Brandywine Valley oral history interviewees' photographs

About this collection

    The Oral histories on work and daily life in the Brandywine Valley (Accession 1970.370) collection contains oral history interviews conducted by Hagley staff between 1954 and 1990 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 Company workers. Click here to visit the digital collection for these recordings and transcripts.
    Some of the interviewees donated, lent for copying, or provided information about photographs depicting the workers' communities and powder yards. These photographs now form the Brandywine Valley oral history interviewees' photographs (Accession 2017.255) collection.
    Image: DuPont Co. workers enjoying a drink near the Club House at Thompson's Bridge. Click to view.

Search Collection

Lower Hagley Yard Dam
Powder house in powder yard. Looking upstream past Holly Island on right.
Hagley Entrance Gate and New Machine Shop
Iron and stone lower gate (main entrance). Also called Centennial Gates.
Hagley powder yards entrance gate with New Machine Shop
New machine shop second from left.
Flooded Brandywine looking upstream toward DuPont powder yards
On left bank, Long Row houses, Christ Church spire, the "New" Machine Shop, and Henry Clay Keg Mill are visible. Walker's Banks houses visible on right bank of river.
Road bed and stone wall construction before beginning of Peoples Railway on Creek Road (Main Street) in Henry Clay, Delaware
Buildings left to right: Charles I. du Pont house, Long Row, New Machine Shop in Hagley Yard.
Main Street (Creek Road) in Henry Clay, Delaware, from Breck's Lane to Barley Mill Lane
Charles I. du Pont residence at far left, followed by Pigeon Hole Row and Long Row housing. Henry Clay keg mill in Hagley Yard visible upstream. Spire of Christ Church visible in distance at center-left.
Main Street (Creek Road) in Henry Clay, Delaware, upstream from Breck's Mill during winter
Pigeon Hole Row and Long Row housing at left. Henry Clay keg mill in Hagley Yard visible upstream. Spire of Christ Church visible in distance at left.
Employees in New Machine Shop at Hagley Yard
Identification by Edward L. Bader: Back row left to right: E.M. Taylor (Shop Superintendent), Ed Bader, and Fred Ivins. Front row left to right: William Waterbury, Duncan Thatcher.
Two young men in front of New Machine Shop near Hagley Yard gates
Horse-drawn wagon visible in front of Machine Shop.
Rolling mills in Hagley Yard
Roll mills 19 and 20. Stack of steam power plant visible in background.
Rolling mills, lower Hagley yard
Written caption: "This is the graining or corning mill, H-19 in the Hagley Property Survey (1961). Image may be reversed."
Gasoline traction engine designed by Alfred I. du Pont
Left to right identified by Bader: "Mike Maloney, Ed Bader at controls, 'Expert' from New York, William Houston (foreman of the machine shop)."
Coal car in Hagley Yard
Race-way track and new dam at lower end Hagley Yard, showing coal tar and upper race waste-way to the left.
Foundry yard workers in the foundry yard behind the Machine Shop
Left to right: Billy Walters, foundry boss and pattern maker; unidentified laborer; Harry Dadds, molder.