In The Cradle of Industry and Liberty

technology, transportation, and communication
in this period, as well as broader economic
developments and governmental policies—
that fueled the growth of these companies.
Fortunately, scholars have covered these subjects
in great detail; the bibliography provides
sources for further reading for those who
are interested.
Some readers may be disappointed that
certain companies or industries receive little
or no mention in these pages. It is impossible
to be comprehensive in a historical overview
of this nature. Of the many thousands of
Philadelphia manufacturers over the course of
the city’s 330-plus year history, space permits
highlighting only the most significant or those
with especially interesting or revealing stories.
Certain industries—grist and saw milling, furniture
making, for example—are mentioned
only in passing, not because they are unimportant,
but because other industries loom
larger in the broader story and had a greater
impact on the overall history of manufacturing
in the city.
Yet another challenge in a brief history
such as this is that it tends to paint a much
rosier picture than the often harsh realities
manufacturers and their workers faced. For
every successful company profiled in these
pages, hundreds of others that failed are not
covered. For every large, profitable manufacturer
whose history is celebrated, there were
innumerable others that barely survived and
whose stories remain untold. Manufacturing
work itself was hard and often dangerous,
sometimes deadly. Economic realities frequently
pitted management and labor against
each other in struggles that resulted in bitter,
sometimes violent strikes. Philadelphia’s
critical role in the rise of the labor movement
is an especially significant story that is only
briefly covered here. Likewise, the social and
environmental impacts of the industrialization
of Philadelphia cannot be adequately
explored in this general overview. Readers
must look elsewhere for the history of these
important subjects. Fortunately, again, others
have written extensively on these topics.
Finally, a note regarding the numbers of
employees given for the sizes of the workforces
of the companies profiled in this book.
These figures are informed estimates intended
to give a general sense of the scope of companies’
operations; they are not precise numbers.
Exact employee numbers are often
unavailable, while published figures cannot
always be verified. Even with current manufacturers,
employee numbers can be moving
targets, depending on what projects the
companies have underway at any given time.
While the history of manufacturing in
Philadelphia is rich and important and very
well documented, the general public knows
relatively little of this key part of the city’s
past. This book is another opportunity to
tell this important story. As historian Philip
Scranton so eloquently put it in his introductory
overview to the Workshop of the World
website of the Philadelphia Chapter of
the Society for Industrial Archaeology,
“Where [the historic buildings of Old City
Philadelphia] call up visions of bewigged
gentlemen debating the birth of a nation,
scribbling away with quill pens, you must
conjure a later cacophony of steam engines,
whirling lathes, pounding forges, clattering
looms, smoke, sweat and strain.” Hopefully, this
book provides the historical context in which
to conjure up those images and in so doing
accurately tells the story of this exceptionally
important chapter in Philadelphia history.
@
Globe Dye Works, home to a family-run
textile dying company for 140 years.
The Globe Dye Building has been converted
to offices, artist studios, and small
manufacturing shops.
PHOTO BY TIM MCCUSKER, 2015.
CHAPTER ONE
19