E.I. du Pont is born on June 24, 1771, in Paris, France to Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and Nicole-Charlotte Marie-Louise le Dée de Rencourt. E.I. du Pont’s father was a political economist who had been elevated to the nobility in 1784 by King Louis XVI — a fact that entitled the family to the honorable “de Nemours” suffix.
E.I. du Pont’s eldest son is born to Sophie Madeleine Dalmas du Pont in Paris. Altogether, the couple had eight children.
E.I. du Pont, along with his father and his brother’s family, arrive by ship in Newport, RI on January 1, 1800. The anniversary of the day E.I. du Pont arrived in America is still celebrated by his descendants today.
In 1802, E.I. du Pont founded a gunpowder factory on the banks of the Brandywine River in Wilmington, Delaware. It was the first step along the way to one of the greatest success stories of American industry.
After a disastrous explosion at the gunpowder works that killed 33 people, Alfred Victor Philadelphe du Pont helped his father rebuild the company. He was known to work closely with the mill’s employees and was particularly interested in new chemical developments related to gunpowder.
E.I. du Pont passed at the age of 63 of unknown causes in Philadelphia. He is buried in the Du Pont de Nemours Cemetery on the family property in Wilmington, Delaware.
By the mid-19th century, the DuPont Company had become the largest supplier of gunpowder to the U.S. military. Between a third and one half of the powder used by the Union Army all through the war was supplied by DuPont.
Alfred I. du Pont is born to Éleuthère Irénée “E.I.” du Pont II and Charlotte Shepherd du Pont. He began his career with the family business, instituting major changes that resulted in greater efficiency and safety of operations. But after an acrimonious disagreement with other family members, du Pont embarked on business ventures of his own, which included an investment firm and an import-export operation. Altogether, du Pont has more than 200 patents to his name. He built another famous du Pont property, Nemours Estate, for his second wife Alicia
Pierre S. du Pont was the eldest of three sons born to Lammot du Pont and Mary Belin. His early years were influenced by the Wilmington, Delaware area’s natural beauty and the du Pont family’s long tradition of gardening, but his interests were further shaped by his extensive travel. He was amazed by the garden displays he saw Europe and America, as well as the illuminated fountains at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. These influences shaped his design for what would eventually become Longwood Gardens.
Henry Francis du Pont is born to Henry Algernon du Pont and Mary Pauline Foster at the Winterthur family home. Winterthur was home to four generations of du Ponts, beginning with Jacques Antoine and Evelina du Pont Bidermann in 1839. But Henry Francis du Pont was its most famous and influential resident. This prominent horticulturalist and collector of antiques wanted to preserve the best of American style and craftsmanship. Thanks to his efforts, more than 90,000 furniture objects are on display at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library today.
A century after its founding, the DuPont Company moved into new product lines such as dynamite and smokeless powder. The company also established some of the first industrial laboratories in the United States around this time, researching cellulose, lacquers and other non-explosives.
Lammot du Pont Copeland is born to Charles Copeland and Louisa d’Andelot du Pont. He led the DuPont company in the 1960s, overseeing the company’s effort to commercialize more than two dozen new products, including the still well-known Lycra and Tyvek materials. He appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine in 1964 and had his portrait painted by Salvador Dali. One of his most enduring legacies is the establishment of the Mt. Cuba Center botanical garden at his former mansion.
Unlike Winterthur, Hagley and Nemours, Longwood Gardens was a tourist attraction before the du Pont family took possession of it. In the late 1700s, a family of Quaker farmers planted an arboretum on the property. It became a popular gathering place for community picnics and other social events. However, with the advent of the 20th century, the family’s heirs lost interest and allowed the arboretum to deteriorate. When a lumber mill operator took possession of the property with intent to cut down its trees, Pierre S. du Pont stepped in. In 1906, he purchased the arboretum and transformed it into Longwood Gardens: the most visited public garden in America, where stunning indoor and outdoor gardens stretch over more than 1,000 acres.
As the inventor and manufacturer of nylon, DuPont helped produce the raw materials for parachutes, powder bags and tires used by the U.S. military.
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library houses one of the foremost collections of American decorative arts and is a renowned research center. The mansion is also a stunning architectural sight in its own right. Its grounds stretch over 1,000 acres of meadows, farmland and waterways, inviting visitors to marvel at the gorgeous azalea woods and explore the enchanted fairy garden.
By the 1950s, the DuPont Company was more than 150 years old and the original mills by the Brandywine River had been closed for 30 years. In 1957, plans came to fruition to open the site to the public as a museum. But the original du Pont gunpowder works form just one part of this stunning attraction. On 235 acres, you can see restored mills, a worker’s community, and the ancestral home and gardens of the du Pont family. Make sure to stop by Hagley’s library. Its collections constitute an impressive, wide-ranging record of the history of American entrepreneurship. A permanent exhibition called Nation of Inventors takes visitors on a journey of the U.S. patent system.
Stephanie Kwolek, a chemist working at DuPont, developed Kevlar. It’s one of many unique materials, including Lycra, for which DuPont holds the patent. But Kevlar, which came to form the basis of bullet-resistant vests, is arguably among DuPont’s most influential innovations.
Nemours is Wilmington’s very own Versailles, with its elaborate French-style gardens, magnificent fountains and gilded sculptures. It was the home of Alfred I. du Pont, who built the opulent mansion and grounds for his second wife Alicia in the early 1900s. Don’t miss the one-acre pool with 157 jets shooting water 12 feet into the air. Other visitor favorites include the basement bowling alley, Alfred du Pont’s vintage car collection, and the towering carillon bell tower.
The 500-acre Mt. Cuba Center is a nonprofit botanical garden and a beacon of native plant conservation. While it opened to the public in 2013, its origins date to 1935, when Lammot du Pont Copeland and his wife Pamela built a stately home near the village of Mt. Cuba. By the 1960s, the Copelands had developed a profound interest in ecology and conservation and began to establish a “naturalistic garden” around their home, where the beauty of the region’s wildflowers is displayed and preserved to this day.
