Finding Aids

Alexander Duer Irving Jr. (1873-1941) was assigned as a junior naval aide to President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) on his trip to the Paris Peace Conference, primarily because of his knowledge of French. He served with the rank of lieutenant under Wilson's personal physician, Admiral Cary T. Grayson (1878-1938). The papers record details of protocol at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Irving gives much social detail of formal affairs attended and the intricacies of protocol. He reports background information on French labor unrest, the high cost of living, and the fear of Bolshevist infiltration.

The Artillery Fuse Company of Wilmington, Delaware, was a special venture formed to supply ordnances during World War I and was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Manufacturers Contracting Company. The records consist of scattered business records for the Manufacturers Contracting Company, the Artillery Fuse Company, and the later General Manufacturing Company.

The Atterbury family, specifically brothers John Guest Atterbury (1811-1887) and William Wallace Atterbury (1823-1911), and John's son William Wallace Atterbury (1866-1935), were descendants of a London bank house representative and Huguenot family. John was a lawyer and later a Presbyterian minister, as was William. The younger William was a career officer for the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Atterbury family papers consist primarily of the personal papers of the younger W.W. Atterbury as preserved by his family, along with a few items from his father and uncle.

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was the number two steel producer in the United States between 1916 and 1984. For a time it was also the largest shipbuilding firm in the world. The records of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation (parent company) are a series of fragments, lacking the complete runs of corporate and executive documents that normally comprise a business archive, and largely consist of fragmentary corporate records and files from executive officers.

Charles H. Mason (1886–1949) was employed for thirty-five years by Pierre S. "P.S." du Pont (1870-1954), the industrialist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and horticulturalist who developed Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Mason worked as chief chauffeur and garage manager for du Pont. He lived with his family in a residence called "The Anvil" on the property at Longwood Gardens. This small collection includes Charles H. Mason and Marguerite Mason's journals (dictated by them and handwritten by Ann Mason, Charles Mason's sister) describing their early years in Lewes, Delaware.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. It was organized in Paris in 1801 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont and originally produced gunpowder. The collection consists of a binder containing miscellaneous memoranda and tables describing DuPont's manufacture of ordnance between 1914 and 1919.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The DuPont Building occupied an entire block bound by 10th, 11th, Orange and Market Streets and was one of the first high-rises in Wilmington, Delaware. Until early 2015 the building housed DuPont's headquarters. This small collection of files on DuPont Company history and biographies were removed from the company's downtown headquarters building prior to its move to the suburbs.

May du Pont Saulsbury (1854-1927) was a leading hostess in Washington, D.C. during the Wilson administration, philanthropist, and wife of Senator Willard Saulsbury (1861-1927). The journal covers the couple's summer trip to Europe in 1919, coinciding with the signing of Treaty of Versailles.

The office of Alien Property Custodian was created by the Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917. According to the act, the right to seize enemy property was vested in the president, which was then delegated to the Alien Property Custodian. This collection consists of nine volumes, fifty-eight booklets, and foldouts concerning U.S. patents vested in the Alien Property Custodian (1943-1946). The materials specifically deal with mechanical and electrical patents, as well as chemical patents.

Thomas Woodnutt Miller (1886-1973) served as Delaware's Congressman in the 64th Congress (1915-1917) and spent the majority of his career in Republican Party politics, serving primarily in non-elected roles. The Thomas W. Miller papers are exclusively focused on his term in the 64th Congress. They include copies of bills introduced by Miller and reports from the Committee on Claims and the Committee of Accounts, on which he served. The papers also reflect the political influence of the DuPont Company at the time.