Finding Aids

The Technical Department at DuPont's Carney's Point Works was established to collaborate with scientists at the DuPont Experimental Station and Eastern Laboratory of the Repauno Works to develop new products, maintain quality control, and improve products and processes. The collection focuses on the department's start-up period (1906-1910) and the two World Wars.

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 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.

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 item is a small chromolithograph label for Du Pont smokeless sporting powder.

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.

Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was the youngest son of Alexis I. du Pont (1816-1857) and Joanna Smith du Pont (1815-1876), and grandson of Éleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The papers consist of du Pont's student lecture and laboratory notes; letters; technical notes and papers; records of gunpowder production; patent specifications and drawings; patent correspondence; and printed patents related to gunpowder.

Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was the youngest son of Alexis I. du Pont (1816-1857) and Joanna Smith du Pont (1815-1876), and grandson of Éleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The papers of du Pont describe both his business activities at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, his family life, and his activities in the Episcopal Church.

Francis “Frank” Pierre Gentieu (1876-1950) was a ballistic engineer at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. Gentieu worked at DuPont's Carney's Point Plant in New Jersey from 1901 to 1941. This small collection contains an account by Gentieu entitled "The First Fifty Years at Carney's Point" (1891-1941); correspondence with du Pont family members; a list of his father Pierre Gentieu's photographs of the DuPont Company and Brandywine area; and a recollection written by Samuel Brown of a conversation with Sophie M. du Pont (1810-1888) related to the Brandywine Manufacturers Sunday School.

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.

Leroy Greenwood "L.G." Jackson (1889-1981) was a chemist for E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company between 1911 and 1954. Jackson's small set of papers are primarily from his work related to gunpowder. This collection would be of interest to those interested in powder production. There are also two items from Jackson's time in rayon research.

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.

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.).