Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Library’s Plastics Collection goes online

Tuesday, May 3, 2011, By Pamela Whiteley McLaughlin
Share

The Special Collections Research Center at the Syracuse University Library has unveiled a new website, plastics.syr.edu, devoted to its significant Plastics Collection. The website is a treasure trove of information and images of the more than 2,000 artifacts in the Plastics Collection, the largest university-based resource on the history of plastics. The site also links to more than 40 archival collections on the history of plastics, and to the library’s catalog of several thousand books and periodicals related to the history, science, technology and business of plastics. New information and artifacts are added regularly. 

plasticThe Plastics Collection serves to advance the study and understanding of plastics in society, including its role in chemistry, technology, industry, medicine, art, design, sports and other fields. The collection holds a variety of early plastics made of celluloid, thermoset plastics such as Bakelite and Catalin, as well as plastics made popular after World War II, such as acrylics, polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene and nylon. The archival collection contains material related to important plastics companies, such as sunglasses manufacturer Foster Grant, as well as the papers of inventors and entrepreneurs who helped make the 20th century the “Age of Plastic.”  Of special interest are plastics pioneer John Wesley Hyatt’s patent books. 

The project was launched in 2007 when members of the Plastics Pioneers Association, an organization of individuals who are persons of accomplishment in the plastics industry, approached SU Library about establishing a plastics collection and companion website. The collection expanded in 2008, when the National Plastics Center and Museum, located in Leominster, Mass. closed and transferred its collections of artifacts, books and manuscripts to SU. This acquisition expanded the library’s already significant holdings in industrial design, science and technology. 

The Greenwald-Haupt Charitable Foundation and Harry Greenwald, a SU alumnus and member of the SU Library Advisory Board, provided funding for the project. The Plastics History and Artifacts Committee of the Plastics Pioneers Association also provided support. Greenwald’s continuing support will enable the ongoing development of the collection and plastics website. 

For more information, contact Sam Gruber, curator of the Plastics Collection, at sdgruber@syr.edu.

  • Author

Pamela Whiteley McLaughlin

  • Recent
  • LLL Provides Students a Virtual Taste of Italian Food and Culture
    Monday, April 12, 2021, By Dan Bernardi
  • Department of Drama Releases Digital Senior Showcase
    Monday, April 12, 2021, By Erica Blust
  • Appointments Now Available for Wednesday, April 14–Sign Up Today!
    Monday, April 12, 2021, By News Staff
  • Twice-Weekly Testing Schedule (April 12-16)
    Monday, April 12, 2021, By Jen Maser
  • Message From Dean of Students Marianne Thomson
    Monday, April 12, 2021, By News Staff

More In Arts & Culture

LLL Provides Students a Virtual Taste of Italian Food and Culture

When Syracuse University students finish up the fall semester and travel home for Winterlude, they may be left missing the sense of community and intellectual nourishment they get from classes and their friends. To provide students with a unique learning…

Department of Drama Releases Digital Senior Showcase

The Department of Drama in the College of Visual and Performing Arts introduced its acting and musical theater Class of 2021 today, April 12, via a new website: SyracuseShowcase.com. The website offers a digital version of the department’s annual Lewis…

Stephen Kuusisto Receives 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry

The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation has announced that Stephen Kuusisto, University Professor in the School of Education and director of interdisciplinary programs and outreach at the Burton Blatt Institute in the College of Law, has been awarded a 2021 Guggenheim…

Light Work Presents Meryl Meisler: ‘Best of Times, Worst of Times’

Light Work presents Meryl Meisler: “Best of Times, Worst of Times,” an exhibition of her photography of her life in and around New York City in the 1970s and 1980s.  Meisler’s exhibition will be on view in the Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery…

School of Architecture Mourns Loss of Professor J. François Gabriel

Former Syracuse University architecture Professor J. François Gabriel died March 26 at age 91. A native of France, Gabriel earned diplomas at the Collège des Arts Appliques in 1948 and École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1965, where he developed…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.