#better things for better living

We’re welcoming the month of April today with a rare 1943 photograph from the testing laboratory of an obscure and now-defunct branch of the Heston Industrial corporation’s Soy-Lentil Division. The experimental food sciences team, which worked with ocean plankton, was shuttered in 1973 after encountering catastrophic problems in its supply lines.

This ‘square meal wrapped in cellophane’ product information photograph is part of the Hagley Library’s collection of DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341). To view more material from this collection online now, click here to visit its page in our Digital Archive.

Nothing fishy to see here, just our last post on Tumblr for the foreseeable future. Beginning Monday, April 12, we will be discontinuing this Tumblr blog. But we won’t be going far.

The homepage of our Digital Archive will continue to feature images and links to the day’s posts, all of which will be available at the Hagley Vault’s amazing new home on our website. We’ll also be followable via this RSS feed. You’ll also continue to be able to find images and links to new posts, as well as additional bonus content, on our Twitter feed, @Hagley_Library.

This ca. 1950 advertisement for DuPont brand sponges is from Hagley Library’s DuPont Company Advertising Department collection of graphic materials (Accession 1996.291). The company’s Advertising Department was formed in September 1921, when DuPont was reorganized with a decentralized structure.

Prior to that time, advertising had been a division of the Sales Department, but when the sales function was decentralized, a central department became necessary to coordinate advertising activities across product lines. The collection consists of miscellaneous Du Pont Company advertising materials, including postcards, pictorial envelopes, lantern slides, advertisements, display cards, and illustrated pamphlets.

Rayon! Rayon, rayon, everywhere this #FashionFriday!

This photo spread comes courtesy of the June, 1947 issue of DuPont Magazine, a publication first printed by DuPont in 1913 to help publicize the company’s products and progress. This article highlighted, you guessed it, rayon, one of the many synthetic textiles the company manufactured (others included, but were not limited to nylon, Orlon acrylic, Dacron polyester, and Lycra Spandex).

Our digital collection of DuPont Magazine includes all issues published between 1913 and 2003. The issues include articles, product information, and advertisements on topics such as dynamite, quarrying, ammunition, popular plastic products, automobile accessories, contemporary fashion, and other useful items for the home. To view it online now, click here to visit its page in our Digital Archive.