Hagley Museum Shows Dark Side of DuPonts’ Powdermaking Business

Silently sitting on the banks of the Brandywine River with a mill race (foreground) on the back side of the mills, the Eagle Roll mills at Hagley Museum in Wilmington, Delaware, were used in the manufacture of gunpowder from 1802 to 1920. The high stone walls face the millrace, while the walls were shorter and the roof on the river side was at an angle to direct the explosions towards the river, should there be a spark causing explosion. DuPont was the major supplier of gunpowder for Union troops during the Civil War.

In January of 1920, there was an explosion (there had been many explosions and deaths in the nineteenth century) of 50,000 pounds of gunpowder at the powderworks, and killing 5 men. Thereafter, the production of gunpowder at this site ceased.

In 1952 family members donated 185 acres of land and the DuPont company established a $6,000,000 endowment for the Eleutherian Mill-Hagley Foundation for a museum of industrial history. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

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