Brandywine Valley oral history interviewees' photographs
About this collection
Hagley Museum staff conducted a series oral history interviews between 1954 and 1990, speaking primarily with individuals who had worked at the DuPont Company powder yards on Brandywine Creek during the yards’ final decades of operation or who had lived near the yards as spouses or children of DuPont Co. workers. Some of the individuals who were interviewed donated, lent for copying, or provided information on the photographs in this collection. The images primarily depict the worker communities which surrounded the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company powder yards on Brandywine Creek or the powder yards themselves. For a detailed description of the entire collection, click here to view the finding aid.
- Image: DuPont Co. workers enjoying a drink near the Club House at Thompson's Bridge. Click to view.
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- Retreat from Jordan
- Feather Bed Lane, Brandywine
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- Rattlesnake Run area on right bank of Brandywine Creek downstream from Wilmington city dam
- Two women sitting on bank among the willows along the Brandywine before the race was built, Rattlesnake Run area. Downstream from Wilmington City Dam.
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- Old swinging bridge on the Brandywine, Wilmington, Delaware
- Women sit in foreground.
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- Fred Evans near former cannon house in front of Christ Church
- Old cannon house in front of Christ Church, where powder was tested.
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- Fred Evans near former cannon house in front of Christ Church
- Old cannon house in front of Christ Church, where powder was tested.
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- Wooden keg mill (cooper shop) on Breck's Lane
- Gentieu caption: "Factory where wood kegs are made. Man in center (Gailey Mathewson) has worked here for 50 years and is 77 years old and has only one lung, but seems good for many years yet." The following provided by F.L. Mathewson, grandson of Gilbert Mathewson, in 1966: Main Cooper Shop is building at far right, soaking pits were to right, off picture. Had slate roof and slate shingle siding. Pancake Run is in foreground, flowing under bridge to left. Left to right: Harry Carter (?); Gilbert Mathewson, boss of cooper shop; Frank Applegate; William Roe [Rowe?].
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- Samuel Moore (Mare), cooper, inside Breck's Mill
- Powder keg repairman.
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- Wilson's Dam, Cuba Hill
- Men fishing below dam. Description from donor: "Note some sort of track just above stone wall."
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- Construction of dam, Wilson's saw and grist mill, Cuba Hill
- Description from donor: "Note some sort of track just above stone wall."
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- Lower Hagley Yard Dam
- Powder house in powder yard. Looking upstream past Holly Island on right.
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- View up the Brandywine near DuPont's
- Possibly dam near Jessup and Moore's Paper Mill.
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- Riddle's Dam on the Brandywine
- Men fishing on Riddle's Dam.