A tannery was erected in Granville Center, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, in 1857. The tannery was sold to Charles J. E. Martin (1817-1862) and was later operated by Adam Innes (1820-1886) from 1862 until his death in 1886. The daybook records the operation of the Granville Center tannery by Martin and Innes from 1861 to 1883.

William Gray Purcell (1880-1965) was an architect who was hired by Alexander Brother's Leather Belting Company. In addition to architectural duties, Purcell acted as their advertising manager from 1916 to 1918. These colorful items in this collection were possibly covers designed for trade catalogs or publications. They are all copyrighted 1917, designed in a modern style, and may have been commissioned for the company's commemorative fiftieth anniversary that year.

The Allied Kid Company was a major manufacturer of kid leather and suede; it was one of the most important specialty leather firms in Wilmington. The records are a miscellaneous collection of Allied Kid Company materials preserved by Alexander Ulin of the Specialty Division of the company in Wilmington. The bulk of the records consist of laboratory and production notebooks giving chemical formulae and instructions for tanning and dyeing batches of hides, including calfskin, goatskin, and suede.

Amalgamated Leather Companies, Inc. manufactured black and colored glazed kid and other classes of leather used largely in making shoes in the early to mid-twentieth century. This collection consists of four photographs of employees at various events, and one factory exterior. There is also a color label.

The American Leather Belting Association (ALBA) (now the National Industrial Leather Association) is a trade organization for distributors, fabricators, and manufacturers of leather belting, conveyor belting, and flat power transmission belting. The records of ALBA include meeting minutes of the board of directors from 1937 to 1947 and the association's certificate of incorporation, charter, and by-laws. There are meeting minutes and sales reports from two membership divisions: the Textile Leather Division and the Mechanical Leather Packing Division.

Several early companies, established by members of the du Pont family, operated on the Brandywine Creek in proximity to the mills of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. These businesses included factories that produced tanned leather, woolen and cotton cloth, and yarns. The firms also owned properties that were used by, or sold to, other developers of mills in the region. This collection includes the papers of Du Pont, Bauduy & Company (1803-1815); Du Planty, McCall & Company (1813-1837); Brandywine Mill Seat Company (1798-1854); A. Cardon & Company (1824-1833); and Rockland Manufacturing Company (1825-1856).

J. Edgar Rhoads (1883-1981) was a partner and eventually head of J.E. Rhoads & Sons, a commercial tannery that specialized in the manufacturing of leather belts for mechanical applications. In his oral history, Rhoads recalls the major events in his life to about 1950, with considerable background material on his family. Additionally, he discusses his family's company, J.E. Rhoads & Sons, rural childhood, civic and charitable activities, particularly his work in Europe after both world wars and with the United China Relief.

The leather manufacturing firm of J.E. Rhoads & Sons grew out of an eighteenth-century tanning operation on the Rhoads family homestead in Marple, Chester County (now Delaware County), Pennsylvania. This collection contains various historical items related to the Rhoads family and their leather business, such as a deed to John Rhoads (1639-1701), correspondence regarding tanning business, paper on Rhoads homestead, and early business, and items related to the 275th anniversary of J.E. Rhoads & Sons Inc.

The leather manufacturing firm of J.E. Rhoads & Sons grew out of an eighteenth-century tanning operation on the Rhoads family homestead in Marple, Chester County (now Delaware County), Pennsylvania. The miscellany contains ledgers, a list of leather dealers in the northeast, correspondence regarding an order of belts by the DuPont Company, and other loose papers, such as bills and receipts.

The leather manufacturing firm of J.E. Rhoads & Sons grew out of an eighteenth-century tanning operation on the Rhoads family homestead in Marple, Chester County (now Delaware County), Pa. Records cover the entire history of the firm from the 1720s through the 1960s. There is also substantial information on trade organizations in the leather industry and on members of the Rhoads family.

The leather manufacturing firm of Joshua Conner & Son was founded in 1848 by James Conner (1813-1880). This collection consists of five photographs of the storefront, store interiors and portraits of the proprietors.

Dr. Lucius F. Ellsworth (1941-) was a Hagley graduate fellow and was employed by Hagley as a research assistant in the history of technology from 1963 to 1967. The papers in this collection consist of a combination of research notes and original documents collected by Dr. Ellsworth during his research on the American tanning and leather industries.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, Pennsylvania was already a leader in the coal, iron, steel, railroad, and petroleum industries. As the manufacturing industries grew in the cities, so did the small businesses of craftsman and artisans that populated the surrounding areas selling their goods. These merchants played an important role in trade, community relationships, and the economy.  This is an artificial collection of account books, cash ledgers, and receipt books of nineteenth-century merchants of various industries in Pennsylvania. Minimal correspondence is included as well as a poem.  Mineral, iron and leather industries are represented as well as organ building which includes two treatises written in German.  

Theophilus Miles Smith (1757-1850) was a Connecticut shoemaker and leather worker. The ledger is a record of Smith's careers as a shoemaker and leatherworker and other business endeavors selling deer skin, calf skin, pig skin, veal, packaged pork, working the docks, slaughtering hogs, and packaging hay.

The International Fur and Leather Workers Union of the United States and Canada was a labor union that represented workers in the fur and leather trades. This small collection of union items relating to the International Fur and Leather Workers Union, Local #201 of Wilmington, Delaware.