This series is related to the duPont genealogy in France and the United States, family relics, and tributes to Alfred I. duPont. It also includes correspondence and notes and galley sheets by Marquis James in preparation for publication of his biography, "Alfred I. duPont: The Family Rebel."

This series contains correspondence and legal documents relating to Alfred's relationship with his three wives and his children. His detailed correspondence with his adopted daughter Alicia through her childhood and early married years in Europe present an especially detailed picture of the lifestyle and spending habits of an extremely wealthy family. Alfred also carried on a lifelong correspondence with his daughter Madeleine who settled in Munich, Germany. Letters exchanged with his brother Maurice document the rise and fall of the powder business, other business activities, and numerous social events. Alfred's especially candid letters with his older sister Marguerite, whom it is said, was the only person he feared, reveal his most intimate thoughts and activities.

This series is made up of Alfred's extensive correspondence with cousins, nieces, and nephews, many of whom received his financial support. These included members of his third wife Jessie's family whom he adopted as his own. In his letters to his children he was especially warm and lighthearted, showing a side of his character which was not always evident in adult relations.

This series consists of correspondence between Alfred and his closest friends throughout his lifetime. Principal correspondents include James Hackett, a noted, flamboyant actor; Jimmy L. Dashiell, musician, entrepreneur, and one-time business manager of the duPont Company; and Dr. Charles Hanby, friend, family physician, and collaborator in many charitable enterprises.

Records contain correspondence regarding the operation of the Wilmington Morning News and other newspapers and their duPont influenced editorial policy. Other records related to E. M. Davis and T. W. Jakes, political informants on the duPont payroll, and Alfred's views on women's suffrage, World War I, welfare reform, and a host of other topics.

Business records document the early days of the duPont Powder Company at the turn of the century to its breakup in 1915. Included is correspondence between Alfred, his cousin,Frank Cazenove Jones, and his brother, Maurice duPont. The details of the duPont family lawsuit are covered, including the reports of lawyers and private detectives. Banking ventures, the Nemours Trading Co., a variety of business and real estate ventures, and Alfred's 1912 activities in Paris are included.

Intimate details of the duPont family are documented. Subjects include: deafness, storage of furs, jewels, purchase of antiques, intimate articles, home furnishings, clubs, personal views, poetry, and musical compositions by Alfred.

This series deals with Alfred's vast interest and knowledge of automobiles, pumps, machinery, and gadgets. It documents his lifelong preoccupation with the design and construction of yachts, particularly the Nenemoosha.

Alfred's Delaware estate, Nemours, was another lifelong project. These records document earliest plans and stages of construction. Correspondence with contractors describes details of decorations, placement of monuments, water systems, supervision of staff, purchase of antiques, decorating, landscaping, supplies, and operation of the "Blue Ball" farm as part of the estate.

The wide variety of duPont charities is documented. The record begins with Alfred's earliest doling out of small payments to the needy in his community to the establishment of hospitals and the reform of the welfare system for the state of Delaware. Alfred's increased interest in charities during the Great Depression is documented.

Florida records include correspondence with Edward Ball, Alfred's brother-in-law and business manager. Included are banking reports and records related to construction and upkeep of Epping Forest as well as Nemours.

The Alfred I. Du Pont Nemours papers consist of those Du Pont manuscripts which were maintained at Nemours, the family estate in Wilmington, Delaware. At some point they were shipped to the offices of the Jessie Ball Du Pont Religious, Charitable and Educational Fund in Jacksonville, Florida. As designated by Jessie Ball duPont in her will, the Nemours papers were donated to Washington and Lee University, along with the duPont family papers located in Jacksonville. Because of their distinct provenance it was decided to process the papers from Nemours as a separate series rather than integrating them into the Alfred I. Du Pont Jacksonville papers or into the Jessie Ball Du Pont Papers.

The Nemours Papers are part of the Du Pont Family Collection and consist of 15 linear feet of records dating from 1831 to 1947. The bulk of the material dates from 1915 to 1935 and reflects the business, financial, and family affairs of Alfred I. duPont (1864-1935). In addition, the Papers include some of the records of Alfred's second wife, Alicia Bradford Maddox duPont (1875-1920), and his third wife, Jessie Ball duPont (1884-1970).

Document types include personal and business correspondence, as well as legal documents, which relate primarily to patents and to several lawsuits in which Alfred I. duPont was involved. Business and financial records relate to family matters, such as Alfred I. duPont's guardianship of Alicia Amory Maddox, as well as to professional interests such as mining. The Papers include printed materials, such as clippings, pamphlets, and magazine articles. They also contain a large number of photographs documenting the family and social lives of Alfred I. and Jessie Ball duPont.

The Alfred I. duPont Nemours Papers have been arranged as six series: Correspondence, Business and Financial Records, Legal Records, General, Printed Materials, and Photographs.

Alfred Irénée duPont (1864-1935) was born on May 12, 1864, in a stone house near the banks of the Brandywine River in Delaware. He was a descendent of the duPont family of French nobility who emigrated to America during the French Revolution and established the powder manufacturing dynasty of Eleutherian Mills. Alfred was the third child and first son of Eleuthère Irénée duPont (1829-1877) and Charlotte S. Henderson (1835-1877). He had four siblings: Anne Cazenove duPont Walker (1860-1899); Marguerite duPont Lee (1862-1936); Maurice (1866-1941); and Louis Cazenove (1868-1892). The five children were orphaned at an early age when both parents died, within weeks of each other, in 1877.

Although Alfred inherited a considerable amount of property, he grew up in the powder mill working and fighting on equal terms with the sons of Irish and Italian laborers. He possessed a keen intellect and a powerful physique, as well as musical and mechanical aptitudes, but had limited interest in formal education. Throughout his life he prided himself on being a self-made man. In his youth he gained the reputation of being "the best black powder man in the nation" and the mechanical genius of the duPont family.

In 1902, Alfred was bold enough to claim the company his elders wanted to sell to their major competitor, Laflin and Rand. With two cousins, Thomas Coleman duPont and Pierre Samuel duPont, he formed a triumvirate which converted the old gunpowder company into the E. I. duPont de Nemours Powder Company in 1903. The great duPont chemical empire of today eventually evolved from this enterprise. The reorganization also precipitated an unbreechable division of the duPont family as the cousins vied for control of the company through stock manipulation and lawsuits. Alfred was shut out of the company in 1915 and bitterly turned to other business and political pursuits. At one time he owned several Delaware newspapers and used them to oppose the election of Thomas Coleman duPont and Henry A. duPont to state offices and to the United States Senate.

Concurrent with the family business war was Alfred's unhappy marriage to his first wife, Bessie Gardner (1864-1949). Married in 1887, the couple had four children: Madeleine duPont (Bancroft) (Hiebler) Ruoff (1887-1965); Bessie duPont Huidekoper (1889-1973); Alfred Victor (1900-1970); and Victorine duPont Dent (1903-1965). In 1904 Alfred lost an eye in a hunting accident and shortly afterwards his marriage ended in a scandalous divorce resulting in alienation of his children and intensified animosity within the extended family.

Alfred's second marriage in 1907 was to his beautiful but melancholy cousin, Alicia Bradford Maddox (1875-1920) who never overcame the deaths of her two infant children. In an effort to please his new wife, Alfred began a lifelong project: the design and development of his Nemours estate in Wilmington, Delaware. It consisted of a seventy-seven room house, forest, gardens, and working farm. Alicia, however, preferred to spend much of her time in Paris while Alfred pursued his endless construction and engineering projects, yachting, sports, politics, and far-flung business dealings. Alicia died in 1920, leaving him with the care of their five-year-old French-born foster daughter, Adelaide Camille Denise (Denise duPont Zapffe after her marriage to Carl A. Zapffe). He was also responsible for the guardianship of her daughter, Alicia Amory Maddox (Glendening) (Llewllyn) (Kent) (Fraser) MacGregor.

In 1898 while hunting in Virginia, Alfred became acquainted with the Balls, a distinguished southern family which had been impoverished by the Civil War. He developed a lasting friendship with their fourteen-year-old daughter Jessie, twenty years Alfred's junior, which eventually led to their marriage after Alicia's death in 1920. Jessie was a peacemaker and reconciled Alfred with his children from his first marriage and other family members. Consequently, Alfred found the happiness with Jessie which had eluded him in earlier years.

In 1926 Alfred and Jessie decided to move their principal residence from Nemours to Epping Forest in Jacksonville, Florida. He opened offices in Jacksonville and founded Almours Securities, Inc. At this point his assets were reported to total over $34,000,000 and his business enterprises virtually dominated the economy of Florida. Until his death in 1935, Alfred devoted himself to Jessie, yachting, travel, his beloved dogs, real estate, and the support of numerous charities during the era of the Great Depression. These charitable enterprises were continued and vastly expanded by Jessie Ball duPont in the years following Alfred's death.

The Alfred I. duPont Papers consist of the manuscripts and other documents which were maintained in the duPont business offices in Florida and bequeathed to Washington and Lee University by Jessie Ball duPont in 1970. The papers remained in Jacksonville at the Jessie Ball duPont Religious, Charitable and Educational Fund until 1990 when they were released to the University and shipped to History Associates Incorporated for processing. Because of their distinct provenance, it was decided to process the Alfred I. duPont papers from Jacksonville as a separate collection rather than integrating them into the Nemours Papers or into the Jessie Ball duPont Papers.

Because of the size and scope of the Alfred I. duPont Papers, Washington and Lee University decided, after consultation with the Jessie Ball duPont Fund and History Associates Incorporated, to remove extraneous material from the collection. These materials consisted largely of duplicate copies; mail receipts; cancelled checks; bills and invoices; routine correspondence regarding household accounts and supply orders. Approximately 40 cubic feet of material was discarded. Approximately 20 linear feet of extraneous records relating to household operations were sent to the Alfred I. duPont Institute in Wilmington, Delaware. Photographs were removed from the collection and filed with the photographs in the Nemours Papers.

During the period the Alfred I. duPont Papers resided in Florida, two major biographies of Alfred I. duPont were researched and published. At the request of Jessie Ball duPont, Marquis James produced Alfred I. duPont: The Family Rebel (New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1941). With the perspective of half a century, Joseph Frazier Wall published Alfred I. duPont: The Man and His Family (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). Most recently Richard Hewlett has added a fresh dimension to the duPont history in Jessie Ball DuPont (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1992).

The Alfred I. duPont Papers consist of 33 linear feet of records dating from 1897 to 1950. The bulk of material covers 1900 to 1935 and reflects the essential business, financial, political, family, and social affairs of Alfred I. duPont and his family. Document types include personal, political, and business correspondence, as well as legal documents and extensive family correspondence. The Papers include printed materials such as clippings, pamphlets, advertising, blueprints, yachting, and engineering publications.

Due to a boyhood swimming accident, Alfred began to lose his hearing at an early age. By the time he reached maturity he was almost completely deaf. Consequently, his communication relied almost entirely upon letter writing. With the devoted assistance of Mary Brereton, his personal secretary of some forty years, Alfred produced a vast body of personal correspondence. In letters to close family members, friends, and business and political associates, he expressed his candid and irreverent views on family, politics, education, marriage, and society in general. His wicked sense of humor, stinging rebukes of tradesmen and highly original phrases provide a heretofore unexplored portrait of a highly intelligent, complex, and driven man. The papers also document in fascinating detail the day-to-day lifestyle and spending habits of one of the wealthiest business tycoons in North America. The Alfred I. duPont Papers have been arranged as eleven series: Biography, Family (immediate), Family (extended), Friends, Politics, Business, Personal, Mechanical, Nemours, Charities, and Florida.