This collection documents the history of aviation and primarily consists of images of aircraft which date from 1915 through 1950. A majority of the images are various views of aircraft only and are devoid of people, though there are a number of images that include pilots. There are prints and lithographs of early aircraft and balloons (dirigibles) which date as early as the 1780s. The collection has been arranged into five series by format.

The Photographs series consists of aeronautical subjects such as airplanes, balloons, dirigibles, seaplanes, women flyers, long distance and round the world flights, airplane crashes, air races, and flying instruction. There are also a number of photographs of well-known pilots, including Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. Nearly all of the photographs are news service images collected by Lammot du Pont, Jr. Photographs are arranged by subject, and most are accompanied by original caption information. The images date between 1915 and 1945. The photographs have been numbered, the numbers are the same as the folder numbers. These images have been digitized and appear in Hagley’s Digital Archives.

The Negatives series is composed of aircraft: civilian and military, domestic and foreign, mostly fixed, but some movable wing. Foreign models include examples from the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy (British), Germany (WW II), Japan (WW II), and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Some of the domestic and foreign airplane manufacturers represented are: Aeromarine-Klemm, American, Arrow, Avro, Beech, Buhl, Bunyard, Cessna, Chester, Colonial, Command-Aire, Consolidated, Consolidated/Convair, Eaglerock, Ercoupe, Fairchild, Fleet, Ford, General, Howard, Keystone-Loening, Kinner, Kreider-Reisner, Laird, Lambert, Loening, Luscombe, Martin, McDonnell, Meyers, Monocoupe, Monospar, New Standard, Noorduyn, Pasped, Percival, Porterfield, Rearwin, Republic, Seversky, Spartan, Star, Stinson, Supermarine, Swallow, Taylor, Travel Air, Uppercu-Burnelli, Vought. Some of the helicopter and autogiro manufacturers are: Brantley, Carlat, Doman, Flettner, Jovanovich, Kaman, Kellett, Platt-Le Page, Sikorsky.

Most of the images are devoid of spectators, and often the same aircraft is photographed from several angles. Several of the views show the aircraft in flight, but the majority are taken on the ground. The aircraft appear to have been photographed before and after World War Two, but they are undated. The collection was apparently purchased, but not photographed, by du Pont. Photographers' names are not recorded, but a letter-to-the-editor in the American Aviation Historical Society Journal (Winter 1979) identifies several men (Edward Deigan, Howard Levy, Bill Pinnell, and Warren Shipp, the letter's author) as the photographers. The images date from 1930 to 1950. Some of these negatives have had photographic prints made from them. The negatives numbers are the same as the folder numbers.

The Albums series contains looseleaf notebooks of materials on various airplanes and autogyros. These were kept like scrapbooks, some original photographs, comments, newspaper clippings, are included. The airplanes are ordered alphabetically within the notebooks by country of manufacture. Primarily American aircraft are documented, but also contains information about planes manufactured in Britain, France, Holland, Germany, Italy, Russia, Mexico, Sweden, and Japan. These albums date between 1929 and 1938 and have been disbound for preservation purposes. There is also a small album of photographs of Flugboots (German seaplanes) and two albums belonging to Baron P. de Crawhez, a French race-car driver in the early twentieth century. The Crawhez albums contain photographs of automobiles, automobile races, and aircraft.

The Prints, lithographs, and drawings series contains a variety of aviation prints including balloons, gliders, all types of aircraft, calendars, some very fine French turn-of-the-century prints. The series has been divided into four subseries: Airplanes, Balloons, Factories, and People. The materials date between 1783 and 1949. Select items from this series have been digitized and are in Hagley’s Digital Archives.

The Lammot du Pont, Sr. photographs series contains mostly images from his 50th Reunion of the class of 1901, MIT in 1951. There is one Du Pont family album and a portrait of Lord McGowan. The photographs have been removed from the family album for preservation purposes.