E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company began a research program in dyes in 1916 to take advantage of the wartime disruption of German supplies of dyestuffs. The following year, the Jackson Laboratory was established at Deepwater, New Jersey as a major production facility for dyestuffs. The Dyestuffs Department was formally organized in 1921. By the late 1920s DuPont was one of the four major U.S. dye producers and controlled 25 percent of the market.
In 1931, the department was absorbed into the Organic Chemicals Department. DuPont's dyestuffs research peaked in the 1950s, with Jackson Lab chemists developing dyes for DuPont's Orlon and Dacron synthetic fibers, and then declined in the mid-1960s due to increased international competition. DuPont restructured its Organic Chemicals Department in 1978 and it was absorbed into the Chemicals, Dyes, and Pigments Department. DuPont left the dye industry completely in 1980.
From the description of Manuals and notebooks from the Dyestuffs Division of the Organic Chemicals Dept. of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, 1924-1977. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 654807254
