In 1919, Comptoir des Textiles Artificiels (a French company) proposed that E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company join them in an American artificial silk venture. The DuPont Company sent Leonard A. Yerkes (1880-1967) to investigate the French plant before DuPont signed the agreement. DuPont proceeded with the project and began transferring rayon technology to the United States based on his recommendation. The DuPont Fibersilk Company was formed in 1920, with Yerkes as its president. The first plant was built in Buffalo, New York, and rayon production began in the spring of 1921. The DuPont Fibersilk Company was renamed the DuPont Rayon Company on March 18, 1925.

DuPont and Comptoir des Textiles Artificiels formed a second joint venture, the DuPont Cellophane Company, on June 23, 1923. Yerkes was named the president of that company as well. The first DuPont Cellophane Company plant was built on the same property as the DuPont Fibersilk Company in 1924 in Buffalo, New York. It was the first American plant to produce cellophane. Commercial production of Staple Fiber began in 1927 and was the first viscose staple sold commercially in the United States.

DuPont bought the French interests in both companies in March 1928, after which the companies were operated jointly with the Acetate Process Department, a Viscose Process Department, and a Cellophane Department. A Special Problems Group, established in 1925, became the Technical Department. The DuPont Rayon Company and the DuPont Cellophane Company were dissolved by merger into the E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company in 1936, and their properties were reorganized as the Rayon Department. It consisted of the Rayon Division, the Acetate Process Division, the Cellophane Division, the Control Division, and the Technical Division, which operated the Pioneering Research Laboratory at Buffalo, New York. In 1950, the Cellophane Division spun off into a separate Film Department. The Rayon Department was renamed the Textile Fibers Department in 1952. The Pioneering Research Laboratory moved from Buffalo to the Wilmington, Delaware Experimental Station, where it became more closely affiliated with the Chemical Department.

The Buffalo plant became known as the Yerkes Plant in September 1945, after Leonard A. Yerkes retired as General Manager of the Rayon Department. Rayon production at the Yerkes Plant ceased in May 1955, although the operation of Film Department activities was unaffected by the move.