The black powder manufacturing company, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, was organized as a family partnership in 1801. The original mills were located on the banks of the Brandywine River, just north of Wilmington, Delaware. By the second decade of the nineteenth century, the DuPont Company had become one of America's largest gunpowder and blasting powder producers. During the War of 1812 and again during the Civil War, it was a major supplier of gunpowder for the United States Army.

In 1902 the DuPont Company passed into the hands of three younger du Pont cousins, Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954), Alfred I. du Pont (1864-1935), and T. Coleman du Pont (1863-1930). The three cousins sought to bring modern financial and managerial methods to the company. Within three years, more than seventy-five percent of the U.S. explosives industry was consolidated under their control. Under the leadership of P.S. du Pont, president from 1905 to 1919, the company was transformed into a diversified, centrally administered corporation with its own operating, sales, and auxiliary departments. In 1915 the DuPont Company and family acquired a twenty-five percent interest in the General Motors Corporation. During the 1920s and 1930s, under the leadership of Irénée du Pont (1876-1963), president from 1919 to 1926, and Lammot du Pont (1880-1952), president from 1926 to 1940, the company became the world's leading chemical manufacturer producing smokeless powder, dynamite, dyes, cellophane, textile fibers, and artificial rubber.