About the Hagley Library
Hagley Museum and Library collects, preserves, and interprets the unfolding history of American enterprise. Hagley is located on 235 acres along the Brandywine River near Wilmington, Delaware.
The Hagley Library is the nation's leading business history library and archives. It is organized into six departments: Manuscripts and Archives, Pictorial Collections, Digital Archives, Imprints, Conservation, and the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society.
Hagley’s collections document business activities since the late eighteenth century as well as the interaction between business and the cultural, social, and political dimensions of our society. Researchers come to Hagley from all over the world to use our resources in studying a wide array of subjects, as business records and personal papers are relevant for many interests and projects. Travel grants are available to support research visits.
Pierre S. du Pont founded the research library as the Longwood Library in 1953. Eight years later the Library was merged with the Hagley Museum and moved to the site of the original DuPont Company powder works near Wilmington, Delaware. Its early collections document industrialization in the United States, with a particular focus on the Mid-Atlantic region—the home of many leading national firms in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Collecting has expanded to include national and international business activities up to the present day.
Current holdings comprise 34,000 linear feet in the Manuscripts and Archives Department, 2 million visual items in the Pictorial Collections Department, and 280,000 printed volumes in the Imprints Department.
Our staff is ready to assist you; we invite you to contact us through our Ask Hagley online form with questions about our collections.
Links to additional information
Donating to the Hagley Library
Hagley Library Adopt-A-Book Program
History of the Hagley Museum and Library
Library staff list and contact information