Finding Aids

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.

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.

Stephanie Louise Kwolek (1923-2014) was an American chemist known for inventing Kevlar. The papers of Stephanie L. Kwolek chronicle her work over a forty year span at the DuPont Company. The collection includes patents, journal articles, awards, subject files, and speeches that were either produced by or aided Kwolek in her work.