About this collection

The papers of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his wives, Nicole-Charlotte Marie-Louise le Dée de Rencourt (1743-1784) and Marie Françoise Robin de Poivre (1741-1841) are part of the Winterthur Manuscripts collection of family papers assembled by Colonel Henry Algernon du Pont (1838-1926) and his son, Henry Francis du Pont (1880-1969) of Winterthur.

Now held at Hagley Library, the Winterthur collection is divided into ten collection groups. The Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and family papers (Accession WMSS.II) collection is the second of those groups, and consists of the papers documenting the personal and professional life of Du Pont de Nemours, including his early political and diplomatic career in pre-​revolutionary France and his emigration to the United States. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety.

The papers contain considerable correspondence with notable political figures and economic theorists in France and the United States. Of the seven series in this collection group, only the last two contain the papers of Du Pont de Nemours' wives; these last two series primarily consist of correspondence, mostly personal in nature.

Image: Satirical engraving with marginalia, ca. 1781. Click here to view in the collection.