This collection covers the period 1799 to 1834 and includes some of the earliest and most valued records of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. It embraces the full span of the American career of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834), founder of the powder company. The most significant single item among these papers is the original act of association by which the company was founded, signed at Paris in 1801. Other important early DuPont Company documents are an 1808 copy of the articles of agreement made in connection with the Talleyrand loan, as well as documents supplied in an 1817 Chancery suit against the company by Peter Bauduy. Also included are early personnel ledgers (1811-1815).

Deposited at Longwood in 1953 by Henry Belin du Pont (1898-1970), while his uncle Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954) was still alive, the collection became a gift in 1959. It is known as the Eleuthera Bradford du Pont collection, in memory of his mother, from whom he inherited it.

The papers reflect important financial and legal aspects of E.I. du Pont's career, especially as head of the powder company. The scope of the collection may be summarized under the following headings: on may be summarized under the following headings: (1) administrative problems, as reflected in correspondence of E.I. du Pont with his managers, Charles François Parent, Raphael Du Planty, and James Antoine Bidermann, and with his brother, Victor du Pont; (2) shareholders of the parent company, Du Pont de Nemours, Père et Fils & Cie, who, in turn, held shares in the powder company; (3) partners in the firm of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., especially Peter Bauduy; (4) agents for the sale of Du Pont powder; (5) the operations of competitors in the manufacture of powder; (6) relations with the War and Navy Departments regarding contracts; (7) explosions and the financial losses entailed by them; (8) sources of capital and raw materials, especially the Talleyrand loan of 1807; (9) personal correspondence of E.I. du Pont with important figures, some of whom were in official positions; and (10) papers referring to the cotton factory of Du Planty, McCall & Co., and to the woolen factory of Du Pont, Bauduy & Co.

The collection stands in the order in which it was received. There has been no alteration in the arrangement. It is reported under files number 1 to 150, within which there are now seventy missing files. A few of the missing ones are now identified among the Longwood Manuscripts, but at what date, or under what circumstances, they were shifted to their present location remains unknown. The following files are missing and unreported in this finding aid: 2-4, 10, 11, 22, 26-28, 33, 35, 36, 38, 40, 42, 49, 50, 60, 61, 68, 70-73, 75, 78-80, 82, 83, 85-90, 92-94, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107-113, 115, 116, 118, 119, 121, 124, 127-131, 133, 135-138, 140-142, and 144.

Those which may be identified, though in some instances are only tentatively, within the Longwood Manuscripts are: file 2 (papers relating to the suit of Madame Bureaux de Pusy), file 10 (papers relating to the equipping and payment of volunteers in 1815), file 69 (papers concerning the suit of Peter Bauduy), file 93 (papers of Du Pont, Bauduy & Co.), file 118 (accounts, 1810), and file 121 (papers concerning the suit against Charles Munns).

This collection should be used in conjuction with certain pertinent portions of company records found in the Longwood Manuscripts and the Henry Francis du Pont collection of Winterthur Manuscripts, and with the Records of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.