The Hagley Vault

Selections from Hagley Museum and Library's archives and published collections on the history of American business, technology, and innovation.

March 31, 2025
The scene shows a damaged locomotive, with parts of the engine scattered and broken.

This week's Hagley Vault post documents a train wreck that occurred in February 1917 in Mount Union, Pennsylvania. The accident occurred when the locomotive shown in this photograph, engine No. 614 carrying a freight train of coal cars, collided with the sleeper car of the Mercantile Express No. 6 passenger train.


The impact killed all twenty-one passengers aboard the sleeping car, sent coal cars tumbling down the rail embankment to the street below, and trapped those in the locomotive. Reportedly, the workers on the freight locomotive failed to see signals in a heavy fog.

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Archive

For posts prior to October 2020, visit the Hagley Vault on Tumblr.

Friday, March 24, 2023
This weekend will mark the historic anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire ...
This weekend will mark the historic anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City. The tragedy, one of the most infamous industrial disasters in American history, killed 146 workers on March 25, 1911. This film, The Crime of Carelessness, was made in 1912 for National Association of Manufacturers by Thomas Edison Studios, warned of...
Photograph of an autogiro lifting from the ground at an airfield
Monday, March 20, 2023
Lots of things can be U.F.O.s if you're just not that curious about aircraft ...
Lots of things can be U.F.O.s if you're just not that curious about aircraft. Not this autogiro, though! Text associated with this photograph, taken on January 4, 1925, offers an explanation, stating that: "Photo shows a new helicopter invented by the Spanish engineer Don Juan Dela Cierva and called the autogiro, while it was being tried out...
Print shows a mother pinning clover on son's suit and a girl standing a standing at an open window
Friday, March 17, 2023
This 1872 lithograph depicted a domestic scene of Saint Patrick's day celebrations in 19th century America ...
This 1872 lithograph depicted a domestic scene of Saint Patrick's day celebrations in 19th century America. Text a the bottom of the image reads "Commemorative of Irland's [sic] unswerving fidelity to her ancient religion and the devotion of her exiled children to the sacred principles of her freedom and redemption as a nation". The image also...
Looking down to street level from stairway and escalator in PSFS Building
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
On March 15, 1892, the American inventor and engineer ....
On March 15, 1892, the American inventor and engineer Jesse Wilford Reno (1861-1947) patented his design for "moving stairs", or an "inclined elevator" (now known as an escalator), which he designed as part of a proposal for an underground New York City subway station. Reno's U.S. Patent No. 470,918 was similar in some ways to to a design for "...
Gif showing a parrot in flight made from motion capture photographs.
Monday, March 13, 2023
On March 13 in 1882, the English photographer Eadweard J. Muybridge ...
On March 13 in 1882, the English photographer Eadweard J. Muybridge (1830-1904) debuted his zoopraxiscope to a full house at the Royal Institution in London, where guests included the future King Edward VII and other members of the royal family. The device, an optical apparatus invented by Muybridge, presented projected images from a rotating...
Poster showing infographics about income distribution in the United States.
Friday, March 10, 2023
This ca. 1943 poster was produced and distributed by the National Association of Manufacturers as one of ten posters ...
This ca. 1943 poster was produced and distributed by the National Association of Manufacturers as one of ten posters in the trade association's 'American Way' campaign. This campaign, launched with the goal of delegitimizing the New Deal and labor unions, promoted a free enterprise, pro-business agenda through sustained deployment of visual-based...
Carney's Point Works Smokeless Powder Cutting Machine with two women operators
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
This #WorkerWednesday threatens to become a real blast ...
This #WorkerWednesday threatens to become a real blast - this ca. 1917 photograph shows DuPont employees operating the cutting machine during the smokeless powder production process. The Carney's Point plant produced smokeless powder, a munitions propellant, for the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, who built the facility across the Delaware...
Image of a mouse with cheese marked 'Wisconsin' & 'Ohio'. Rodent themed puns in background.
Monday, March 6, 2023
The newest addition to Hagley Library's Digital Archive is small but mighty ...
The newest addition to Hagley Library's Digital Archive is small but mighty. This undated, ca. 1953 photograph is a film still from our Frank Siedel papers (Accession 2022.215) collection. Frank Siedel (1914-1988) was a writer, educator, and broadcaster. In 1947, he founded the firm Storycraft, Inc., an industrial writing company, where he...
Friday, March 3, 2023
This clip is from Discovering Electronic Music, a 1977 film ....
This clip is from Discovering Electronic Music, a 1977 film produced by BFA Educational Media about the physical basis of music and how it is created and altered by electronic means using synthesizers imitating musical instruments and computer-controlled music and composition created with a computer. The film includes interviews with F. Richard ...
Photograph of a pig in a pen.
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
In 1972, sisters Ellen Stanley and Mary Lynne Rave registered March 1st as "Pig Day" in Chase’s Calendar of Annual Events ....
In 1972, sisters Ellen Stanley and Mary Lynne Rave registered March 1st as "Pig Day" in Chase’s Calendar of Annual Events as a special, designated day to "accord the pig its rightful, though generally unrecognized, place" in American life, and Stanley, a schoolteacher, began incorporating the new holiday into her classroom in Lubbock, Texas. The...
Bessemer converter for making steel with workers, Pennsylvania Steel Company, Steelton, Pennsylvania.
Monday, February 27, 2023
This undated (ca. 1895?) image shows workers and a Bessemer converter for making steel ...
This undated (ca. 1895?) image shows workers and a Bessemer converter for making steel at the Pennsylvania Steel Company's plant in Steelton, Pennsylvania, where the frog and switch division and a rail mill plant were located. This item is part of Hagley Library's collection of Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Bethlehem Ship Corporation...
Black and white glass negative image of four children on an outdoor swing seat, with three adults behind them.
Friday, February 24, 2023
Swinging into the weekend with a cozy #FamilyFriday glass plate negative ...
Swinging into the weekend with a cozy #FamilyFriday glass plate negative from Hagley Library's collection of Charles Murray glass plate negatives of Wilmington, Delaware and Albany, New York (Accession 1975.242). Charles B. Murray (1872-1947) worked as a foreman in building construction and was a resident of Wilmington, Delaware with his wife...
Black and white photograph of three women in work clothes riding bicycles.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
We're sharing our commute this #WorkerWednesday with three employees of the Hanford Engineer Works ...
We're sharing our commute this #WorkerWednesday with three employees of the Hanford Engineer Works commuting between work and home in Richland Village. Hanford Engineer Works, also known as the Hanford Site, was home to the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor. The construction of the site was handled by DuPont engineers, working...
Monday, February 20, 2023
The most wanted man in America is making a visit to the Hagley Vault today ....
The most wanted man in America is making a visit to the Hagley Vault today. This ca. 1950 clip, starring Don Ameche, is from a larger film sponsored by the Cleveland-based Scott & Fetzer Company. The company was founded in the early 1920s to manufacture vacuum cleaners designed by local inventor James B. Kirby. By the time the company...
Glass negative showing six children arranged into a tower formation.
Friday, February 17, 2023
We present to you today, a tower of du Pont children ...
We present to you today, a tower of du Pont children. This glass plate negative shows a young Lammot du Pont II (1880-1952) with his sisters Sophie Madeleine (1871-1894), Isabella Mathieu (1882-1946), and Mary Alletta Belin (1878-1938), and with his cousins Alice Belin (1872-1944) and Mary Lammot (1869-1949). This image was created around 1884 on...
Fashion photograph of a woman in a pink and pastel nylon dress.
Thursday, February 16, 2023
On this date, February 16, in 1937, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. was granted U.S. patent ...
On this date, February 16, in 1937, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. was granted U.S. patent No. 2,071,250 for "monocomponent artificial filaments or the like of synthetic polymers". The synthetic fiber was invented by Dr. Wallace Carothers, a research chemist working for the company. The patent covered the formula and creation process for...

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