Finding Aids

The Austin Powder Company is a Cleveland-based manufacturer of industrial explosives and provider of blasting services around North America. The company began in 1833 at a site south of Cleveland, Ohio along the Cuyahoga River. The album contains photographic prints of the Austin Powder Company's plant near Solon, Ohio, circa 1900.

Hagley Museum staff conducted a series oral history interviews between 1954 and 1990, speaking primarily with individuals who had worked at the DuPont Company powder yards on Brandywine Creek during the yards’ final decades of operation or who had lived near the yards as spouses or children of DuPont Co. workers. Some of the individuals who were interviewed donated, lent for copying, or provided information on the photographs in this collection. The images primarily depict the worker communities which surrounded the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company powder yards on Brandywine Creek or the powder yards themselves.

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.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The DuPont Company's Carney's Point plant began manufacturing guncotton and smokeless powder in 1892. Francis “Frank” Pierre Gentieu (1876-1950) was a ballistic Engineer at Carney's Point from 1901 to 1941. On October 10 1925, a military, civic and industry party parade concluded a three-day celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of Salem, New Jersey. This collection features two photographs of the DuPont Smokeless Powder Works float entered in the 250th Anniversary parade in Salem, New Jersey.

The Advertising Department representatives in each of the industrial departments worked with the central staff in creating ad campaigns. The collection consists of miscellaneous DuPont Company advertising materials, including postcards, pictorial envelopes, lantern slides, advertisements, display cards, and illustrated pamphlets.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834). This collection of more than 1250 discrete photographs depicts the landscape and buildings at or near the company's explosives manufacturing plants along Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware. Approximately 900 images depict powder yard sites, including the DuPont Experimental Station, either during the mills' final decades of operation or prior to, during, and after excavation and restoration work on the site in the 1950s and 1960s. Most of the remaining images depict the worker communities which surrounded the powder yards.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont the company began with the production of gunpowder. This item consists of two printed pieces: a Happy New Year 1993 greeting from Coley (P. Coleman) and Jake (James Coleman) du Pont and a reproduction of an Eagle gun powder label circa 1804.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834). The company began with the production of gunpowder. E.I. du Pont de Nemours' Explosives Manufacturing Department was created in May 1917 by the merger of the Black Powder Operating Department and the High Explosives Operating Department. This collection consists primarily of prints published by the DuPont Company's Sporting Powder Division and Explosives Department between 1917 and 1951.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) the company began with the production of gunpowder. This item is an 1851 advertisement for DuPont gunpowders, including Eagle gunpowder, gunpowder for ordnance, and gunpowder for blasting and shipping.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and his son Éleuthère Irénée du Pont the company began with the production of gunpowder. This item is an 1851 advertisement for DuPont gunpowders, including Eagle gunpowder, gunpowder for ordnance, and gunpowder for blasting and shipping.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) the company began with the production of gunpowder. This small collection consists of eight letter-size gunpowder advertising envelopes, including Peters cartridges, DuPont smokeless powder, Laflin & Rand, and Hazard Powder Company.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) the company began with the production of gunpowder. This item is a 1901 advertising calendar with an illustration showing a hunter crossing a hillside with two dogs.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. This collection consists of six safety calendars issued by the DuPont Company. The illustrators who created these calendars--Stanley Massey Arthurs (1877-1950), Clyde Osmer DeLand (1872-1947), Gayle Porter Hoskins (1887-1962), and Frank Earle Schoonover (1877-1972)--were all artists who studied under Howard Pyle (1853-1911) at the turn of the twentieth century.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company, which began as a manufacturer of gunpowder in 1802. The collection consists of photographs and prints that document the early history of the DuPont Company’s involvement in the gunpowder and explosives industries from the 1860s through the 1920s. The bulk of the collection are photographs of employees, executives, and plant views, including aftermaths of explosions and construction. This collection also includes a variety of advertisements for the DuPont Company as well as other non-DuPont related trades. A large portion of this collection are oversize materials (panoramic photographs and advertising posters).

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 for the production of black powder. This collection includes publicity photographs from the DuPont Company, many relating to nylon and its uses in World War II. Other subjects include company executives, employees, and stock holders; various factories and facilities; general World War II production awards; high explosives workers; and hunting.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company was established as a black powder manufactory in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834). This item is a single adverstiment for DuPont's Rifle Powder.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834). In 1903 the DuPont Company's Executive Committee established the Experimental Station, a research facility located on the banks of the Brandywine Creek across from DuPont's first black powder works. This collection contains photographs of general views of the Experimental Station showing its growth over time.

The Wilmington Shops were preceded by the first DuPont Company machine shop facilities on the Brandywine River. This is a collection of photographs from the DuPont's Company Wilmington Shops, a large machine shop that produced specialized equipment which was used in DuPont Company plants. A few of the images show the interior of the shops, but the majority picture individual machines

E.I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company was incorporated on May 19, 1903. It was organized as an operating company to consolidate approximately 100 explosives manufacturers controlled by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. This collection is a series of six advertising cards for E. I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company's smokeless powders for shotguns (DuPont smokeless; Hazard smokeless; New E.C. Improved; New Schultze; Infallible smokeless) and black sporting powders (DuPont Rifle; Hazard Kentucky Rifle; L. & R. Orange Extra Sporting).

E. Paul du Pont (1887-1950) established Du Pont Motors, Inc., a manufacturing company of luxury automobiles, in 1919 in Wilmington, Delaware. He worked for a short time at the family business, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company which manufactured gunpowder. He was one of ten children of Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) and Eliza Wigfa Simons du Pont (1849-1919). This small collection contains photographs of DuPont powder yards; family photographs; home exteriors; and postcard views of Longwood Gardens.

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.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. This item is an advertising card for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. Gunpowder manufactured on the Brandywine in Wilmington, Delaware and sold through dealers in Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.

In 1902, DuPont took control of Laflin & Rand, including the Haskell Works. Infallible and Ballistite powders were manufactured there. The works played an important role in smokeless powder production during World War I. The panoramic photographs depict views of the Du Pont Company's smokeless powder works in Haskell, New Jersey and the workers village nearby.

In 1904 the DuPont Company purchased the International Smokeless Powder and Chemical Company, which was then producing smokeless powder and nitrocellulose products in their plant in Parlin, New Jersey. This collection consists of seven panormaic photographs that show views of the Parlin, New Jersey plant, including views of production facilities and worker housing.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) the company began with the production of gunpowder. This image is an exterior partially obscured view of a glaze mill near the Brandywine River used in the manufacture of DuPont Company black powder and explosives.

The DuPont Company purchased the land for a smokeless powder plant at Carney's Point, New Jersey (across the Delaware River from Wilmington, Delaware) in 1890. In 1892 it produced its first guncotton, and then the first smokeless powder. This collection consists of twenty panoramic photographs of Carney's Point smokeless powder plant, including exteriors of various buildings and groups of workers.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont the company began with the production of gunpowder. The postcard consists of a view of the DuPont Powder Yards in Wilmington, Delaware.

The Belin plant in Moosic, Pennsylvania was built by the DuPont Company in 1908 for the production of black powder, which it was doing by 1912. This collection consists of photographs of the aftermath of an explosion that occurred there on August 1, 1930.

Henry A. Weldy and members of the Shindel family purchased the small Huhn Powder mill outside Tamaqua, Pennsylvania on the banks of the Little Schuylkill River. They operated it as the H. A. Weldy Powder Company. Illustrations on the lithograph depict Tunnel Mills and Edgeworth Mills, which comprised the H. A. Weldy Powder Company.

This small collection of John W. Macklem (1867-1948) contains photographs of structures in the Hagley Yards after they closed in 1921, DuPont Company office staff in Equitable Building, Wilmington, Delaware, and gunpowder labels for A.F. & Co. FF gunpowder and DuPont superfine HFg gun powder.

The Hazard Powder Company was one of the largest gunpowder and explosives manufacturers in the United States in the late-nineteenth century. This group consists of six mounted photographs showing unidentified buildings and the dam at the Hazard Powder Company in Connecticut. An unrelated print shows a covered bridge photographed in winter that crossed the Brandywine River at 16th Street in Wilmington, Delaware.

The Hazard Powder Company was one of the largest gunpowder and explosives manufacturers in the United States in the late-nineteenth century. This small collection consists of fourteen photographs of views of Hazard Powder Company buildings. None of the images are dated, however, they appear to date from circa 1890s to the 1900s.

The Hercules Powder Company was one of the companies created from the break up of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours "powder trust" in 1911 as ruled by a U.S. Supreme Court decision. In its early years as a separate company, it continued to produce explosives and dynamite and used advertising styles and devices. This item is a poster depicting a World War I soldier leaving home and telling his hunting dog, "Not this trip Old Pal."

The Hercules Powder Co. was one of companies created from the break up of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours "powder trust" in 1911 as ruled by a U.S. Supreme Court decision. The Laflin and Rand Powder Company, one of the largest gunpowder manufacturers in the nineteenth century, was formed from several predecessor companies, including the Laflin Powder Company and the Smith & Rand Powder Company. This collection consists of a Hercules Powder Company calendar from 1919 and an undated illustration from a company calendar. There are also reproductions of a group of three different display card advertisements for Laflin & Rand Powder Company, probably for point-of-sale or counter display.

James R. Thomen (1926-) was manager of the Experimental Station from 1975 to 1985 when he retired. The DuPont Company's Experimental initially, was to be a small laboratory to screen inventions which were coming into the company from outside independent inventors specifically for research on black powder, smokeless powder, and dynamite, but soon its mission was altered and it became a large industrial research facility focused on innovative advancements in chemistry. This collection consists primarily of photographs of buildings at the Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware taken between 1910 and 1950.

John W. Macklem (1867-1948) began working for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company as an errand boy at a young age and remained with the company his entire career. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. This collection comprises photographs of buildings and scenes in DuPont Company explosives manufacturing plants along the Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware, including the Eleutherian Mills (or Upper) yard, the Upper Hagley yard, and the Lower Hagley yard.

The Laflin and Rand Powder Company, one of the largest gunpowder manufacturers in the nineteenth century, was formed from several predecessor companies, including the Laflin Powder Company and the Smith & Rand Powder Company. This item is the 1899 calendar with an illustration of a sailor from the U.S.S. Oregon.

The Laflin and Rand Powder Company, one of the largest gunpowder manufacturers in the nineteenth century, was formed from several predecessor companies. The company was acquired by DuPont in October of 1902, and it was operated as a subsidiary. This is a group of four display card advertisements for Laflin & Rand Powder, probably for point-of-sale or counter display.

The Laflin & Rand Powder Company was one of the largest gunpowder manufacturers during the nineteenth century. Frederick W. Beers (1839-1933) was a New York map publisher. This item is a lithograph depicting the powder mills and surrounding landscape, and it is pages 16 and 17 of "County Atlas of Ulster, New York: From Recent and Actual Surveys and Records," by author F.W. Beers.

Dr. Margaret (Meg) M. Mulrooney is Associate Professor of History and Associate Vice-Provost of University Studies at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The collection consists of research data supporting Mulrooney's doctoral dissertation "Labor at Home: The Domestic World of Workers at the du Pont Powder Mills, 1802-1902."

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.

The DuPont Company began with the manufacture of gunpowder, and particularly from about 1890 to 1930, commissioned many illustrations in oil and watercolor for advertising purposes. This collection consists of a set of eighteen color prints entitled "Our American Game Birds" from paintings by Lynn Bogue Hunt, published by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. - Sporting Powder Division. Each print has a written description on its reverse, by Edward Howe Forbush. As the set's title suggests, various game birds are the subjects of each print.

Pierre A. Gentieu (1842-1930) was a long-time employee of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Gentieu was born in France in 1842. He emigrated to the United States around 1859. He began working for DuPont in 1877. This collection is comprised of images taken by DuPont Company employee Pierre Gentieu from approximately 1880 to 1920. Gentieu's images document the DuPont Company Powder Yards along the banks of the Brandywine River in Wilmington Delaware. The collection documents the surrounding community along the Brandywine including worker's families, du Pont family homes, churches in the area, DuPont Company exposition displays, and other facets of social and work life in the area.

Pierre A. Gentieu was a long-term employee of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company who created an invaluable photographic record of the company's Brandywine Mills at the turn of the century. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont the company began with the production of gunpowder. This small collection includes original drymounted photographic prints of views near Henry Clay Village in Delaware by Pierre Gentieu. Several have simple hand drawn decorative borders on them and are signed. There are also several items related to DuPont Gunpowder and rifles.

The pulp keg mill was built around 1904 to manufacture an experimental design of black and smokeless powder container made essentially from paper. This album contains photographic prints of the construction of the pulp keg mill in the Hagley Yard of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. near Wilmington, Delaware around 1902 through 1905.

Postcards, issued by the Advertising Division of the Sales Department of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, depict images of hunting dogs, specifically the National Field Trial Championship winners from 1896-1910, produced by the artist Edmund Osthaus.

Walter Magee Annettee (1874-1955) was a DuPont Company dynamite salesman, who was based in Birmingham, Alabama. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont the company began with the production of gunpowder. These are illustrated envelopes advertising DuPont Company smokeless powder and blasting powder; Giant powder (a product of Atlantic Dynamite Co.); Atlas powder (a product of Repauno Chemical Co.); and Hercules powder (a product of Hercules Powder Co.).

William du Pont, Sr. (1855-1928) was an industrialist and member of the prominent du Pont family of Delaware, whose family business was the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, also known as the DuPont Company which was a large manufacturer of gunpowder. He worked for the first DuPont dynamite manufacturer, Repauno Chemical Company, as secretary and treasurer (1880-1884) and after the tragic death of Lammot du Pont (1831-1884), as president (1884-1892). William du Pont, Jr. was the youngest child of du Pont, Sr. and Annie Rogers Zinn du Pont (1858-1827). Du Pont Jr. became the president of Delaware Trust Company in 1929, the youngest bank president in Wilmington at that time. In 1952, he became chairman of the board, retaining both positions until his death in 1965. This collections consists of photographic material mostly relating to the U.S.F. Powder Company, together with the Ball Grain Explosives Company which was in a way U.S.F. Powder Company predecessor. It also includes William du Pont's family photographs and negatives.

William L. Hogg (dates unknown) was an employee of Haskell Works where gunpowder was manufactured. This collection consists of a circular photographic identification badge featuring a black and white portrait photograph as well as a Germansilver match safe with a DuPont Haskell label on the front and William L. Hogg's name written above.