The Hagley Vault

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

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 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 to Vancouver, Canada, through British Columbia, to life at sea on the RMS Empress of Asia, and finally to their destinations in Yokohama and Kamakura, Japan.

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

City street and an arch reading "Welcome" decorated in patriotic bunting and American flags
Thursday, November 11, 2021
This Welcome Arch is being posted in recognition of Veterans’ Day ...
This Welcome Arch is being posted in recognition of Veterans’ Day. It was constructed at 2nd and Market Streets in downtown Wilmington, Delaware to honor a Union Veteran Legion National Encampment in the city, held from September 12-16, 1905. The Union Veteran Legion was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 5, 1885, and offered...
Black and white image of a large group of women in work clothes posing for a photograph on the grounds of the Brandywine Mills
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
We’ve got the women of the DuPont Company’s night shift dropping by ...
We’ve got the women of the DuPont Company’s night shift dropping by this #WorkerWednesday. The workers in this ca. 1918 film negative would worked 6 ½ hour shifts, from 3pm to 10pm, at the company’s powder yards at Brandywine Mills along the Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware. This photograph is part of Hagley Library's collection of ...
Black and white illustration in a catalog of a machine that knits ribbed underwear .
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
It’s #TextileTuesday, bringing you the greatest and (not so) latest on the textile industry ...
It’s #TextileTuesday, bringing you the greatest and (not so) latest on the textile industry. So here’s a patented ribbed underwear machine. This page is from Scott & Williams, Inc.’s 1928 “Underwear Knitting Machinery” catalog. Scott & Williams, Inc. originated out the Fidelity Machine Works, a business founded in Philadelphia in 1865 by...
Black and white image of three men standing in front of a building and a horse-drawn wagon with 'Du Pont Powder' written on the side.
Monday, November 8, 2021
On this date, November 8, in 1875 ...
On this date, November 8, in 1875, Frank Bryant, Henry Coder and William Cudney staked out the first of two nearly simultaneous ‘Discovery Claims’ of gold near what would become the town of Deadwood, South Dakota. The second claim was made the following day by a team of eight prospectors led by John B. Pearson. And so began the Deadwood gold rush...
Black and white image of a baby bundled in warm clothing standing in his carriage
Friday, November 5, 2021
Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend and, as the days get darker and chillier ...
Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend. As the days get darker and chillier, I’m taking my #FashionFriday cues today from this cozy cutie. Bundle up, everyone! This ca. 1924 negative is part of the Hagley Library’s collection Thomas C. Marshall photographs (Acc. 1990.270) collection and features a little Thomas C. Marshall, Jr. The family’s...
Newsletter page advertising Ready-Made Window Displays for store windows
Thursday, November 4, 2021
You may have known that the Victor Talking Machine Company was a pioneer in the fields of sound recording and phonograph manufacturing . . .
You may have known that the Victor Talking Machine Company was a pioneer in the fields of sound recording and phonograph manufacturing . . . but did you also know that they were early adopters in the field of Christmas Creep? This page is from a September/October 1910 issue of The Voice of the Victor, the company’s newsletter. It advertises the...
Black and white image of a crashed air mail plane
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
This photograph shows the crashed U.S. Air Mail flown by a 24-year-old Charles Lindbergh ...
This photograph shows the crashed U.S. Air Mail plane flown by a 24-year-old Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974). Lindbergh crashed the plane on a mail route on this date, November 3, in 1926, not long after crashing a similar plane on the same route on September 16 of that year. The planes were two of four fabric wing, plywood fuselage De Havilland DH-...
Red catalog with a black and white illustration of a Sonatron vacuum tube.
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
We’re bringing you a quality tube this #TechTuesday ...
We’re bringing you a quality tube this #TechTuesday. This pamphlet advertised vacuum tubes from the Sonatron Tube Company. Tubes like these were a crucial component in radios, televisions, and other electronic devices in the first half of the twentieth century. Prior to the development of semiconductor devices like diodes and transistors, vacuum...
Black and white image of a train traveling on a steel arch bridge over the Niagara River rapids.
Monday, November 1, 2021
The world’s first all-steel railroad bridge went into service on this date ...
The world’s first all-steel railroad bridge went into service on this date, November 1, in 1879. The bridge, built by the civil engineer Gen. William Sooy Smith (1830-1916) for the Chicago & Alton railroad, crossed the Missouri River at Glasgow, Missouri. The 2,700-foot-long five-span Whipple through truss was a marvel for its time but was...
Black and white photograph of four young women in costumes, seated on a wooden table.
Friday, October 29, 2021
Here’s wishing all of you who celebrate a happy Halloween weekend!
Here’s wishing all of you who celebrate a happy Halloween weekend! May you all have just the right amount of candy left over at the end of the night. This costumed crew was photographed on November 17, 1920 by Charles Yessel (1877-1953) at the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company's South Philadelphia Works. Yessel was the staff...
Magazine cover featuring a color illustration of a man on horseback shooting at an attacking bear
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Okay, so maybe some of our Halloween posts this week haven't been that scary ...
Okay, so maybe some of our Halloween posts this week haven't been that scary. But here’s one that’s guaranteed to send a shiver down your spine. It’s creepy and it’s kooky. Mysterious and spooky. It’s ALTOGETHER OOKY ..... It’s mid-20th century toxic masculinity [insert jump scare]. This problematic pulp publication is the December 1953 issue of...
Postcard with black and white photograph of a group posed inside the Haunted Shack at Knott's Berry Farm
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
Our terrifying week of Halloween tricks and treats continues ....
Our terrifying week of Halloween tricks and treats continues with a peek into the eldritch horrors of tilt-induced visual illusions. This postcard shows the Haunted Shack in the “Ghost Town” section of Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. It is undated but was probably created not long after the walkthrough attraction was built in 1954....
Black and white photo of exhibit purporting to show the mummified corpse of John Wilkes Booth.
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Here’s a creepy half-truth for Halloween . . .
Here’s a creepy half-truth for Halloween . . . this is not the preserved corpse of John Wilkes Booth. But it is a real mummified body! The body seen in this exhibition belonged to a man that went by various names. He first came to public attention in Granbury, Texas in 1877 as John St. Helen when, on what he thought was his deathbed, he “confessed...
Black and white photograph of scrapped automobiles after being burned.
Monday, October 25, 2021
Here’s a #MotorMonday for those of you getting into the Halloween spirit ...
Here’s a #MotorMonday for those of you getting into the Halloween spirit. It’s a spooky, scary, spine-chilling automobile g-g-g-graveyard! No? Well, we tried, sort of. This 1951[?] pamphlet is from the Bethlehem Steel Company. It provides a basic overview of the work that the company was doing to recover steel scrap from discarded automobiles in...
Color illustrations from a comic book about dental care featuring a witch and small children.
Friday, October 22, 2021
The witchiest week of the year is just a weekend away ...
The witchiest week of the year is just a weekend away! We’re getting started a little early with some terrifying tales for teeth, courtesy of the Whitehall Pharmacal Company. These panels were excerpted from Kolynos Presents the Crusader and the Wicked Witch, a 1951 advertisement for Kolynos toothpaste in comic book form. The comic tells the story...
Black and white photo of a woman placing her hands on a very large incandescent light bulb.
Thursday, October 21, 2021
Talk about a bright idea ...
Talk about a bright idea … on this day, October 21, in 1879, Thomas Edison (1847-1931) and his employees created the first practical incandescent light bulb in his Menlo Park, N.J. laboratory. Other inventors had also designed incandescent bulbs or experimented with the technology involved. In 1761, the English inventor Ebenezer Kinnersley (1711-...

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