Saltpeter

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. Established in 1802, the company began with the production of gunpowder. The collection consists of seven photocopied letters between DuPont and Secretary of State William H. Seward (1801-1872) regarding the purchase of saltpetre (saltpeter) during the Civil War.

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 Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) for the production of gunpowder. The papers in this collection date from the lifetime of E.I. du Pont and document important aspects of the early history of the DuPont Company.

Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours (1771–1834) was a French American chemist and industrialist who founded the gunpowder manufacturer E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. E.I. du Pont married Sophie Dalmas du Pont (1775-1828) in 1791; the couple had eight children, one of whom died in infancy. This collection of papers includes outbound and inbound correspondence covering personal and business matters. These include personal accounts, writings and memoirs, legal documents, and miscellany, of which the majority are accounts. There are papers of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. that date from 1802 to 1850 and include correspondence (drafts, retained copies, and letters received), contracts and other legal documents, accounts, bills and receipts, checks, promissory notes, bills of exchange, drafts, and certain miscellaneous notes and memoranda.

During his lifetime, French botanist Michel Adanson (1727-1806) assembled a large number of notes and documents for a projected but never completed scientific encylcopedia. This collection of Adanson's notes focuses on nitrates, including saltpeter.

Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) was a French political economist, writer, publisher, and public administrator. In 1800, accompanied by his sons, Victor Marie du Pont (1767-1827) and Eleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834), he arrived in America. In 1802, E.I. du Pont established E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, which began manufacturing gunpowder. This item is a letter written to President Thomas Jefferson about du Pont de Nemours' son, E.I. du Pont, as a gunpowder manufacturer and requesting Jefferson's opinon on the matter of refining saltpetre.

Samuel Francis du Pont (1803-1865) was an Admiral in the United States Navy and fought in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. The letter from du Pont to Navy Officer, Gustavus Vasa Fox (1821-1883) discusses the possibility of saltpeter shortage in the Union in the early years of the Civil War.