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Walter Magee Annette's DuPont advertising envelopes and blotter

Creation: 1903-1906
 Collection
Accession: 1995-242

Abstract

Walter Magee Annettee (1874-1955) was a DuPont Company dynamite salesman, who was based in Birmingham, Alabama. 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. These are illustrated envelopes advertising DuPont Company smokeless powder and blasting powder; Giant powder (a product of Atlantic Dynamite Co.); Atlas powder (a product of Repauno Chemical Co.); and Hercules powder (a product of Hercules Powder Co.).

Dates

  • Creation: 1903-1906

Creator

Extent

25 item(s)

General Physical Description

25 items : envelopes, illus. ; 3.5 x 6.5 in. 1 item : blotter ; 3 x 6 in.

Historical Note

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. The du Pont’s purchased a mill site on the banks of the Brandywine River just North of Wilmington, Delaware. During wartime the company was a major supplier for the United States government. During peacetime, the company marketed their product towards sportsmen and hunters. Throughout the 1900s and 1910s, the company shifted its focus away from gunpowder production and towards chemistry innovations. By 1926 the company officially dissolved the powder production unit, although it had already been inactive for many years.

Biographical Note

Walter Magee Annette (1874-1955) was a DuPont Company dynamite salesman, who was based in Birmingham, Alabama. Annette left home around the age of nineteen and worked for seven years at a bank in Pittsburgh. During 1901 he worked for C. R. Johns & Co., a land business at Austin, Tex. After Johns died, he worked for the American Push Button Telephone Company in New York City. Here he was recruited by J. Amory Haskell and he became a dynamite salesman for the Laflin & Rand Powder Co., which by merger later in 1902 became part of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Annette was based in Birmingham but spent much of his time on the road in the mining districts of Appalachia. During his travels he met Amanda Jane Nuckols of Lexington, Kentucky, whom he married on June 7, 1905. After the court-ordered breakup of DuPont in 1912, Annette went with the Hercules Powder Company. He was New York office manager from 1915 to his retirement in 1945. He died in New York on August 22, 1955.

Scope and Content

These are illustrated envelopes advertising DuPont Company smokeless powder and blasting powder; Giant powder (a product of Atlantic Dynamite Co.); Atlas powder (a product of Repauno Chemical Co.); and Hercules powder (a product of Hercules Powder Co.). The DuPont Company envelopes depict three themes: cowboys on horseback, sailors loading a cannon, a miner. The other three figures show classical male figures opening a lion's mouth, wielding a club, and carrying a load of exploding dynamite. The unillustrated blotter carries the notice, "Remember that dynamite freezes at from (sic) 45 to 50 F, but even when chilled is hard to explode properly. Directions for thawing will be sent on request."

Location

GL Box 1.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Related Material

Accession 2124, Belle M. Sherman Inbound Correspondence, Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

Language of Materials

English

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title:
Walter Magee Annette's DuPont advertising envelopes and blotter
Date:
2015
Description rules:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description:
English
Script of description:
Latin

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Audiovisual Collections Repository

Contact:
PO Box 3630
Wilmington Delaware 19807 USA
302-658-2400