Finding Aids

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The Executive Committee became the principal body for coordinating the work of the various departments of the rapidly growing company, establishing company organizational structure and policy; approving capital expenditures and contracts; and fixing salary levels, bonuses, and other compensation. The files are arranged in six series. The "E" files are primarily service record information on members of the Executive Committee, giving some prior history of the person's career with DuPont. The "D" files are limited to organization charts, dating from 1914 to 1917. The "O" files (Operative Committee), "F" files (Finance Committee), and "X" files (Executive Committee) are primarily related to patents and licensing. Finally, materials copied by David A. Hounshell and John K. Smith for their book, Science and Corporate Strategy, are included.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The DuPont Corporate Plans Department is primarily responsible for coordinating all of the company’s strategic business planning activities. The records of DuPont Corporate Plans are fragmentary in nature and document only a small segment of the department’s responsibilities. These records are arranged into two series: Multi-client reports and Silverstone tracking study. The bulk of the material is contained in Series I and consists of multi-client reports, which are marketing studies prepared by outside consulting firms.

Edwin A. Gee (1920-2013) was trained as a chemical engineer and worked as a metallurgist for the United States Bureau of Mines before joining the DuPont Company in 1948. The papers of Edwin A. Gee are incomplete and represent only a small portion of his work in the Development Department and as a member of the Executive Committee. The surviving records have been arranged in two series that document Gee's involvement in important phases of the company's history: Patent documentation and Diversification and research and development strategy.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The DuPont Building was one of the first high-rises in Wilmington, Delaware; it occupied an entire block bound by 10th, 11th, Orange, and Market streets. Until early 2015 the building housed DuPont's headquarters. The collection documents the history of the DuPont Company, as well as its finances, corporate values, special events, and company communications.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company’s R. & H. Chemicals Department manufactured and sold peroxides, cyanide of sodium, formaldehyde, trychloretheline, tin oxide, and polyvinyl alcohol. The department was formed in 1933 as a result of the 1930 acquisition of the Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Company, which operated a plant in Niagara Falls, New York. The records primarily consist of reports on experimentations with various insecticides, pesticides, preservatives, and other forms of pest and disease-control applied to the farming and agricultural industries.

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 papers of Eugene du Pont Jr. include reports to the DuPont Company Board of Directors by the executive committee and the treasurer of the DuPont Company. In addition, there are several copies of letters to du Pont family members.

Howard Ensign Simmons Jr. (1929-1997) was an industrial scientist and the Research Vice-President in the Central Research Department of the DuPont Company from 1979 until his retirement in 1991. His records document Simmons's role in overseeing the production of "Science and Corporate Stategy" by David A. Hounshell and John K. Smith, a scholarly history of Research and Development at the DuPont Company. Also included are reports on DuPont's diversification program in the late 1960s.

A collection of bulletins and reports from the library of DuPont's Jackson Laboratory. Most were generated by the Organic Chemicals Department, which operated Jackson Laboratory, but others come from other DuPont Departments and their laboratories.