Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company miscellany on Bancroft Mills 2448
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on September 14, 2021. Description is written in: English. Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Manuscripts and Archives PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company miscellany on Bancroft Mills 2448
Table of Contents
Summary Information ...... 3 Historical Note ...... 3 Scope and content ...... 4 Arrangement ...... 5 Administrative Information ...... 5 Related Materials ...... 5 Controlled Access Headings ...... 6 Collection Inventory ...... 6
- Page 2 - Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company miscellany on Bancroft Mills 2448
Summary Information
Repository: Manuscripts and Archives Creator: Joseph Bancroft & Sons Co Title: Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company miscellany on Bancroft Mills ID: 2448 Date [inclusive]: 1846-1974 Date [bulk]: bulk 1889-1965 Physical Description: 1 Linear Foot (1 box) Language of the English . Material: Abstract: The records consist of a small batch of company documents preserved by an individual after the end of operations by the Wilmington Finishing Company. They include copies of the company's charter and supplements, bylaws and amendments, and files of agreements covering water rights, easements for sewer, gas and water lines, and plant access for the Wilmington and Northern Railroad Company.
^ Return to Table of Contents
Historical Note
Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company was incorporated in Delaware on October 1, 1889 as the successor to the partnership of Joseph Bancroft & Sons. Joseph Bancroft (1803-1874), and English Quaker, had established at cotton textile factory on the Brandywine Creek at Rockford, in the northwestern corner of present-day Wilmington in 1831. The business remained in the Bancroft family for 130 years.
The company purchased the Kentmere Mills adjoining their property on the east in 1895 and concentrated manufacturing there, while the old Rockford property was devoted to bleaching, dyeing and finishing. In 1910, the Bancrofts purchased a third plant at Reading, Pa., and incorporated the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company of Pennsylvania on May 28, 1911. Subsequently, all manufacture was concentrated at Reading, with the Wilmington facilities devoted to bleaching, dyeing and finishing. In the spring of 1925, the Bancrofts purchased a controlling interest in the Eddystone Manufacturing Company, another cotton manufacturer, and secured 100% control in 1929. The Eddystone Plant was converted entirely to the printing of cottons and linens, and a rayon finishing plant was installed there in 1930.
- Page 3- Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company miscellany on Bancroft Mills 2448
As new synthetic yarns came into use, Bancroft expanded into those fields. In 1936, it established its Research Department at Wilmington under Dr. Arnold L. Lippert. Its first success was trademarked as "Everglaze," originally the production of a durable finish on glazed chintz, but later used to create permanent-press fabrics. Bancroft began a program of licensing its patents and trademarks in 1938. In 1953, it purchased the rights to a process for crimping yarn from Alexander Smith, Inc. and successfully applied it to nylon to create "Ban-Lon," which became popular for outerwear, swimsuits, sweaters and hose. "Ban-Lon" and "Everglaze" were the mainstays of the company in its later years.
Around 1947, Bancroft acquired two additional companies, Wm. Simpson, Sons & Co., a converter, and Albert D. Smith & Company, Inc., which had been Bancroft's sales agent for book cloth, window shade cloth and industrial fabrics, which they also manufactured on their own account. However, Bancroft remained primarily a finishing company, and as such, found it harder to compete with large, vertically- integrated textile companies. It liquidated its manufacturing operations at Reading in 1957.
By 1960, the Research Department, which handled both research and licensing of products and trademarks developed by Bancroft, was the only viable part of the business. The company considered changing the name of the parent firm to Joseph Bancroft & Sons Research Company and spinning off the manufacturing units to a new subsidiary for a tax loss. When this proved too risky, the entire business was sold, and Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian Head Mills, Inc., of Massachusetts in September 1961. With continued erosion of the Northeastern textile industry, the plant became increasingly unprofitable. Indian Head Mills, Inc., became a conglomerate called Indian Head Inc. in 1966, and the finishing plant was put up for sale in 1972. It was purchased by the Wilmington Finishing Company, composed mostly of Bancroft department heads, on June 4, 1973. Indian Head Inc. sold the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company, which by now was reduced to the licensing operation, to Beaunit Corporation in February 1975. Finishing at the Rockford site ended in 1981, and the plant was redeveloped as a condominium complex.
^ Return to Table of Contents
Scope and content
The records consist of a small batch of company documents preserved by an individual after the end of operations by the Wilmington Finishing Company. They include copies of the company's charter and supplements, bylaws and amendments, and files of agreements covering water rights, easements for sewer, gas and water lines, and plant access for the Wilmington and Northern Railroad Company.
There are two important consultant's reports on the condition of the company, one from the depression year of 1936, and the other from 1960, when it was clear that the manufacturing operation was no longer viable and a buyer was sought for the company's assets. There are some notes on the sale to Indian Head Mills, Inc., and the subsequent fate of the property. Documents from the period of Wilmington Finishing Co. operation include periodic reports to the government on wastewater treatment and discharge into Brandywine Creek. There is also a large file on the use of Miss America winners to promote "Ban-Lon" with many samples of magazine advertising and publicity from 1964, another file on the donation of the
- Page 4- Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company miscellany on Bancroft Mills 2448 main body of the company's records to the then Eleutherian Mills Historical Library in 1964, and some sketches showing details of heavy –timber mill construction.
^ Return to Table of Contents
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically.
^ Return to Table of Contents
Administrative Information
Publication Statement Manuscripts and Archives
PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library
^ Return to Table of Contents
Related Materials
Related Material Additional Bancroft records from this source, mostly maps and deeds, were placed with the Historical Society of Delaware.
^ Return to Table of Contents
- Page 5- Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company miscellany on Bancroft Mills 2448
Controlled Access Headings
• Textile industry • Water rights • Real property • Indian Head Mills • Wilmington Finishing Company
Collection Inventory
Title/Description Instances "Ban-Lon", "Everglaze", etc. - Publicity, Miss America promotions, box 1 folder 1 1964
Bill of sale to Indian Head Mills, Inc. of William Simpson, Sons & box 1 folder 2 Co., 1962
Brandywine Creek water rights - Chain of title, undated box 1 folder 3
Bylaws & amendments, 1889-1958 box 1 folder 4
Charter & supplements, 1889-1955 box 1 folder 5
Delaware - Board of boiler rules, 1954 box 1 folder 6
Eddystone Manufacturing Company - Stock certificates, 1927-1958 box 1 folder 7
Eleutherian Mills Historical Library - Donation of records, 1964 box 1 folder 8
Floor construction of mill buildings, undated box 1 folder 9
Illustrations for company history, undated box 1 folder 10
Indian Head Mills, Inc., 1965 box 1 folder 11
Insurance policies, 1965-1966 box 1 folder 12
Lease of dye rigs & thermosal head range to Indian Head Mills, Inc., box 1 folder 13 1965
Pollution control, 1971-1975 box 1 folder 14
Purchase of the Kenneth B. Church Co., Inc., 1967 box 1 folder 15
Report of Survey & Analysis by H. M. Preston & Co., 1936 box 1 folder 16
Sewer, water & gas lines, etc., 1879-1951 box 1 folder 17
Study of proposal to sell the companys manufacturing facilities, box 1 folder 18 1960
Trademarks - "Ban-Lon", etc., 1964 box 1 folder 19
- Page 6- Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company miscellany on Bancroft Mills 2448
Water rights, 1846-1936 box 1 folder 20
Wilmington & Northern Railroad Company agreements, 1884-1904 box 1 folder 21
Woodlawn Trustees, Inc. - Lease of Apt. No. 64, Ivy Road, 1951 box 1 folder 22
- Page 7-