Abstract:

Founded in 1841 by Lewis Tappan, the Mercantile Agency — later known as R.G. Dun & Co. — was the first commercial reporting agency in America and dominated the field well into the twentieth century. The microfilmed credit ledgers contain volumes of handwritten credit reports on individuals and firms from the Mid-Atlantic region.

Abstract:

Robert "Bob" Allan Olodort (1946-2019) was an inventor, industrial designer, and entrepreneur. He is best known for his invention of the "Stowaway," a portable, full-size keyboard that folds up to be pocket-size. It was used for Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) like the Palm Pilot. Olodort invented the first computer label printer, the Smart Label Printer, among many other wireless mobile products. He holds dozens of U.S. and foreign utility and design patents. The Robert Olodort archive documents the industrial design process from both an inventor's and an entrepreneurial standpoint. The collection shows the development of a concept into a final product through product research, notes, correspondence, sketches, mechanical drawings, and prototypes. It provides valuable insight into how proprietary technology can be monetized by patenting and maintaining company relationships through development, licensing, and purchase agreements. The records also document business operations with financial files, board of directors files, and investor files. While none of the record sets are complete, there is a large enough sampling for a researcher to comprehend the complexity of design and business practices.

Abstract:

The Schuylkill Navigation Company constructed a canal along the Schuylkill River from Philadelphia to the anthracite coal field near Pottsville between 1815 and 1825. The item is a small notebook with subscriptions to the company's loans in 1823 and 1824.

Abstract:

Irene "Sophie" Sophie du Pont May (1900-2001) was a churchwoman, a philanthropist, and a descendant of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) who founded the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company with his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) in 1802. The E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The collection consists of Sophie du Pont May's family correspondence and financial correspondence as well as correspondence between her father Irénée du Pont (1876-1963) and his older sister Louisa d'Andelot du Pont Copeland (1868-1926).

Scope and Content:

The financial records include quarterly statements and published annual reports.

Abstract:

The Sperry Corporation was an electronics company and the UNIVAC Division manufactured the first commercial digital computer. The Sperry UNIVAC division has its origins in the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), founded in 1946 by J. Presper Eckert (1919-1995) and John W. Mauchly (1907-1980), the developers of ENIAC, the first electronic digital computer. This collection consists of the administrative, financial, marketing, personnel, and legal records of Sperry UNIVAC and its predecessor companies. Also included are manuals, reports, and publications on hardware and software developed by Sperry UNIVAC; task force reports and studies for developing new products; printed materials from the Systems Programming Library Service; and biographical and historical data.

Scope and Content: The Strawbridge & Clothier records are not a complete corporate archive but rather a mix of corporate and legal documents and materials collected for a two-volume anniversary history. Nevertheless, they give a good overall picture of the evolution of retailing in the Philadelphia area, particularly in the twentieth century.The Corporate records include incorporation papers, board and committee minutes, and annual reports, which give an overall view of the firm's operations.The Management records are limited to very fragmentary correspondence of the corporate secretaries and president Herbert J. Tily. Much of it concerns bank financing, authorizations, and accounts. There are also executive payrolls (1931-1950), employment contracts for top executives, and notes on executive development programs.Financial and accounting records include fragmentary runs of journals and ledgers, including a sales ledger (1881) and a sales & salaries ledger (1903-1906); financial statements for S&C and the rival Lit Brothers chain; and tax papers.Legal records include trial records relative to the failed hostile takeover attempt made by Ronald Baron in 1985-1986. There are transcripts of testimony from the major parties on both sides. This subgroup also contains a variety of miscellaneous legal papers, including settlements with S&C's foreign offices and various suppliers in London, Paris, and Berlin (1921-1926); merchandising agreements with domestic and foreign manufacturers (1896-1907); and claims case files (1906 and 1911).Real estate records include title papers for the company's flagship store at 8th & Market Streets (1793-1922); contracts for store construction; and some plans for twentieth century construction. Four linear feet of store appraisals for the flagship store are detailed lists for insurance purposes of the store, its fixtures, and contents (1948-1970).Branch store records include plans, publicity articles, brochures, and scrapbooks, plus leases, mortgages, contracts, and insurance appraisals of store and contents for the following branch stores beginning in 1930: Ardmore, Jenkintown, Springfield, Neshaminy, Plymouth Meeting, and Exton, Pennsylvania; Cherry Hill and Echelon, New Jersey; and Wilmington and Christiana, Delaware. This subgroup documents the growth of suburban shopping strips and shopping malls during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, including malls...

Abstract:

Sun Company is a petroleum processor and distributor incorporated by Joseph Newton Pew, Sr. (1848–1912), with his eldest son Arthur E. Pew (1875-1917), under the laws of New Jersey in 1901. In 1902, the company built a refinery in southeastern Pennsylvania on the Delaware River at Marcus Hook to process crude oil sent from Texas by ship. This collection contains plant and production records for the Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, refinery of the Sun Oil Company. These records provide insight into the plants' finances, primarily through material and labor costs dating from 1903 to 1929.

Abstract:

The Textile Machine Works began as a braiding machines repair and replacement company for German imported equipment, but they began building their own braiding machines in late 1892. The Textile Machine Works was founded by Henry Janssen (1866-1948) and Ferdinand Thun (1866-1949) on July 5, 1892, in Reading, Pennsylvania. This collection includes administrative and financial records of the parent company and major subsidiaries from 1900 to 1968. There is additional material relating to employee relations and the establishment and operation of the Wyomissing Polytechnic Institute.

Abstract:

Thomas H. Savery (1837-1910) was president of Pusey, Jones and Company, a shipbuilder and papermaking machinery manufacturer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This collection consists of two checkbook stubs dating from 1892 to 1896.

Abstract:

Thomas H. Savery (1837-1910) was president of Pusey, Jones and Company, a major ship builder and manufacturer of papermaking machinery in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The papers are a fragmentary collection of Savery's diary, correspondence, and financial papers. The materials document his early career, papermaking machinery business ventures, some personal correspondence, and speeches.

Abstract:

The majority of the records for the parent company consist of correspondence, both incoming and outgoing, primarily generated by or for company officers and/or directors.

Abstract:

William du Pont, Sr. (1855-1928) was an industrialist and member of the prominent du Pont family of Delaware, whose family business was the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, also known as the DuPont Company which was a large manufacturer of gunpowder. He worked for the first DuPont dynamite manufacturer, Repauno Chemical Company, as secretary and treasurer (1880-1884) and after the tragic death of Lammot du Pont (1831-1884), as president (1884-1892). William du Pont, Jr. was the youngest child of du Pont, Sr. and Annie Rogers Zinn du Pont (1858-1827). Du Pont Jr. became the president of Delaware Trust Company in 1929, the youngest bank president in Wilmington at that time. In 1952, he became chairman of the board, retaining both positions until his death in 1965. The William du Pont family papers are organized into two record groups: William du Pont, Sr. papers and William du Pont, Jr. papers. The William du Pont, Sr. papers primarily encompass the years of his active business life from the early 1880s to his death in 1928. There are also some papers from his early life and after his death. The William du Pont, Jr. papers document areas of his activities predominantly concerned with land development in Wilmington, Delaware; farming, animal breeding and foxhunting in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia; and promotion of horse racing in the United States, especially in Delaware.

Abstract:

William du Pont (1855-1928) was an industrialist and member of the promienent du Pont family of Delaware, whose family business was the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, also known as the DuPont Company which was a large manufacturer of gunpowder. He worked for the first DuPont dynamite manufacturer, Repauno Chemical Company, as secretary and treasurer (1880-1884) and after the tragic death of Lammot du Pont (1831-1884), as president (1884-1892). This small group of papers encompass both correspondence and various financial and investment accounts, largely covering his ten years spent in England after leaving the United States in 1893.

Abstract:

The Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR) National Committee investigated the increase in drunkenness and effect of Prohibition, operated a publicity campaign, created a speakers' bureau, spoke at legislative hearings, and enrolled members. This collection of the Pennsylvania division records consists of the Executive Committee minutes, administrative files, financial records, and membership records.

Abstract:

The Woodlawn Trustees, Incorporated, is a non-profit real estate development firm incorporated in Delaware on December 12, 1918, by textile manufacturer William Poole Bancroft (1835-1928). Their records include charters, minutes, officer lists, directors' correspondence, real estate records, property maps, reports, drawings and specifications and newspaper and journal articles on the history of the Trustees and of the Bancroft family.

Abstract:

The Worth Steel Company was a manufacturer of steel plates in Claymont, Delaware. Its records consist of papers from its operations and from its predecessor companies (Viaduct Iron Works and Worth Brothers Company, both of Coatesville, Pennsylvania). Items include correspondence, accounts, datasheets, agreements, closing papers in sale to Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation in 1951, and the sale of land in 1958.