Founded in 1787 as Joshua Gilpin and Company, the Brandywine Paper Mills served as Delaware's first paper mill, encouraging the mechanization of paper production in the late eighteenth century. The mill was situated on and powered by the Brandywine Creek of the greater Brandywine Valley, a rural region of Southeast Pennsylvania and Northern Delaware celebrated for its historical ties to Revolutionary-era America. Despite its innovations, the Brandywine Paper Mills did not prosper and was ultimately purchased in 1837 by a group of Philadelphia businessmen who organized the Brandywine Manufacturing and Banking Company.

James W. Steel (1799-1879) was an engraver of portraits, historical images, bank notes, and landscapes who worked in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a bank note engraver from 1825 to 1849. He signed many of his engravings, "J.W Steel, Sc." and "J.W Steel, Sculptor."