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.

In 1801, French immigrants Eleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834) and his father Pierre Samuel "P.S." du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) organized the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (alternatively referred to as the DuPont Company) in Paris for the purpose of manufacturing gunpowder in the United States. The next year E.I. du Pont purchased a mill site on the banks of the Brandywine Creek just north of Wilmington, Delaware, and the company would grow to be the preeminent gunpowder company in the United States for the next century. This collection comprises the nineteenth-century records of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. extending to the date of the second incorporation of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. in 1902. The company's twentieth-century records, with the 1902 reincorporation as the dividing point, are described in a separate finding aid as E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. twentieth-century records (Accession 0500.II).

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.

Lammot du Pont (1831-1884) was an accomplished chemist who managed gunpowder manufacturing at the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (commonly called the DuPont Company). He later organized the Repauno Chemical Company to manufacture dynamite. The papers describe his innovative work in the explosives industry, outside investments in coal mines and railroads, and correspondence with family members. There is also a small subset of materials compiled by his son, also named Lammot du Pont (1880-1952), on various du Pont family and company historical topics.

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 a Rear 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.