The Hagley Vault

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

March 10, 2025
An advertisement for Graybar Vacuum Cleaners, featuring a woman using a vacuum cleaner in a living room. The image promotes the vacuum cleaner as a sign of spring.

Signs of Spring abound on the grounds of Hagley Museum & Library today. So this week, we're bringing them online as well with this 1926 advertisement for Graybar Electric Company vacuum cleaners.


The Graybar Electric Company, a merchandiser of electrical equipment and household appliances, was founded in 1926 out of a supply division of the Western Electric Manufacturing Company after AT&T decided to restructure Western Electric in order to focus on supplying telephone equipment for its Bell telephone system. The company's name was an homage to the two principal founders of Western Electric, electrical engineers Alisha Gray (1835-1901) and Enos Barton (1842-1916). 

Read more...

Archive

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

An advertisement for Graybar Vacuum Cleaners, featuring a woman using a vacuum cleaner in a living room. The image promotes the vacuum cleaner as a sign of spring.
Monday, March 10, 2025
​Signs of Spring abound on the grounds of Hagley Museum & Library today ...
Signs of Spring abound on the grounds of Hagley Museum & Library today. So this week, we're bringing them online as well with this 1926 advertisement for Graybar Electric Company vacuum cleaners. The Graybar Electric Company, a merchandiser of electrical equipment and household appliances, was founded in 1926 out of a supply division of the ...
Black and white image of a woman in a machine shop, working at a large lathe machine.
Monday, March 3, 2025
This image of a worker at the Pennsylvania Railroad's car shops ...
This image of a worker at the Pennsylvania Railroad's car shops at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania was taken 106 years ago this week, on March 3, 1919. The woman in this image is using a lathe to machine a railroad car wheel and axle. The Pennsylvania Railroad was chartered in 1846 to complete an all-railroad network across the state. In 1857, the...
Monday, February 24, 2025
Let's go on a holiday in Philadelphia this week.
Let's go on a holiday in Philadelphia this week. This ca. 1960 film was produced by the city's Board of Trade and Conventions to promote tourism. It follows the fictional Daley family as they plan their vacation and sightsee Philadelphia's historical attractions, shopping, and sports and cultural events. The film, narrated by Dick Clark, also...
A vintage postcard illustration depicts two individuals on large-wheeled bicycles, likely penny-farthings, in a landscape with icicles and trees.
Monday, February 17, 2025
We're pedaling away from a Valentine's Day weekend today on our Columbia Valentine bicycles
We're pedaling away from a Valentine's Day weekend today on our Columbia Valentine bicycles. This ca. 1888 trade card, printed by G.H. Buek & Co., advertised bicycles sold by the Pope Manufacturing Company, a Boston-based manufacturer of air pistols, cigarette rolling machines, bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles, and assorted other mechanical...
Eagle, standing on American flag, holding feathers (or a scalp) in his beak of a rooster labeled 'se
Monday, February 10, 2025
Patriotic ephemera and decorative arts were a popular consumer item during the American Civil War ...
Patriotic ephemera and decorative arts were a popular consumer item during the American Civil War; this illustration comes from a ca. 1863 envelope found in Hagley Library's collection of Civil War patriotic envelopes (Accession 1969.064). This collection has was digitized in conjunction with Hagley’s exhibit, An Oath of Allegiance to the Republic...
Cover of Avon Outlook, featuring a woman and the tagline 'Beauty is My Business'
Monday, February 3, 2025
We're bringing a little beauty to a gray February ...
We're bringing a little beauty to a gray February with this February 1954 issue of Outlook, a magazine distributed to Avon Products sales representatives that contained motivational essays, updates on new and discontinued product lines, news about prize contests for meeting monthly sales goals, and instructional materials. The company is one of...
postcard for a motel in indiana, featuring illustration of a bird's eye view of the facilities
Monday, January 27, 2025
We're sending a postcard this week from a digital road trip ...
We're sending a postcard this week from a digital road trip through Hagley Library's collection of Postcards of motels, roadside attractions, restaurants, etc. in the United States (Accession 2007.214), a small collection of 130 postcards dating from approximately 1930 to 1960. The postcards depict motels (including motor courts and cabins),...
Cyanotype photo of a person sitting in a grassy field with trees and a large house in the background.
Monday, January 20, 2025
This 1893 cyanotype photograph was taken in Roxbury, Massachusetts ...
This 1893 cyanotype photograph was taken in Roxbury, Massachusetts; a handwritten note identifies it as "The Whiting Place". The image is part of a photograph album created by Louis Edward Levy (1846-1919) and Max Levy (1857-1926), two brothers whose parents brought them to the United States from Bohemia in 1854. After studying and working in the...
Monday, January 13, 2025
Turns out, there's a lot of things you can put in bags.
Turns out, there's a lot of things you can put in bags. This paean to plastic is one of nine ca. 1960 commercials for the Pactiv Corporation's 'Baggies' branded plastic bags. Baggies were the first commercially produced plastic storage bags for food (and other items!) and were sometimes marketed using the great tagline "You'll like them".  The...
Black and white image of an arbor and pine trees in the snow at Longwood Gardens
Monday, January 6, 2025
Hagley Library is starting the week off with a snow day! 
Hagley Library is starting the week off with a snow day! To keep the winter wonderland spirit going, we're sharing this undated (ca. 1955?) photograph of an arbor in the snow at Longwood Gardens. The gardens had their roots in Peirce's Park, an arboretum created by Joshua (1766-1851) and Samuel Peirce (1766-1838), who planted their collections of...
Photograph of the Railroad Depot that served as Jimmy Carter Presidential Campaign Headquarters in Plains, Georgia.
Monday, December 30, 2024
We're posting this ca. 1976 postcard today in honor of President and Nobelist Jimmy Carter ...
We're posting this ca. 1976 postcard today in honor of President and Nobelist Jimmy Carter. This railroad depot in Plains, Georgia served as the central hub for Carter's national presidential campaign in 1976 and was where he celebrated his win on election night. The depot was built in 1888. Today, it stands as the oldest building in the city of...
Monday, December 23, 2024
We're decking the halls of the internet this week ....
We're decking the halls of the internet this week with a 1956 advertisement for General Electric string lights and bulbs. The commercial is part of Hagley Library's collection of Cinecraft Productions films (Accession 2019.227). Cinecraft Productions was founded in 1939 by Ray Culley (1904-1983) and Betty (Buehner) Culley (1914-2016) in Cleveland...
Image of a Lard, Tallow, and Fruit-Press. Title reads "Essence of Beef"
Monday, December 16, 2024
Struggling to find a holiday gift for the person who has everything?
Struggling to find a holiday gift for the person who has everything? Consider essence of beef. They probably don't have that. This undated photograph is part of Hagley Library's collection of Carter Litchfield photographs and ephemera on the history of fatty materials (Accession 2007.227). In addition to writing and publishing about the history of...
Monday, December 9, 2024
We're in the midst of some of the busiest travel days of the year, so it seems a fine time to share this 1930 travel footage ...
We're in the midst of some of the busiest travel days of the year, so it seems a fine time to share this 1930 travel footage from Hagley Library's collection of RCA Camden records (Accession 2464.76). The film documents the Sommerer family's travels, beginning with domestic scenes at home in Camden, New Jersey and follows our travelers via train...
Monday, December 2, 2024
Brr!! Winter weather has arrived ....
Brrr!!! Winter weather has arrived on the grounds of Hagley Library. We're taking inspiration from this ca. 1955? photograph today and bundling up. This image shows a research team at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Haskell Laboratory working in their "all weather room", where DuPont researchers studied body reactions at extremely high and...
Black and white photograph of an older woman removing a turkey from an oven
Monday, November 25, 2024
This week, we're observing the upcoming holiday (and all the accompanying labor in the kitchen) ...
This week, we're observing the upcoming holiday (and all the accompanying labor in the kitchen) with this ca. 1932 photograph from our Edward J.S. Seal photographic reproductions (Accession 1971.336) collections. Edward James Shimer Seal (1896-1955) was a farmer and photographer. The son of Howard Ellsworth Seal (1859-1940) and Annie Lincoln...

Pages