Finding Aids

Charles H. Rutledge (1901-1978) was the manager of the Product Information section for the Textile Fibers Department at the DuPont Company from 1944 to 1966. He authored numerous papers and was a contributor to textbooks and encyclopedias on textile fibers. This collection consists of two sets of files, those Rutledge maintained while at DuPont and those he compiled for a book he had planned to write following his retirement about the history of fibers.

Donald Robert Hull (1911-1995) was a longtime employee at the DuPont Company mainly working with nylon and textile fibers. The collection pertains to his work at DuPont and Hull's consulting firm, Fiber Concepts, Inc.

The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company was established in 1936 (known then as the Rayon Department) which specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Rayon, Nylon, Teflon, Corian, and Kevlar. Lavoisier Library is the library at the DuPont Company's Experimental Station, a large industrial research facility focused on innovative advancements in chemistry located in Wilmington, Delaware. The records in this collection consists of files assembled to document various aspects of the company's history, its policies and products, and the writings and speeches of executives and researchers.

The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company was established in 1936 (known then as the Rayon Department), which specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Rayon, Nylon, Teflon, Corian, and Kevlar. The collection consists of research files and other records from the primary divisions of the Textile Fibers Department, including the Pioneering Research Division, Rayon Research Division, Technical Service Section, and the research facilities at the Spruance Plant in Richmond, Virginia, and at the Yerkes Plant in Buffalo, New York. These files document the development of some of DuPont's best known and most commercially successful synthetic fibers: nylon, Dacron, and Orlon. Additionally, there are market research reports assessing product performance and consumer surveys evaluating customer attitudes toward products.

The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company was established in 1936 (known then as the Rayon Department) which specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Rayon, Nylon, Teflon, Corian, and Kevlar. This collection consists of materials once housed in the library of the Experimental Station and culled after the sale of the textile fibers business. The collection has been arranged into six series: Vertical file; Translation logs; Miscellany; Project indexes; Publications; Speeches.

Joseph W. Lynch was a textile chemist at the DuPont Company from 1954 to 1994. Lynch's papers document his forty-year career at DuPont. Some company records in Lynch's possession antedate his employment, while others describe his job searches from 1952 to 1954. The bulk of the records deal with customer relations, including identifying and resolving problems concerning DuPont's textile fiber products and providing technical assistance to customers.

J. Edward Norton (1925-2009) worked for the DuPont Company in the Textile Fibers Department as a technical marketing specialist. The notebook he maintained includes company technical memoranda and bulletins covering the processing of Nylon, Orlon, and Dacron, the production of wool-polyester blends, and the carding, spinning, knitting, and finishing of artificial fibers.

Dr. Robert C. Forney was a chemical engineer and served as a senior vice president for the DuPont Company. His papers largely document his career with the DuPont Company, his private and public life, artifacts, reports, and include various awards from his career in chemical engineering. Forney's work on redesigning the shuttle rocket booster following the space shuttle Challenger incident is included among his papers.