Abstract:

At the turn of the century, under the direction of Charles M. Schwab (1862-1939) and Eugene Grace (1876-1960), Bethlehem Steel Corporation became the second largest American steel company; combined with its other venture, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., it became a leading twentieth century American business. The collection includes a wide range of photography which documents the company’s long history and the breadth of its enterprises from east to west coasts and overseas. It contains eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century industrial and non-industrial images and of management and workers. As a research tool, its use will be as varied and extensive as the corporation itself was during its years as an American industrial giant.

Scope and Contents: The records of the subsidiary and predecessor companies of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation consist of a series of fragments from forty-three of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's more than 400 subsidiary and predecessor companies. The bulk of the records are design and construction drawings for vessels built by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Ltd., and its predecessors. The best coverage is available from the Wilmington, Del., yard. The ship drawings are only partially processed.The records of the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation consist of a series of contracts with the United States Navy, most of which were made during the First World War. They include numerous contracts for torpedo boat destroyers, scout cruisers, and the submarine torpedo boat USS AA-1 (originally named the USS Schley, and then renamed the USS AA-1 in 1917), the first of three experimental submarines built for the US Navy toward the end of the war. Select contracts authorized during August 1917 include signatures from Franklin D. Roosevelt, who for a brief period served as the Active Secretary of the Navy.The records also include the contracts for the USS Lexington, USS Quincy, USS Rhode Island, and the aircraft carrier USS Wasp. The contract for the battle cruiser USS Lexington (CC-1) also contains correspondence related to the supplementary contract for its conversion into an aircraft carrier, as well as agreements made with the General Electric Company. Correspondence included with the USS Quincy contract covers claims filed by Bethlehem Steel regarding the extra construction and labor costs incurred following the enactment of the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933. Correspondence in connection with other contracts in the records discuss typical topics such as financial issues, contract clause amendments, and construction delays.There are small quantities of executive documents for a few of the companies. Minutes are available for the Bethlehem Iron Company, Maryland Steel Company of Baltimore County, Pennsylvania Steel Company of New Jersey, Midvale Steel & Ordnance Company, and the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation. A few important managerial and technical reports can be found in the records of the Bethlehem Iron Company, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Ltd., and the Pennsylvania Steel Company. The acquisiton of Cuban ore lands is described in the records of the Juragua Iron Company, Ltd., the...

Abstract:

The Craven-McDade family had several family members working in the gunpowder and explosives industry for the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company and later the Hercules Powder Company. These papers related to the Craven and McDade family of Henry Clay village in Delaware.

Abstract:

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834). This collection of more than 1250 discrete photographs depicts the landscape and buildings at or near the company's explosives manufacturing plants along Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware. Approximately 900 images depict powder yard sites, including the DuPont Experimental Station, either during the mills' final decades of operation or prior to, during, and after excavation and restoration work on the site in the 1950s and 1960s. Most of the remaining images depict the worker communities which surrounded the powder yards.

Abstract:

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. During World War I, the DuPont Company entered the dye industry. This small collection of photographs is primarily of DuPont Company plant sites of dye works and explosives. There are numerous views of the Carrollville, Wisconsin, plant and the Terre, Indiana, plant.

Abstract:

In 1902, DuPont took control of Laflin & Rand, including the Haskell Works. Infallible and Ballistite powders were manufactured there. The works played an important role in smokeless powder production during World War I. The panoramic photographs depict views of the Du Pont Company's smokeless powder works in Haskell, New Jersey and the workers village nearby.

Abstract:

In 1904 the DuPont Company purchased the International Smokeless Powder and Chemical Company, which was then producing smokeless powder and nitrocellulose products in their plant in Parlin, New Jersey. This collection consists of seven panormaic photographs that show views of the Parlin, New Jersey plant, including views of production facilities and worker housing.

Abstract:

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Repauno Works manufactured high explosive dynamite. The company began as the Repauno Chemical Company on June 7, 1880, by Lammot du Pont (1831-1884), a chemist working for the family business, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company which originally produced gunpowder. The panoramic photographs show two views of the dynamite works and workers village at the DuPont Company's Repauno Works.

Abstract:

The DuPont Company purchased the land for a smokeless powder plant at Carney's Point, New Jersey (across the Delaware River from Wilmington, Delaware) in 1890. In 1892 it produced its first guncotton, and then the first smokeless powder. This collection consists of twenty panoramic photographs of Carney's Point smokeless powder plant, including exteriors of various buildings and groups of workers.

Abstract:

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.

Abstract:

170 Breck's Lane was owned by William Winder "Chick” Laird, Jr. (1910-1989) and served as workers' housing. Laird was the director of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and a financial advisor, starting his own brokerage firm in Wilmington, Delaware. This collection contains twenty photographic prints of various interior and exterior architectural views of 170 Breck's Lane before architectural rennovations by the owner.

Abstract:

Homes on Breck's Lane were owned by William Winder "Chick” Laird Jr. (1910-1989), and served as workers' housing. Laird was the director of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. The record is a single sheet listing the houses on Breck's Lane near Wilmington, Delaware, that were originally workers' housing attached to the Brandywine Works of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company.

Abstract:

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.

Abstract:

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.

Abstract:

McCullough Iron Company produced the first galvanized sheet iron in the United States, and then went on to produce charcoal blooms and iron bars. The Octoraro Rolling Mill was built in 1828, originally owned by Joseph Roman and purchased by McCullough & Co. in 1857. It operated until 1893. This item is a panoramic-type nineteenth century albumen photograph showing the town of Rowlandsville, Maryland, on Octoraro Creek in Cecil County. The iron-works may be in the distance, and the houses may be predominantly worker's housing.

Abstract:

The Merchants Coal Company mined semi-bituminous coal in the early twentieth century. These are images of early construction at the Merchants Coal Company in Boswell, Pennsylvania.

Abstract:

Pierre A. Gentieu (1842-1930) was a long-time employee of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Gentieu was born in France in 1842. He emigrated to the United States around 1859. He began working for DuPont in 1877. This collection is comprised of images taken by DuPont Company employee Pierre Gentieu from approximately 1880 to 1920. Gentieu's images document the DuPont Company Powder Yards along the banks of the Brandywine River in Wilmington Delaware. The collection documents the surrounding community along the Brandywine including worker's families, du Pont family homes, churches in the area, DuPont Company exposition displays, and other facets of social and work life in the area.

Abstract:

Pierre A. Gentieu (1842-1930) was a long-term employee of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company who created an invaluable photographic record of the company's Brandywine Mills at the turn of the century. This is a small group of photographs related to northern New Castle County, Delaware. There are two photographs taken by Pierre and Frederic A. Gentieu, father and son, who photographed an August outing with a large group of men, women, and children.

Abstract:

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.