At Hagley, delve into the lives behind the history of enterprise. Encounter employers, employees, their families, and their customers. Learn about their evolving places in regional, national, and global society. For example,
Read the endearing letter a young P.S. du Pont, future DuPont Co. president, wrote to his father after visiting the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876.
Listen to Rosetta Henderson describe debating Barbara Jordan and taking part in the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.
Discover who won the 1944 Hanford Baseball League championship. The Riggers took on the Eagles in their off hours away from building the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world.
Explore these stories and more in Hagley’s collections!
Subject Strengths |
||
Oral histories
|
Since our library's founding, Hagley has collected oral histories. The past comes alive in more than 1000 hours of audio recorded as far back as the 1950s and as recently as this year. The interviews describe daily life, work experiences, and much more. |
|
Personal papers |
Personal papers are an important component of Hagley’s collections. Individual papers provide insight into family and social life. Such papers open windows into changing lifestyles and attitudes over time. |
|
Underrepresented voices |
Hagley works to ensure that historically marginalized peoples are documented in our collections. We seek to better highlight the roles they have played in the history of American enterprise. Current efforts include acquiring publications centering LGBTQ+ experiences in business. We also conduct oral history projects to capture the voices of Black Delaware Pioneers in STEM and Women in Enterprise. |
|
Employee and labor union periodicals |
Periodicals provide insight into work culture and attitudes across economic sectors. Prominent examples at Hagley include:
|
|
Life in photographs |
The human experience is poignantly captured in photographs throughout Hagley’s collections. The 15,000 photographs from the Chamber of Commerce show business and labor across economic sectors in the twentieth century. Charles Yessel’s arresting portraits of workers show life at Westinghouse in Philadelphia. |
Research guidesLearn more about our collections relating to the lived experience. |
|
|
Women Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Innovators |
"Going to a literary party," sketch by a young Sophie Madeline du Pont, date (Acc. WMSS:9).
Explore Further |
|||
|
Selected digital resources related to business and the lived experience at Hagley. Brandywine Valley Oral History Project The Extraordinary Life of Rosetta Henderson Dr. Wesley Memeger Jr.: Scientist, Artist, Activist A Separate Place: the Schools P.S. du Pont built Oral history collections gallery Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America: History Hangout Conversation with Margot Canady
|
|
Top image credits (left to right): Mary Hazzard Collins, who worked in the offices at DuPont Brandywine powder yards and later gave an oral history interview to Hagley staff in 1974, photo circa 1915 (Acc. 2026). Ladies baseball team at Westinghouse South Philadelphia works, 1921 (Acc. 1969.170). Howard Ellsworth Seal, Sr. planting corn with his granddaughter Eleanor near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, circa 1927 (Acc. 1971.336). Samuel Buchanan, who was killed in a 1906 graining mill explosion in the du Pont Brandywine powder yards, photo circa 1880 (Acc. 2017.226).