Hoopes Brothers & Darlington began in West Chester in 1867 manufacturing wooden spokes for wheels. By the eighteen-eighties it was one of the largest wooden wheel makers in the country. Workers at the wooden wheel-making plant of Hoopes Brothers & Darlington, Inc. of West Chester, Pennsylvania, photographed at machinery. Includes portraits of Thomas Hoopes, then head of the company.

Hoopes Brothers & Darlington was a firm that produced wooden wheels. It was founded by brothers Thomas Hoopes (1834-1925) and William Hoopes (1830-1917) on their farm about a mile northwest of West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1866. Initially, they manufactured spokes for wagon wheels from local timber. In 1869, they established a factory in West Chester proper and, within three years, were manufacturing complete wooden wheels. In time the firm became the largest establishment of its kind east of the Allegheny Mountains. The records of Hoopes Brothers & Darlington, Inc. are relatively complete and give a full picture of the firm during its peak years in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Hoopes Brothers & Darlington was a firm that produced wooden wheels. It was founded by brothers Thomas Hoopes (1834-1925) and William Hoopes (1830-1917) on their farm about a mile northwest of West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1866. Initially, they manufactured spokes for wagon wheels from local timber. In 1869, they established a factory in West Chester proper and, within three years, were manufacturing complete wooden wheels. In time the firm became the largest establishment of its kind east of the Allegheny Mountains. This small collection consists of an account book of rim stock; a biography of one of the firm's founders, Thomas Hoopes; the autobiography of lime kiln owner John G. Robison; Edward S. Darlington's membership certificate in the Carriage Builders National Association; and board of directors' meeting minutes from 1903 to 1932.

Hoopes Brothers & Darlington began in West Chester in 1867 manufacturing wooden spokes for wheels. By the eighteen-eighties it was one of the largest wooden wheel makers in the country. This collection contains film and photograph materials related to the Smithsonian Instituation documentary "The Last Wheel Works," showing the steps involved in the making of wooden wheels from the delivery of the logs to the finished project.