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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- 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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- Sunday school group at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church
- Priest identified as: Rev. Edward Henchy, pastor of St. Joseph's on the Brandywine, 1887.
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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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- Cooper shop off of Breck's Lane in Henry Clay, Delaware
- View looking from Upper Breck's Lane, Rockford Water Tower in distance.
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- Samuel Moore (Mare), cooper, inside Breck's Mill
- Powder keg repairman.
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- Hagley Entrance Gate and New Machine Shop
- Iron and stone lower gate (main entrance). Also called Centennial Gates.
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- Hagley powder yards entrance gate with New Machine Shop
- New machine shop second from left.
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- Testing area for powder, DuPont Experimental Station
- View through doorway and down hall showing apparatus to test powder.
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- Ballistics Laboratory at DuPont Experimental Station
- Interior of laboratory with machinery.
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- DuPont Experimental Station
- Interior of laboratory with machinery.
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- Damage to Upper Banks and Upper Yard from October 1890 explosion
- View of several houses and yards damaged in explosion. Bell tower visible in background, field of cabbages or cauliflower in foreground. Typed caption: "Information supplied by Mr. Daniel Shields. Upper Yard--Residences (double houses) reading from right to left: Samuel Grogran, Tom Callahan, James Ward, Mary Dougherty. Building with tower known as Bell House, basement used in winter to split chestnut fence and rail posts for farm property. Willow for charcoal house stored in Bell House. Charcoal house to left of Bell House. Eleutherian Mills Barn in background. Vegetable garden (cauliflower) in foreground."
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- Casenove Gardner, Alfred I. du Pont, and Ben Fletcher at Cherry Island, Maryland property of Alfred I. du Pont
- Carriage of Mr. Edgar in front of Bromwell house.