Finding Aids

Incorporated in 1912, Atlas Powder Company functioned as an independent explosives and chemicals company until 1971, when it was purchased by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited (U.K.) and became its American affiliate under the name ICI Americas, Inc. The collection consists of minutes, reports, and correspondence from Atlas in addition to both predecessor and subsidiary companies.

The DuPont Company's Louviers Works manufactured dynamite in Colorado, beginning production in 1908. The works provided explosives, primarily for mines in the region, and was part of the DuPont Company Explosives Department. This small collection consists of five copies of operations manuals from the DuPont Company's Louviers Works that were issued to the manager of the works. The manuals are about plant methods, office rules for safety protocols, and chemical operations for producing ammonium nitrate, nitric acid concentrate, and ammonia oxidation.

In the years leading up to the Second World War, the United States government initiated a massive effort to ensure that adequate supplies of essential materials would be readily available should the country's armed forces become actively engaged in military conflict. At the request of the Army Ordnance Department, the DuPont Company participated in these procurement programs by undertaking the design, construction, and operation of plants for the manufacture of military explosives and other chemical products essential to the successful prosecution of the war. The records of the Explosives Department consist of special reports to the Executive Committee, the files of general manager Edward B. Yancey, and the files of powder superintendent Charles E. Seymour.

Eugene du Pont Jr. (1873-1954) was a director of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company from 1917 until 1954, and a great grandson of company founder, Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834). The collection contains the personal papers of Eugene du Pont, Jr., and the records of the Kinloch Gun Club, a private shooting club which he founded. It also contains a separate collection of correspondence between his brother Alfred I. du Pont, vice president and general manager of the DuPont Company, with his assistant Frank L. Connable, which is an important source for the history of the company in the early 1900s.

Tazewell Lamar McCorkle Sr. was regarded as a leading authority in the field of commercial explosives. Trained as a chemical engineer, McCorkle spent more than thirty years as a sales representative with the Explosives Department of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. The papers are composed entirely of copies of official DuPont Company materials that McCorkle retained after his retirement. These files provide extensive documentation of departmental policies and procedures governing the storage and delivery of DuPont explosives.