Henry du Pont (1812-1889) was an American military officer and son of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., and Sophie Madeleine Dalmas du Pont (1775-1828). The collection consists of photocopied letters from Henry du Pont (1812-1889) and typescript of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) autobiography he wrote in 1792. The letters are from sisters Eleuthera du Pont Smith (1806-1876) and Sophie Madeleine du Pont (1810-1888), as well as William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) and M. Saito of the Japanese Navy.

Gertrude Ruhnka (1891-1981) was a research librarian at the Huntington Library in California. The collection contains her unpublished manuscript, "Love for life: a self-portrait of the first three generations of du Ponts in America, 1791-1834," and two letters from Ruhnka to J.B. Lippincott Company and Dr. Walter J. Heacock of the Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation.