Delaware Valley Archivists Group

The Hagley Library is pleased to announce the opening of Building the Lydonia II an online exhibit of nineteen images from the Pusey and Jones Company that traces the construction of the steam yacht Lydonia II from the laying of its keel to its first sea trial.Click here to enter the exhibitThe Pusey and Jones Company maintained a photographic record for many of its shipbuilding and machine contracts from 1870 to 1955. This collection of photographs was acquired by the the Hagley Library in 1970. While the content varies, the shipbuilding images typically document important points in the construction process, e.g., laying of the keel; on the shipway; christening; launching; fitting out; and the sea trial. The Lydonia II series is the only set scanned in its entirety, but it is representative of other sequences in the Pusey and Jones Photograph Collection.Approximately 800 of the over 6,700 images in the Pusey and Jones collection are available online in the Hagley Digital Archives.If you have questions about the library collections, please contact us at Ask Hagley.