This series includes the files of Hamilton Barksdale and Jasper Elliot Crane.

The papers of Hamilton Barksdale document his business career at DuPont and its affiliated firms. Repauno Chemical and Eastern Dynamite Company Records (1892-1902) document company efforts to develop dynamite and other nitrogen-based high explosives. Included are sales figures, construction accounts, export information, and research and development notes. Files relating to the Great Northern Manufacturing & Supply Company of Terre Haute, Indiana (1899-1902), a major supplier of coal to the Eastern Dynamite Company, contain a good deal of information on the coal industry in Indiana (lists of operators and production figures). There are also records documenting the United Mine Workers' efforts to organize the coal miners in the state. Included are reports on wages, mining conditions, the miners' strike in 1901, and labor-management negotiations. DuPont Company files document Barksdale's career as general manager. There is information on the organization of the company's operating departments (1911-1917), experiments with scientific management, bonus systems, and pension plans.

The Jasper Elliot Crane papers document Crane's work on the executive committee of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. Included are records documenting negotiations over cooperative research projects and market sharing with Imperial Chemical Industries (1929-1946) and with I.G. Farbenindustrie (1929-1941). The papers also describe the Nye Committee's Munitions investigation (1934-1940). Crane was involved in the construction of war production plants during the Second World War, and this is also documented in the records. Also included are reports from the Development Department (1931-1932) and records describing the administration of the "A" bonus system (1932-1945).