Records of Du Pont (China), Inc., 1921-1951 (bulk, 1941-1950).

ArchivalResource

Du Pont (China), Inc. Records of Du Pont (China), Inc., 1921-1951 (bulk, 1941-1950).

Records of Du Pont (China), Inc., 1921-1951 (bulk, 1941-1950).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/650090819

The records of Du Pont (China), Inc., consist of two batches of material preserved by Gantt W. Miller, Jr., who had taken over operation of the company's Hong Kong office on January 1, 1950. The bulk of the files cover the 1941-1951 period, and were given to Miller by Lincoln R. Moore, the Organic Chemicals Department's manager for China. The second batch is a much smaller group of reports and notebooks describing the beginnings of Du Pont's dyestuffs ventures in East Asia, ca. 1921-1928. The records from the interwar years are extremely interesting and describe the steps by which Du Pont began the export of dyestuffs to China. A report by Dr. F.A.M. Noelting on the development of Du Pont's dye business in China includes many photographs showing the local staff and facilities, travel into the interior by boat and sedan chair, and many of the firm's customers, including personnel and scenes of traditional textile dyeing. A briefing book on Japan from the 1920s includes notes on Japanese customs and culture, a railway map of Japan, and notes on the Japanese cotton industry. Photos in this book include scenes of devastation caused by the great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and of F.W. Pickard's trip to Japan, with groups of company and Japanese officials. Associated with both books are samples of dyed cloth and samples of Du Pont labels and stickers in both Chinese and Japanese. These include both bilingual variants on the regular Du Pont oval trademark and scenes drawn from domestic life and local folklore selected to indicate the positive qualities that Du Pont wished to have associated with its products. A third volume contains collected memos and articles on the process of textile dyeing. While there is a small amount of material from the months leading up to America's entry into the Pacific War, the bulk of the records cover the postwar years. They give a good picture of life in the foreign business community in Shanghai during the waning years of the Nationalist regime and the aftermath of the Communist victory in 1949. Inventories of property were prepared to support claims for reparations from Japanese seizure during the War, and other letters describe the privations faced by employees during the Japanese occupation. Correspondence shows the attempts to carry on normal business and social life in the face of rampant inflation, the final efforts and collapse of the Nationalists, and then the anti-capitalist and anti-Western program of the Communists, ending with the evacuation to Hong Kong. Information on company personnel shows the multinational nature of the workforce and the strategy of employing qualified Chinese and making sales agency contracts with native Chinese dealers. The records include a report on the immediate postwar status of the German chemical industry, long Du Pont's major competitor in these markets, statements of exports and sales of dyestuffs and other chemicals, and statements of the cost of living for foreign businessmen and their families in Shanghai. A series of market surveys analyze the market for Fabrikoid in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) in 1940, and for plastics, finishes, agricultural chemicals, explosives, and other Du Pont products at Hong Kong in 1950. There is also a literal translation of an article from a Shanghai newspaper describing the du Pont family and its fortune in an exaggerated manner somewhat suggestive of traditional Beijing opera.

1.5 linear ft.

Hagley Museum & Library