E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE: DD (http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=DD)) was founded in July 1802 as a gun powder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont on Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington, Delaware. Du Pont later evolved into one of the world's largest chemical companies, and in the 20th century led the polymer revolution by developing many highly successful materials such as nylon, Teflon and Kevlar. Today, DuPont is a multi-national chemicals, paint, and health care company with 2002 revenues of $24.5 billion.
In a report submitted by Saddam Hussein to the United Nations shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was revealed that DuPont had participated in Iraq's nuclear weapons program. (Though the U.S. attempted to redact the names of all U.S. companies involved, an uncensored copy was leaked to the press.)
DuPont was named one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.
The DuPont family's importance began when EleuthEre IrEnEe DuPont established a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine River in N Delaware.
Outstanding among the DuPonts was Henry DuPont (1812–89), a West Point graduate and son of the company's founder, who set the basis for the family's cohesiveness; he headed the firm from 1850 to 1889.
In 1910, DuPont was ordered to break up its munitions monopoly, and the company subsequently moved into the fibers (it pioneered the development of nylon), paints, and chemicals and materials businesses.
DuPont de Nemours’s belief in the centrality of education to human happiness and to progress constituted his greatest blessing to his descendants.
The institution that has been most transformed by duPont philanthropy and has been the focus of attention from the greatest number of family members is the University of Delaware.
We at the University salute members of the duPont family on the occasion of the two-hundredth anniversary of their emigration to the United States, and we most heartily thank them for the many benefactions that are the subject of the narrative that follows
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