Stephanie Kwolek photographs and videotapes
Creation: circa 1920 Creation: 1948-2010 Creation: Majority of material found within 1970-1997Abstract
Stephanie Louise Kwolek (1923-2014) was an American chemist known for inventing Kevlar. She worked for the DuPont Company for forty years. Kwolek's main area of research was polymers, including high-performance fibers. This collection contains photographs, albums, slides and videotapes related to Kwolek's career and achievements, including her work on Kevlar.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1920
- Creation: 1948-2010
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1970-1997
Creator
- Kwolek, Stephanie, 1923-2014 (Person)
Extent
3.25 Linear Feet
Physical Description
42 photographic prints : b&w ; 8 x 10 in. 63 photographic prints : b&w ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. 11 photographic prints : color ; 8 x 10 in. 233 photographic prints : color ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. 2 negatives : b&w ; 4 x 5 in. 15 photographic reproductions on office paper : b&w and color ; 4 x 6 in. 655 slides : b&w and color ; 35mm. 1 contact sheet. 3 photograph albums. 1 photographic print : color ; 5 x 7 in. mounted on wood. 3 oversize photographs. 29 videocassette (VHS) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in. 1 sound cassette : analog. 1 CD containing digital images. 12 items. 3.25 GB. 6 letters. 1 pin. 1 anniversary coin. 1 commencement program.
Biographical Note
Stephanie Louise Kwolek (1923-2014) was an American chemist known for inventing Kevlar. In 1946, after graduating from what is now Carnegie-Mellon University with a B.S. in Chemistry, Kwolek began her career as a research chemist at DuPont's textile fabrics laboratory in Buffalo, New York. She transferred to Wilmington, Delaware six years later when the Pioneering Research Laboratory opened. During her forty years at DuPont, Kwolek's main area of research was polymers, including high-performance fibers like Kevlar, for which she was awarded the patent in 1974.
Kwolek retired from DuPont in 1986 and worked as a consultant in addition to serving on the National Research Council and National Academy of Sciences. Kwolek was awarded a total of twenty-eight patents and won a number of awards for her work, including the National Medal of Technology and Perkin Medal. Kwolek was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1995 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2003.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into five series: Personal photographs and snapshots; Awards and honors photographs; Presentation slides; Videotapes and Audio. The first three series are arranged chronologically. The Videotapes series is arranged alphabetically. There is only one audio cassette tape.
Scope and Content
This collection contains photographs, albums, slides and videotapes related to Kwolek's career and achievements, including her work on Kevlar.
The Personal photographs and snapshots series includes portraits of Kwolek at various times throughout her career, primarily in the 1970s, a few from the 1980s and 1990s. There are two portraits of her mother, Nellie, as a young woman. Her brother Stanley appears in several snapshots at various events with Kwolek and other family members. There are several photographs of Kwolek with colleagues Paul Morgan and Herbert Blades and a few group portraits with DuPont staff members. There are slides from a trip to Japan in 1983, where she attended a seminar on polymer liquids. There are also snapshots from Kwolek's retirement party.
The Awards and honors photographs series contains both formal portraits as well as informal snapshots of Kwolek at several award presentation events such as the Kilby Award, Lavoisier Medal for Technical Achievement, the Perkin Medal, the Plastics Hall of Fame, and a photograph of Kwolek shaking hands with President Bill Clinton.
The Presentation slides series consists of three sets of slide presentations on Kevlar and polymers and one set of slides and some photographic prints of figures used for a publication.
The Videotapes series is comprised of award ceremonies, documentary specials containing interviews or appearances of Kwolek, and DuPont Public Relations video related to the invention of Kevlar.
The Audio series contains one audio cassette tape of the "DuPont Kentucky Derby."
Existence and Location of Copies
View selected items online in the Hagley Digital Archives.
Access Restrictions
No restrictions on access; this collection is open for research.
There are no viewing or listening stations for analog audio, video, or film in the reading room. To access this material, please place a digitization request for the item(s).
Negatives/Slides are located in remote storage (Box 10). Please contact staff 48 hours in advance of research visit at askhagley@hagley.org
Language of Materials
English
Subjects
Related Names
Subject
Finding Aid & Administrative Information
- Title:
- Stephanie Kwolek photographs and videotapes
- Author:
- Laurie Rizzo
- Date:
- 2014
- Description rules:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description:
- English
- Script of description:
- Latin
Repository Details
Repository Details
Part of the Audiovisual Collections Repository
