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.
Man at left, on horseback, identified as Arthur Simpson (brother of W.S. Simpson, DuPont employee). Man at right with gun cradled in arms is identified as Robert Divinnell.
The following people are identified: Ed Bader, machinist; Frank Haley, clerk; Tom Tulley, clerk; John Dougherty, clerk; Will Beatty, pattern maker; Seitz, foreman of woodwork shop; Bob Millin, tinsmith.
Front Row: Man with crutch - Pierre Gentieu, Next to him - Alfred I. du Pont (on Gentieu's left), Man kneeling on front row in straw hat - Mike Maloney (blacksmith). Last row, fourteenth from right, lower deck: Mr. Hoover (standing).
Seated are Joseph Maxwell (1833-1911) and Mary Ellen Warrick Maxwell (1838?-1912). The young women standing behind them are presumably the Maxwells' granddaughters, Mary Esther Campbell and Martha Ellen Campbell.
Left to right: Harry Deer, Daniel Walsh, Thomas Jackson, Clifford Blakely, Joseph Sheppard, Edward Beacom, Garrett Miller, Joseph Williams, Raymond Johnson, Edward Cheney, Joseph Consono, Lee Knox, and Arthur Jackson. Donor identifies location as "on the stone wall...between the House and the sand pile."
Back row: Joseph Williams, Cornelius Dougherty, Daniel Walsh, Edward Beacom, John Russel (Leader of Corps), Edward Cheney, Thomas Jackson, Edward Williams, and Joseph Sheppard. Front row: Edward Andrews, John McElhinney, John Gamble, George Russel (Mascot), and George Buchanan.
Back row: Joseph Williams, Cornelius Dougherty, Daniel Walsh, Edward Beacom, John Russel (Leader of Corps), Edward Cheney, Thomas Jackson, Edward Williams, and Joseph Sheppard. Front row: Edward Andrews, George Russel (Mascot), John McElhinney, John Gamble, and George Buchanan.
The following people are identified on a tracing paper overlay: Alfred I. du Pont, Ernest du Pont, two unnamed drivers, Lynch (plumber), Joe Haley, John Andrews who "ran off with barn burning detectives who were pretending to be religious group," Mike Mahony's dad, Thomas Knox (Bader's brother-in-law burned in explosion of 1898), "old foreman," Dorman who "worked in packing house," Albert "Yabba" Buchanan who "ran ? plant with trains," and the Rowe brothers (cooper and painter). See tracing paper overlay for locations in photograph.
From left (identification by donor): Mike Maloney, Peter Pursue, Sam Ferraro (seated, hand on walking stick), Victor Sauspin (thin face, large black hat, back of Ferraro), Harry Broden (derby, rear, right of Alfred I. du Pont), Felix Flanigan (behind Alfred I. du Pont), Tom Leach (next to Felix Flanigan), Pat Welsh (next to Leach), James Marten (right, front, straw hat, folded hands), Don Shields (left of Marten, white mustache, derby), Benny Watson (next to Shields), Gene Marten (second from right), Philip Dougherty (far right), Harry Muller (seated, far right), William Horty (next to Muller), and Alfred I. du Pont (center with knickers).
Taken in Breck's Mill Electric Shop. Left to right: William Hearn, Michael Maloney, George Gentieu, Alfred (Charles) Maxwell, James Casey (Pat's Son), Walker Mathewson, and Alfred Mathewson.