Online Resource- Plastics Collection

Syracuse University Library has a "Plastics Collection" online. The collection includes approximately 3,000 objects with high-quality photographs, information about plastic materials and processes, and twice the previous number of biographies and company histories.  

It's very easy to search by:

•  "subject"
• "material"
• "material trade name" 
• or "manufacturer".
• Manuscripts are catalogued by "subject".
• There is a collection of short "essays".
• A time line.
• A catalogue of people, companies, materials and processes.

The links page includes "films", "industry resources", and other "sites" and "museums".

The films include "Le Chant du Styrene part 1 and part 2, a 1958, 19 minute French documentary film depicting plastics manufacture as industrial sublime. The film was directed by Alain Resnais who went on to direct Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), L'Année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year in Marienbad) (1961) and Muriel (1963). The film was ordered by the French industrial group Pechiney. The commentary script, was written by French novelist Raymond Queneau. The script was all in Alexandrines, a very old kind of poetic meter comprising 12 syllables pre-dating Marlowe and Shakespeare. The script was narrated by French actor Pierre Dux.