Two Web Exhibits from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Among several digital history projects, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania has two that are of particular interest to business and economic historians.

Depositors wait to try to withdraw their money from the Erie National Bank, Sixth and Erie streets, 1931 (Pa. Historical Society)

The first, "Closed for Business: The Story of Bankers Trust Company during the Great Depression," describes the rise and fall of Bankers Trust Company, the first large bank to fail in Philadelphia during the Great Depression. The site includes:

320 digitized primary source documents, including documents about the bank's operation, letters from depositors desperate to get access to their funds after the bank's failure, and newspaper clippings about the aftermath of the bank's failure;
biographies of some of the people and organizations highlighted in the documents;
contextual essays (including one by R. Daniel Wadhwani) about the history of Bankers Trust Company, the Great Depression in Philadelphia, and the 1930s banking crisis in Philadelphia; and
an educators' page with ideas about how to use the resource in the classroom.

The second exhibit, Preserving America's Freedom, explores the complicated history of American freedom through 50 documents in the Society's collections; of specific interest is the section on "Economic Freedoms." Exhibiting selected documents and images, the site also contains essays by well-known historians, including Eric Foner, Walter Licht, and Thomas Sugrue,

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Regina Blaszczyk on the Business of Color

In September, MIT Press published Regina Lee Blaszczyk 's book, The Color Revolution , in which she "traces the relationship of color and commerce, from haute couture to automobile showrooms to interior design, describing the often unrecognized role of the color profession in consumer culture." Readers can see some of the 121 color illustrations featured in the book at the MIT PressLog here and here . The author has recently written an essay on her research for the book in the Hagley Archives for the Hagley Library and Archives newsletter. Reviews can be found in the New York Times , The Atlantic , Leonardo , and Imprint ; one can listen to an audio interview with Reggie Blaszczyk, and read her posts, "How Auto Shows Sparked a Color Revolution" on the Echoes blog and "True Blue: DuPont and the Color Revolution" on the Chemical Heritage Foundation website . Also available is a CHF video of the author discussing another excerpt from her rese

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