Hounshell, David A.
David A. Hounshell and John K. Smith research notes for "Science and Corporate Strategy", 1903-1986.
Science and Corporate Strategy is a scholarly history of Research and Development at the DuPont Company authored by David A. Hounshell (1950-) and John Kenly Smith (1951-). Science and Corporate Strategy is the outgrowth of an idea of Edward G. Jefferson (1921-2006), chairman and chief executive officer of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company from 1981 to 1986 and a former research chemist. The E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. Jefferson felt that a history of the company's research and development programs would make an important contribution to U.S. historical scholarship and to current issues in public policy. David A. Hounshell, a professor of the history of technology at the University of Delaware, and John Kenly Smith, one of his students in the Hagley Graduate Program with an undergraduate degree in chemistry, were asked to conduct the research and to write a scholarly history. They were given free access to the company's records and key personnel under the supervision of a committee of corporate officers. Their project was supported by DuPont through a grant dispensed through the Hagley Museum and Library.
The collection consists of research files compiled by David A. Hounshell and John K. Smith for the purpose of writing Science and Corporate Strategy: DuPont R&D, 1902-1980. Research files include copies of correspondence, articles, reports, patents, chronologies, organizational charts, and contracts from the DuPont Company from 1903 though 1980. Most documents were copied from original documents found in other Hagley collections and are noted with their original accession number. The collection also contains copies of selected DuPont official company histories, including ones for the Chambers Works, the paint business, and the Textile Fibers plants. The projects files comprise the internal records of the project, including Hounshell's project notes, project committee meeting minutes and correspondence from 1983 through 1986, the project contract, publication information, oral history interviewee correspondence, and annual and semi-annual project reports. There is also a "long version" of the manuscript that is lacking Chapter 3.
AIP-ICOS
Hagley Museum and Library. Manuscripts and Archives Department. 298 Buck Road East, Greenville, DE 19807, USA.