Explosives industry
Found in 73 Collections and/or Records:
Arthur MacLeod paper on Barksdale Works
Arthur H. MacLeod (1914-2003) was an employee of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Entitled "Washburn and Wilmington: a tale of two cities," the item is a paper read by MacLeod before the Washburn Historical Society, which covers the history of the Barksdale Works of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company in Washburn, Wisconsin, from its construction in 1904 to its abandonment in 1971.
Atlantic Dynamite Company payroll books
The Atlantic Dynamite Company was one of the largest manufacturers of dynamite in the United States between 1882 and 1904. These are four volumes containing entries listing employees, hours worked, and wages paid at a dynamite plant at Kenvil, New Jersey.
Atlas Powder Company records
Incorporated in 1912, Atlas Powder Company functioned as an independent explosives and chemicals company until 1971, when it was purchased by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited (U.K.) and became its American affiliate under the name ICI Americas, Inc. The collection consists of minutes, reports, and correspondence from Atlas in addition to both predecessor and subsidiary companies.
Austin Powder Company album
The Austin Powder Company is a Cleveland-based manufacturer of industrial explosives and provider of blasting services around North America. The company began in 1833 at a site south of Cleveland, Ohio along the Cuyahoga River. The album contains photographic prints of the Austin Powder Company's plant near Solon, Ohio, circa 1900.
Bill Mackey papers
Bill Mackey (1906-1996) was a chemical engineer and the plant manager of the Technical Division of the Explosives Department of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. His papers consist of a mix of personal and DuPont Company materials documenting his career as an explosives expert.
"Cavalcade of America" television commercials on film
The Cavalcade of America television show was an anthology drama which aired on NBC from 1952 to 1953 and ABC from 1953 to 1957. The show was adapted from a radio show of the same name sponsored by the DuPont Company, a chemical company, which began as a manufacturer of gunpowder in 1802.This collections consists of two reels of television commercials for various DuPont products. The commercials feature various spokesmen talking about or demonstrating the products. One commercial features DuPont Company president Crawford Greenewalt.
Cazenove Gardner Lee, Jr. photographs and negatives
Cazenove Gardner Lee, Jr. (1882-1945) was a genealogist and prolific writer, who founded the Society of Lees of Virginia. This collection conists of photographs and negatives relating to family and career of Cazenove Gardner Lee, Jr. The images are primarily of various gunpowder mills and machinery.
Charles L. Reese laboratory notebooks
Charles Lee Reese Sr. (1862-1940) was a chemist and scientist at the E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company from 1902 to 1931. Until 1900 he taught chemistry in several American schools, and then began his career in industrial research with the New Jersey Zinc Company. The collection consists of nineteen volumes of Reese's laboratory notebooks, most dating from his tenure at New Jersey Zinc. A minority of the notebooks cover some of his early work for DuPont.
Charles Lee Reese papers
Charles Lee Reese, Sr. (1862-1940) was a chemist and scientist at the E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company from 1902 to 1931. The Charles L. Reese papers are a group of material from his student days, the texts of lectures and articles, biographical materials and genealogical notes.
Crawford H. Greenewalt papers
Crawford H. Greenewalt (1902-1993) was an executive with the DuPont Company and president of the firm from 1948 to 1962. This collection consists of Greenewalt's papers from his time as president and chairman of the board. There is a broad range of external correspondence, internal company communications and reports, presidential working papers, transcripts of speeches, and published articles that make up the collection.
DuPont Company Advertising Department collection of graphic materials
The Advertising Department representatives in each of the industrial departments worked with the central staff in creating ad campaigns. The collection consists of miscellaneous DuPont Company advertising materials, including postcards, pictorial envelopes, lantern slides, advertisements, display cards, and illustrated pamphlets.
DuPont Company Brandywine powder yards and neighboring worker communities' photographs
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834). This collection of more than 1250 discrete photographs depicts the landscape and buildings at or near the company's explosives manufacturing plants along Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware. Approximately 900 images depict powder yard sites, including the DuPont Experimental Station, either during the mills' final decades of operation or prior to, during, and after excavation and restoration work on the site in the 1950s and 1960s. Most of the remaining images depict the worker communities which surrounded the powder yards.
DuPont Company Chart Room and Hush-a-Phone photographs
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); the company began with the production of gunpowder. In 1919, the DuPont Company created a room dedicated to large charts showing important financial statistics for its explosives business and emerging chemical ventures. The Chart Room was located on the ninth floor of the DuPont Building in Wilmington, nearby the offices of Executive Committee members. This collection consists of four photographs, three of which are panoramic and mounted on cardboard. They consist of three undated views of the DuPont Company Chart Room, taken approximately between 1919 and 1930.
DuPont Company Engineering Department photographs
The E.I. du Pont de Nemours is a chemical company commonly known as the DuPont Company was established in 1802, and began by manufacturing gunpowder and later chemical compounds. The foundations for the Engineering Department were laid in 1902. The department’s purpose was to design and construct high explosives plants, design powder machinery and create extensions to existing plants. The DuPont Engineering Department collection consists of photographic material documenting Twentieth century construction projects throughout the many different E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company work sites, including some outside construction projects within the explosives and chemical industry. There are 209 work sites which are arranged in alphabetical order.
DuPont Company Executive Committee records
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.
DuPont Company, Louviers Works manuals
The DuPont Company's Louviers Works manufactured dynamite in Colorado, beginning production in 1908. The works provided explosives, primarily for mines in the region, and was part of the DuPont Company Explosives Department. This small collection consists of five copies of operations manuals from the DuPont Company's Louviers Works that were issued to the manager of the works. The manuals are about plant methods, office rules for safety protocols, and chemical operations for producing ammonium nitrate, nitric acid concentrate, and ammonia oxidation.
DuPont Company Museum collection
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company, which began as a manufacturer of gunpowder in 1802. The collection consists of photographs and prints that document the early history of the DuPont Company’s involvement in the gunpowder and explosives industries from the 1860s through the 1920s. The bulk of the collection are photographs of employees, executives, and plant views, including aftermaths of explosions and construction. This collection also includes a variety of advertisements for the DuPont Company as well as other non-DuPont related trades. A large portion of this collection are oversize materials (panoramic photographs and advertising posters).
DuPont Company photographs
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. During World War I, the DuPont Company entered the dye industry. This small collection of photographs is primarily of DuPont Company plant sites of dye works and explosives. There are numerous views of the Carrollville, Wisconsin, plant and the Terre, Indiana, plant.
DuPont Company plants during World War I
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. It was organized in Paris in 1801 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont and originally produced gunpowder. The collection consists of a binder containing miscellaneous memoranda and tables describing DuPont's manufacture of ordnance between 1914 and 1919.
DuPont Company playing cards
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 and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont the company began with the production of gunpowder. This collection consists of two decks of playing cards illustrated with the DuPont oval and a game bird picture on the back of each card.
DuPont Company Pompton Lakes plant photographs
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company, established in 1802. In 1902 the DuPont Company acquired the Smith Electric Fuze Company and some other properties in the Pompton Lakes, New Jersey area. This collection consists of one color photograph showing three DuPont Company explosives delivery trucks, 1966 and two aerial photographs of the DuPont Company's Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, plant.
DuPont Company powder explosion reports
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. Originally established as a black powder manufactory in 1802, the company eventually ventured into explosives, creating the Explosives Department in 1903. This small collection contains six reports on black powder and other accidental explosions at DuPont facilities. Additional materials are related to the DuPont Company's activities in the explosives industry. These include a history of explosions at the Brandywine Works from 1815 to 1898 and the Carney's Point Works from 1893 to 1903.
DuPont Company representatives with blasters photograph
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company began with the production of gunpowder. Throughout the 1900s and 1910s, the company shifted its focus away from gunpowder production and towards chemistry innovations. This is a snapshot photograph of DuPont Company representatives in a field with blasters. It shows blasting equipment, dynamite, dynamite boxes, and a camera on a tripod.
DuPont Powder Co., One section of B Plant Box Repair Shop panorama
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company was established as a black powder manufactory in 1802. The DuPont Company purchased a site near City Point, Virginia on the James River in 1912 in order to build a dynamite plant located closer to the southern market. The onset of World War I, however, created a great demand for guncotton, and the Hopewell Works was converted to that purpose, starting in 1915. This item is a 1916 panoramic photograph of the repair shop.
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Experimental Station photographs
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834). In 1903 the DuPont Company's Executive Committee established the Experimental Station, a research facility located on the banks of the Brandywine Creek across from DuPont's first black powder works. This collection contains photographs of general views of the Experimental Station showing its growth over time.
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company photographs
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 Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) the company began with the production of gunpowder. This collection consists of photographs that document two separate activities. First grouping shows a nyalite (and explosive) outdoor safety demonstration (1905) probably conducted in the Hagley powder yards.
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Wilmington Shops photographs
The Wilmington Shops were preceded by the first DuPont Company machine shop facilities on the Brandywine River. This is a collection of photographs from the DuPont's Company Wilmington Shops, a large machine shop that produced specialized equipment which was used in DuPont Company plants. A few of the images show the interior of the shops, but the majority picture individual machines
Edward M. Harrington collection of Aetna Powder Company and DuPont Company material
Edward M. Harrington (1866-1933) was a chemist and expert on blasting cap design. He held several positions at the Aetna Powder Company, eventually becoming superintendent of the dynamite works at Aetna, Indiana. Harrington then went on to work for the DuPont Company at various plants in the Operating Department until his retirement in 1921. Images in this collection are of dynamite and other explosive plants, including Aetna Powder Company plants in Newport, Rhode Island (electric blasting caps) and Aetna, Indiana, and DuPont Company plants in Repauno, New Jersey; Hopwell, Virginia, and many other locations. Photographs show buildings, office and plant interiors, many with workers, employee groups, housing, and recreation.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. dynamite works panoramic photograph
The Louviers dynamite works began production in 1908 and provided explosives primarily for mines in the region. The panoramic photograph shows a view of the DuPont Company dynamite works at Louviers, Colorado, including the magazine area, powder line, and overall view.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. Penniman shell loading plant panoramic photographs
The DuPont Company acquired a site on the York River in Virginia on which they planned to build a dynamite plant. The U.S. Government took over the property in 1918 and got the DuPont Company to build a shell loading plant instead. These three panoramic photographs show overall views of the shell loading plant at Penniman, Virginia during World War I.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. Pompton Lakes panoramic photographs
In 1902 the DuPont Company acquired the Smith Electric Fuze Company and some other properties in the Pompton Lakes, New Jersey area. DuPont continued the manufacture of fuses, blasting caps, and other blasting supplies at the plant, adding a shell plant and other facilities. One panoramic photograph shows an overview of the DuPont Company plant at Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, 1918, and the other is a group portrait of staff, August 25, 1943.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. Racine explosive plant engineers panoramic photograph
In 1918, the company opened an additional plant in Racine, Wisconsin to increase the production of smokeless powder to meet the growing demand in order to support the war effort. This panoramic photograph shows a group of engineers outside of the plant.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. Guncotton plant panoramic photographs
The DuPont Company purchased a site near City Point, Virginia on the James River in 1912 in order to build a dynamite plant located closer to the southern market. The panoramic photographs show exteriors of the plant, views of the workers' housing, the town (including the African American section), and a photograph of the Hopewell China Corporation, a post-war reuse of one of the facilities.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. Haskell Works panoramic photographs
In 1902, DuPont took control of Laflin & Rand, including the Haskell Works. Infallible and Ballistite powders were manufactured there. The works played an important role in smokeless powder production during World War I. The panoramic photographs depict views of the Du Pont Company's smokeless powder works in Haskell, New Jersey and the workers village nearby.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. Repauno Works panoramic photographs
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Repauno Works manufactured high explosive dynamite. The company began as the Repauno Chemical Company on June 7, 1880, by Lammot du Pont (1831-1884), a chemist working for the family business, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company which originally produced gunpowder. The panoramic photographs show two views of the dynamite works and workers village at the DuPont Company's Repauno Works.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Advertising Department records
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly known as the DuPont Company. It was established in 1802 and began by manufacturing gunpowder, later moving into chemical compounds. At the beginning of the twentieth century, DuPont had the need for more advertising as the company began expanding its product line beyond gunpowders and explosives. Between 1907 and 1909, an Advertising Division was formed within the Sales Department; a separate Advertising Department was established in 1921. This collection consists of background research files on ad campaigns run in individual industrial departments for various products and to promote the company as a whole.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Engineering Department records
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly known as the DuPont Company. It was established in 1802 and began by manufacturing gunpowder, later moving into chemical compounds. The company's Engineering Department was initially organized in 1903 as a division of the High Explosives Department, with the purpose of designing and constructing high explosives plants, powder machinery, and extensions to existing plants. This collection of DuPont Engineering records is fragmentary in nature. The surviving records are divided into four series that document a wide range of functions and represent several different time periods in the department’s evolution. The series are: Engineering Department history file; Engineering Research Laboratory; Construction Division; and Design Division, Corfam Poromeric Technology.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Explosives Department records
In the years leading up to the Second World War, the United States government initiated a massive effort to ensure that adequate supplies of essential materials would be readily available should the country's armed forces become actively engaged in military conflict. At the request of the Army Ordnance Department, the DuPont Company participated in these procurement programs by undertaking the design, construction, and operation of plants for the manufacture of military explosives and other chemical products essential to the successful prosecution of the war. The records of the Explosives Department consist of special reports to the Executive Committee, the files of general manager Edward B. Yancey, and the files of powder superintendent Charles E. Seymour.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Hagley Yard, Glaze Mill photograph
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 Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) the company began with the production of gunpowder. This image is an exterior partially obscured view of a glaze mill near the Brandywine River used in the manufacture of DuPont Company black powder and explosives.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company minute books
The E. I du Pont de Nemours & Company minute books document an important era in the history of the company from just before the turn of the twentieth century through the 1930s. The DuPont Company in this time went through many changes in structure under the leadership of cousins T. Coleman du Pont, Alfred I. du Pont, and Pierre S. du Pont.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Public Affairs Department records
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The Public Affairs Department began as the Publicity Bureau in 1916, to deal with issues raised by the great increase of business spawned by World War I. Prior to this time, publicity had been handled by the Advertising Division, created in 1911. The Public Affairs Department records contain biographical sketches of deceased officers, employees, and du Pont family members, as well as histories of company plants, predecessor companies, and all line and staff departments. The alphabetical history file contains press releases, memoranda, and pamphlets that were assembled for various public relations campaigns.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Repauno Works historical files
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Repauno Works manufactured high explosive dynamite. The company began as the Repauno Chemical Company on June 7, 1880 founded by Lammot du Pont (1831-1884). Lammot du Pont was a chemist working for the family business, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company which originally produced gunpowder. This collection consists of material for the 100th anniversary of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Repauno Works.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company twentieth century records
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (alternatively referred to as the DuPont Company, or simply DuPont) was reincorporated on February 26, 1902, as successor to the partnership Eleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834) and his father Pierre Samuel "P.S." du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) had organized in 1801 for the purpose of manufacturing gunpowder in the United States. During the twentieth century, the company diversified beyond gunpowder and explosives into the broader chemicals industry. The twentieth-century records (dating up to 1972) of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. document the transformation of the company into a modern, centrally administered industrial giant. The collection, however, is not comprehensive for the period, and any company collections received after 1972 were accessioned and processed separately by Hagley Museum and Library.
Eugene du Pont Jr. papers
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 collection contains the personal papers of Eugene du Pont, Jr., and the records of the Kinloch Gun Club, a private shooting club which he founded. It also contains a separate collection of correspondence between his brother Alfred I. du Pont, vice president and general manager of the DuPont Company, with his assistant Frank L. Connable, which is an important source for the history of the company in the early 1900s.
Francis Gurney du Pont papers
Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was the youngest son of Alexis I. du Pont (1816-1857) and Joanna Smith du Pont (1815-1876), and grandson of Éleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The papers consist of du Pont's student lecture and laboratory notes; letters; technical notes and papers; records of gunpowder production; patent specifications and drawings; patent correspondence; and printed patents related to gunpowder.
Francis Gurney du Pont papers
Francis Gurney du Pont (1850-1904) was the youngest son of Alexis I. du Pont (1816-1857) and Joanna Smith du Pont (1815-1876), and grandson of Éleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834), founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. The papers of du Pont describe both his business activities at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, his family life, and his activities in the Episcopal Church.
Frederic J. LeMaistre business records
Frederick J. LeMaistre (1879-1944) was a chemical engineer employed by the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company at its Eastern Laboratory for fourteen years. This collection consists of ten volumes; seven are LeMaistre's laboratory notebooks documenting his work on nitrates, nitroglycerin, artificial silk (rayon), pyralin, and solvents. Also included are two souvenir logbooks of tours by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and one Niagara Oil Company of Philadelphia cashbook.
H.A. Weldy Powder Company lithograph
Henry A. Weldy and members of the Shindel family purchased the small Huhn Powder mill outside Tamaqua, Pennsylvania on the banks of the Little Schuylkill River. They operated it as the H. A. Weldy Powder Company. Illustrations on the lithograph depict Tunnel Mills and Edgeworth Mills, which comprised the H. A. Weldy Powder Company.
Hercules Inc. personnel cards
Hercules Inc. was a manufacturer of chemicals and munitions based in Wilmington, Delaware. The records consist of a sample of employee personnel records, or service record cards, that date from circa 1914 to 1933, as well as copies of the company pension and retirement savings plans that date from 1982 to 1990. The cards typically contain information on personal characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, age, physical appearance, and family, and also on occupation, wage rates, promotion, discipline, and reasons for discharge. The plants are scattered around the country and thus provide an interesting regional sample of the industrial workforce during the 1910s and 1920s. Pension and retirement savings plans are for both Hercules Incorporated and Simmonds Precision Products, Inc.
Hercules Powder Company calendar illustrations and Laflin and Rand display cards
The Hercules Powder Co. was one of companies created from the break up of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours "powder trust" in 1911 as ruled by a U.S. Supreme Court decision. The Laflin and Rand Powder Company, one of the largest gunpowder manufacturers in the nineteenth century, was formed from several predecessor companies, including the Laflin Powder Company and the Smith & Rand Powder Company. This collection consists of a Hercules Powder Company calendar from 1919 and an undated illustration from a company calendar. There are also reproductions of a group of three different display card advertisements for Laflin & Rand Powder Company, probably for point-of-sale or counter display.