Research & Collections News

Recent News

March 3, 2015
Conservation: Bingham Estate Maps - From Drab to Fab
So what have I been up to these last few months? I was immersed in maps: surveying, cleaning, humidifying, flattening and mending 50 maps from Group 127 of the Bingham Estate Collection. The maps, dating mostly pre-1900, show Bingham lands and properties in northern Pennsylvania.
March 1, 2015
Fabrikoid - A Game Changer
Fabrikoid is the trademark for artificial leather manufactured by the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company of Wilmington, Delaware. The DuPont Fabrikoid Company filed its first artificial leather patent in October 1915 and Fabrikoid has been around widely since the 1920s.
February 3, 2015
Published Collections: Engineering News and the Image of Diversity at DuPont
Engineering News is not about the chemical compounds and synthetic materials made famous at DuPont, but about the ordinary people who researched, designed, and made them.
January 6, 2015
Published Collections: (A brief whiff of) Perfume in America
The art of perfumery began (like many things) with the ancient Egyptians, and was practiced by the Romans, Persians, Arabs and East Asians through time.
January 5, 2015
Museum: When is a Patent Model not a Patent Model?
Until 1880, the United States Patent Office required models to be sent with a patent application to the United States Patent Office. These models were usually smaller versions of the invention.
December 4, 2014
The New Andrew W. Mellon Curator
Kevin J.
November 24, 2014
Audiovisual Collections: Charles Findeisen aerial photographs open for research
The Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department is excited to announce the opening of a collection of aerial photographs by hobbyist turned professional Charles Findeisen.
November 24, 2014
Discovering Sunoco Oil Executive Howard Pew's Soft Spot for Poetry
Sunoco Oil executive J. Howard Pew (pictured) had a soft spot for poetry. From the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, he kept a folder in his personal papers for snippets of verse. Admirers sent poems to him, as did friends in business.

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