Finding Aids

Apollo 15 was the fourth manned lunar landing mission. The three-man crew was made up of David R. Scott (1932-), Alfred J. Worden (1932-), and James B. Irwin (1930-1991). The E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. DuPont materials were used in whole or in part for twenty of the twenty-one layers of the Apollo spacesuits. This is a NASA photograph of James Irwin on moon, August 1, 1971. Attached are strips naming the twenty-one different layers of his space suit.

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 is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 and began with the production of gunpowder. Throughout the 1900s and 1910s, the company shifted its focus away from gunpowder production and towards chemistry innovations. This collection contains twenty photographs of DuPont Company exhibits and exhibit areas in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the Chalfonte-Haddon Hall, as well as exterior views in the vicinity of the Hall and views of the boardwalk at North Carolina Avenue. Chalfonte-Haddon Hall was a hotel and convention center that had its start as two Quaker boarding houses built in the 1860s.

The Pioneering Research Laboratory was the research and development facility for the DuPont Company's Textile Fibers Division. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company, established in 1802. The collection consists of technical photographs related to fibers research.

In 1952, the DuPont Company created the Product Information section within the Public Relations department. Its function was to produce news releases with photographs about DuPont and its products for indirect publicity and advertising purposes. This collection contains photographs of DuPont Company corporate events and proceedings, product trade shows and fairs, development and manufacturing processes, and the employees and facilities where the products were created. Most of the photographs were taken from the 1930s through the 1950s.

The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company, established in 1936 as the Rayon Department, specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Rayon, Nylon, Teflon, Corian, and Kevlar. This collection primarily contains video tapes (VHS and U-Matic). Most of the content on the VHS videotapes are different than that on the U-Matic videotapes, there are a few duplicate videos that are in both formats. The videotapes content are employee training videos related to management, customer service and safety, as well as, informational videos about product and services, company history and events. Additionally the collection contains photographs, slides, advertising and promotional materials.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly known as the DuPont Company. DuPont's Advertising Department was formed in September 1921, when the company was reorganized with a decentralized structure. The Advertising Department was responsible for assisting the company in promoting and advertising the work of the other departments, including the Textile Fibers Department. The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company was established in 1936 as the Rayon Department, which specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics. This photograph album highlights the facilities and processes of the DuPont Company's synthetic textile fibers manufacturing and research. The album was likely created by the Advertising Department between 1945 and 1968. Each photograph is accompanied by text describing the image. The album is divided into seven sections: Nylon, Orlon, Dacron, Acetate, Lycra, Chestnut Run, and All Fibers.

In 1952, the DuPont Company organized a Product Information section within the Public Relations Department. Its main purpose was to create news releases accompanied by photographs that would be run editorially by trade journals and newspapers to create inexpensive publicity and indirect advertising. This collection consists of the Fabric master files and Textile reference files maintained by the Product Information Department. The majority of the photographs in the Fashion master files are posed fashion images featuring women modeling clothing made from DuPont synthetic fibers. There are images that feature children’s and men’s clothing as well. The fashion categories have been used as subseries and are as follows: Children and teens; Dress wear; Exports; Home furnishing; Home sewing/fashion fabrics; Hosiery; Intimate apparel; Italian couture; Knit wear; Men’s wear; New York couture; Paris couture; Sportswear/activewear; Swimwear; Touring kits; and Uniforms. Textile reference files contain press releases organized by fiber and then chronologically. The subseries are: Acetate, Dacron, Lycra, Multi-Fibers, Nylon, Orlon, Rayon, Reemay and Zepel.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company, established in 1802. DuPont's Chestnut Run Laboratories was opened in 1954 near Wilmington, Delaware. This collection consists of two albums documenting the history of the Chestnut Run facility between 1954 and 1961. One album contains primarily photographs taken of the facilities exteriors between 1955 and 1958. The second album contains mostly newspaper clippings between 1954 and 1961.

Corfam® was a synthetic substitute for leather. Collection consists of photographs related to the development and manufacture of DuPont's Corfam® synthetic leather at the Newburgh, New York Corfam® pilot plant and research facility.

The DuPont Company is a chemical company which commercially produces synthetic fibers such as Kevlar. This collection consists of three pieces of artwork which were created for the DuPont Company Textile Fibers Department and hung in a shared work area. The artwork are photostats and are signed “ELF”. The three pictures show various small, cheerful animals making synthetic fiber by three different methods that are actually used (in slightly more sophisticated form) industrially.

Floyd Hamilton Fish Jr. (1923-2009) was a mechanical engineer and inventor at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company between 1954 and 1986. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. Fish helped invent pneumacel, an inflated polyester foam. These records are a small group of documents relating to Fish's role in the pneumacel project and his attempt to revive it after his retirement, as well as the hiring process for engineers at DuPont and the activities of the Kennett Pike Association.

Kevlar is a synthetic fiber developed by chemists Stephanie Kwolek (1923-2014), Paul Morgan (1911-1992), and Herbert Blades in 1965 while working at the DuPont Company. The oral histories presented here document the research and development processes that transformed Kevlar from a novel polymer in the laboratory to a life-changing product in the marketplace.

Joseph Bancroft, an Englishman trained in textile weaving in Lancashire, established his own cotton mill on the Brandywine near Wilmington, Delaware in 1831. This operation became the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company in 1889, and in 1929 it absorbed the Eddystone Manufacturing Co. These images include plant exteriors and interiors, officials and employees, aerials, workers' housing, machinery, floods, and dams and races on Brandywine Creek as well as many Ban-Lon and Miss America fashion photographs. This collection includes approximately 1060 images covering a period from the late 19th century to the 1960s.

The Textile Fibers Department of the DuPont Company was established in 1936 as the Rayon Department, which specialized in researching and developing synthetic fibers for fabrics such as Nylon, Orlon, Dacron, and Lycra. The collection consists of oral history interviews conducted by Joseph Plasky, with former employees of DuPont's Textile Fibers department.