Scope and Content:

The series contains correspondence with trainers and stable personnel including Vincent O'Brien, monthly financial reports, horse registration records, records of individual horses (Ballymoss, Gladness, etc.), and racing ephemera.

Abstract:

This item is a map of Delaware Park racetrack area showing property boundaries. Parking areas are identified. Buildings are numerically coded, but there is no corresponding key. William duPont, Jr. and Donald P. Ross designed and built Delaware Park Racetrack. Phillip T. Harris of Media, Pennsylvania was hired as the architectural engineer. The facility opened on June 26, 1937. Although the park closed briefly during the 1980s, over the years, it has expanded to include a full-service casino and other amenities

Abstract:

Harry Lobe Straus (1896-1949) was an early computer engineer and developer of totalisator or "tote board," an electronic system that printed and issued betting tickets at racetracks, automatically computed the bets and odds, and displayed them on a large board. This collection is a small group of papers preserved by his personal secretary, Christine Behm Nunus (1906-1998). It includes financial statements, business letters, estate papers, and items relating to Straus's biography, "Win. Place. Show."

Abstract:

John McShain (1898-1989) was a Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.-based building contractor, whose firm, John McShain, Inc., was by 1950 the fifth largest construction firm in the United States. The collection contains graphic materials documenting John McShain's family life and personal interests, his career as a building contractor, and his involvement in horse racing.

Scope and Contents: The papers of William du Pont, Jr. document areas of his activities predominantly concerned with land development in Wilmington, Delaware; farming, animal breeding and foxhunting in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia; and promotion of horse racing in the United States, especially in Delaware.Papers pertaining to the companies operated by William du Pont, Jr., and those in which he had significant participation, are organized in Series VII. Business Papers. Series I - VI are concerned with similar materials related directly to William du Pont, Jr.'s personal activity. Nevertheless, because William du Pont, Jr. was dynamically involved in those companies' activities, the division into private and business papers is sometimes blurred. For instance, Series I. Correspondence, together with William du Pont, Jr.'s personal correspondence with family members, friends, and acquaintances, contains correspondence with business partners, which are often the same individuals and companies as in the Correspondence portions of the subseries of Series VII: Business Papers. The same is true for Series II. Invoices and Receipts and Series III: Banking Papers.Documents of an entirely personal nature are in Series IV. Personal Financial Papers. Papers consist of William du Pont, Jr.'s individual tax returns for 1917-1964; financial and legal papers related to the inheritance of properties by William du Pont, Jr. and his sister Marion in Wilmington, Delaware and Montpelier, Virginia; the divorce agreements of William du Pont, Jr. with his two wives, J. L. Austin du Pont and Margaret Osborn du Pont (along with the papers for the second divorce are included William du Pont, Jr.'s birth, baptism, and marriage certificates). This series also contains various rental, payroll, and expense records for the estates and farms of William du Pont, Jr. Also, there are papers pertaining to Marion du Pont Somerville and her first husband T. H. Somerville, consisting of insurance policies and correspondence.Additional personal papers include William du Pont, Jr.'s early family correspondence with his mother, father, aunt, and uncle, which constitute Subseries A. Personal Correspondence of Series I. Personal letters of William du Pont, Jr. also occasionally appear in the chronological file of Subseries B: General Correspondence and include correspondence with his sister Marion du Pont Scott (letters discuss family matters, but predominantly...