E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834). The du Pont’s purchased a mill site on the banks of the Brandywine River just North of Wilmington, Delaware. During wartime the company was a major supplier for the United States government. During peacetime, the company marketed their product towards sportsmen and hunters.

The War Department of the United States Government contracted with the DuPont Company to build and run a smokeless powder plant called the Old Hickory plant on the Cumberland River near Nashville, Tennessee during World War I. Construction was begun in March of 1918 and the first powder was produced by September of that year. Over 30,000 people were employed in the plant. It was the largest smokeless powder plant ever built in the United States. After the war, most of the plant was dismantled and the equipment sold off, although some was converted to other use. In 1924 Du Pont Fibersilk purchased the entire village and much of the land to build a plant to make artificial silk, also known as rayon.

John A. Dick (1879-1972), the first full-time photographer hired by the DuPont Company, documented the growth of the plant during World War I in these photographs.