The Gardner Machine Works specialized in manufacturing woodworking machinery, specifically those used to make chairs. This collection consists mainly of images of tools and machinery manufactured and sold by the Gardner Machine Works company. This collection has been organized into four series: Tools and machinery photographs and negatives; Trade catalogs and advertisements; Notebooks, drawings, and patents; and Scrapbooks. This collection would be of interest to those researching woodworking machinery, equipment, marketing, and design.

Henry Disston & Sons, Inc. was a major manufacturer of saws and other woodworking tools and one of the largest industrial firms in Philadelphia. The Henry Disston & Sons, Inc. had a number of subsidary companies, these records contain a small number of account books from only three of the firms subsidaries. There are accounts for: the Tacony Fuel Gas Company, the Henry Disston & Sons File Company, Limited, and the Henry Disston & Sons Iron & Steel Works, and an insurance ledger from the Estate of Henry Disston.

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 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.

Richards, London & Kelley manufactured pattern-making machinery for woodworking. The firm founded, The Atlantic Works in 1869 for the manufacture of machines especially directed to railway car manufacturing, and Band Sawing Machinery. This collection consists of illustrations of woodworking machinery and descriptions from trade catalogs that are pasted into an album. The machinery was produced in Philadelphia by The Atlantic Works (also DBA Richards, London and Kelley).