Joseph Bancroft and Sons Company, Miss America collection 1972.430 This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on September 14, 2021. Description is written in: English. Describing Archives: A Content Standard Audiovisual Collections PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library Joseph Bancroft and Sons Company, Miss America collection 1972.430 Table of Contents Summary Information .................................................................................................................................... 3 Historical Note ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Scope and Content ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Administrative Information ............................................................................................................................ 5 Related Materials ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Controlled Access Headings .......................................................................................................................... 6 Conservation Note .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Collection Inventory ....................................................................................................................................... 6 1953 Neva Jane Langley ............................................................................................................................. 6 1954 Evelyn Ay .......................................................................................................................................... 7 1955 Lee Meriwether .................................................................................................................................. 7 1956 Sharon Kay Ritchie ............................................................................................................................ 8 1957 Marian Ann McKnight ....................................................................................................................... 8 1958 Marilyn Van Derbur ........................................................................................................................... 9 1959 Mary Ann Mobley ............................................................................................................................. 9 1960 Lynda Mead ..................................................................................................................................... 10 1961 Nancy Anne Fleming ....................................................................................................................... 11 1962 Maria Beale Fletcher ........................................................................................................................ 11 1963 Jacquelyn Jeanne Mayer .................................................................................................................. 12 1964 Donna Axum .................................................................................................................................... 12 1965 Vonda Kay Van Dyke ..................................................................................................................... 13 1966 ........................................................................................................................................................... 14 1967 ........................................................................................................................................................... 14 Pageant programs ...................................................................................................................................... 14 Paper dolls ................................................................................................................................................. 15 Everglaze and Ban-Lon fashions .............................................................................................................. 15 Pamphlets and advertising ......................................................................................................................... 15 Case histories ............................................................................................................................................. 16 - Page 2 - Joseph Bancroft and Sons Company, Miss America collection 1972.430 Summary Information Repository: Audiovisual Collections Creator: Joseph Bancroft & Sons Co Title: Joseph Bancroft and Sons Company, Miss America collection ID: 1972.430 Date [inclusive]: circa 1945-1967 Physical Description: 9 Linear Feet General Physical 1,069 photographic prints : b&w ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller., 5 albums (131 Description note: photographic prints) ; 28 x 24 cm., 5 albums (100 photographic prints, 101 items) ; 51 x 41 cm. or smaller., 239 items, 29 items : programs, 25 items : paper dolls and 1 item : sample book ; 33 x 43.5 cm. Language of the English . Material: Abstract: Joseph Bancroft, an Englishman trained in textile weaving in Lancashire, established his own cotton mill on the Brandywine near Wilmington, Delaware in 1831. This operation became the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company in 1889, and in 1929 it absorbed the Eddystone Manufacturing Co. These images include plant exteriors and interiors, officials and employees, aerials, workers' housing, machinery, floods, and dams and races on Brandywine Creek as well as many Ban-Lon and Miss America fashion photographs. This collection includes approximately 1060 images covering a period from the late 19th century to the 1960s. ^ Return to Table of Contents Historical Note Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company manufactured, bleached, dyed, and finished a variety cotton-made goods. After World War I it added synthetics to its production, and these included rayon and nylon fabrics. The company was incorporated in 1889. The companies namesake, Joseph Bancroft (1803-1874) began manufacturing cotton cloth at a small mill in Rockford, Delaware, just north of Wilmington, on March 25, 1831. The mill was built in order to take advantage of the Brandywine River's water power and Bancroft adopted the traditional British spinning and weaving technology for use in his operation. The firm expanded steadily during the 1830s and 1840s as it began to produce cotton for both the Philadelphia and New York markets. In the late 1840s, Joseph - Page 3- Joseph Bancroft and Sons Company, Miss America collection 1972.430 Bancroft brought his two sons, William and Samuel, into the business assuring that the company would remain a family enterprise. During the Civil War, when the American market was largely closed to English imports, the Bancroft firm, like most other U.S. textile companies, prospered. After the war, the company developed a new bleaching process and began to concentrate on finishing cotton cloth. In 1929, the Bancroft Company merged with the Eddystone Manufacturing Company. In the mid-1930s it began producing a line of rayon goods and a cotton finishing process that were marketed under the trade names of "Ban-Lon" and "Everglaze" respectively. The Banlon and Everglaze processes were widely licensed in Europe and America and by the early 1950s foreign royalties accounted for more than seventy per cent of the firm's total profits. In an effort to promote Everglaze, Bancroft became a primary sponsor of the Miss America Pageant from the mid-1940s through the late 1960s. The company helped finance the pageant and provided money towards scholarships awarded to pageant winners. Bancroft was able to promote its products using the image of Miss America. In 1961, the Bancroft Company became a division of Indian Head Mills, Inc., of New York City. The Rockford factory closed in 1981. ^ Return to Table of Contents Scope and Content The collection consists of general advertising and product information for "Ban-Lon" and "Everglaze" fashions. In particular, the collection documents the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company's sponsorship of the Miss America Pageant and the promotion of fabrics by Miss America from the years 1953 to 1967. A majority of the photographs show Miss America modeling her official "Everglaze" and "Ban-Lon" wardrobe, although there are also fashion publicity photographs featuring other models, including those for men's and children's clothing. Other photographs include fashion shows featuring Miss America's "Everglaze" wardrobe and clothing created using McCall's patterns in fabrics by Everfast; displays of fashions and fabrics in department stores; and the use of "Everglaze" and "Ban- Lon" fabrics for household furnishings such as draperies, upholstery, and bedding. Many photographs and advertising materials document the "Miss America/Modern Bride/Ban-Lon Lace Dream Wedding" promotion, including wedding gowns, bridesmaid dresses, and lingerie by makers such as Priscilla of Boston, Alfred Angelo, and Lily of France, particularly for the years 1960 and 1961. The collection also includes numerous fabric swatches, some in sample books, others attached to related photographs. Other miscellaneous items in the collection include paper dolls of various Miss Americas