Greta Barksdale Brown (1891-1965) was a descendant of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) who founded the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company with his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) in 1802. The E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. Greta Barksdale Brown was the daughter of Ethel du Pont (1857-1934) and Hamilton M. Barksdale (1861-1918), and the wife of (Frank) Donaldson Brown (1885-1965). The collection consists of about a hundred hand-drawn nineteenth century embroidery patterns that she inherited from female family members.