Warner Company photographs
Creation: 1795-1998 Creation: Majority of material found within 1910-1970Abstract
The Warner Company produced lime, sand, and gravel, as well as products derived from those raw materials, such as hydrated lime for agricultural, chemical, construction, and domestic use, plaster, masonry, cement, and concrete. This collection consists of photographs, negatives, advertisements, lantern slides, 35mm slides, and albums from the Warner Company from about 1900 through 1970; the bulk of the material dates to about 1925 to 1955.
Dates
- Creation: 1795-1998
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1910-1970
Creator
- Warner Company (Organization)
Extent
23 Linear Feet
Physical Description
2796 photographic prints : b&w : 8 x 10 in. or smaller. 51 photographic prints : b&w : 11 x 14 in. 43 photographic prints : b&w : 16 x 20 in. 549 photographic prints : color : 4 x 6 in. or smaller. 1525 negatives : b&w : 8 x 10 in. or smaller. 196 negatives : color : 35 mm. 1 transparency : b&w. 8 transparencies : color. 355 slides : color and b&w : 35 mm. 11 slides : b&w : 2.25 x 2.25 in. 98 slides : lantern, b&w. 458 items : advertisements. 5 items : drawings. 2 items : maps. 17 items : printing blocks. 3 items : sheet music. 1 album : 16.5 x 18 in. 1 album : 15.5 x 21 in. 7 albums (330 photographic prints) : 12 x 15 in. 1 album (187 photographic prints) : 10 x 14 in. 1 album (24 photographic prints) : 10 x 12.5 in. 3 albums (64 photographic prints) : 10 x 11 in. 1 album (23 photographic prints) : 9.5 x 12 in. 1 album (15 photographic prints) : 9 x 12 in. 5 albums (127 photographic prints) : 8.5 x 12 in. 1 album (55 photographic prints) : 7.5 x 11 in.
Historical Note
The Warner Company's origins can be traced to 1794, when brothers John Warner (1773-1825) and William Warner (1774-1845) formed a partnership to operate a sailing packet service on the Delaware River between Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The venture proved successful, and in 1885, the family freight business incorporated under the name Charles Warner Company. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Charles Warner Company was among Wilmington's leading dealers in coal, cement, lime, plaster, and building sand.
About 1900, the Charles Warner Company acquired the Cedar Hollow Lime Company in Devault, Pennsylvania, and around the same time, constructed the company's first sand dredge on the Delaware River near Wilmington. By 1920, the company decided to increase its lime production by acquiring a controlling interest in the American Lime and Stone Company, thereby gaining control of high quality limestone deposits in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Concurrently, the company also expanded its sand and gravel operation to the upper Delaware River above Philadelphia, and shortly thereafter, merged with the Van Sciver Corporation, a successful sand and gravel firm in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, to become simply the Warner Company.
For the next several decades, the Warner Company produced lime, sand, and gravel, as well as products derived from those raw materials, such as hydrated lime for agricultural, chemical, construction, and domestic use, plaster, masonry, cement, and concrete. Products were shipped from Warner's production plants to riverfront distribution yards in Wilmington, Chester, Philadelphia, and Morrisville via the company's fleet of tugs and barges, and from there, Warner's fleet of dump trucks and cement mixers delivered products to job sites throughout the Delaware Valley region. The company became well-known for its Central Mix Concrete (CMC) and hydrated lime brands "Limoid" and "Super Limoid".
Arrangement
Series I (Subject file/photo file) comprises about half of the collection, and is divided into five subseries by subject: A. Plants and facilities; B. Transportation (trucks, tugs, barges, dredges, etc); C. Jobs and product use; D. Personnel; and E. Miscellaneous. This series generally retains the original order of the subject file as it was kept by the Warner Company, and as a result, there is a significant amount of overlap between its subseries. For example, group portraits of employees at a given plant may be filed in Subseries A under that plant's name, rather than in Subseries D. Personnel. An attempt has been made to list all relevant subjects of interest contained within each folder on the box list for this collection.
Scope and Content
This collection consists of photographs, negatives, advertisements, lantern slides, 35mm slides, and albums from the Warner Company from about 1900 through 1970; the bulk of the material dates to about 1925 to 1955. Much of the collection is made up of files maintained by Amy I. Hardester in Warner's Publicity Department. Some material may also have originated in Warner's Industrial Relations Department; this department published the company magazine "Warner News" as well as the company newspaper "Green Diamond".
The collection contains photographs of nearly all Warner plants, yards, mines, tugs, trucks, and dredges, both exterior and interior views as well as aerial views and panoramas. Additionally, there are some photographss of Warner offices, laboratories, locomotives and rail cars, and specific departments, such as the Tabulating Department and the Order Department. A limited number of employees are pictured in both formal portraits (mostly in groups) and candidly at work and during company picnics. The collection also holds a number of photographs of office, apartment, and civic buildings, as well as homes, schools, roads, and bridges built using Warner construction materials; these photographs are well-labeled, and show sites throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York, including the Delaware Memorial Bridge, Atlantic City Convention Center, Penn Center office complex (Philadelphia), and Fairless Hills housing project.
Advertisements consist mostly of ads from the 1920s through the 1950s for agricultural and building lime, including Warner brands "Limoid", "Limoid" with "Farmogerm", "Super Limoid", "Alca" lime, "Bald Eagle" lime, "Bell Mine" lime, and "Knickerbocker" lime, as well as "Trowlite" cement, "Dri-Mix" mortar, Central Mix Concrete, "Warco" plaster, "Lelite" lightweight aggregate, Atlantic prestressed concrete, and concrete burial vaults. There is also a run of ads for Warner's campaign to promote poured concrete home foundations.
A small portion of the collection is composed of material from the Warner family, consisting mostly of color snapshots of family vacations, holidays, gatherings, and special events from the 1980s and early 1990s; most of these snapshots appear to have been taken by Lea P. Warner or his wife, Dorothy.
Access Restrictions
No restrictions on access; this collection is open for research.
Negatives and color prints (Boxes 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 35) are located in remote storage. Please contact staff 48 hours in advance of research visit at askhagley@hagley.org
Access to view lantern slides is at the discretion of the conservator. Please inquire in advance of your visit.
Language of Materials
English
Subjects
Finding Aid & Administrative Information
- Title:
- Warner Company photographs
- Author:
- Judy Stevenson and encoded by Laurie Rizzo
- Date:
- 2013
- Description rules:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description:
- English
- Script of description:
- Latin
Repository Details
Repository Details
Part of the Audiovisual Collections Repository
