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.
Search Collection
Pages
-
- 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?].
-
- Lower Hagley Yard Dam
- Powder house in powder yard. Looking upstream past Holly Island on right.
-
- Testing area for powder, DuPont Experimental Station
- View through doorway and down hall showing apparatus to test powder.
-
- 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.
-
- Flooded Brandywine Creek looking downstream from Walker's Mill
- Henry Clay Village on opposite shore. Left: 'New Bridge' Rising Sun Lane covered bridge. Center top: Rockford Water Tower.
-
- Flooded Brandywine Creek looking downstream from Walker's Mill toward Henry Clay Village and Rockford Water Tower
- New Bridge' Rising Sun Lane covered bridge at left. Houses on Creek Road (Main Street) in Henry Clay Village visible at right. Rockford Water Tower in background.
-
- Flood waters on Brandywine Creek
- View of turbulent water in flood. Likely taken near Henry Clay Village.
-
- Ice skating on Brandywine Creek
- Skating near DuPont Co. Lower Yard.
-
- Skating on Brandywine Creek above Breck's Dam
- Henry Clay mill visible upstream. Walker's Banks on right. Christ Church spire in distance.
-
- View from Rockford Tower, looking toward Wilmington
- Looking down Red Oak Road, Rockford Village to left.
-
- Creek Road, road bed and wall under construction in Henry Clay, Delaware
- Charles I. du Pont house at center. Long Row houses at right.
-
- 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.
-
- Yards at rear of Breck's Lane homes
- Dr. Greenleaf's stable visible in background.