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Wilbur Hall photographs
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Held at: Haverford Township Historical Society [Contact Us]PO Box 825, Havertown, PA, 19083
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Haverford Township Historical Society. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Wilbur P. Hall was born in Kemblesville, Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1879. He worked for Consolidated Edison in West Chester before coming to Llanerch, Delaware County, Pennsylvania in 1901, to work as an oiler for the Philadelphia and West Chester Traction Company. Before long he was promoted to night engineer, then chief engineer. He retired from the Traction Company in 1929.
The Philadelphia and West Chester Traction Company opened the trolley line from Philadelphia to West Chester about 1898 and continued service to West Chester until May 1959. The Ardmore Trolley Line was opened in 1902 and closed in 1966. The Traction Company also furnished electricity for private homes and street lighting as far as Drexel Hill.
Wilbur Hall married Alice Logan. He passed away in 1969.
Bibliography:
Notes from Margaret Johnston interview with Mr. Wilbur P. Hall, December 2, 1968 (Llanerch, Pennsylvania). Document. http://haverford.pastperfect-online.com/36017cgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=Hall,%20Wilbur;type=702
This collection consists of glass plate negatives, and photographs printed from them, taken by Wilbur Hall, an engineer for the Philadelphia and West Chester Traction Company, around the turn of the 20th century. Most of the images are related to commuter rail systems from Philadelphia into Delaware and Chester counties: views of tracks, local trolley stations, trolley cars, and power stations. There are also images of people, buildings, and scenery, principally from locations in Llanerch and Haverford Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Nearly all of the photographs, well over 200 items, have been digitized and are available through the Haverford Township Historical Society's website: http://haverford.pastperfect-online.com/36017cgi/mweb.exe?request=link;dtype=d;key=3801;page=701900102;
The Haverford Township Historical Society also possess Wilbur Hall's camera, an Eastman Kodak Brownie No. 3.
A majority of the collection is a gift of Mrs. Richard Rosengarten (daughter of Wilbur Hall), 1969.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Haverford Township Historical Society directly for more information.
People
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Haverford Township Historical Society
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Sarah Leu through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Haverford Township Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.