Hagley Library and Archives E-Circular

8/14/2019 Hagley Library and Archives E-Circular

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March 13, 2009Dear Hagley Library Users and Friends,

Spring is just around the corner, and everything is coming up

green at the Library.

Researchers, collection development, and our digitization eorts

made or a busy ew months. As you will see when you read the

articles below, Hagley has once again received some ascinating

new collections. We hope that you will visit us and enjoy these

new acquisitions.

Collections Storage Hall of Records

The Hagley Museum and Library remains committed to its

responsibility o stewardship o our nationally signicant

artiacts and library research collections. Our treasures are a

legacy worthy o proper care or the benet o uture generations.

One o the institutions most pressing needs has been to build

an environmentally controlled space in the Hall o Records or

the museum collections and our business and technologicalhistory library. The Hall o Records, a massive 32,000 square oot

structure, which originally served as DuPonts records center,

required considerable updating or specialized collections storage.

The necessary work was extensive and included environmental

systems and controls, interior modications, a new roo, enhanced

security, and museum storage equipment.

Ater rst inspecting the Hall o Records, Michael Henry, o

Watson & Henry Associates, Hagleys consulting architect

and engineer, termed it one o the best buildings he had everevaluated or conversion to museum and library collections

storage. Watson & Henry Associates are regarded as the leading

rm or this preservation work, with clients all over the world.

Our construction management rm, EDiS Company, is working

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES

P.O. BOX 3 6 3 0 WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 1 9 8 0 7 -0 6 3 0TELEPHONE ( 3 0 2 ) 6 5 8 - 2 4 0 0 FA X ( 3 0 2 ) 6 5 8 - 0 5 6 8 W W W .HA G LEY .O R G

A springtime view o the Hagley Library.


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with us to ensure that the design and construction specications

o Watson & Henry are met, while simultaneously keeping the

project on schedule and on budget. Ater more than two years

o planning, analysis, and work, we believe we have developed a

project that meets national preservation standards. Construction

began in October o 2007, and renovations are substantially

completed, with only a ew modest punch-list items remaining.

We are grateul to the National Endowment or the Humanities or

$450,000 in support o an overall project budgeted at $4.6 million.

We also received extraordinary support rom many individual

donors to our recently concluded capital campaign. This storage

project represented a signicant goal o the campaign, and we

extend our gratitude to each and every contributor.

The improved and reorganized space guarantees that ourcollections will be preserved or generations to come and ensures

many decades o storage room or uture growth.

COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Communication Arts

In December o 2008, Robert Cipriani donated Communication

Arts to the Library Imprints Department. Since 1959, theperiodical has been well known or publishing the best in visual

communications rom around the world and or sponsoring

creative competitions recognizing the nest talent in the industry.

Communication Arts showcases advertising design, illustrations,

photography, and interactive designs. Contact the Imprints

Department or more inormation.

Eastman Kodak Stores Inc.,Historical Data Scrapbook

Hagleys Pictorial Collections Department recently purchased a

scrapbook kept by employees o the Eastman Kodak Companys

Boston branch store. The scrapbook documents over a century

o history or the photographic supply rm, rom 1845 to 1963.

It is composed o photographs, news clippings, and ephemera,

accompanied by brie journal entries describing employee

news, thets, and accidents. O company-wide interest, the

journal mentions releases o new Kodak products and details

Hagley Library and Archives ~ March 13, 2009 ~ Page 2

Door knob signs or the Art with Heart

program or hospitalized children.

Illustration Annual,Communication Arts 44, no. 3 (2002).


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other important company events, such as the eect o the Great

Depression on sales in 1933 and the rationing o Kodak lm

during World War II. The author writes:

In June (1943) as during all the war years, flm was rationed.

When a supply was put on the shelves there was, o course, almost

a stampede or the public to purchase but one roll per customer.

(Note: One o our counters was moved rom its oundation rom

the orce o the public endeavoring to obtain the flm!!)

In 1902, the Eastman Kodak Company purchased the Boston

rm o Horgan, Robey & Co., retailers o photographic goods and

supplies. The new company was incorporated under the name

Robey-French Company. Robey-French continued to sell both

proessional and amateur photographic supplies, in addition to

operating developing and photo-printing services. In 1927, the

businesss name changed to Eastman Kodak Stores, Inc.; in that

same year, the store opened a second branch in Bostons Hotel

Stadler Building. As Eastman Kodak Stores, Inc., grew in success,


Top let: Ater developing lm dropped o

by amateur photographers, branch stores

o the Eastman Kodak Company returned

photographic prints to customers in

decorative envelopes like this one rom 1918.

Top right: Employees o Robey-French

Company pose during the annual Christmas

party. Many o the young women seen here

continued to work at the store or decades and

were later honored by the Eastman Kodak

Company or their lietime o service.

Bottom right: Interior o Eastman Kodak

Stores, Inc. During World War II, one

o the counters was moved rom itsoundation as customers clamored to

purchase rationed Kodak lm.


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the rm moved into a number o increasingly larger locations

around the city, with such amenities as a projection studio or

showing Cine-Kodak motion picture lm. In 1961, the business

constructed a brand new acility on Needham Street to cater solely

to proessional photographers.

Ernest Dichter and the Birth of anAmerican Icon: Mattels Barbie Doll

Ernest Dichter (1907-1991) was a Vienna-trained psychologist who

came to New York in 1938 to escape the Nazis. In this country, he

became a pioneer in the development o the marketing tool known

as motivational research, which used psychological techniques,

including the depth interview, similar to an analysts session,

to probe the consumers innermost desires and expectationssurrounding a given product or service. In Dichters Living

Laboratory in his hilltop mansion overlooking the Hudson River,

test groups and amilies watched commercials and interacted with

actual products in a acsimile o a typical middle-class amily room

Dr. Dichter was at the height o his ame and infuence in 1958-

1959 when he received a commission rom Mattel, Inc., o Los

Angeles to evaluate both parents and childrens reactions to

some o their products. Much o the work involved toy guns or

boys, but or girls, Dichter was to gauge responses to the new

Barbie doll, part o a trend toward older dolls or older girls who

used them to anticipate adolescent and adult behavior. As one o

Dichters subjects remarked, Mine is a business woman. See the

navy suit and the fower hat. She is going out to dinner and maybe

dancing aterwards. Doesnt she look smooth?

From his sample o girls, Dichter ound a ew complaints. The

original doll had too much eye makeup, which was corrected, and

the neck was too long, which was not. All girls liked the realistic

accessories. Those under ten preerred the more spectacular

costumes, while those over ten imagined themselves in Barbies

place: look at the spike heels! I like these clothesThey are the

most! I would like clothes like that mysel. Not surprisingly, the

gold brocade ball gown was the most popular outt; the cook-out

set was the least popular and eventually dropped. Barbie would

not spend much time working in ront o a hot stove.

Most parents thought that Barbies sexiness made her an

objectionable playmate or girls under ten: they could be a cute


Ernest Dichter


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decoration or a mans bar. However, all mothers were impressed

with the quality o Barbies wardrobe: the ne seams are better

than some o the clothes I buy or the children.

Dichter concluded, The doll should be promoted as a toy which

helps develop desirable traits and habits in the children. I thisis done, the parents own attraction to the doll will become a

motivating orce in avor rather than against the purchase. He

also noted the importance o peer pressure in boosting sales and

suggested ways to get parents to start with a ew basic outts that

could be expanded by repeat purchases. And so they did.

The Mattel report is but one o almost two thousand that

Dr. Dichter prepared between 1938 and 1988, which survive

among his papers at Hagley. All contain equally candid and rank

assessments by potential consumers in the U.S., Canada, WesternEurope and Mexico, providing a unique window into popular

attitudes and reactions to goods and services, especially in the

boom years o the 1950s and 1960s. All o Dr. Dichters reports

and proposals are now open to researchers. Other sections o the

archive will ollow during the year.

O N - L I N E D I GI T A L A R C H I V E S

The Library has recently put our collections o newly digitized

collection material into the Hagley Digital Archives (http://digital

hagley.org).

Lammot du Pont Aeronautical Collection

Lammot du Pont, Jr., assembled a large collection o materials

related to aeronautics and the history o fight rom the rst balloon

fights in 1783 through the 1940s. The collection was donated to

the Hagley Library in 1965. Approximately 400 images rom the

collection have been digitized so ar, and more will be added in the

uture. The collection includes images o balloon races, the round-

the-world fight o the Gra Zeppelin, bombers and ghter planes,

and more than orty images o Charles Lindbergh.

P. S. du Pont/Longwood Collection

This collection, partially digitized with a generous grant rom

the Longwood Foundation, includes approximately 3,500 images

collected by Pierre S. du Pont during his lietime. More than 1,000


Image o a 1937 bomber rom the

Lammot du Pont Aeronautical Collection.


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images rom the collection show the development o Longwood

Gardens. Also included are photographs o the du Pont amily,

travel images, and a variety o other photos documenting the

interests and activities o P. S. du Pont.

Hagley Research Reports on the History ofthe Brandywine Valley

This is a selection o orty-six research reports produced by Hagley

sta and scholars beginning in 1953 or the purpose o developing

the museums exhibits and interpretations program. The digitized

reports cover the industrial development o the Brandywine River

Valley and surrounding area, with a particular ocus on the early

history o the DuPont Company. All o the reports were produced

using manuscript and secondary sources rom the Hagley Library.

Lukens Steel Company Collection

This digital collection contains almost nine hundred images

selected rom the Lukens Steel Company photograph collection.

It includes images rom woodcuts showing the early history o

the mill, interior and exterior views o actory buildings, various

depictions o machinery, employees both at work and leisure, and

twentieth-century aerial views o the Lukens physical plant. Other

items vary, rom philanthropic activities supported by Charles L.Huston, photographs o the Lukens and Huston amilies, and the

elaborate celebrations associated with Lukens Steel anniversaries.

Miss America Programs

This collection comprises thirty-two Miss America Pageant

programs, rom 1945 to 1967, taken rom the Joseph Bancrot

and Sons collection. Joseph Bancrot and Sons served as the

primary corporate sponsor o the pageant rom 1945 to 1967. The

programs include inormation about the pageant and contestantsas well as advertising rom businesses in Atlantic City and the

surrounding area.

To access these digital collections, visit http://digital.hagley.org.

New Online Exhibit: Building the Lydonia II

The Hagley Library is pleased to announce the launch o Building

the Lydonia II, an online exhibit o nineteen images rom the


Cover rom the 1946

Miss America Pageant yearbook.


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Pusey and Jones Company that traces the construction o the steam

yacht Lydonia II rom the laying o its keel to its rst sea trial.

The Pusey and Jones Company o Wilmington, Delaware,

maintained a photographic record or many o its shipbuildingand machine contracts rom 1870 to 1955. This collection o

photographs was acquired by the Hagley Library in 1970. While

the content varies, the shipbuilding images typically document

important points in the construction process, that is, laying o the

keel, on the shipway, christening, launching, tting out, and the

sea trial.

The Lydonia II series is the only set scanned in its entirety, but

it is representative o other sequences in the Pusey and Jones

Photograph Collection. Visit this exhibit and other online exhibitsat www.hagley.org/library/exhibits. Approximately 800 o more

than 6,700 images in the Pusey and Jones collection are available

online in the Hagley Digital Archives (http://digital.hagley.org).


Completed Lydonia II docked

at the Pusey and Jones Company

in Wilmington, March 1, 1912.


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R E S E A R C H E R S P O T L I G H T

Who Uses the Resources of the Hagley Library?

As an internationally regarded research acility dedicated to the

history o business and technology, the Librarys top priorityremains scholars. It was a busy year or the Library, with more

than 21,794 dierent reerence transactions (letters and e-mails,

researcher visits, photo orders, and circulated items) conducted

by Library sta in the Imprints Department and the Pictorial

Collections Department. The Digital Archives is also exponentially

expanding access o the collections to users. From the middle o

May through December o 2008, 33,669 unique visitors consulted

355,775 library inormational pages or collection items in the

digital archives.

The collections used in the Library during the past year ranged

rom the nineteenth-century merchant and manuacturing records

to twentieth-century industrial design collections. More requently

consulted collections used this year include the DuPont Company

and the du Pont amily, National Association o Manuacturers,

Pennsylvania Railroad Records, J. Howard Pew papers, and this

year, the Ernest Dichter research reports. At the same time, the

range o topics researched remained vast and impressive.

Scholars who need access to large amounts o our materials areable to apply or a grant to come or a period o time to do their

research here. I you live in the Wilmington area, it is easy to visit

the Hagley Library in person to read our books in the beautiul

setting o our reading rooms. But we serve a public ar beyond the

scope o those who venture to our site; this is done through our

active participation in the Interlibrary Loan program.

In 2008, Hagley received more than seven hundred loan requests

rom other libraries. Our library is a special collection and many

items are rare. We loan our imprints material to academic andspecial libraries in this country i proper handling is ensured. I

an item cannot be loaned, we will attempt to make photocopies,

provided the item will not be harmed in the process.

We careully balance the opportunity to share our holdings with

as many people as possible with the need to protect the materials

themselves. For example, we had to decline a request this month

or the loan o a book published in Italy in 1597, but we were able



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to ll a request or a photocopy o a rare pamphlet published in

Philadelphia in 1825.

We also get direct requests rom people rom all over the world.

While we never loan print materials to individuals, we are

able to make photocopies o many rare pamphlets and tradecatalogs. Recently Linda Gross, reerence librarian, was able to

provide copies o an Illustrated Price List o Microscopes, Microscopic

Apparatus, and Optical Instruments, published in 1876, and a catalog

oAdjustable Holders or Incandescent Lamps, published in 1894.

We encourage everyone with an interest in our collections to

search our online catalog at www.hagley.org/library. I you nd

something that you would like to see, but you are unable to come

to our library in person, contact your university interlibrary loan

librarian about borrowing it, or contact Hagleys interlibrary loanlibrarian, Linda Gross ([email protected]), about obtaining a copy

The Model Builders

Much eort and attention is spent in research libraries to

work with students o history who seek to understand the past

intellectually. However, a portion o our library patrons here at

Hagley all under the category o model builders, or people who

seek to understand a subject by literally reconstructing the past.

Unairly, model builders can be dismissed as hobbyists ratherthan historians. The product o their research may not be written

in books, but working models have a marvelous ability to capture

peoples imaginations and teach them about their world.

A natural evolution in methodology tends to play out among

modelers. Many novices start out looking solely or props and

scenery to augment a model railroad set. To an exacting mind,

however, the process cannot stop there. To build an accurate

model o a particular railroad, actory, place, or even a moment

in time, modelers will oten visit the scene they wish to recreate.Even then, the built environment can oer only so many clues, as

buildings and technologies are replaced over time. The quest or

source inormation gradually leads serious modelers to research

libraries and historical societies, where they can examine written

records and photographic evidence to rene their models. In some

cases, the historical research process itsel can ultimately become

more consuming than the model building.


The layout or this model is based on the

industrial landscape o the Great Lakes region

in the 1940s and 1950s. This HO scale

model was built by Mike Rabbitt rom scratch

and shows a typical steel plant completewith all steelmaking acilities and working

commercial and industrial railroads.


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The industrial landscape lends itsel to such modeling eorts,

and the extent o Hagleys research collections in the realms

o industry and technology is unparalleled. Hagleys holdings

include the archives o the Bethlehem Steel Corporation,

Pennsylvania Railroad Company, E. I. du Pont de Nemours &

Company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Sun Oil Company,

and the Westmoreland Coal Company, to name just a ew. We also

hold the Dallin Aerial Survey, which contains 15,000 aerial views

o the Delaware Valley and adjacent areas, taken between 1925 and

1940. Detailed descriptions o these and other archival collectionscan be ound in our online catalog via the library home page at

www.hagley.org/library. Our digital archive o photographs and

ull-text documents can be accessed rom the library home page as

well. And, o course, we welcome any questions at (302) 658-2400,

ext. 227.

Thanks to Mike Rabbitt and Ron Hoess, two o our regular library patrons,

volunteers, and model builders, or consulting on this article.


Lehigh Avenue and Broad Street Stadiums

(Dallin Photo ID 70.200.05174).

The 1929 photo rom the Dallin Aerial Survey

shows the area around the Reading Railroads

North Broad Street Station in Philadelphia.

A detailed examination o this and other

street-level photos by Ron Hoess allowed

him to create model row houses to refect the

neighborhood housing or his railroad model.


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E V E N T S

Lecture Series

The 2008 lecture series brought our excellent speakers to Hagley.

On October 1, 2008, Dr. Kevin Borg, an associate proessor in the

Department o History at James Madison University and ormer

Hagley Fellow, gave a lecture on his book titledAuto Mechanics

Technology and Expertise in Twentieth-Century America. Dr. Borg

grew up in a car household, as his amily owned an auto repair

business; he augmented his personal interest with many years o

research. Following his lecture, Dr. Borg signed copies o his book

and entertained questions rom the audience; twenty-nine people

attended the program.

On October 15, Nicholas Lowry, director o the Poster Division

o the Swann Auction Galleries in New York City, presented

an entertaining lecture, Posters as an Art Form. This lecture

complemented the Give It Your Best: Workplace Posters in the

United States exhibition in the Visitors Center. Lowry drew rom

his extensive experience with Swann, as well as his experiences as

a guest appraiser on PBSs Antiques Roadshow.

Dr. David Kirsch, an associate proessor at the Robert H. Smith

School o Business, University o Maryland, talked about his

book, The Electric Vehicle and the Burden o History, on November

19. Given the economy and the current status o the car industry,

Kirschs lecture proved both timely and inormative. Ater the

lecture, audience members, totaling seventy-seven, viewed

several electric vehicles brought by the University o Delaware

and other audience members.

The nal lecture, on December 10, by Dr. W. Barksdale Maynard,

eatured his newly published book, Buildings o Delaware. The

audience, our largest at 189, responded with great enthusiasm to a

topic o local interest which highlighted the beautiul architecturethat is part o the history o Delaware.

Dr. Eugene McGowan Film

Eighty-our people attended the February 8 premiere o the

Hagley Museum and Library lm on Dr. McGowan, Delawares

rst black psychologist in the public school system.A

Conversation with Dr. Eugene McGowan: Arican American School


Nicholas Lowry, lecturing at Hagley.

The lecture complemented the poster exhibit.


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Psychologist and Community Activist covered his involvement in

the National Health Association, Delaware Committee or Fair

Practices, Delaware Leadership Council and the Wilmington

and Delaware State chapters o the NAACP. Jeanne Nutter

was the lms executive producer, and it was unded by the

Delaware Humanities Forum, Delaware Heritage Commission,Bloomeld College, and the Longwood Foundation. The

premiere took place at the Delaware Center or Contemporary

Art on Wilmingtons waterront.

The lm is based on an interview with Dr. McGowan

conducted ten years ago or the lmA Separate Place: The Schools

P. S. du Pont Built, which presented the infuence du Pont had

on Arican American education in Delaware. Hagley has orty-

ve hours o oral interviews with Arican Americans who

taught or attended schools built by P. S. du Pont in the 1920sand has produced two other lms drawn rom these interviews:

Conversation with Jane Mitchell: Arican American Nurse and

Rev. Maurice J. Moyer: Civil Rights Activist. A short version oA

Separate Place is available with a curriculum guide composed o

materials rom our collections and suitable or classroom use;

it may be accessed on Hagleys web page at http://www.hagley.

org/teacher-resources.html.

To obtain copies o any o these lms ($10 each), please contact

Roger Horowitz at extension 244 or e-mail [email protected].

U P C O M I N G E V E N T S

April 4 Saturday - 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Hagley Fellows Conference: Unintended Consequences

Seemingly rational actors make decisions, create institutions,

shape environments, or develop technologies expecting certain

outcomes, but things do not always go as planned. Unintended

Consequences seeks to explore the enormous infuence o theseinevitable yet unexpected occurrences. Registration required.

Contact Carol Lockman at [email protected].

April 16 Thursday 6 p.m.

Research Seminar

Ross Thompson, University o Vermont, presents his paper,

The Continuity o Wartime Innovation: The Civil War Experience,

in the Copeland Room o Hagley Library. Based on broad research

on American manuacturing, Thompson explains how the


In the audience at the lm premiere:

Dr. McGowan, ront row. Seated in the row

behind him, rom let to right, are

Dr. Patricia Turner Debnam and

Littleton Mitchell.Edward Loper. is

seated directly behind Dr. McGowan.


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production needs stimulated by the Civil War had a dramatic

impact on the productivity o American industries. The lecture is

ree. Participants are asked to read the paper in advance; obtain a

copy by contacting Carol Lockman at [email protected].

C O N T A C T U S

Cant get enough news rom the Hagley Library? Good news! We

are now blogging. Check out the new Hagley Library and Archive

blog at http://hagleylibrary.blogspot.com.

I you have questions about the collections highlighted here or

about using our collections, please contact one o our reerence

librarians/archivists at (302) 658-2400.

Marge McNinch, Manuscripts and ArchivesExt. 330, [email protected]

Judy Stevenson, Pictorial Collections

Ext. 277, [email protected]

Linda Gross, Imprints

Ext. 227, [email protected],

I you have questions about Center programs, please contact Carol

Lockman at ext. 243 or [email protected].

Please direct general questions to Terry Snyder at ext. 344 [email protected].

Thank you or taking the time to read about our new collections,

researchers, activities, and upcoming events. We hope that one or

more o these inspire you to come to Hagley and experience all

that we have to oer. I look orward to seeing you here, and in the

meantime, please accept our best wishes,

Sincerely,

Terry Snyder

Deputy Director, Library Administration


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