Hagley and Show Biz

The Hagley Library has had many contacts with the media in recent weeks.  An episode of the History Detectives on PBS on August 31 featured our Sun Ship and Irenee du Pont collections.

 PBS History Detectives' Tukufu Zuberi (right) with Hagley's Jon Williams (center)

In this History Detectives episode, a man in Rochester, NY, wanted to know if his grandfather had worked on the "Seadrome" project.  Seadrome was an invention of engineer Edward Armstrong that would have provided floating airports across the Atlantic Ocean in the era before long-range aircraft. Armstrong had worked for the DuPont Company and had an office in Wilmington. Several DuPont executives initially backed his project, and he approached the Sun Ship Company to construct the Seadrome.  First, though, a model was made, and that's where the PBS show comes in.  Hagley has documents that show that the model was made by a firm in Chester, Pennsylvania, the H. H. Ward Company.  The man in Rochester had a letter of recommendation from that company for his grandfather from the same period. This information was enough evidence to clinch the case for the History Detectives.  View entire episode on the PBS website

In further show biz news, the Ken Burns documentary film company, Florentine Films, has asked us for illustrations for their new documentary,  Prohibition.  Hagley houses a large collection of documents and some pictures from the anti-prohibition movement, and the show's producers have selected some of these to use in their project.  This documentary project is scheduled to be aired in 2011.  View more information on the Florentine Films projects

In other news...

The Wilmington News Journal published an article on preserving personal collections on September 10, 2009.  The article, "Memories Made to Last," featured Laura Wahl, head conservator at the Hagley Library, and volunteer Angela Cloud in several pictures taken in our conservation lab. Laura's advice for saving family historical materials included keeping it in a cool environment of 70 degrees or less with a consistent relative humidity in the 35-50% range.

Finally, closer to home, an article in the Greenville/Hockessin Community News on October 12, 2009, featured a behind-the-scenes view of the Hagley library.  View full article