Finding Aids

Cazenove Gardner Lee, Jr. (1882-1945) was a genealogist and prolific writer, who founded the Society of Lees of Virginia. This collection conists of photographs and negatives relating to family and career of Cazenove Gardner Lee, Jr. The images are primarily of various gunpowder mills and machinery.

Windsor Farms is one of Richmond's first planned neighborhood, primarily of Colonial Revival design. Architects included Duncan Lee, William Lawrence Bottomley, and C.W. Huff Jr. This collection includes plans, elevations, details, and typed specifications for a house built for Eugene E. du Pont (1914-1995) by architect C.W. Huff Jr.

The Delaware Construction Company was a building company, constructing residential houses in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. It was founded in 1909 as a subsidiary of the National Real Estate Trust Company, which provided loans and financing for the properties. This small collection consists of five blueprints of houses by E. Olney Sherman, dated 1910 for Delaware Construction Co.

Horace Holden Thayer, Jr. (1878-1959) was a naval architect, mechinical engineer, and businessman. Between 1909 and 1914 Thayer worked for the Delaware Construction Company which was a building company, constructing residential homes in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. This collection contains photographs of fifteen homes taken between 1910 and 1914. The images are of exterior views only.

The du Pont family is a prominent Delawarean family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817), who founded E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company with his son, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834), in 1802. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical research and manufacturing company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. This collection consists of placemats with images of exterior views of eight du Pont family homes.

E. Paul du Pont (1887-1950), the son of Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1905) and Elise Simons du Pont (1849-1919), is best known as the manufacturer of the Du Pont automobile. He owned the house Squirrel Run Hill, the former Second Office of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, and the surrounding grounds. This small collection includes papers relating to additions and alterations to Squirrel Run Hill and papers relating to the estates of his parents.

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. These panoramic photographs show overall views of DuPont Company's Old Hickory smokeless powder plant, also views of exterior and interior details.

The DuPont Company purchased a site near City Point, Virginia on the James River in 1912 in order to build a dynamite plant located closer to the southern market. The panoramic photographs show exteriors of the plant, views of the workers' housing, the town (including the African American section), and a photograph of the Hopewell China Corporation, a post-war reuse of one of the facilities.

Eleutherian Mills is the house built by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834), above his gunpowder mills, the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. It served as a home to the du Pont family for generations, the last being Louise du Pont Crowninshield (1877-1958). The collection contains material related to the restoration of the home prior to Crowninshield occupying it. Also included are materials related to a road to the Eleutherian Mills and Nemours residences, repairs to the iron bridge across the Brandywine, and description of E.I. du Pont's garden.

Upper Louviers was a residence located on the east bank of the Brandywine Creek in Brandywine Hundred, Delaware, opposite the powder mills of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Elise du Pont Elrick (1902-1984), who lived at Upper Louviers as a child, was an architect and translator. This collection consists of architectural drawings of the residence made by Elise du Pont Elrick in 1936.

Frank R. Zebley (1883-1960) was a Delaware native collector, photographer, author, and one-time speaker of the Delaware House of Representatives. He published Along the Brandywine and The Churches of Delaware. The Frank R. Zebley photograph albums includes nearly 1500 black and white photographs from the city of Wilmington, locations around Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania, and other places of interest in the mid-Atlantic region.

Rare documentation of wooden 2-story house in Greenville, Delaware (New Castle County).

Elsmere is a town in New Castle County in Delaware. This collection consists of six photographs of miscellaneous houses in Elsmere, which were loaned to the Hagley Museum and Library for copy.

John A. Bader II (1895-1961) was a Wilmington, Delaware, building contractor active during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. The records are primarily Bader's business papers. The collection includes engineer's field books, diaries of trips, and job notes. Eight volumes contain profit and loss statements, cost accounting for jobs, records of checks paid, and files on individual construction jobs.

This collection contains photographs of the LeCarpentier, Green and Baker families who were farmers and merchants in the Delaware valley area. The majority of the collection consists of formal portraits of family members, a small number of which are identified, as well as views of various locations around Wilmington, Delaware.

Longwood Gardens is a series of formal display gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania that was developed by Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954) after he purchased the site from the Peirce family in 1906. The collection includes two 1925 blueprints for two of the three bungalows that were built at Longwood.

Maurice du Pont Lee (1885-1974) was the General Advisor to the Chief Engineer of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. The collection includes photographs of Maurice du Pont Lee's family members. The collection also includes a group of public relations photographs of Maurice du Pont Lee, dating from 1950 to 1969.

The collection comprises approximately 200 oral history interviews with 152 individuals conducted by museum staff between 1954 and 1990. The majority of the individuals interviewed had either worked at the DuPont Company powder yards on Brandywine Creek during the yards’ final decades of operation or had lived in the surrounding communities, although the collection also includes interviews with those who worked in other local industries. The interviews are largely biographical in nature covering a period from about 1900 to 1960 and address a wide range of subjects relating to daily life and work in the Brandywine Valley.

Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) was a French political economist, writer, publisher, and public administrator. He was an advocate for a national educational system and promoted Franco-American trade relations. This small collection consists of copies of letters and documents concerning du Pont de Nemours' apartments in Paris, France. There is also one copy of a letter from Emmanuel Crétet (1747-1809), Ministre de l'Intérieur.

"Rencourt" was the Wilmington, Delaware, home of Alexis Irénée du Pont (1843-1904) and his family. Pennsylvania architect Theophilus P. Chandler, Jr. (1845-1928) designed the house; it was built in 1890 and demolished in the 1950s. This collection includes plans of the main and second floors (ink on linen), plans and elevation of the stables (white-line blueprints), and plans of the gate (white-line blueprint).

T. Coleman (Thomas Coleman) du Pont (1863-1930) was President of the DuPont Company from 1902 to 1915, and a U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1921 to 1928. He married Alice du Pont (1863-1937) in 1891. The "Old Mill" was constructed in 1909 to 1910 as a weekend home for T. Coleman du Pont in an area near Greenville, Delaware. These photographs document the Old Mill, retreat of T. Coleman du Pont, and the surrounding gardens planted by his wife, Alice.

The Johns Manville Corporation is an American insulation manufacturer. This film is a rare post-war era industrial film from Johns-Manville, Luther Reed productions about the importance of insulating your home.

The collection primarily consists of images featuring the Marshall family and their relatives and friends, both in formal group portraits and more casual poses.

Wawaset Park was a planned residential community built by the DuPont Company around 1918 for its executives in Wilmington, Delaware. These panoramic photographs depict construction of homes and overall views of area, street scenes, and pictures of individual houses.

Wawaset Park was a planned community, commissioned by the DuPont Company for its company executives. The records describe the park, its residents, and history through corporate records, maps and deeds of the property, lists of corporate officers and residents, as well as histories of the park, the City of Wilmington, and the state of Delaware.

The Whitaker family of Philadelphia founded and operated William Whitaker & Sons, Inc., one of the oldest Philadelphia textile mills. The collection consists of photographs related to the family of William Whitaker. A number of the photographs feature buildings and bridges in and around Cedar Grove, Pennsylvania, now a part of Philadelphia. William Whitaker's mansion is featured in several of these images, with family gathered on the porch.

Andrew Gray Wilson (1844-1905) was well-known among shipbuilders as a preeminent marine engineer and naval architect. This small collection consists primarily of individual and group portraits and snapshots of the Wilson family and the family of one of the daughters, Natalie Wilson du Pont. The collection is organized into three series; family photographs; home interiors and exteriors; and family cars and dogs photographs.