In 1911, the airship industry was developed and Goodyear was
one of the first known companies to develop them in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear’s
main purpose was for the Army and Navy during World War I. After many
successful creations of airships, they began to produce other products like balloons
and various types of boats. Goodyear began to compete in balloon races
throughout the United States and Europe. The company faced many hardships
because of disastrous airship and balloon crashes. By the late 1940s, the use
of airships began to decline because better technology was being developed for
airplanes.
When I was given this project, little was known of the donor of this collection, but I was able to put on my researcher hat and investigate
this more! During my investigation, I found many postcards
addressed to a V.N. Braden. I even found a picture of the man, but wanted to
find more information on him. This is when the investigation became
interesting--I searched through various ancestry websites for a V.N. Braden and
learned that his initials stand for Vally Nicholas and I also learned that he
was born in Ohio in 1891 and died in 1980 here in Essex, New Jersey. I kept
searching for more information and finally found Braden mentioned in a Goodyear
Annual Report. He was the manager of the Factory Aeronautical Department of
Goodyear for many years before he moved to New Jersey. The photo above shows
Braden (second from left) with his fellow Goodyear employees.
I came across many interesting materials such as operating
manuals for airships and boats, and there is even an actual bullet contained in
this collection! Also, there are many photographs of balloons that were used in
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that were stored in warehouses right here in
Hoboken until it was time to bring them into New York. I had the opportunity to
digitize some great photos from this collection, which will be available soon through
Steven’s special collection site. Over
the course of the summer, my internship experience here at Stevens has been
great. Hopefully you will get an opportunity to come check out this awesome
collection! For more information or to schedule an appointment to view special collections click here. 
Carolyn Foyle is a MSLIS candidate at Pratt Institute's School of Information and Library Science.
