Industrialists

Lammot du Pont. ©Bettmann/CORBIS. Reproduced by permission.

"Lammot du Pont, although a multi-millionaire, was the family's fanatic on thrift, often carrying his own luggage in order to avoid having to tip."

Gerard Colby Zilg in Du Pont: Behind the Nylon Curtain

Du Pont is one of the most noted family names in U.S. industrial history. In 1802 Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771–1834), an immigrant from France, built a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine River in Delaware. Boosted by gunpowder sales to the government in the War of 1812 (1812–14), the company began to amass large profits during the American Civil War (1861–65) and World War I (1914–18). With its war profits, Du Pont greatly diversified; it was no longer just an explosives company but a world-leading chemical corporation. The du Pont family became one of the wealthiest families in the nation. In...