Charles Findeisen (1919-2007) was an aerial photographer hobbyist turned professional and spent most of his life flying airplanes. Findeisen consulted for real estate development concerns, engineering firms, and construction companies among others. Virtually all of his work was in the tri-state region of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

This collection contains his aerial photography from 1962 to 2000. It is comprised mostly of negatives but does include some photographs. Many of his subjects were photographed over time at regular intervals. This is particularly true of real estate development programs and building projects. But there is also one-off material of current events, local places, and landmarks.

Horace Holden Thayer, Jr. (1878-1959) was a naval architect, mechinical engineer, and businessman. Between 1909 and 1914 Thayer worked for the Delaware Construction Company which was a building company, constructing residential homes in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. This collection contains photographs of fifteen homes taken between 1910 and 1914. The images are of exterior views only.

Gilpin, Van Trump & Montgomery, Inc. provided insurance sales and service to property owners. The business was established in 1865 in Wilmington, Delaware, by businessman James Woolley (1818-1886). By the early-to-mid twentieth century, the company specialized in real estate sales and service, as well as mortgages, becoming Delaware's only full-service real estate organization. The records include minutes, corporate histories, publicity material, as well as information on company properties, and documents the company's rise from a small insurance company to a large, multi-service insurance, real estate, mortgage, and investment firm.

Greenville Center, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware on August 3, 1960 for the purpose of developing a shopping center at the northeast corner of the intersection of Buck Road and Kennett Pike in Greenville, Delaware. The records of Greenville Center, Inc. consist of an assortment of records from two sources--those of Greenville Center itself, kept by stockholder Arthur McGeorge, and a smaller portion from Peter H. Greeley of the Greenville Manor Homeowners' Association. They describe the mechanics and difficulties of building and operating a small but upscale suburban shopping center and restaurant.

Wawaset Park was a planned residential community built by the DuPont Company around 1918 for its executives in Wilmington, Delaware. These panoramic photographs depict construction of homes and overall views of area, street scenes, and pictures of individual houses.

Wawaset Park was a planned community, commissioned by the DuPont Company for its company executives. The records describe the park, its residents, and history through corporate records, maps and deeds of the property, lists of corporate officers and residents, as well as histories of the park, the City of Wilmington, and the state of Delaware.

The Woodlawn Trustees Inc., a major landowner in suburban Wilmington, Delaware, began developing Woodbrook and Sharpley neighborhoods in the mid-1950s. This collection illustrates the process of creating suburban residential subdivision in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

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.

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). Records consist primarily of 35mm slides, mostly dating from 1989 to 2002, documenting Woodlawn Trustees properties throughout Wilmington and Brandywine Hundred, including low-income city housing, preserved farmland, greenways along the Brandywine Creek, and commercial properties on Concord Pike and the Wilmington waterfront.

The Wyomissing Development Company was a housing development firm for the employees of a manufacturer of knitting machinery, the Textile Machine Works. Both companies were incorporated by Henry Janssen (1866-1948) and Ferdinand Thun (1866-1948). The collection contains two minute books which document the organization of the Wyomissing Development Company, the acquisition of land for the company town and other public facilities including stores, parks, playgrounds, schools, and hospitals.