An Introduction to Digital Computers (1969) Hagley Museum and Library 2018-01-09 | An Introduction to Digital Computers produced in 1969 for Sperry-UNIVAC uses a series of animations and still images to describe the technology behind digital computing. In the opening minutes of the film, the narrator lays out the film’s intent:“The notion that an electronic digital computer is a brain is a common misconception. Largely due to a lack of knowledge about the functions and abilities of a computer. But what actually is a computer? What does it do? How does it work?”Considering the film came out a year after 2001: A Space Odyssey, when the infamous HAL made his mark, dispelling the myth of a computer as a brain seems reasonable and necessary mission. Sperry-UNIVAC traced its origins to the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation one of the first commercial producers of digital computers at its founding in 1947. When An Introduction to Digital Computers was made in 1969, Sperry-UNIVAC was a division of the Remington-Rand company, a significant computer manufacturer at that time.While not credited, Target FIlm Productions - an industrial film company headquartered in New York -- produced the film for Sperry-UNIVAC. Target started in 1962 and did a number of films for Sperry and Remington-Rand in the 1960s and early 1970s according to their customer profiles in Business Screen Magazine.
Manufacturing Self-Determination: Industry on Native American Reservations with Sam Schirvar Hagley Museum and Library 2024-10-14 | The political meaning of industry depends upon its context. Following the Second World War, Native American tribal governments engaged in a program of industrial development meant to secure the political self-determination of their nations. Initially concerned with attracting capital investment to reservation communities, by the 1970s native governments had moved on to become investors in wholly owned tribal enterprises. In his dissertation research, Sam Schirvar, PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania uncovers a story that is both surprising and revealing of deeper patterns in American history. While outsiders saw industrial development as a means to efface native communities and tribal governments, tribal leaders themselves saw it as a means to self-determination. While the wider American economy was moving toward privatization of enterprise, Native Americans were creating publicly owned industries. Industry can mean different things to different people at different times. In support of his research Schirvar received the Louis Galambos National Fellowship in Business and Politics from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Back on Track American Railroad Accidents and Safety 1965-2015 with Mark Aldrich Hagley Museum and Library 2024-09-30 | Ben Spohn interviews Mark Aldrich about his 2018 book, Back on Track American Railroad Accidents and Safety 1965-2015. This period marked a decline in safe operating on American railroads through the 1970s which were followed by a period of increased safety and profitability for American railroads. Aldrich makes the case that the joint factors of economic deregulation through the Staggers Act and the federalization of railroad safety via the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) drew attention to safety issues on the railroad like poor track condition, unsafe grade crossings, or engineer fatigue and left railroads with not only incentives to become safer, but enough money in their coffers to adequately shore up these safety concerns.Mark Aldrich is the Marilyn Carlson Nelson Professor of Economics emeritus at Smith College. Back on Track American Railroad Accidents and Safety 1965-2015 is a sequel to Aldrich’s earlier book on railroad safety, Death Rode the Rails: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, 1828-1965. As part of his research for Back on Track Aldrich visited the archives at Hagley. His upcoming book on energy transitions: The Rise and Fall of King Coal American Energy Transitions in an Age of Markets 1800-1940 will be out in early 2025.In support of his research Aldrich received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information and more Hagley History Hangouts visit us online at hagley.org.
Health, Safety, & Risk Communication at DuPont in the Twentieth Century with Madison Krall Hagley Museum and Library 2024-09-16 | The DuPont firm was a leader in workplace and community safety communications during the twentieth century. This had been baked into the company culture from the first, as gunpowder manufacturing made essential. What changed over time were the techniques and media of communication, and the intended audience targeted by the company’s messaging.In her latest research, Madison Krall, assistant professor of communication studies at Seton Hall University, explores the wealth of health and safety materials generated by the DuPont company during the twentieth century. From posters to motion pictures, the firm deployed a wide array of media to promote safety in the workplace and beyond. DuPont wished to convince the public that its products were safe, and to convince employees and community members that safety was their responsibility. In support of her work Dr. Krall received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more Hagley History Hangouts, and more information visit hagley.org.
Forging the Network: International Industrial Conferences, 1957-1997 with Grigorios Antoniou Hagley Museum and Library 2024-09-02 | Scholars often think and write about business diplomacy as something that happens between firms and national governments. But the historical pattern is more complex than that, with contacts between businesses forming a significant portion of the international circuit of communication about business and economic matters.As part of his doctoral research, Grigorios Antoniou, PhD candidate at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, is exploring the significance of international industrial conferences to the development of a global network that linked high-level business leaders from across boundaries between industries, sectors, and countries. Using collections held in the Hagley Library, including the National Industrial Conference Board and trade catalog collections, Antoniou uncovers a milieu in which elites met to mingle, cut deals, and burnish their status.For more Hagley History Hangouts, more information on the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society, and our many research funding opportunities, visit us online at hagley.org.
Plastic Capitalism: Banks, Credit Cards & the End of Financial Control with Sean Vanatta Hagley Museum and Library 2024-08-19 | American households are awash in expensive credit card debt. But where did all this debt come from? In this history of the rise of postwar American finance, Sean H. Vanatta shows how bankers created our credit card economy and, with it, the indebted nation we know today. America’s consumer debt machine was not inevitable. In the years after World War II, state and federal regulations ensured that many Americans enjoyed safe banks and inexpensive credit. Bankers, though, grew restless amid restrictive rules that made profits scarce. They experimented with new services and new technologies. They settled on credit cards, and in the 1960s mailed out reams of high-interest plastic to build a debt industry from scratch. In the 1960s and ’70s consumers fought back, using federal and state policy to make credit cards safer and more affordable. But bankers found ways to work around local rules. Beginning in 1980, Citibank and its peers relocated their card plans to South Dakota and Delaware, states with the weakest consumer regulations, creating “on-shore” financial havens and drawing consumers into an exploitative credit economy over which they had little control. We live in the world these bankers made.In support of his work, Dr. Vanatta received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, the People, the History, the Region with David Alff Hagley Museum and Library 2024-08-05 | Hagley’s Ben Spohn interviews David Alff about his recent book: The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, the People, the History, the Region. In this comprehensive history of America’s most heavily-traveled rail line, Alff shows ow what began as a series of disconnected nineteenth century rail lines became the spine connecting America’s Megalopolis, the dense urban forest connecting Boston with Washington D.C., with New York,Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore in between. As Alff explains, the Northeast Corridor is always arriving as the many small railroads that provided service to the Corridor, after over a century of corporate mergers, and laying new rails and electrifying old ones, came to fall under the stewardship of one railroad, the Penn Central before it fell into bankruptcy. The U.S. government created Amtrak, partly in response to this crisis and it took on passenger service on the Northeast Corridor and nationwide. The Northeast Corridor remains a work in progress with the latest link in the chain, Baltimore’s Frederick Douglass tunnel set to arrive in 2032. Dr. Alff is an assistant professor of English at SUNY Buffalo. Dr. Alff will be giving an author talk at Hagley on December 5, 2024 at 7:00 PM, in-person at Hagley’s Soda House. You can register for the event here: eventbrite.com/e/the-northeast-corridor-the-trains-the-people-the-history-the-region-tickets-912699337287For more Hagley History Hangouts and more information on the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society visit us online at hagley.org.
Techno Redux: Technology Competition Policy Lessons from the U.S. vs IBM Trial with Andrea Matwyshyn Hagley Museum and Library 2024-07-22 | In the United States, courts make policy through their interpretation of law and regulations. Through litigation, policy decisions are given the force of law. When litigation fails, then the object of regulation is often lost. This applies to the world of digital technologies, where corporate consolidation and the churn of ever-evolving technology makes anti-trust action both essential and difficult. In her latest research, Dr. Andrea Matwyshyn, professor of law and innovation studies at Pennsylvania State University, delves into the U.S. vs IBM trial which pitted anti-trust regulators against the emergent champion firm of American computing. At issue in the trial were the anti-competitive actions taken by IBM, and the impacts they would have on the American economy, and more significantly, the American society more broadly. When the Reagan administration dropped the case, it cut off a possible future of increased competition.In support of her research Dr. Matwyshyn received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, please visit hagley.org.
The Channel Islands: Borderlands Migration in the Atlantic World, 1763-1815 with Sydney Watts Hagley Museum and Library 2024-07-08 | The Channel Islands lie between Britain and France, and historically occupied a space between Europe and the Americas within circuits of movement around the Atlantic world of the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. This position as a place in-between gave the Channel Islands special significance to migrants, refugees, smugglers, and pirates. In her latest book project, Dr. Sydney Watts, associate professor of history at the University of Richmond, uncovers the story of the Channel Islands as a locus of trade and migration. Her particular focus is on French refugees and migrants who left France during the Revolution and Napoleonic Wars for political and economic reasons. Among this group were the du Ponts, an aristocratic French family who fled an inhospitable environment in France in favor of entrepreneurial adventures in the new United States. Watts uses the du Pont family records held at the Hagley Library for her research.In support of her research, Dr. Watts received funding from the Hagley Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society. For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, please visit us online at hagley.org.
Making Youth Safe for Democracy: Education & American Enterprise, 1916-1980 with Maxwell Greenberg Hagley Museum and Library 2024-06-24 | The organization “Junior Achievement” was first conceived in 1916 when three wealthy, influential men decided that American youth needed to be educated on the values of hard work, thrift, and the developing hierarchy of corporate management. From that beginning, however, the organization’s purpose evolved to promote the American system of free enterprise and eventually entrepreneurialism to the youth of the United States and several other countries. In his dissertation project Maxwell Greenberg, PhD student in history and educational policy at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, charts the history of Junior Achievement from its inception to 1998, when it had successfully exported its model and values to the former Soviet bloc. Greenberg’s work demonstrates how the history of education must look beyond the school as an institution to gain a broader understanding of the diverse locations and organizations involved in the education of every individual and every generation.In support of his work, Greenberg received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Commercial Attention: Advertising, Space, & New Media in the U.S. with Jacob Saindon Hagley Museum and Library 2024-06-10 | The “attention economy” has gotten lots of press in recent years as tech companies and advertising firms have begun to perceive human attention as a limited resource and to fight for their share of the potential revenue to be generated by it. However, the concept of human attention as an economically valuable resource goes back well beyond digital technologies at least to the early years of mass media and motivational psychology.In his dissertation project, Jacob Saindon, PhD candidate in geography at the University of Kentucky, explores the historical and spatial aspects of the American attention economy in its present digital form and its analog predecessors. Using historical collections held in the Hagley Library, including the Batten, Barton, Durstine, and Osborn (BBD&O) collection, Saindon illuminates the relationships between digital “spaces,” human perception, and the material world. In support of his work, Saindon received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Labor, Technology, & Race in the Early 19th Century Global Textile Industry with Hunter Moskowitz Hagley Museum and Library 2024-05-27 | While it is often assumed that early industrialization was a spatially and socially concentrated phenomenon, associated primarily with white capitalists in the northwestern and northeastern corners of Europe and North America respectively, the historical reality was much more complex, and more interesting. While Britain and New England played significant roles in the global textile industry, they did so within the context of a wider world of rapidly circulating ideas, people, and technologies.As part of his dissertation research, Hunter Moskowitz, PhD candidate at Northeastern University, adds to the richness and texture of our understanding of industrialization in general and the textile industry in particular. Moskowitz takes a comparative, transnational approach, using case studies of Lowell, Massachusetts, Concord, North Carolina, and Monterrey, Mexico to uncover the circulation and contestation of techniques, personnel, and social attitudes around the world. In support of his research, Moskowitz received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more Hagley History Hangouts, and more information on our funding opportunities, visit us online at hagley.org.
Making Sense of the Molly Maguires with Kevin Kenny Hagley Museum and Library 2024-05-13 | In this episode, Ben Spohn Interviews Kevin Kenny on his book Making Sense of the Molly Maguires which recently had a special 25th anniversary release. The Molly Maguires were a secret organization operating in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region during a period of labor unrest in the 1860s and 1870s. This period culminated in the execution of twenty suspected members of the Molly Maguires executed for the murder of sixteen men during this period. Since then there has been disagreement, over who the Molly Maguire’s were, what they did, and their motivations. Kenny argues that this is an inadequate understanding of the Molly Maguires and points out that most of the histories describing the Molly Maguires in this light, as some sort of sinister, secret organization were written by their detractors. Kenny’s work offers a new explanation of the Molly Maguires drawing from American and Irish sources and traces the labor unrest in the pattern of the Molly Maguires back to similar groups in Ireland that operated during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Keeping that in mind, Kenny’s work is a history of labor and immigration in America. While there is no denying the Molly Maguire’s involvement in violent labor unrest, this adds context to their motivations and provides an explanation for why they embraced the methods of protest that they did. Kevin Kenny is the Glucksman Professor of History and Director of Glucksman Ireland House at NYU. For some of his research Kenny consulted the Reading Company records at Hagley, which included material related to James McParland’s investigation of the Molly Maguires and other materials related to the Molly Maguire trials. In support of his work, Kenny received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
The Bosses Union: How Employers Organized to Fight Labor before the New Deal with Vilja Hulden Hagley Museum and Library 2024-04-29 | In this episode Roger Horowitz interviews Vilja Hulden (University of Colorado-Boulder) about her new book, The Bosses' Union: How Employers Organized to Fight Labor before the New Deal. Her book explores how business organizations, especially the National Association of Manufacturers, sought to weaken labor unions in the first quarter of the 20th century. Inventing the term closed shop, employers mounted what they called an open-shop campaign to undermine union demands that workers at unionized workplaces join the union and thereby depict labor as tyrannical and anti-democratic. These efforts continued through the 1910s and especially following the First World War. Over time employer organizations developed more nuanced strategies and publicity methods than in the early days of the century, but their inveterate opposition to organized labor persisted underneath. Hulden especially shows how the attacks on the closed shop formed the centerpiece of NAM’s anti-union strategy throughout. The book is available for a free download on the University of Illinois site. The link to the book page is https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p086922. For more Hagley History Hangouts, and more information on the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library, visit us online at hagley.org.
The Only Way Is Up: Self-Employment in Britain, 1950-2000 with Amy Edwards Hagley Museum and Library 2024-04-15 | The self-employed have many motivations for choosing or accepting their working arrangements. A business model that taps into the desire for people to “work for themselves” can mobilize the capital, networks, and labor of large numbers of people at comparatively low cost. Whether through franchising, direct-selling, or other methods, major firms became enablers, advocates, and beneficiaries of self-employment. The latest research by Dr. Amy Edwards, senior lecturer at the University of Bristol, focuses on the tangle of personal and corporate interests around self-employment. While the top-down element of the franchise or direct-sales relationship is evident, the personal motives of the self-employed franchisee or direct-sales representative could make the arrangement mutually profitable. Bringing her family’s story into conversation with archival materials, including the Avon collection at the Hagley Library, Edwards explores the cultural as well as political and economic aspects of self-employment in late twentieth-century Britain.In support of her work, Dr. Edwards received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Tehcnology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information and more Hagley History Hangouts visit us online at hagley.org
Chemistry, Capitalism, & the Commodification of Nitrogen with Chris Morris Hagley Museum and Library 2024-04-01 | Nitrogen is the most abundant element in the Earth’s atmosphere, it is essential to life and biological processes, and yet it is virtually impossible to access nitrogen absent the mediation of something or someone that can “fix” gaseous atmospheric nitrogen into a stable form. Historically, these mediators were biological organisms, such as cyanobacteria, that can fix nitrogen and make it available in the ecosystem and economy. Not until the advent of modern chemistry and chemical industries did a method for synthetically fixing nitrogen exist, but once developed, it became an essential component of the human economies of agriculture and warfare. In his latest research, Chris Morris, professor of history at the University of Texas – Arlington, explores the long history of nitrogen, from the guano islands of Peru to its modern re-creation as an industrially-produced, globally-traded commodity. Using Hagley Library collections including the DuPont Company archives, Morris reveals a hidden history that connects sharecroppers in Alabama, soldiers on World War battlefields, chemists in laboratories, and diplomats in world capitals. In support of his work, Morris received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Industrial Ohio (SOHIO, 1939) Hagley Museum and Library 2024-03-18 | A film highlighting the various industries that thrived in Ohio, including steel, coal, power, oil, shovels, stone, pottery, paper, publishing, machine tools, rubber, rayon, and shoes. Produced in partnership with Republic Steel, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, B.F. Goodrich, and more. The film was produced in 1939 by ESCAR, Inc. and sponsored by Standard Oil Company of Ohio (SOHIO). It was part of SOHIO's 'Let's Explore Ohio' advertising campaign.This digitized 16mm film is from the Cinecraft Productions collection at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information about the collection, please check out www.hagley.org/cinecraftAccess to this item is provided for educational and research purposes only. If you would like more information, please contact askhagley@hagley.org
Ohio at Play (SOHIO, 1939) Hagley Museum and Library 2024-03-18 | Film advertising specific recreational sites in the state of Ohio, including the Toledo Zoo, Cedar Point, Indian Lake, and Coney Island in Cincinnati. Shows people enjoying themselves while participating in a variety of leisure activities. The film was produced in 1939 by ESCAR, Inc. and sponsored by Standard Oil Company of Ohio (SOHIO). It was part of SOHIO's 'Let's Explore Ohio' advertising campaign.This digitized 16mm film is from the Cinecraft Productions collection at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information about the collection, please check out www.hagley.org/cinecraftAccess to this item is provided for educational and research purposes only. If you would like more information, please contact askhagley@hagley.org
Holy Holes: Mining and Religion in the Americas with Rebecca Janzen Hagley Museum and Library 2024-03-18 | When miners go underground, they enter a spiritual realm distinct from that aboveground. Across time, places, and cultures, miners have made religious observance part of their work, building shrines, making offerings, and naming places after sacred personages. What connects these practices, and how can we access the meaning behind them?The latest research of Rebecca Janzen, professor of Spanish and comparative literature at the University of South Carolina, addresses this cultural phenomenon as it has been manifested by miners in the Americas from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Studying cases in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and others, Janzen pulls together numerous kinds of sources, including church documents, public records, and corporate archives such as the Bethlehem Steel collection held at the Hagley Library. Janzen offers us a glimpse underground and into the hearts of miners and mining communities.In support of her work Dr. Janzen received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information on our funding opportunities, and for more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
19th Century Black Inventors: Hiding In Plain Sight Hagley Museum and Library 2024-03-05 | The United States patent system was one of the most democratic government systems when it was first established. This is clearly demonstrated in Hagley’s unique collection of 19th-century patent models. Unlike other parts of American life, the early patent process was not closed off to individuals because of their race, ethnicity, or gender. In this presentation from February 22, 2024, Hagley Museum curators highlight the experiences of Black inventors in the 19th century, as well as the amazing life stories of two Black inventors represented in Hagley’s patent model collection.
The Pennsylvania Railroad: The Age of Limits, 1917-1933 with Albert Churella Hagley Museum and Library 2024-03-04 | Even the standard railroad of the world had limits. At the dawn of the twentieth century the Pennsylvania Railroad was at the most powerful it had been. As they began to learn, even that power could only reach so far. Albert Churella’s The Pennsylvania Railroad Volume 2: The Age of Limits 1917-1933 is the recently released middle volume in his trilogy on the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In this interview Churella discusses how the railroad grew and changed in the early twentieth century as it faced increasing competition from other methods of transit, government oversight, and the realities of a world that was rapidly changing. Churella does this by interweaving corporate with personal history tracing the life and career of WW. Atterbury who began his career in the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Altoona shops and retired as president in 1935. Atterbury oversaw many projects during his time leading the railroad ranging from the development of the M1 steam locomotive to electrification between New York City and Washington D.C. He also pioneered early experiments in intermodal shipping while advocating for railroad consolidation and abandoning lesser used railines. Churella also describes his writing and research process explaining how his railroad history became a trilogy. He also offers his thoughts on writing that a text of interest to academic and general audiences. Dr. Albert Churella is a professor of history at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia, prior to consolidation he taught at Southern Polytechnic State University. Dr. Churella’s other books are The Pennsylvania Railroad, Volume I: Building an Empire, 1846-1917 and From Steam to Diesel: Managerial Customs and Organizational Capabilities in the Twentieth-Century American Locomotive Industry. In support of his work, Churella received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information and more Hagley History Hangouts visit us online at hagley.org.
Tired!: Industrial and Workplace Fatigue, 1900-1950 with Tina Wei Hagley Museum and Library 2024-02-19 | Work tires folks, and if fatigue is allowed to continue unabated, it can wear them right out. Studies of industrial and workplace fatigue during the first half of the twentieth century sought to address this pressing social and economic problem. But for whose benefit: labor or capital?The dissertation research of Tina Wei, PhD candidate at Harvard University, demonstrates that this matter was of real concern to labor unions, business owners, management, and research scientists. Using multiple sources, including the records of the National Industrial Conference Board held at the Hagley Library, Wei explores how concept of industrial fatigue changed over time from a primarily physical matter to one focused on mental and emotional states. In support of her work, Wei received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Freedom to Harm: Private Violence and the American State, 1860-1895 with Hugh Wood Hagley Museum and Library 2024-02-05 | The Weberian definition of the state is an institution with a monopoly over legitimate violence within a defined territory. Eager to explain the genesis of European nation states, Weber’s model is a poor fit for the history and experience of American statehood. What might explain the marked failure of the United States government to monopolize violence within its territory, and the historical and contemporary prevalence of violence in American civil society?In his dissertation research, Hugh Wood, PhD candidate at Cambridge University seeks to find an answer. Using three case studies of private violence sanctioned by the state, expropriation and murder of indigenous people in the West, corporate policing and labor discipline in the industrial North, and the night riders and lynchings of the Jim Crow South, Wood explores the long history of bloodletting in American civil society. Wood’s project explores an essential element of American history with profound implications for the present.In support of his work, Wood received a grant from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
General Electric promotional film with the cast of Leave it to Beaver (1960) Hagley Museum and Library 2024-01-24 | The cast of the television series "Leave It to Beaver" (Hugh Beaumont, Jerry Mathers, Barbara Billingsley, and Tony Dow) presents the new advertising campaign for General Electric flash bulbs. The film was produced to educate retailers and salesmen on the upcoming ad campaign.This digitized 16mm film is from the Cinecraft Productions collection at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information about the collection, please check out www.hagley.org/cinecraftAccess to this item is provided for educational and research purposes only. If you would like more information, please contact askhagley@hagley.org
The Council for a Union Free Environment with Moeko Yamazaki Hagley Museum and Library 2024-01-22 | In the 1970s, the National Association of Manufacturers organized a subsidiary, the Council for a Union-Free Environment, to provide member firms and managers with tools to prevent labor organization and union activity in their business operations. The council remained active into the 1990s, when it was dissolved.As part of her dissertation research, Moeko Yamazaki, a PhD candidate at the University of Oregon, dug into the NAM collection and the CUE records in particular. Here research was supported by the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more Hagley History Hangouts visit us online at hagley.org/hhh.
Power Up: A Social History of American Electricity with Trish Kahle Hagley Museum and Library 2024-01-08 | The history of American electricity is often told through the experiences of engineers and managers, but these were only a handful of the many thousands of workers who built, maintained, and ran electrical utility systems in the Unites States. The linemen, clerks, pipe fitters, marketers, secretaries, and many, many others who do the work to keep the power on have little space in the literature. In fact, we have collectively learned not to see these workers and the work that they do even when they are right in front of our eyes. That’s where the research of energy historian Trish Kahle enters the picture. Dr. Kahle, former NEH-Hagley postdoctoral fellow and current assistant professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University – Qatar, researches the social relations that develop within and around energy systems. Her current project examines the development of the American electrical grid through major episodes in its history: early forays into the construction process in the late-nineteenth century; rural electrification and segregation; deindustrialization and civil rights agitation. In support of her work, Kahle received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Tasteful Design: Peter Schlumbohm & the Chemex Coffeemaker with Clark Barwick Hagley Museum and Library 2023-12-25 | Americans love coffee, but the coffee in American cups has changed a lot over the years. Three waves of coffee consumer culture washed over the twentieth-century United States: the mass commodity wave, the differentiation wave, and the aficionado’s wave. With each wave came changes to the way Americas bought, prepared, and consumed coffee. Present throughout the decades, however, has been the Chemex coffeemaker designed in the 1930s by chemist and industrial designer Peter Schlumbohm. Uncovering the story of the Chemex coffeemaker is Clark Barwick, cultural historian and teaching professor of business communication at Indiana University. Using the Schlumbohm collection of scrapbooks and papers held in the Hagley Library, Barwick discovered how a desire for a cleaner cup of coffee, and a knack for marketing and promotion, led Schlumbohm to create and share the Chemex with the world. More than eighty years later, the device is still a beloved standard piece of equipment among coffee lovers everywhere. In support of his work, Barwick received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information on funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Ilusions of Progress: Business, Poverty, and Liberalism in the American Century with Brent Cebul Hagley Museum and Library 2023-12-11 | n this episode Roger Horowitz interviews University of Pennsylvania historian Brent Cebul about his new book Illusions of Progress: Business, Poverty, and Liberalism in the American Century. In the interview Cebul explains his book’s core notions of “supply-side liberalism” and “business producerism” to explain how local elites, often quite conservative, made peace with and actually administered liberal New Deal programs including public works, urban redevelopment, and housing. Ranging between a close look at small town Georgia and urban Cleveland, Cebul explains how the New Deal built on older liberal traditions of using state resources to boost capitalist enterprises that needed capital resources in order to grow. In doing so, in essence binding national visions of progress to the local interests of regional business elites, liberals often entrenched the very inequalities of power and opportunity they imagined their programs solving.For more Hagley History Hangouts and more information on the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library visit us online at hagley.org.
Pirates of the Caribbean: U.S. Satellites & Media in the 1980s Americas with Fabian Prieto-Nañez Hagley Museum and Library 2023-11-27 | The early history of satellite broadcast has a Gemini aspect: twin origins in the research and development laboratories of major American corporations, and in the homes and workshops of legions of grassroots tinkerers across North and South America, notably in the Caribbean. These two streams crossed in the 1980s. Companies like RCA tried to build the infrastructure and market for satellite television but failed to find cost-effective designs for consumer satellite dishes. Meanwhile grassroots innovators and activists found ways to mass-produce inexpensive satellite dishes but were blocked from accessing the corporate broadcast signal. “Pirated” satellite television was born. Fabian Prieto-Nañez, assistant professor of Science, Technology, & Society at Virginia Tech University, uncovers this history in his latest research. Using the RCA collection held in the Hagley Library and pairing its “institutional voice” with the voices of small-time innovators he has discovered in the Caribbean, Prieto-Nañez argues that the modern market for satellite television rests upon the twin foundations of corporate investment and individual creativity. This network of social and technical actors combined over time to produce a new market. In support of his work Prieto-Nanez received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Stewardess Training Films, Unites Airlines (1965) Hagley Museum and Library 2023-11-20 | A series of four films from 1965 used to instruct United Airlines flight attendants, then referred to as stewardesses, on “advanced public contact,” and includes examples of proper and improper behavior when interfacing with other humans while on duty. As well as demonstrating a few basic situations that a flight attendant may face in the course of her work, these behavioral examples illustrate some of the high standards to which commercial airlines held their staff members at the time: be cheerful, be alert, arrive on time for shifts, and be exceedingly patient with impatient customers and fellow employees. This series of digitized 16mm films are from the Sponsored and Industrial Motion Picture collection at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information about the collection, please check out digital.hagley.org/2018222 Access to this item is provided for educational and research purposes only. If you would like more information, please contact askhagley@hagley.org
PHILADELPHIAS PENCOYD IRON WORKS: FORGING ALONG THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER Hagley Museum and Library 2023-11-13 | Kevin Righter’s book, Philadelphia's Pencoyd Iron Works: Forging Along the Schuylkill River began as a family history project. Righter’s great grandfather, Walter Righter worked at Pencoyd from 1885 through 1933, retiring as superintendent of motive power. When Righter began research for this project, he realized that little had been written on Pencoyd Iron Works, which operated in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia for nearly a century, so he sought to fill that gap. This interview covers that family history and interweaves it with the history of steelmaking in the United States, from Pencoyd’s opening in 1852, through coming under control of US Steel to its closure following the end of WWII. Pencoyd’s steel was most famously used in the construction of bridges and the first elevated railways in the United States, but many architects in the late nineteenth century incorporated Pencoyd steel into their structures, including Philadlephia’s Frank Furness. Many bridges and structures containing Pencoyd manufactured steel still exist around the world today in places as far apart as Japan, Sudan, Mexico, Taiwan, Kenya, and throughout the United States. Kevin Righter works in planetary sciences in Houston, Texas. He has a lifelong interest in genealogy and Philadelphia’s industrial history. For more Hagley History Hangouts and more information on the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library visit us online at hagley.org
The Romance of Iron and Steel (American Rolling Mill Company, 1938) Hagley Museum and Library 2023-11-07 | This print of The Romance of Iron and Steel was preserved by the Hagley Library with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation in 2022. filmpreservation.org/blog/2022/8/18/64-films-to-be-saved-by-the-nfpf-s-2022-grants The black and white sound film Romance of Iron and Steel, produced in 1938 for ARMCO, follows their entire process of steel production, from the mining of ore to the manufacturing facility to the finished product. It begins with an overview of the American Rolling Mill Company Research Division in Middletown, Ohio, and emphasizes the importance of research for the company throughout. The Cleveland ore docks and interiors shot at ARMCO facilities in Baltimore, Maryland, and Butler, Pennsylvania, serve as locations for most of the film. The film concludes with a message about "ARMCO men" and company culture with an address by ARMCO founder George M. Verity.This digitized 16mm film is from the Cinecraft Productions collection at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information about the collection, please check out www.hagley.org/cinecraftAccess to this item is provided for educational and research purposes only. If you would like more information, please contact askhagley@hagley.org
Who Can You Trust?: Brands, Deception, & Markets with Jennifer Black Hagley Museum and Library 2023-10-30 | Would branded goods, by any other name, not smell as sweet? Branding is one means by which businesses try to communicate with consumers, cultivate trust, and capture market share. The practice has a long history in America and was central to the attempts of producers to differentiate their products, consumers to navigate the uncertainties of the marketplace, and forgers to cash in on the value of a brand name.In a pair of book projects, Dr. Jennifer Black, associate professor of history at Misericordia University, investigates the cultivation of market-trust via branding, and the subsequent attempts by fakers to pass off their goods as the genuine article. Branding Trust: Advertising & Trademarks in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023) reveals the process by which innovations in marketing techniques created the modern American brand landscape. In her new project, Consuming Deception, Black looks at the flip side of the coin, where fakes and forgeries attempt to make a living off the value of the value of established brands. Black examined numerous Hagley Library collections to tell her story.Find Black's book here: pennpress.org/9781512825008/branding-trustIn support of her work, Dr. Black received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Organized Baseball: Reworking the Transnational Circuit, 1946-1965 with Evan Brown Hagley Museum and Library 2023-10-16 | Baseball fans often tout the “timeless” quality of the sport; and the air in baseball stadiums can be thick with tradition. However, the business of baseball, its labor and management practices, and its marketing and revenue systems have been a work-in-progress from the first. Sports historian Evan Brown, a PhD candidate at Columbia University, is uncovering the inside baseball story of the mid-twentieth century in North America, when players moved across borders and between leagues, and management was seeking new ways to exert control over their franchises and employees. The changes in baseball reflected concurrent changes in American society: the relocation of population away from the Northeast toward the West and Sunbelt; the move by stadiums and teams out of downtown cores to suburban industrial parks; the skyrocketing importance of broadcast media to culture and the economy. Brown accessed the archive of Philadelphia Phillies materials held in the Hagley Library to uncover his story.In support of his research, Brown received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Willing Communist Collaborators?: DuPont in China, 1946-1953 with Juanjuan Peng Hagley Museum and Library 2023-10-02 | The DuPont Company had a presence in China beginning in the 1920s. With a business selling imported dyestuffs, the company operated out of Shanghai until the Japanese takeover of the country. Following the Second World War, the company resumed operations, continuing even while the fighting continued during the Chinese Civil War. With the 1949 ascent of the Chinese Communist Party, what would DuPont and other American businesses do with their Chinese operations?Historian Juanjuan Peng, associate professor at Georgia Southern University, used the DuPont Company archive at the Hagley Museum & Library to find out. To her surprise, American businessmen, including those employed by DuPont, were willing collaborators in with the new communist regime, which they hoped would invest heavily in industry. The Chinese entry in to the Korean War, however, and the American sanctions it elicited, forced them to recant and abandon their operations in China. Dr. Peng received support from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information on funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
The Couriers Big Story: A Romance in Journalism, Pittsburgh Courier (1953) Hagley Museum and Library 2023-09-27 | Film highlighting the day to day operations of the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the largest weekly newspapers owned and operated by Black Americans. Employees Robert L. (Lee) Vann, Ira Lewis, Jessie Matthews Vann, Daisy S. Lampkin, Earl V. Hord, William G. Nunn (also known as Bill Nunn, Sr.), Robert Ratcliffe, Percival Leroy (P.L.) Prattis, A.D. "Jake" Gaither, Arthur Morris, Henry Lindsay, Alma Polk, Gertrude Schalk (also known as Toki Schalk Johnson), Joseph D. Bibb, Dr. Benjamin Mays, Marjorie McKenzie, J.A. Rodgers, William C. Page, and more are shown or discussed. Art direction by James D. Drake. Photography by Josephus F. Hicks.This digitized 16mm film is from the Cinecraft Productions collection at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information about the collection, please check out www.hagley.org/cinecraftAccess to this item is provided for educational and research purposes only. If you would like more information, please contact askhagley@hagley.org
Milestones of Motoring, Standard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO), 1954 Hagley Museum and Library 2023-09-27 | An industrial musical introducing the new Boron supreme gasoline depicts various automobile milestones in Ohio history beginning in 1898. Actors include Rita Farrell (Schour), Merv Griffin, and Joe E. Brown, with host Warren Guthrie. Includes statements from Sohio's Vice President in charge of Sales, Sam Elliott, and Chairman of the Board of Directors.This digitized 16mm film is from the Cinecraft Productions collection at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information about the collection, please check out www.hagley.org/cinecraftAccess to this item is provided for educational and research purposes only. If you would like more information, please contact askhagley@hagley.org
Kirby Vacuum sales meeting (1971) Hagley Museum and Library 2023-09-22 | Kirby vacuum cleaner sales staff attend a meeting and psyche themselves up to sell more products by celebrating one another's accomplishments and singing together.This digitized 16mm film is from the Cinecraft Productions collection at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information about the collection, please check out www.hagley.org/cinecraftAccess to this item is provided for educational and research purposes only. If you would like more information, please contact askhagley@hagley.org
The Rhetorical Prehistory of the New Deal with James Kimble Hagley Museum and Library 2023-09-18 | What is the New Deal? During the election of 1932, Americans did not know what it was, but they knew that they wanted whatever it was. Dr. James Kimble’s research is on the history of this term from the time Franklin Delano Roosevelt first spoke it in the summer of 1932 to when he took office in March of 1933. Throughout the campaign season, FDR never defined what the “New Deal” meant and let the voters decide what it meant for themselves. One of the main ways he accomplished this was by reaching out to the electorate through the still new technology of radio, where he proved to be an effective communicator. At the same time, Chairman of the DNC, John J. Raskob and prior supporter of Democratic candidate for the presidency Alfred Smith, became a critic of FDR and the New Deal. Kimble’s research traces the origins of the term New Deal and Raskob’s evolving criticism of it and FDR. Dr. Kimble is a Professor of Communication and Arts at Seton Hall University and is a historian of domestic propaganda with an interest in FDR’s presidency. While at Hagley he used the Ernest Dichter who collected listenership data for FDR’s radio addresses and John J. Raskob papers for his evolving views on FDR and the Democratic party. His forthcoming book on this project will be published in 2025 or 2026.Dr. Kimble received support from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information on funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
TV Town: New York City & Broadcast Media with Richard Popp Hagley Museum and Library 2023-09-04 | New York City played a starring role in the story of American broadcast media, perhaps especially when it came to television. The city was both a major market for television, a proving ground for television techniques and technologies, and an on-screen character in televised news and entertainment. The very physicality of the city, with its canyon-like streets and towering steel and concrete edifices, played a material role in the development and popularization of American television.Historian and media scholar Richard Popp, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, is working on a book project exploring the close inter-relationship between New York City and broadcast media, with a focus on television and its associated industries and politics. Using numerous Hagley collections, including the RCA archive, the David Sarnoff papers, and the Margolies collection of travel ephemera, Dr. Popp uncovers a fascinating story of first adopters, regulators, and a society grappling with new, potent technologies. In support of his work, Popp received aid from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, please visit us online at hagley.org.
An Artist in the Archive: Researching & Sculpting Nylon with Emily Baker Hagley Museum and Library 2023-08-21 | Artists bring a unique perspective to historical archives. Like any other researchers, they examine documents and collections to learn about their subject. Where their methods diverge is to use archival sources to shape the form and meaning of art created in two and three dimensions. The experiences of past people, accessed through the documents they left behind, can breathe life into the materials worked by an artist’s hands.Visual artist Emily Baker, assistant professor of sculpture at Georgia State University, specializes in metalworking. When she encountered the repeated claim that nylon is stronger than steel, she wanted to learn more about the material, its production, and its meaning. Conducting research in the DuPont Company archives held in the Hagley Library, Baker gathered a treasure trove of context information and specific examples of nylon being linked to consumer psychology. Most notable in this connection was the frequent reference made in the archive to sex and gender roles and boundaries and their relevance to nylon.In support of her work, Baker received a grant from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Thank you, Mr Chips!, National Potato Chip Institute (1947) Hagley Museum and Library 2023-08-18 | Film produced in 1947 by Cinecraft Productions of Cleveland, Ohio, for the National Potato Chip Institute.Synopsis: A narrator named Mr. Chips educates a housewife named Mrs. Whipple on all things potato chips. He describes how potato chips were invented, how modern chips are manufactured, and why chips make an excellent addition to a dinner menu. Screen adaptation by John R. DeWitt. Supervised by Harvey F. Noss. Appliances by Westinghouse. Table settings by Fostoria.This 16mm film is from the Cinecraft Productions collection at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information about the collection, please check out www.hagley.org/cinecraftAccess to this item is provided for educational and research purposes only. If you would like more information, please contact askhagley@hagley.org
Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em: American Tobacco & Broadcast Media with Peter Kovacs Hagley Museum and Library 2023-08-07 | The American tobacco oligopoly of five firms loomed large in the mid-twentieth century thanks to the addictive qualities of their products and the massive investment they made in broadcast marketing communications, influencing the media experience of millions of Americans and the wider landscape of American media for generations. Media historian Peter Kovacs is conducting research on the influence of American tobacco firms on broadcast media, and argues that the tobacco company sponsorship of broadcast programs on radio and television profoundly shaped the form and content of both individual programs and the broadcast media industry at large. Using Hagley’s unrivalled collection of marketing and advertising archives, including the papers of ad agency giant BBD&O, Kovacs assembles a story of corporate competition over the airwaves from the first tobacco -sponsored radio program in 1924 to the banning of broadcast tobacco advertising in 1971.Dr. Kovacs received support for his research from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information and more Hagley History Hangouts visit hagley.org.
Forms of Persuasion: Art & Corporate Image in the 1960s with Alex Taylor Hagley Museum and Library 2023-07-24 | In this episode of Hagley History Hangout Roger Horowitz sits down with Alex Taylor to discuss his new book, Forms of Persuasion: Art and Corporate Image in the 1960s, the first dedicated history of corporate patronage in post-war art. Taylor’s book considers how a wide range of artists were deeply immersed in the marketing strategies of big business during the 1960s and explored with multinational corporations new ways to use art for commercial gain. From Andy Warhol’s work for packaged goods manufacturers to Richard Serra’s involvement with the steel industry, Taylor demonstrates how major artists of the period provided brands with “forms of persuasion” that bolstered corporate power, prestige, and profit. Drawing on extensive original research conducted in artist, gallery, and corporate archives, Taylor recovers a flourishing field of promotional initiatives that saw artists, advertising creatives, and executives working around the same tables. Alex J. Taylor is associate professor of art and visual culture at the University of Pittsburgh. For more Hagley History Hangouts, and more information on the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library, join us online at hagley.org.
American Advertising: Researching Capitalism from the Inside Out with Cynthia Meyers Hagley Museum and Library 2023-07-10 | What archive could possibly give you a total view of American business practice in the twentieth century? What industry touched and participated in nearly every other industry? What firm yields insight into a cavalcade of firms in one fell swoop? The answer to all of these questions is the BBD&O advertising agency archive held in the Hagley Museum & Library. Cynthia Meyers, professor emerita of Communication, Art, & Media at College of Mount Saint Vincent, has dedicated her career to uncovering the incredible stories of American advertising on twentieth-century airwaves. Her work highlights the significance of the BBD&O advertising firm and its archive to our understanding of business, culture, and technology as they evolved over the twentieth century. Whether your research interest lies in firms such as GM, GE, DuPont, Lever Bros, Proctor & Gamble; or in the details of radio and television production; or in the social dynamics of race and gender; or in a multitude of other directions, the advertising agency and market research collections held in the Hagley Library hold unique promise as a rich resource.For more Hagley History Hangouts, and more information on the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library, visit us online at hagley.org.
Alliance Tenna Rotor TV commercials, 1950 / 1953 Hagley Museum and Library 2023-06-27 | A series of six commercials advertising the Alliane Tenna Rotor, a rotating television antenna for tuning into over-the-air TV signals.This 16mm film is from the Cinecraft Productions collection at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information about the collection, please check out www.hagley.org/cinecraftAccess to this item is provided for educational and research purposes only. If you would like more information, please contact askhagley@hagley.org
Old Brains: How Corporate America Measured Aging with James Leach Hagley Museum and Library 2023-06-26 | Cognitive changes occur across the human lifespan, with consequences for economic conditions. How people have understood these changes, and managed their interaction with life and work has changed over time. As industrialization sped up work, and enhanced the wealth of society, social scientists and business leaders struggled to better understand the aging process, and to address its implications in the workplace.In his dissertation project, James Leach, PhD candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, uncovers the status of old age and retirement in the American corporate workplace between 1945 and 1986. During these decades, as more Americans considered pensions, social security, and freedom from poverty in old age to be theirs by right of membership in a rich, industrial, modern nation, corporations found ways to turn retirement to their own pecuniary advantage.In support of his work, Jang received an exploratory grant from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Nation of Inventors Hagley Museum and Library 2023-06-16 | In our new exhibit Nation of Inventors, visitors will enjoy engaging experiences around every corner, testing their knowledge of innovation and hearing personal accounts from inventors.
Tour Around Hagley Museum Hagley Museum and Library 2023-06-16 | Come along with Hagley's new summer intern from Washington College as she tours the powder yards, new exhibit and historic home at Hagley Museum
Kerosene Antimonopoly: Standard Oil & the People Who Hated It with Minseok Jang Hagley Museum and Library 2023-06-12 | How does a movement unite the disparate interests of producer and consumers? By directing their shared ire against a powerful middleman. That is how opponents of the Standard Oil monopoly on kerosene refining and distribution joined forces to take on the corporate giant.In his dissertation project, Minseok Jang, PhD candidate at the University of Albany, explores the materiality of kerosene and its impacts on people at every link in the commodity chain; from oil fields through refineries and pipelines to the homes and businesses of end-users. Jang argues that the unique qualities contemporaries perceived in kerosene created both opportunities and risks. When Standard Oil attempted to monopolize the opportunities while externalizing the risks, the firm goaded an array of people into united anti-monopolist action.In support of his work, Jang received an exploratory grant from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Building an Oral History of DuPont’s Textile Fibers Department with Joe Plasky Hagley Museum and Library 2023-05-29 | Joe Plasky talks about his efforts interviewing as many people as he can who worked for DuPont’s Textile Fibers Department between 1950 and 2000.Joe Plasky is a retired engineer from DuPont’s Textile Fibers Department and he has been collecting oral histories from former DuPont Textile Fibers employees for well over a decade. Every year, sometimes multiple times per year, Mr. Plasky deposits a batch of these oral histories with Hagley. Currently, the collection has approximately 260 interviews and counting. In this interview, Plasky talks about what inspired him to undertake a project of this size and how he feels the development of different kinds of polyesters, including Dacron and other fibers used for their elasticity in shapewear is an under-researched topic. He also shares some of the most interesting stories he’s heard while working on this project and shares what he hopes future researchers will be able to learn by utilizing these interviews. The entirety of the Oral Hstory Interviews with Former Employees of DuPont Company's Textile Fibers Department collection is available here: digital.hagley.org/textile_fibers_interviews For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
