files related to the work of the scientists at the laboratory; their speeches, research articles, and some periodicals and scrapbooks related to textile design. There are also materials related to human resources polices and procedures; documents from a program about the future growth of the company; and a library subject file.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Martinsville Plant photographs
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company that began manufacturing gunpowder in 1802, and is commonly known as the DuPont Company. In 1941, the Martinsville Plant opened in Martinsville, Virginia, as DuPont's second nylon hosiery manufacturing plant. This small collection consists primarily of aerial and exterior photographs of the Martinsville Plant from the factory's construction in 1940 to 1996, two years before its closing.
Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation research reports
This collection contains research reports for the purpose of developing and elaborating exhibits and interpretations of the Hagley Museum. The reports were prepared by a permanent research staff and by participants in the Hagley Fellowship Program. The research reports also include scholarly articles that use Hagley's collections or are about subjects that pertain to Hagley's mission.
Experimental Station Library collection
The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company was established in 1936 (known then as the Rayon Department) which specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Rayon, Nylon, Teflon, Corian, and Kevlar. This collection consists of materials once housed in the library of the Experimental Station and culled after the sale of the textile fibers business. The collection has been arranged into six series: Vertical file; Translation logs; Miscellany; Project indexes; Publications; Speeches.
Fiber spinning processes cartoons
The DuPont Company is a chemical company which commercially produces synthetic fibers such as Kevlar. This collection consists of three pieces of artwork which were created for the DuPont Company Textile Fibers Department and hung in a shared work area. The artwork are photostats and are signed “ELF”. The three pictures show various small, cheerful animals making synthetic fiber by three different methods that are actually used (in slightly more sophisticated form) industrially.
Geist & Geist, Inc., records
Geist & Geist, Inc., was a manufacturer of women's knitwear products, typical of the small, flexible family firms that dominated New York City's famous Garment District for much of the twentieth century. The records of Geist & Geist, Inc., document the activities, especially design, publicity and marketing.
George H. Gilbert and Co. records
The George H. Gilbert & Company manufactured broadcloth and cloakings in Ware, Massachusetts, and high-grade woolen flannels, for which it developed a national reputation until 1930. The records consist of applications for fire insurance and insurance policies covering the woolen mill, Gilbert's house, tenant housing, and outbuildings.
Granite Manufacturing Company of Maryland minute book
The Granite Manufacturing Company of Maryland was a cotton factory on the Patapsco River. This collection contains a minute book of the company that covers 1844 to 1861.
Harvey Bounds reports on Joseph Bancroft & Sons and Eddystone Manufacturing Company
Harvey Bounds (1893-1982) was the unofficial historian for Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company. The Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company manufactured, bleached, dyed, and finished a variety of cotton-made goods along the Brandywine River in Wilmington, Delaware. This collection is comprised of four reports Bounds collected regarding the history of the company.
History of Kevlar oral history interviews
Kevlar is a synthetic fiber developed by chemists Stephanie Kwolek (1923-2014), Paul Morgan (1911-1992), and Herbert Blades in 1965 while working at the DuPont Company. The oral histories presented here document the research and development processes that transformed Kevlar from a novel polymer in the laboratory to a life-changing product in the marketplace.
ILC Dover, Apollo program records
ILC Dover outfitted every astronaut in the Apollo program and continued to design and manufacture space suit components for the space shuttle missions and on the International Space Station. The ILC Dover Apollo program records consist primarily of files maintained by Jim McBarron (1938-2020) while he was lead suit engineer for NASA, overseeing ILC’s development of the space suits. Also included are many other files gathered from ILC Dover and from ILC Dover retirees who were employed by ILC Industries during the Apollo program.
John Zimmermann & Sons, Inc. records
John Zimmermann & Sons, Inc. was a manufacturer of upholstery fabrics in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for more than fifty years. This collection consists primarily of financial records from the company's founding through its sale to Merion Securities, Inc. It contains rich payroll and pension data of potential interest to labor historians. The collection also contains records from Zimmermann Mills, Inc. and J-Z, Inc., a division of Merion Securities. These materials are also primarily financial in nature.
Joseph Bancroft and Sons Co. records
Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company began operation in 1831 as a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware. After the Civil War, the company concentrated on finishing cotton cloth. In later years it became famous for its Ban-lon artificial fiber but eventually withdrew from manufacturing in favor of licensing its processes and trademarks to other companies. The records consist of miscellaneous correspondence and reports, possibly from W. Ralph MacIntyre (1897-1984), president. The records include research reports and notebooks on dyeing, bleaching, printing, and finishing of fabrics.
Joseph Bancroft and Sons Company, Miss America collection
Joseph Bancroft, an Englishman trained in textile weaving in Lancashire, established his own cotton mill on the Brandywine near Wilmington, Delaware in 1831. This operation became the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company in 1889, and in 1929 it absorbed the Eddystone Manufacturing Co. These images include plant exteriors and interiors, officials and employees, aerials, workers' housing, machinery, floods, and dams and races on Brandywine Creek as well as many Ban-Lon and Miss America fashion photographs. This collection includes approximately 1060 images covering a period from the late 19th century to the 1960s.
Joseph Bancroft and Sons Company photographs
Joseph Bancroft (1803-1874), an Englishman trained in textile weaving in Lancashire, established his own cotton mill on the Brandywine near Wilmington in 1831. The operation became the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company in 1889. The photographs consist of images related to the Joseph Bancroft & Sons textile mills in the Rockford and, later, Kentmere areas on the banks of the Brandywine River. These images include plant exteriors and interiors, officials and employees, aerials, workers' housing, machinery, floods, and dams and races on Brandywine Creek.
Joseph Bancroft & Sons Co. textile mill panoramic photograph
Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company manufactured, bleached, dyed, and finished a variety cotton-made goods. A panoramic view of Bancroft Mills in Wilmington, Delaware.
Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company engineering sketches
A small sample of engineering sketch sheets from a large Wilmington, Delaware, cotton textile and textile finishing firm.
Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company licensing records
Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company began operation in 1831 as a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware. After the Civil War the company concentrated on finishing cotton cloth. In later years it became famous for its Ban-lon artificial fiber but eventually withdrew from manufacturing in favor of licensing its processes and trademarks to other companies. This portion of the Bancroft records documents Bancroft's efforts to license and defend the Ban-lon, Everglaze and other trademarks in the United States, the British Commonwealth, Europe, Japan, and Latin America.
Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company miscellany on Bancroft Mills
The records consist of a small batch of company documents preserved by an individual after the end of operations by the Wilmington Finishing Company. They include copies of the company's charter and supplements, bylaws and amendments, and files of agreements covering water rights, easements for sewer, gas and water lines, and plant access for the Wilmington and Northern Railroad Company.
Joseph Bancroft & Sons, predecessors, and subsidiaries' records
Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company began operation in 1831 as a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware. After the American Civil War, the company concentrated on finishing cotton cloth, purchasing the Kentmere Mills adjoining their original site in 1895 and a third plant for manufacturing at Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1910. The company acquired another textile firm, the Eddystone Manufacturing Company, in 1925. This collection comprises records from both the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company and the Eddystone Manufacturing Company, along with records from several predecessors and subsidiaries. The Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company records trace the firm's history from 1831 through 1961, with the Managing Director's letter books, in particular, giving a very detailed picture of the company's operations. The records of the Eddystone Manufacturing Company and its predecessors are relatively complete and offer a good picture of a medium-sized textile firm that was typical of the mid-Atlantic states.
Klots Throwing Company records
The Klots Throwing Company was one of the largest silk manufacturers in the United States, incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1894. The collection consists of only fragmentary records from the Mills at Scranton, Carbondale, Archbald, and Forest City in the Lackawanna Valley.
Nylon technical service notebook
J. Edward Norton (1925-2009) worked for the DuPont Company in the Textile Fibers Department as a technical marketing specialist. The notebook he maintained includes company technical memoranda and bulletins covering the processing of Nylon, Orlon, and Dacron, the production of wool-polyester blends, and the carding, spinning, knitting, and finishing of artificial fibers.
Oral history interviews with former employees of DuPont Company's Textile Fibers Department
The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company was established in 1936 as the Rayon Department, which specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Nylon, Orlon, Dacron, and Lycra. The collection consists of oral history interviews conducted by Joseph Plasky, with former employees of DuPont's Textile Fibers department.
Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Useful Arts accounts
The Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Useful Arts was a membership organization of Philadelphia's political, mercantile, and manufacturing elite to promote the causes of domestic manufacturers, particularly textiles. The Pennsylvania Manufacturing Society accounts include a ledger of both the general and special accounts of the manufacturing fund. The bulk of the transactions are from the period of active operations, with the settlement of accounts taking place between 1790 and 1801.
Personal correspondence
The correspondence is primarily personal but contains frequent references to business matters. The bulk of the letters were written by du Pont to his wife, father, and brother. Matters discussed include the Paris printing operations, the firm of du Pont de Nemours, Père et Fils & Cie., the financial affairs of Victor du Pont, E.I. du Pont's horticultural and botanical interests, the patronage of Thomas Jefferson in furthering the successs of the powder company, the establishment of ancillary leather, cotton and woolen manufacturing enterprises on the Brandywine, the tariff issue, the importation of Merino sheep, community affairs, and the education of du Pont's children.
Polyacryl Iran Corporation records
Polyacryl Iran Corporation (PIC) manufactured polyester and acrylic synthetic textiles in Iran. It was incorporated in August 1974 as a joint venture between E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, one of the largest U.S. chemical firms, and the Behshahr Industrial Development Corporation, a conglomerate run by the influential Lajevardian family. Because of political unrest within the country, DuPont shut the plant down in early 1979 with the hope of resuming operations at a later date. When Iran's textile industry was nationalized under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini following the Islamic Revolution, DuPont initiated legal action for claims against PIC and the Iranian government. An international court reviewed DuPont's claims and directed the Islamic Republic of Iran to reimburse DuPont for $42 million. The American records of the Polyacryl Iran Corporation document DuPont's role in the transfer of American technology to Iran, the fate of Western interests during the Iranian Revolution, and the subsequent expropriation and pursuit of damage claims. Because of the litigation surrounding the termination of DuPont's participation in the project, the records contain extensive plant design and managerial training documents that give a detailed picture of a state-of-the-art synthetic textile factory of the late 1970s.
Professor Anthony C.F. Wallace collection of student papers on Eddystone Manufacturing Company
Anthony C.F. Wallace (1923-2015) was an anthropology professor at the University of Pennsylvania between 1951 and 1988. The Eddystone Manufacturing Company operated a cotton prints factory in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. The company was founded, owned, and operated by the Simpson family until 1929. This small collection consists of student papers written for the course Anthropology 703 Cultural Change in the Industrial Revolution. The papers all focus on the history of the Eddystone Manufacturing Company or the Simpson family and were written in the spring of 1986.