Donaldson Brown (1885-1965) was an industrialist and business executive with E.I. du Pont de Nemours and the General Motors Corporation. These papers relate to Brown's association with GM, and reflect his concern with financial policy, organization and operation, and employee relations. They are especially concerned with the period of World War II. Files from the 1920s and 1930s describe Brown's effort to relate pricing policies to financial control.

Greta Brown Layton (1924-2014) 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. This collection consists of family portraits and group photographs of ancestors of Greta Brown Layton. The bulk of the collection are portrait engravings of individual members of the du Pont, Hounsfield, Pelleport, Van Dyke, Barksdale, and related families.

Sophie du Pont Ford (1871-1957) was the daughter of Victor du Pont (1828-1888) and Alice Hounsfield du Pont (1833-1904) and the wife of Bruce Ford (1873-1931). The letter indicates Ford is giving a lacquered Chinese-work box to her niece, Greta du Pont Barksdale Brown (1924-2014).