Sources

Online Primary Sources

The information, images, and visualizations displayed in these pages draw from numerous primary sources available at the Hagley Museum and Library. These sources provide a detailed account of the nineteenth century history of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, the du Pont family, key company administrators and investors, company employees, DuPont's customers, and early gunpowder-making processes and equipment.

A selection of DuPont Company manuscripts and archives have been digitized and are available online:

CORRESPONDENCE, TRANSCRIBED
* Life of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont from Contemporary Correspondence, 1778-1834
* Outgoing Company Correspondence, 1805-1844

EMPLOYEES
* Petit Ledgers, employee accounts
* Oral Histories about the DuPont Company Powder Yard and the surrounding community, 1954-1984

FOREIGN MARKETS
* Incoming correspondence from Alsop and Company in Valparaiso, Chile
* Incoming correspondence from Ashburner and Company in Calcutta, India

IMAGES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
* DuPont Family
* Pierre Gentieu Collection of Brandywine River Valley Images, 1880 - 1920
* John W. Macklem collection of DuPont Company powder yards photographs
* Powder Labels

IMMIGRATION
* Incoming correspondence and other documents from immigration agent Andrew Catherwood
* Incoming correspondence and other documents from Philadelphia-based immigration agent Robert Taylor
* DuPont Company and Irish Immigration, 1800-1857 : A Study of the Company's Efforts to Arrange Passages for Families of its Workmen

MAPS
* Brandywine powder works and surrounding area

SALES AGENTS
* Correspondence of Philadelphia-based sales agent Archibald McCall
* Archibald McCall: The Business Career of a Philadelphia Sedentary Merchant, 1800-1817

SALES DATA
* Powder Sales Books, 1804-1817
* Lammot du Pont's annual summary of DuPont company activity, 1803 - 1856 [original] | [transcription]

RELATED SOURCES
* E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company: A History, 1802-1902
* Description of 1854 Powder Wagon Explosion in Wilmington, Delaware, 1859
* "Powder Men of the Brandywine" from Muzzle Blasts, May 1965

 

SEARCH ADDITIONAL ONLINE CONTENT FROM THE COLLECTIONS AT HAGLEY

 

The following Hagley manuscripts and archives collections were consulted for The DuPont Company on the Brandywine exhibit. All of these collections are open for research on-site at the Hagley Library:

Lammot du Pont's Papers include information on the company's early production, much of the machinery and processes used in the powder yards, explosions at the yards, and early company history.

The Longwood Manuscripts contain many early DuPont Company records and manuscripts concerning members of the du Pont family such as E.I. du Pont, Victor du Pont, and Pierre Samuel du Pont.

The Henry Francis du Pont Collection of Winterthur Manuscripts are made up of papers from various members of the du Pont family as well as many early DuPont Company records.

Records of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (1801-1902) is made up of the DuPont Company's early records. Documents in this collection include ledger books and other financial records; correspondence with agents, customers and other companies; production books; order books; and various sales records.

Francis Gurney du Pont Papers include information on the early powder yards, gunpowder production processes, and explosions in the yards.