E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834). The du Pont’s purchased a mill site on the banks of the Brandywine River just North of Wilmington, Delaware. During wartime the company was a major supplier for the United States government. During peacetime, the company marketed their product towards sportsmen and hunters. Throughout the 1900s and 1910s, the company shifted its focus away from gunpowder production and towards chemistry innovations.

In 1904 the DuPont Company purchased the International Smokeless Powder and Chemical Company, which was then producing smokeless powder and nitrocellulose products in their plant in Parlin, New Jersey. DuPont Company continued production there, and, after World War I, concentrated on the manufacturing of lacquers, solvents, plasticizers, "Duco" cement, and other finishes. In 1924, a second plant was built to make photographic products, especially motion picture film.

John A. Dick (1879-1972), the first full-time photographer hired by the DuPont Company, documented the growth of the plant during WWI in these photographs.