E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Cellophane Division cellophane packaging photographs and sales materials
Creation: circa 1957Abstract
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. While cellophane was invented in Switzerland, it was not until DuPont acquired the patent in 1923 that allowed DuPont scientist William Hale Charch (1898-1958) to improve it so that it was impervious to water vapor. DuPont produced cellophane until 1986. This collection consists of undated photographs, one saleman's album, and one poster that all relate to cellophane packaging.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1957
Creator
- E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Cellophane Division (Organization)
- Photo Associates (Photographer, Organization)
Extent
87 item(s)
General Physical Description
59 photographic prints : b&w ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller. 26 photographic prints : color ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller. 1 item : poster, color ; 20 x 14 in. 1 item : album, spiral bound : 9 x 11 in.
Historical Note
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), began with the production of gunpowder. Throughout the 1900s and 1910s, the company shifted its focus away from gunpowder production and towards chemistry innovations. By 1926 the company officially dissolved the powder production unit, although it had already been inactive for many years.
Cellophane was invented Jacques E. Brandenberger (1872-1954) in 1908 in Switzerland and was commercially produced there. In 1923 DuPont acquired U.S. patent rights, but it was revealed that water vapor could penetrate it. This fact precluded its use for food packaging. DuPont scientist William Hale Charch (1898-1958) resolved this problem, and in 1927 a patent was issued for the moisture-proofing system. Cellophane continued to be highly profitable through the 1950s, but by the 1960s new products began replacing it. Cellophane production declined through the 1970s and early 1980s with DuPont discontinuing it in 1986.
Scope and Content
This collection consists of undated photographs, one saleman's album, and one poster that all relate to cellophane packaging. The images are organized by their subjects: meat packaging; food packaging; non-food packaging; pharmaceutical packaging including five views of women assembly line workers wrapping bottles at Abbott Laboratories; cellophane-wrapped food in refrigerated displays; Christmas foods and goods. The salesman's album which includes some statistics about potato and snack sales in 1957 is composed of color prints of products with transparent overlays of geographic areas where the items were produced.
Location
GL Box 2.
Access Restrictions
This collection is open for research.
Language of Materials
English
Finding Aid & Administrative Information
- Title:
- E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Cellophane Division cellophane packaging photographs and sales materials
- Date:
- 2015
- Description rules:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description:
- English
- Script of description:
- Latin
Repository Details
Repository Details
Part of the Audiovisual Collections Repository
