View of dyeing technicians working in the Customer Service and Quality Control Laboratory at the Althouse Chemical Company plant in Reading, Pennsylvania. The technicians are engaged in a skein dyeing process whereby lengths of yarn are dipped into a receptacle containing dye pigment. In the Althouse laboratory, this process was typically used either to test quality control of plant production lots or treat final research and development samples. The technician at left is Marion Griffith.

Based in Reading, Pennsylvania, the Althouse Chemical Company was founded in 1915 by C. Scott Althouse (1880-1970) as a small, family-owned firm specializing in fabric dyes of a superior quality and class. In 1954, the Crompton & Knowles Corporation of Worcester, Massachusetts acquired Althouse, which continued to operate as a division of Crompton & Knowles and a leader in the specialty dyes industry.