The Hagley Vault

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

November 4, 2024

We're taking inspiration from this week's election and sharing a 1959 installment of 'The Ohio Story' featuring Victoria Claflin Woodhull, a stockbroker, newspaper editor, suffragist, and the first woman to announce her candidacy for President of the United States. This short biographical film covered Claflin Woodhull's early life, her marriages, the establishment of Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly with her sister, Tennessee Claflin, and her decision to run for President in 1872 as the Equal Rights Party candidate alongside the abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass.

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Archive

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

Thursday, October 29, 2020
This image was sourced from the 1956 Color Guide to Home Decoration...
This image was sourced from the 1956 Color Guide to Home Decoration, which aimed to guide a mid-century modern America through the task of selecting furniture and color schemes for their homes. The "Big Top Room" seen here is a "room that grows up", and is designed to be converted as the child outgrows the "circus atmosphere" and "starts reading...
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Our celebration of all things that go bump in the night...
Our celebration of all things that go bump in the night continues in this lead-up to Halloween. This photograph of a phantom bride was likely created using either a double exposure or pinhole camera technique. It was possibly created at some point in the 1890s, and might be of Lillian Durban (1875-1952), shortly before or shortly after she became...
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Its spooky season and oh no it's right behind you and it's...
It's spooky season and oh no it's right behind you and it's looking at you, run, little baby, run. We're relieved to inform you that young Thomas C. Marshall, Jr. (1885-1969) survived this uncanny February 18, 1925 encounter, with no apparent ill effect. Marshall grew up to be a steam automobile and railroad enthusiast, as well as an enthusiast of...
Monday, October 26, 2020
What better way to kick off the week of Halloween than with a...
What better way to kick off the week of Halloween than with a #MonsterMonday? Today, we're joining the "occult detective" and monster-hunter Doctor Adam Spektor and his Sioux secretary Lakota Rainflower as they discover that the real vampires were the friends we made along the way (or maybe not, the story is a little confusing). This issue was...
Friday, October 23, 2020
We're staying tidy and offering no admittance to dirtiness...
We're staying tidy and offering no admittance to dirtiness this #FelineFriday, much to the disappointment of this frowny little cat. This 1933 advertisement for DuPont Cellophane is from an issue of the Ladies' Home Journal and can be found in Hagley Library's collection of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Advertising Department records (...
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Still upset about the cancellation of this year's Oktoberfest?...
Still upset about the cancellation of this year's Oktoberfest? Let's get you some beer. If you want it from the world's most modern can this #ThirstyThursday, we've got you covered. This ca. 1965 commercial advertises the Carling Brewing Company's new tab-open beer cans and was produced by Cinecraft. Founded in 1939, the Cleveland-based Cinecraft...
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Today's #WorkerWednesday guest is a young Miss Georgiana Yvonne...
Today's #WorkerWednesday guest is a young Miss Georgiana Yvonne Young (1929-2019). In 1951, Young became the first woman to graduate from Howard University's engineering school with a degree in mechanical engineering. In 1952, she was hired by the RCA-Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America at the age of twenty-three, where she was the...
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Feeling the call of the open road this #TravelTuesday?
Feeling the call of the open road this #TravelTuesday? This trade catalog has followed the trailer trails from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico - from Maine's rock-ribbed coasts to the sunny sands of Southern California - to bring you this guide to arranging, equipping, and decorating your home on wheels (beware of stockings hung inside to dry!). This...
Monday, October 19, 2020
Fret not; finding a subject for today's #MusicMonday post was no...
Fret not; finding a subject for today's #MusicMonday post was no treble. This undated negative was possibly captured between 1915 and 1925, and is part of Hagley Library's collection of Frank E. Schoonover negatives (Accession 2017.239). Schoonover, a prolific commercial illustrator and artist, was also an avid photographer whose many photographs...
Friday, October 16, 2020
This arresting photograph was taken on this day, October 16th,...
This arresting photograph was taken on this day, October 16th, in 1930, when a coalition of protesters organizing for the rights of the unemployed were rounded up and jailed following a demonstration in front of New York City Hall calling on Mayor Jimmy Walker to abandon plans to appropriate an additional $8,000,000 for the city's police and...
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Thomas Edison's Edison Electric Light Company began operations...
Thomas Edison's Edison Electric Light Company began operations on this date, October 15, in 1878. One of many business entities founded by Edison, the Electric Light Company was a patent-holding corporate entity backed by J. P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family for the purposes of funding Edison's experiments with the incandescent bulb and electric...
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
On this day, October 14, in 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King,...
On this day, October 14, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy and leadership in using nonviolent civil disobedience to protest racial segregation in America. At 35, King was the youngest person to have been honored with the award to that date. The prize money, amounting to $54,000, was re-distributed...
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
The second Tuesday in October is Ada Lovelace Day...
The second Tuesday in October is Ada Lovelace Day, a day of recognition launched in 2009, when the British tech journalist Suw Charman-Anderson began a campaign to establish an "international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology". We're participating today with this clip from a longer reel of historic, ca. 1945...
Monday, October 12, 2020
In recognition of this year's Indigenous Peoples' Day, we're...
In recognition of this year's Indigenous Peoples' Day, we're sharing some photographs from illustrator and painter Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972). These images were captured during a 1911 trip to Long Lake, Ontario, which Schoonover spent sketching and photographing supply posts of the Hudson Bay Company, fur trapping outposts, and indigenous...
Friday, October 9, 2020
We're bringing some Fall weather style inspiration...
We're bringing some Fall weather style inspiration this #FashionFriday with this 1937 photograph of a woman identified only as "Ms. Knight". This item is from Hagley Library's Frank R. Zebley photograph albums (Accession 1968.012) collection. Zebley (1883-1960) was a Delaware native collector, photographer, author, and one-time speaker of the...
Thursday, October 8, 2020
To get you through the home stretch of a tough week...
To get you through the home stretch of a tough week, we're using this #ThrowbackThursday to remember a time when ginger ale advertisements were bold in both design and claims. This ca. 1890 trade card for Sachs-Prudens & Co. ginger ale encouraged buyers to bring home one (or a dozen) bottles to "please the wife and children". The soft drink...

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