Digital Collections

Photographs from the Papers of J. Hartley Bowen

71 items

This collection, digitized here in its entirety, consists of photographs depicting the facilities, machinery, and operations of the Aeronautical Materials Laboratory, part of the Naval Air Material Center located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The photographs document the production and testing of assorted plastics, rubbers, coatings, and primers used in the construction of naval aircraft, with an emphasis on machinery used to evaluate the effects of weathering and various environmental conditions. The majority of photographs are drawn from a 1949 report on compounding rubber, though the entire collection spans 1949 to 1968. The photographs were collected by J. (Joseph) Hartley Bowen, Jr., who served as the Supervisory Chemist at the Aeronautical Materials Laboratory during this period.