The du Pont family () or Du Pont family is a prominent
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739–1817). It has been one of the richest families in the United States since the mid-19th century, when it founded its fortune in the
gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). T ...
business. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it expanded its wealth through the chemical industry and the
automotive industry
The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % ...
, with substantial interests in the DuPont company, General Motors, and various other corporations.
Several former du Pont family estates are open to the public as museums, gardens or parks, such as Winterthur, Nemours,
Eleutherian Mills
From 1802 to 1921, Eleutherian Mills was a gunpowder mill site used for the manufacture of explosives founded by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, which grew into the DuPont company. The name also refers to the house on the hill above the mills, whi ...
Gibraltar
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, Mt. Cuba, and Goodstay. The family's interest in horticulture was planted in the United States by their immigrant progenitors from France and was also nourished and cultivated in later generations by avid gardeners who married into the family. As early as 1924, the du Ponts were recognized by Charles Sprague Sargent, the famed plantsman and director of Harvard's Arnold Arboretum, as "a family which has made the neighborhood of Wilmington, Delaware one of the chief centers of horticulture in the United States."
The family's first American estate, Eleutherian Mills, located at Hagley Museum and Library, was preserved and restored by
Louise E. du Pont Crowninshield
Louise Evelina du Pont Crowninshield (August 3, 1877 – July 11, 1958) was an American heiress, historic preservationist, and philanthropist. She was the great-granddaughter of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, founder of E. I. du Pont de Nemours an ...
. She also helped to establish the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1949. In recent years, the family has continued to be known for its association with political and business ventures, as well as philanthropic causes.
Two family members were the subjects of well-publicized criminal cases.
John Eleuthère du Pont
John Eleuthère du Pont (November 22, 1938 – December 9, 2010) was an American convicted murderer and philanthropist. An heir to the du Pont family fortune, he was a published ornithologist, philatelist, conchologist, and sports enthusiast. Du ...
William du Pont Jr.
William du Pont Jr. (February 11, 1896 – December 31, 1965) was an English-born American businessman and banker, and a prominent figure in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing. He developed and designed more than 20 racing venues, including F ...
As of 2016, the family fortune was estimated at $14.3 billion, spread across more than 3,500 living relatives.
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
family, and descendant of a minor noble family on his mother's side. He and his sons, Victor Marie du Pont and Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, migrated from France in 1800 to the United States and used the resources of their Huguenot heritage to found one of the most prominent of American families, and one of its most successful
corporation
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...
s,
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
, initially established by Éleuthère Irénée as a gunpowder manufacturer.
In 1802, Éleuthère Irénée du Pont established a
gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). T ...
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington (Unami language, Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North ...
. The location (named
Eleutherian Mills
From 1802 to 1921, Eleutherian Mills was a gunpowder mill site used for the manufacture of explosives founded by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, which grew into the DuPont company. The name also refers to the house on the hill above the mills, whi ...
) provided all the necessities to operate the mill: a water flow sufficient to power it, available timber (mainly willow trees) that could be turned into charcoal fine enough to use for gunpowder, and close proximity to the Delaware River to allow for shipments of
sulfur
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formul ...
and saltpeter, the other ingredients used in the manufacture of gunpowder. There were also nearby stone quarries to provide needed building materials.
Over time, the Du Pont company grew into the largest black powder manufacturing firm in the world. The family remained in control of the company up through the 1960s, and family trusts still own a substantial amount of the company's stock. This and other companies run by the du Pont family employed up to 10 percent of Delaware's population at its peak. During the 19th century, the Du Pont family maintained their family wealth by carefully arranged marriages between
cousins
Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...
which, at the time, was the norm for many families.
The family played a large part in politics during the 18th and 19th centuries and assisted in negotiations for the Treaty of Paris and the
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or ap ...
Henry A. du Pont
Henry Algernon du Pont (July 30, 1838 – December 31, 1926) was an American military officer, businessman, and politician from Delaware. A member of the famed du Pont family, he graduated first in his class from West Point shortly after the ...
served as U.S. senators, and
Pierre S. du Pont, IV
Pierre Samuel "Pete" du Pont IV (January 22, 1935 – May 8, 2021) was an American attorney, businessman, and politician from Rockland, in New Castle County, Delaware, near Wilmington. He was the United States representative for Delaware from ...
served as Governor of Delaware.
The family has also played an important role in historic preservation and land conservation, including helping to found the National Trust for Historic Preservation, preserving President
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...
's home Montpelier, and establishing numerous museums such as Winterthur and the
Delaware Museum of Natural History
The Delaware Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) is a museum located since January 1, 2022. The museum was founded in 1957 by John Eleuthere du Pont near Greenville, Delaware; it opened in 1972 on a site near Winterthur, Delaware. It is known for ...
. The Brandywine Conservancy founded by family member
George Alexis Weymouth
George Alexis Weymouth (June 2, 1936 – April 24, 2016), better known as Frolic Weymouth, was an American artist, whip or stager, and conservationist. He served on the United States Commission of Fine Arts in the 1970s and was a member of the ...
owns around of land in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and owns permanent conservation easements on an additional . In 2013, Lammot du Pont Copeland's Mt. Cuba Center contributed over $20 million to purchase land for donation to the federal government to form the
First State National Historical Park
First State National Historical Park is a National Park Service unit which lies primarily in the state of Delaware but which extends partly into Pennsylvania in Chadds Ford. Initially created as First State National Monument by President Barack O ...
racehorses
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...
, as well as establishing racehorse venues and training tracks, including Delaware Park and Fair Hill, MD. While most Du Ponts are members of the Episcopal Church,Éleuthère Irénée du Pont was a
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
.
Spelling of the name
The stylings "du Pont" and "Du Pont" are most prevalent for the family name in published, copy-edited writings. In many publications, the styling is "du Pont" when quoting an individual's full name and "Du Pont" when speaking of the family as a whole, although some individual Du Ponts have chosen to style it differently, such as Samuel Francis Du Pont. The name of the chemical company founded by the family is today styled solid as " DuPont" in the short form (but the long form is styled as E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company); the stylings "Du Pont" and "DuPont" for the company's short name coexisted in the 20th century, but the latter is now consistently used in the company's branding. The solid styling "duPont" is less common, but the
Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children
Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware is a pediatric hospital located in Wilmington, Delaware. It is controlled by the Nemours Foundation, a non-profit organization created by philanthropist Alfred I. du Pont in 1936 and dedicated to improving th ...
uses it, as does the duPont Registry. William S. Dutton's mid-20th-century history of the family business uses "Du Pont" both for the family mentioned generally and for the company's short name but "du Pont" in an individual's full name (for example, " Éleuthère Irénée du Pont", "
Henry du Pont
Henry du Pont (August 8, 1812 – August 8, 1889) was an American military officer and businessman from Delaware, and a member of the Du Pont family.
Early life and education
Du Pont was born at Eleutherian Mills, Wilmington, Delaware, the se ...
Lammot du Pont
Lammot du Pont I (April 13, 1831 – March 29, 1884) was a chemist and a key member of the du Pont family and its company in the mid-19th century.
Early life
Du Pont was born in 1831 in New Castle County, Delaware, the son of Margaretta Elizabeth ...
"); for example, "when he ammot du Pontwent to General Henry du Pont with the proposal that the Du Ponts manufacture dynamite, he was answered by a blunt and unqualified 'No!'") The first page of Dutton's monograph contains the following footnote about the surname's styling (the mention of "Samuel Dupont" here refers to the 18th-century Parisian watchmaker, not to his 19th-century descendant): "Samuel Dupont used this form of the family name .e., Dupont but beginning in 1763 his son signed himself 'Du Pont.' Later, he added 'de Nemours' to his name to prevent confusion with two other Duponts in the
French Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies (french: Chambre des députés) was a parliamentary body in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:
* 1814–1848 during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy, the Chamber of Deputies was the lower house o ...
. Du Pont, in English, is pronounced with the accent on the second syllable. In French, neither syllable is accented."French orthographic tradition for the styling of ''de'' (or its inflected forms) as a surname particle, in either nobiliary or non-nobiliary form, is discussed at '' Nobiliary particle
§ France''. In non-nobiliary form, the prevalent French styling of the name is " Dupont", and thus the choice by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours to begin styling himself so during the monarchical era hints at social ambition. But the influence of French orthography and prerevolutionary class structure on how
English orthography
English orthography is the writing system used to represent spoken English, allowing readers to connect the graphemes to sound and to meaning. It includes English's norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks, emphasis, ...
styles surnames today is outweighed by how families and individuals so named style themselves.
Alphabetical list of selected descendants of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours
Below is an alphabetical listing of selected notable members of the family.
Family tree
The following list is not a complete
genealogy
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
, but is ordered by descent to show the familial relationships between members of the du Pont family throughout history.
Donaldson Brown
Frank Donaldson Brown (February 1, 1885 – October 2, 1965) was a financial executive and corporate director with both DuPont and General Motors Corporation. He is the originator of DuPont analysis, a widely used technique in finance.
He ...
*
C. Douglass Buck
Clayton Douglass Buck (March 21, 1890 – January 27, 1965) was an American engineer and politician from New Castle Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware. He was a veteran of World War I and a member of the Republican Party, who served two t ...
Walter S. Carpenter Jr.
Walter Samuel Carpenter Jr. (January 8, 1888 – February 2, 1976) was an American corporate executive from Wilmington, Delaware, who oversaw the DuPont company's involvement in the Manhattan Project to produce an atomic bomb for use during Wo ...
Uma Chowdhry
Uma Chowdhry is an American chemist whose career has been spent in research and management positions with E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.
She has specialized in the science of ceramic materials, including catalysts, proton conductors, ...
Herbert S. Eleuterio
Herbert S. Eleuterio (November 23, 1927 – July 17, 2022 ) was an American industrial chemist noted for technical contributions to catalysis, polymerization, industrial research management, and science education. In particular, he discovered the ...
Richard Goodmanson
Richard Goodmanson is an American businessman.
Education
Goodmanson's degrees include an MBA, BEc and BCom, B Eng (Civil).
Career
Goodmanson was Director of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited beginning in 2004. He was elected by shareholder ...
*
Jeff Gordon
Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...
Edward G. Jefferson
Edward G. Jefferson (July 15, 1921, London – February 9, 2006) was a British-born American chemical engineer, chemist, businessman, CEO and Chairman of DuPont corporation.
During Jefferson's leadership as Chairman, DuPont suffered from numer ...
*
Ellen J. Kullman
Ellen J. Kullman (born January 22, 1956) is a United States business executive. Since November 2019, she has been the chief executive officer of Carbon (company). She was formerly Chair and Chief Executive Officer of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and C ...
*
James Lynah
James Lynah (1881 – February 24, 1956) was an American businessman and sports administrator who is considered the principal founder of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. Lynah Rink is named in his honor.
Early years
Born in Charl ...
*
William Dale Phillips
William Dale Phillips (1925-1993) was an American chemist, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopist, federal science policy advisor and member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was born October 10, 1925, in Kansas City, Missouri and die ...
Donald P. Ross
Donald Peabody Ross (November 5, 1902 – October 11, 1973) was an American businessman who co-founded Delaware Park Racetrack in Stanton, Delaware, and whose Brandywine Stable won the 1962 Preakness Stakes with its colt, Greek Money. Another of t ...
Irving S. Shapiro
Irving Saul Shapiro (July 15, 1916 – September 13, 2001) was an American lawyer and businessman, best known for being the first lawyer to become CEO of DuPont. Shapiro served as DuPont chairman from December 1973 to 1981. In 1987, he took over ...
*
William H. Shaw
William Howard Shaw (1909 - September 10, 1988) was an American economist, businessman and former government official. He was an executive with E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and Co., a former Assistant Secretary of Commerce, and former president of the ...
*
Alfred Sloan
Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. ( ; May 23, 1875February 17, 1966) was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation. Sloan, first as a senior executive and la ...
Central Coal and Iron Company
The Central Coal and Iron Company was a 19th-century coal company in the western Kentucky coalfields. It was managed by the Louisville branch of the Du Pont family, including Alfred Victor's youngest son Bidermann and his son Coleman.
It was th ...
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
Hercules Inc.
Hercules, Inc. was a chemical and munitions manufacturing company based in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, incorporated in 1912 as the Hercules Powder Company following the breakup of the DuPont explosives monopoly by the U.S. Circuit Co ...
Piasecki Helicopter Corporation
Piasecki Helicopter Corporation was a designer and manufacturer of helicopters located in Philadelphia and nearby Morton, Pennsylvania, in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Its founder, Frank Piasecki, was ousted from the company in 1956 and start ...
*
Remington Arms Company
Remington Arms Company, LLC was an American manufacturer of firearms and ammunition, now broken into two companies, each bearing the Remington name. The firearms manufacturer is ''Remington Arms''. The ammunition business is called ''Remington ...
United States Rubber Company
The company formerly known as the United States Rubber Company, now Uniroyal, is an American manufacturer of tires and other synthetic rubber-related products, as well as variety of items for military use, such as ammunition, explosives, chemic ...
* Wilmington Trust;
first 100 words of article available without login.
Buildings and historic sites
*
Bellevue State Park (Delaware)
Bellevue State Park is a Delaware state park in the suburbs of Wilmington in New Castle County, Delaware in the United States. The park is named for Bellevue Hall, the former mansion of William du Pont Jr. Many of the facilities at the park ...
Delaware Museum of Natural History
The Delaware Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) is a museum located since January 1, 2022. The museum was founded in 1957 by John Eleuthere du Pont near Greenville, Delaware; it opened in 1972 on a site near Winterthur, Delaware. It is known for ...
Eleutherian Mills
From 1802 to 1921, Eleutherian Mills was a gunpowder mill site used for the manufacture of explosives founded by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, which grew into the DuPont company. The name also refers to the house on the hill above the mills, whi ...