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Crawford H. Greenewalt papers

Creation: 1928-1968 Creation: Majority of material found within 1942-1968
 Collection
Accession: 1814

Abstract

Crawford H. Greenewalt (1902-1993) was an executive with the DuPont Company and president of the firm from 1948 to 1962. This collection consists of Greenewalt's papers from his time as president and chairman of the board. There is a broad range of external correspondence, internal company communications and reports, presidential working papers, transcripts of speeches, and published articles that make up the collection.

Dates

  • Creation: 1928-1968
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1942-1968

Creator

Extent

25 Linear Feet

Biographical Note

Crawford H. Greenewalt (1902-1993) was an executive with the DuPont Company and president of the firm from 1948 to 1962.

Born on August 16, 1902 in Cummington, Massachusetts, Crawford H. Greenewalt was the son of Frank Lindsay Greenewalt (1865-1942) and Mary Elizabeth Hallock Greenewalt (1871-1950). He graduated from William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1922. Immediately after graduating from MIT, Greenewalt began a lifelong career with the DuPont Company.

He began as a control chemist in the Philadelphia chemical works. He was soon promoted to group leader, research supervisor, and assistant director of research. As assistant director of the Chemical Department from 1939 to 1942, he set up the pilot plant for the production of Nylon.

In 1942, when the DuPont Company agreed to participate in the Manhattan Project, Greenewalt was named chief liaison, working with the physicists at the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory, including Arthur Compton (1892-1962) and Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), who were developing techniques for plutonium separation. In December 1942, the DuPont Company signed an agreement with the U.S. government to design and construct a pilot plant-size reactor and to operate a plutonium production and separation facility. The site for this facility was to be in the desert of eastern Washington State, and the plant became known as the Hanford Engineer Works. By the spring of 1945, Hanford was the site of a full-scale plant producing plutonium that would be used in the atomic bombs exploded in New Mexico on July 16 and over Nagaski, Japan, on August 9, 1945.

In June 1946, Greenewa1t became vice president of the DuPont Company and vice chairman of the executive committee; in January 1948, he became president of the company, chairman of the executive committee, and member of the finance committee. He was the tenth president, succeeding Walter S. Carpenter Jr. (1888-1976).

During Greenewa1t's presidency the company grew at a rate more than half again that of industry in general. Sales more than doubled, and the growth was reflected in the number of employees and shareholders, in broad diversification, and in construction, which included widespread international facilities. Through a succession of federal administrations, requests for services were carried out for the government. After fourteen years as president, Greenewalt served five years as chairman of the board. He also chaired the finance committee from 1962 until 1973. He continued as an active member of the board after stepping down from the chairmanship.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in six series.

Series I - Administrative files, are working papers of the president and his assistants in preparation for annual meetings, annual reports, and other situations requiring significant information and policy statements. Occasional management reports are included, with comments attached, or are referred to in communications with the various departments and committees. Rather than duplicating routine records of the auxiliary offices and departments, these files relate to central administrative concerns or to highlights of organizational changes.

Series II - Departmental files, are also administrative in nature, rather than routine departmental activities. (The Public Relations Department is the exception, due to its function as a mouthpiece for the president and the company.) Many departmental items pertain to visits by the president to operating locations or research facilities, and to his participation in seminars and training sessions. Ceremonial occasions, such as dedications, anniversaries, or safety awards, and visitors from other industries, account for many of these papers. Personnel changes at management level and other organizational details are noted in special memoranda.

Series III - Subject files, consists of twenty-one alphabetical headings. Two subjects account for half of the series, and are also the most significant, "Atomic energy" and "United States government" (described at length in Scope and Content notes). Correspondents under "Atomic energy" include Commission chairmen Gordon Dean, David Lilienthal, John McCone, Glenn Seaborg, Lewis L. Strauss, and Robert E. Wilson, as well as many congressional leaders and scientists. Topics include peacetime adaptation of the Hanford facilities by the General Electric Company and (mainly) the new Savannah River plant for manufacturing the hydrogen bomb and for research into peacetime uses; also memoirs in progress by Arthur Holly Compton and General Leslie R. Groves, regarding the original Chicago experiments and development of the early atomic bomb. The "United States government" files contain further correspondence relating to atomic energy, but also deal with a number of additional topics, mainly economy-related. A sizeable amount of material in this file was generated by the government's call for managerial skills and insights from industry, by Greenewalt' s consequent participation in advisory committees and congressional hearings, and in the loan of many DuPont executives to the federal government. The remaining nineteen subject files are of relatively small quantity. A "Competitors" file contains dialogue with a variety of other leading corporation officials; and the files on "Growth of DuPont" and "History of Du Pont" contain information gathered for l50th anniversary celebrations. A final small file of "Topics" (following "U.S. government") contains further government-related miscellany. Arrangement is chronological within the subject headings.

Series IV - Organizations file, has nine organizations represented. The Business Council (formerly the Business Advisory Council) accounts for more than half of this series. Arrangement is alphabetical/chronological.

Series V - Personal correspondence, contains messages of personal presidential recognition of employees--on landmark anniversaries of service, retirement, and for special achievements; condolences in illness or loss of family members; and year-end messages to department heads and company officers. The remaining files are made up of letters to/from individuals other than DuPont Company personnel, including hundreds of invitations received as president and chairman, and many notes of condolence in the deaths of Lammot du Pont and P.S. du Pont. Arrangement is chronological within each of the above groups. Replies typically have been attached to the initial letter.

Series VI - Speeches, includes texts (in various drafts and forms) of 155 speeches given by Greenewalt, accompanied by working papers and correspondence. The content of the speeches typically is based on information about the DuPont Company; on policy relating to current issues; or on philosophy of industrial management, education, or government/industry relations. Personal interests also contributed to speech topics, such as the observation of the flight of hunnningbirds and photography.

Many of the speeches were made on ceremonial occasions within the DuPont Company; others addressed audiences of scientists or industrial exeuctives at annual meetings, award dinners, or other special gatherings. Many were requested by academic groups of various levels, and several were official testimony before Congress. Arrangement is chronological, by speech date.

The series also contains speeches by DuPont personnel other than Crawford Greenewalt and speeches by individuals other than DuPont personnel. The first group includes other DuPont Company presidents and officers. The latter group includes leaders in government, industry, science, and education. There are about twenty speeches in each section. Arrangement is chronological.

Scope and Contents

While the Crawford H. Greenewalt papers span the period from 1928 to 1962, most of the material dates from the years between 1942 and 1968 and is primarily concerned with Greenewalt's fourteen-year presidency of the DuPont Company. Administrative files document the work of the president and his staff and, for the most part, were generated in anticipation of annual meetings and major policy initiatives. These records document major structural changes and strategic issues. Departmental files document the work of the major operating departments. This series includes annual and quarterly reports, financial statements, and related correspondence. The subject files document a wide variety of areas in which Greenewalt was interested, but primarily relate to his work in atomic energy, as they describe his involvement with both the Hanford and Savannah River projects. Included are letters from Arthur Compton, General Leslie Groves, and David Lilienthal describing the relationship between nuclear technology and public policy that evolved during the post-war years.

Series I - Administrative files, are working papers of the president and his assistants in preparation for annual meetings, annual reports, and other situations requiring significant information and policy statements. Occasional management reports are included, with comments attached, or are referred to in communications with the various departments and committees. Rather than duplicating routine records of the auxiliary offices and departments, these files relate to central administrative concerns or to highlights of organizational changes.

Series II - Departmental files, are also administrative in nature, rather than routine departmental activities. (The Public Relations Department is the exception, due to its function as a mouthpiece for the president and the company.) Many departmental items pertain to visits by the president to operating locations or research facilities, and to his participation in seminars and training sessions. Ceremonial occasions, such as dedications, anniversaries, or safety awards, and visitors from other industries, account for many of these papers. Personnel changes at management level and other organizational details are noted in special memoranda.

Series III - Subject files, consists of twenty-one alphabetical headings. Two subjects account for half of the series, and are also the most significant, "Atomic energy" and "United States government" (described at length in Scope and Content notes). Correspondents under "Atomic energy" include Commission chairmen Gordon Dean, David Lilienthal, John McCone, Glenn Seaborg, Lewis L. Strauss, and Robert E. Wilson, as well as many congressional leaders and scientists. Topics include peacetime adaptation of the Hanford facilities by the General Electric Company and (mainly) the new Savannah River plant for manufacturing the hydrogen bomb and for research into peacetime uses; also memoirs in progress by Arthur Holly Compton and General Leslie R. Groves, regarding the original Chicago experiments and development of the early atomic bomb. The "United States government" files contain further correspondence relating to atomic energy, but also deal with a number of additional topics, mainly economy-related. A sizeable amount of material in this file was generated by the government's call for managerial skills and insights from industry, by Greenewalt' s consequent participation in advisory committees and congressional hearings, and in the loan of many DuPont executives to the federal government. The remaining nineteen subject files are of relatively small quantity. A "Competitors" file contains dialogue with a variety of other leading corporation officials; and the files on "Growth of DuPont" and "History of Du Pont" contain information gathered for l50th anniversary celebrations. A final small file of "Topics" (following "U.S. government") contains further government-related miscellany. Arrangement is chronological within the subject headings.

Series IV - Organizations file, has nine organizations represented. The Business Council (formerly the Business Advisory Council) accounts for more than half of this series. Arrangement is alphabetical/chronological.

Series V - Personal correspondence, contains messages of personal presidential recognition of employees--on landmark anniversaries of service, retirement, and for special achievements; condolences in illness or loss of family members; and year-end messages to department heads and company officers. The remaining files are made up of letters to/from individuals other than DuPont Company personnel, including hundreds of invitations received as president and chairman, and many notes of condolence in the deaths of Lammot du Pont and P.S. du Pont. Arrangement is chronological within each of the above groups. Replies typically have been attached to the initial letter.

Series VI - Speeches, includes texts (in various drafts and forms) of 155 speeches given by Greenewalt, accompanied by working papers and correspondence. The content of the speeches typically is based on information about the DuPont Company; on policy relating to current issues; or on philosophy of industrial management, education, or government/industry relations. Personal interests also contributed to speech topics, such as the observation of the flight of hunnningbirds and photography.

Many of the speeches were made on ceremonial occasions within the DuPont Company; others addressed audiences of scientists or industrial exeuctives at annual meetings, award dinners, or other special gatherings. Many were requested by academic groups of various levels, and several were official testimony before Congress. Arrangement is chronological, by speech date.

The series also contains speeches by DuPont personnel other than Crawford Greenewalt and speeches by individuals other than DuPont personnel. The first group includes other DuPont Company presidents and officers. The latter group includes leaders in government, industry, science, and education. There are about twenty speeches in each section. Arrangement is chronological.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Related Materials

Crawford H. Greenewalt personal papers (Accession 2016), Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

Crawford H. Greenewalt photographs (Accession 1994.333), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

Crawford H. Greenewalt’s Manhattan Project diaries (Accession 1889), Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

Crawford H. Greenewalt films and sound recordings (Accession 2014.225), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives, Hagley Museum and Library.

DuPont Company President Crawford H. Greenewalt’s office transparencies (Accession 1968.026), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

Crawford H. Greenewalt papers, 1951-1993 (Collection number 2010.010), Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Separated Materials

Crawford H. Greenewalt collection of DuPont Company photographs (Accession 1983.267), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

Related Names

Subject

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title:
Crawford H. Greenewalt papers
Description rules:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description:
English
Script of description:
Latin

Revision Statements

  • 2020: Laurie Sather

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository

Contact:
PO Box 3630
Wilmington Delaware 19807 USA
302-658-2400