E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) the company began with the production of gunpowder. The du Pont’s purchased a mill site on the banks of the Brandywine River just North of Wilmington, Delaware.

The DuPont Company constructed a dye works at Deepwater Point, New Jersey (also called just Deepwater, New Jersey) during World War I to enter the market for dyes left vacant by Germany's absence. This was the DuPont Company's first major venture into organic chemistry fields. The plant included Jackson Laboratory and the Technical Laboratory, two major research facilities. In 1945, the plant name was changed to the Chambers Works, in honor of Dr. Arthur D. Chambers (1847-1929), a DuPont executive who promoted company involvement in the dye business.