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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- 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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- Lower Hagley Yard Dam
- Powder house in powder yard. Looking upstream past Holly Island on right.
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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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- Ice skating on Brandywine Creek
- Skating near DuPont Co. Lower Yard.
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- Skating on Brandywine Creek above Breck's Dam
- Henry Clay mill visible upstream. Walker's Banks on right. Christ Church spire in distance.
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- Ice jam on Creek Road (Main Street) along Brandywine Creek in Henry Clay, Delaware
- Buildings left to right: Charles I. du Pont house, Pigeon Hole Row, Long Row. Rolling mills visible at far right.
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- High water on Creek Road (Main Street) along Brandywine Creek in Henry Clay, Delaware
- Buildings left to right: Charles I. du Pont house, Long Row.
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- Walker's Banks and Henry Clay, Delaware, view from Breck's Mill looking downstream
- Walker's Banks on left. Covered bridge is "New Bridge" at Rising Sun Lane. Creek Road (Main Street) on right. Rockford Tower visible in distance.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Yards at rear of Breck's Lane homes
- Dr. Greenleaf's stable visible in background.
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- Breck's Lane in Henry Clay, Delaware, in snow
- Stable of Lammot du Pont , Jr. visible at right
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- Children sledding on Breck's Lane, Henry Clay Village
- Rokeby Mill, the site of the first DuPont Experimental Station, is visible at foot of Breck's Lane.