Cornell University Library Digital Collections

About this collection

This collection consists of over 400 digitized images from lantern slides purchased by Cornell University in the 1920s and 1930s from slide makers such as Cramer’s, Eastman, and J.P. Troy. These slides were used by instructors in that time to teach students industrial engineering, development and operation of machines, manned and automated factories, personnel management, character analysis, and the discredited theories of physiognomy and phrenology.

Slides depict steam boilers, milling machines, people operating machinery, people working in factories, automobile production, time and motion studies, aptitude tests, and equations; factory machines including turning machines such as lathes and boring mills, shapers and planers, drilling machines, milling machines, grinding machines, power saws, and presses. This collection also focuses on industrial relations and industrial psychology. The collection includes sample organization charts, employee performance evaluations, interview questions, and dexterity texts.

The collection was donated by Professor Ronald Kline of the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and were digitized by Cornell University Library in 2024. More information on the background of this collection can be found on the Lantern Slides LibGuide.

Historical context

The 1900-1930s were a time of rapid technological development, including automated factories, when millions of automobiles were produced for the first time. Textile mills also went from being fully staffed to mostly automated. World War I greatly increased the demand to manufacture guns, artillery, automobiles, airplanes, and ship motors, which these factories supplied.

Using the collection

Many of the physical slides in this collection have labels indicating broad topical categories. The digital collection can be browsed according to these categories using the Set facet, for example Personnel. To facilitate a better online browsing experience, slides lacking labels were added to Set facets if they could safely be assumed to be a part of a given category.

Please contact the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at rareref@cornell.edu with questions about this collection.

More information

Collection steward

Evan Earle, Peter J. Thaler University Archivist

Metadata creation

Jill Powell, Engineering Librarian, Cornell University Library; Steven Folsom, Head for Metadata Design & Operations, Cataloging and Metadata Services, Cornell University Library

Funding

Grants Program for Digital Collections, awarded in 2023 to Jill Powell, Engineering Librarian; Ileen DeVault, Professor of Labor History; Jessica Ratcliff, Associate Professor, Science and Technology Studies; and Owen Marshall, Visiting Assistant Professor, Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University

Credits

This collection overview was prepared by Jill H. Powell, Engineering Librarian, Cornell University Library in January 2025.

Collection sources

• Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering records, 1917-2009