The Hagley Vault

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

Archive

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

Women working in a factory that manufactures lipstick
The Hagley Vault brings beauty home to you ...
The Hagley Vault brings beauty home to you this week with a ca. 1950 look at lipstick manufacturing in an Avon Products plant in Canada. The photograph is part of Hagley Library's collection of Avon Products Inc. photographs and audiovisual materials (Accession: 1997.209). The company was founded in 1886 by David H. McConnell (1856-1937) as…
slide with two men talking and the caption 'don't complain, you didn't vote'
We'll be joining a lot of you at work this week ...
We'll be joining a lot of you at work this week, which is why we're sharing this slide from the 1959 'Citizen at Work' audiovisual presentation by the National Association of Manufacturers. The six-session political education seminar was created by the National Association of Manufacturers to counter the influence of the labor movement in American…
Toddler in a clown costume
Whether you're creepin' it real or too much of a cutie to be spooky, it's time to eat, drink, and be scary ...
Whether you're creepin' it real or too much of a cutie to be spooky, it's time to eat, drink, and be scary. Hagley is going trick-or-treating this week with a young Thomas C. Marshall, Jr., seen here in a 1925 photograph. This glass plate negative is from Hagley Library's Thomas C. Marshall photographs collection (Accession 1990.270). The Marshall…
Photograph of Westinghouse employees receiving influenza A (H2N2) shots at the dispensary
This week's Hagley Vault post is a little poke in the arm for all you procrastinators out there ...
This week's Hagley Vault post is a little poke in the arm for all you procrastinators out there. This photograph, taken on November 7, 1957 shows employees of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company's South Philadelphia Works lining up for flu shots at the company's dispensary. This photograph was taken by staff photographer Charles…
Close up view of a Campbell's Tomato Soup vending machine
Soup season has arrived ...
Soup season has arrived, so this week in the Hagley Vault, we're grilling a cheese and hitting up our local Auto-Snak.  This ca. 1955 photograph of a soup vending machine is from Hagley Library's Automatic Merchandising Company album (Accession 2017.202). The Automatic Merchandising Company operated and installed vending machines, and was…
Photograph of a large group of men in hats waiting at a train station in East Pittsburg
This 1908 photograph shows employees of the Westinghouse Machine Company ...
This 1908 photograph shows employees of the Westinghouse Machine Company at East Pittsburg station, waiting for their evening train. The photograph is part of Hagley Library's Westinghouse Machine Company album (Accession 1983.247), which reported that it required six trains to accommodate their traffic. The Westinghouse Machine Company was…
Man operating a mine haulage train
In 1854, the Westmoreland Coal Company began mining coal ...
In 1854, the Westmoreland Coal Company began mining coal in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, primarily for sale to steelmakers, railroads, and coal gasification plants. Within a few decades, the company was providing coal to fifty-eight gasworks along the east coast. Today, the company is one of the coal industry’s oldest independent companies.…
View of Solon Plant with employees and executives on the site of Harris Farm
This week's Hagley Vault is visiting Ohio to take a look at the Austin Powder Company's mills ...
This week's Hagley Vault is visiting Ohio to take a look at the Austin Powder Company's mills under construction in Glenwillow, Cuyahoga County, on the southern end of Solon, Ohio. The company, now the oldest manufacturing enterprise in the Cleveland area, produces industrial explosives and detonators, as well as blasting services. But back when…
A man in an apron stands by a horse-drawn delivery wagon labeled "RAYNOR & BRO."
This week's Hagley Vault delivery comes with a side of old beef ...
This week's Hagley Vault delivery comes with a side of old beef; the reverse side of this photograph, taken on February 23, 1897, notes that Raynor had "reputation of being a fast talker and a short weigher". Raynor & Bro. was a butcher shop that operated out of a storefront at 4465 Frankford Ave. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the city's…
Arch Oboloer (center), NBC author, producer, and director, oversees falling tree sound effects using a real tree and real undergrowth for episode No. 262, 'An American is Born'.
The broadcasting industry has a major milestone to celebrate this week ..
The broadcasting industry has a major milestone to celebrate this week - September 9th marks the 100th anniversary of the formation of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) as a radio network. The broadcasting company was formed when the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T), which had been operating a collection or radio…
Cover of a 1954 issue of Lukens Life featuring majorettes and drum major of the Scott High School band
Summer vacation time is wrapping up for the year, and we're getting into the school spirit .. ...
Summer vacation time is wrapping up for the year, and we're getting into the school spirit with a back to school season issue of Lukens Life from September 1954. This issue's cover celebrated the "crowded football stadiums and snappy bands" of Scott High School with the school band's majorettes and drum major (also drum major of the Lukens band).…
Black and white photograph of a worker coating cast iron pipes with bitumen (Birmingham, Ala.)
This week's Hagley Vault is visiting an iron-works ...
This week's Hagley Vault is visiting an iron-works in Birmingham, Alabama, where a metalworker is coating cast-iron pipes with bitumen. Bitumen was, and still is, used to coat pipes intended for water and sewage lines as well as seawater intake and outflow pipes, as it is resistant to microbial activity, as well as corrosion from rust and other…
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines ....
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines .... Hagley Museum and Library has invited you to buckle up for pure 1970s adrenaline and the countdown is ON. On August 20th, the Library will be offering a screening of three rare automotive documentaries on the big screen. Freewheelin' plunges you into the 1975 Van-In in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a…
Workplace poster with the title 'Are you afraid of criticism?'. Additional text ncourages workers to embrace professional criticism.
This week's Hagley Vault comes from our digital gallery of workplace posters ...
This week's Hagley Vault comes from our digital gallery of workplace posters, which gathers a a variety of accessions and items Hagley Library's collections. Posters in this collection include material from Hagley Library's Mather & Company workplace posters (Accession 1994.319), Seagram Company World War II posters (Accession 2004.214),…
Fire insurance map showing a textile mill
Here's a Vault post for all the savvy shoppers out there ...
Here's a Vault post for all the savvy shoppers out there. The history of this 1932 fire insurance map for the Interlaken Mills textile factory dates back to 1835, when Zachariah Allen (1795-1882), owner of a woolen mill in Providence, Rhode Island, got fed up with his insurance premiums.Rates had been rising for all mill owners during the economic…
Illustration of various sea creatures arranged around a quote from The Ancient Mariner.
We're gonna need a bigger Vault ....
We're gonna need a bigger Vault ... Hagley is observing Shark Week today (and a happy, healthy one to those who celebrate). This 1895 illustration is from "Wonders of the Deep”, an pamphlet issued. by the New York City patent medicine firm of Scott and Bowne, founded by Samuel W. Bowne (1842–1910) and Alfred B. Scott (1946–1908). The pamphlet…