This large collection of moving images documents the research, development, training, safety measures, products, and promotional aspects of DuPont Company history. The moving images include commercials, short films, feature films, and television programs.

This collection is arranged into nine series: I. Commercials; II. Company history, product information, and training films; III. Chestnut Run Laboratories, Technical Services Laboratory films; IV. DuPont fashion films; V. Entertainment and meeting break films; VI. Cavalcade of America; VII. The DuPont Show of the Month; VIII. The DuPont Show with June Allyson; and IX. The DuPont Show of the Week.

All series are arranged alphabetically by film title, with the exception of the three DuPont television programs series, which are arranged chronologically.

Series I. Commercials

The Commercials series consists of DuPont Company commercials for more than fifty DuPont products. The products most heavily represented are Teflon cookware, Silverstone cookware, Lucite Paints, Rally Car Wax, medical products, and agrichemicals. Medical products include the Automatic Clinical Analyzer, Diamond Knife, Luminescence Biometer, mammography, mass spectrometer, overdose antidote, Teflon voice boxes, Thallium heart attack prevention, and X-ray subtraction. Commercials on agrichemicals cover DuPont research, crop protection, agrochemical testing, Extrazine II herbicide, Krovar herbicide, nitrogen fixation studies of soybeans, and pesticides. There are several commercials related to DuPont safety measures taken at plants to ensure workplace safety, as well as the safe transportation of chemicals, double wall oil tankers for marine life, and noise and vibration reduction. There are also several commercials related to DuPont programs for alcohol rehabilitation, energy conservation, personal safety program for rape prevention, and job training programs for inmate rehabilitation. Commercials for DuPont’s man-made fibers include Coolmax, Kevlar, Lycra, Tyvek, and Nomex fire retardant suits. The automobile products represented in this series are for Gas Booster, Exhaust Manifold Reactor, Nomex filter bags, Refinish, safety auto glass, and Zerex Antifreeze.

One of DuPont’s marketing campaigns used the tagline “There's A Lot of Good Chemistry Between Us.” These commercials generally feature a narrator having a conversation with one or more people in a particular situation being informed about how a DuPont invention impacts their life without them even being aware of it. The commercial generally does not focus on a single product, but rather on a single material that is used in a variety of products. For example, in one commercial, a family is walking through their new home while it is under construction and the narrator is explaining to them how Methanol is used to make various parts of their home. Another advertising campaign termed “The Originators” commercials, again does not focus on a particular product, but rather on a significant contribution DuPont scientists have made through research in a particular area. Each commercial features a DuPont scientist talking about their research area. For example, one commercial features Stephanie Kwolek, the inventor of Kevlar, discussing all the different uses of the synthetic material.

There is one reel containing commercials that do not promote DuPont products. It contains a series of commercials for the Union Carbide Corporation dating from the 1950s. The Union Carbide Corporation is a chemical manufacturing company established in 1917. The structure of these commercials seems to have been an influence on the structure of many of the DuPont Company’s commercials in the 1970s and 1980s. These commercials have a narrative storyline involving the company's product or invention, a narrator, and a tagline ending with the company logo.

Most reels are small and only contain one commercial, however, there are several composite and corporate reels containing many commercials. Commercials are either thirty or sixty seconds long and were produced between 1950 and 1995, with a bulk of the commercials dating from 1968 to 1989.

Series II. Company history, product information, and training films

This series includes many short films which were produced or sponsored by the Dupont Company and document the history of the company, product information, sales training (both in general and for specific products), management, and safety training. These films seem to have been loaned both within and outside of the company. There are several title lists of DuPont Motion Pictures which include lending policies. Some films were not produced by DuPont, but were used for training DuPont employees.

Training films focus on management, sales, safety, and recruitment. The management training films demonstrate how supervisors can motivate their employees for improved work performance, goal setting, and best practices for an employee work appraisal meeting. Of note is a film starring John Cleese titled, How Am I Doing: The Appraisal Interview, which takes a humorous look at how to do performance evaluations; Cleese plays three different bosses, all doing it the wrong way.

Sales training films either provide general sales advice or techniques for selling a specific DuPont product such as cellophane or antifreeze. There is a sales orientation film, Portrait of American Life which provides an overview of significant contributions of the chemical industry. Of note is another humorous film starring John Cleese called So You Want to Be a Success at Selling: Part II, The Presentation.

A majority of the safety films emphasize the safe handling and transportation of hazardous materials. There is a film related to preventing hearing loss when working with loud machinery and driver's safety. There are a number of safety films related to fire prevention. These films highlight flame retardant fabric such as Nomex and fire extinguishants such as Halon or FE 1301.

There is one general recruitment film and one specifically for DuPont’s Automotive Refinishes department.

There are many films which focus on providing in-depth information about a specific DuPont product or research. The products most heavily represented have to do with DuPont’s Agrochemical division. Many agrichemical films focus on a specific product such as Lexone, Benlate, Lannate, Lorox, Glean, Harmony, and Compound 12402. Some of these films provide tips on integrated pest management, spraying techniques, safe handling and disposal. Other films discuss the work of DuPont’s research scientists in the industry related to herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides.

There are a few films related to DuPont’s synthetic materials and products which highlight the wonders of plastics, Teflon, Cellophane, and Nylon. A few films focus on DuPont’s contributions to the medical industry.

Several films focus on the history of the DuPont Company like the film titled James Q. du Pont History of the DuPont Company. There are some films which document the activities of various plants like the Savannah River Plant, Chamber Works, and the Brevard plant. There is one film showing aerial views of the Experimental Station. There are a few films pertaining to the DuPont Company participation in the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. Additionally, there are a few lectures and presentations by DuPont employees, topics include technical research and technology, and promoting innovation and creativity.

The Du Pont Story is a feature film directed William J. Thiele (1890-1975) in 1950. It is a historical drama which tells the story of the DuPont Company through the administrations of its first ten presidents. The film depicts several generations of the du Pont family beginning with Eleuthere Irenee du Pont immigrating to the United States from France, and establishing a new company on the banks of the Brandywine River with the encouragement of Thomas Jefferson. The story ends with guest appearances of company presidents, Walter S. Carpenter Jr. (1888-1976) and Crawford H. Greenewalt (1902-1993). Carpenter was president from 1940-1948 and Greenewalt served from 1948-1962. There are several versions of this film.

Of note are a few films related to aviation. The DuPont Company sponsored the construction of a human-powered aircraft named Gossamer Albatross. The plane was made by Paul B. MacCready, Jr. (1925-2007) and his company AeroVironment. The Gossamer Albatross is made out of Mylar, Kevlar, and other synthetic materials. In 1979, cyclist and pilot Bryan Allen (1953-) piloted the Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel from Folkestone, England to Cape Gris-Nez, France. The flight took two hours and forty-nine minutes, covering twenty-two miles (35.7 km). In 1980 DuPont contributed to the Solar Challenger, which was an improvement on the design of the Gossamer Albatross. There are short films about both of these projects.

In September 1981 the oil and gas manufacturing company, Conoco Inc. became a subsidiary of the DuPont Company. Several years earlier, Conoco had produced a documentary film, To Fly directed by Jim Freeman and Greg MacGillivray in 1976 which was eventually released in 1981 presented by DuPont. The film documents the history of aviation. A second documentary by Freeman and MacGillivray was produced in 1983 by Conoco and presented by DuPont entitled Flyers. In 1999, DuPont sold off all of its shares of Conoco, which then merged with Phillips Petroleum Company.

Series III. Chestnut Run Laboratories, Technical Services Laboratory films

This series contains films related to plastics and polymers. All films were labeled as belonging to the Technical Services Laboratory within the Chestnut Run plant and films come from the following Departments: Plastics, Polychemicals, Polymer Products, and Plastic Products and Resins. Some films are of studies or tests of various processes, other films are productions intended for informational or educational purposes. Topics covered are pipe tracing, Teflon processes, blow molding, screw extruders, contour bag machine, extrusion coating, extrusion studies, injection molding, blow molding, runnerless molding, splicing cables, burying cables, plastics, and polymers. There is one film which outlines employee’s pension and retirement benefits and one film specifically about workplace safety. There are shot lists or scripts available for some of the films. In some cases, there is a script for a film that is not in the collection.

Series IV. DuPont fashion films

The DuPont fashion films series consists of seven reels, each containing several short films about DuPont’s textiles for men and women’s fashion, including swimwear. The fashion films feature various sport coats, suits, dresses, casual wear, sports wear, and swimwear. The films are mostly fictional narratives of men and women wearing clothing made out of DuPont fabrics. Some films feature a different travel destinations and highlight what to wear while on the trip. Featured fabrics include Dacron, Polyester, and Qiana Nylon fabric for clothing and lycra and spandex for swimwear.

Series V. Entertainment and meeting break films

The Entertainment and meeting break films series includes films whose production is not affiliated with the DuPont Company, and contents do not relate to chemistry in any serious way. These films were owned by the DuPont Company and were used as entertainment or a way to introduce a break during a meeting. Notably there are five reels of Jim Henson’s Muppet Meeting Films, each containing three or four skits featuring various muppets in work situations. There is an animated short titled The Magician which humorously introduces that it is time to take a coffee break and a reel with a Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update sketch about chemistry.

There are a few reels containing silent film footage. One is a reel of silent film era skits involving automobiles, Buster Keaton’s Cops, a re-release of The Bangville Police - The Keystone Cops, and a Pathe News reel containing very short clips of significant events occurring between 1916 and 1945. There is a short reel of W.C. Field’s skit “Card Trick” and a clip from The Jonathan Winters Show of the skit “Smiley's Super Service Station.”

There is a copy of the feature film F. Scott Fitzgerald and the 'Last of the Belles’ and an episode of television shows: Sports Bloopers II with Warren Miller, NBC Experiment in Television, Infinite Voyage, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, and part of an episode of The Lucy Show. Additionally, there are a few reels of Plimpton! which features journalist George Plimpton (1927-2003) documenting a day in a life of various professions, in one episode he spends the day with a trapeze artist, in another he is on a movie set.

Series VI. Cavalcade of America

Cavalcade of America television show was an anthology drama which aired on NBC from 1952 to 1953 and ABC from 1953 to 1957. The show was adapted from a radio show of the same name sponsored by the DuPont Company. The DuPont Company created the Cavalcade of America as a promotional tool. The program dramatized historical events, focusing on individual stories of heroism, and occasionally presented a musical performance. The stories were presented as uplifting and emphasized human achievements, progress, and technological innovations.

The episodes aired every other week for the first season and weekly for the following seasons. There were 133 episodes which aired over five seasons. The show changed its name to the DuPont Cavalcade Theater in 1955, and in it's final year was known as DuPont Theater. The show was replaced by The DuPont Show of the Month.

This series contains one episode, “The Skipper’s Lady” and four reels of commercials which aired during the show.

Series VII. The DuPont Show of the Month

The DuPont Show of the Month was an anthology drama series that aired monthly on CBS from 1957 to 1961. Unlike Cavalcade of America,the the storylines did not feature historical events, but, rather, were often adaptations of literary classics. There were thirty-five episodes which aired over four seasons. Each episode was ninety minutes. The show was nominated for twelve Emmy Awards. This series contains seventeen episodes (six titles) - the films aired in two or three parts, each part being one episode.

Series VIII. The DuPont Show with June Allyson

Also known as The June Allyson Show, by Four Star-Pamric Production. This anthology drama series aired on CBS from 1959 to 1961. There were fifty-seven episodes over two seasons. Each episode was thirty minutes. Actress June Allyson (1917-2006) was the third woman to host an anthology series on network television. She began her career on Broadway and later signed with MGM, where she established a “girl next door” image. Allyson stars in a little less than half of the episodes. Many episodes feature prominent actors such as Bette Davis, Ginger Rogers, Dick Powell, Ron Howard, Carolyn Jones, Harpo Marx, Ronald Reagan, Anne Baxter, Don Rickles, and Dean Stockwell. The last episode, “Death of the Temple Bay”, starring Lloyd Bridges, was the pilot for The Lloyd Bridges Show. This series contains fifty-one of the fifty-seven episodes.

Series IX. The DuPont Show of the Week

This television show was an anthology series that featured music, variety acts, drama, documentaries and special projects. The show aired on NBC between 1961 and 1964. There were seventy-one one-hour episodes that aired over three seasons. Guest stars included Peggy Lee, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, James Cagney, Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Lillian Gish, Carolyn Jones, and Walter Matthau. The show was nominated one time for an Edgar Allan Poe Award and eight times for Primetime Emmy Awards. This series contains twenty-one episodes.