For DuPont's 200th Anniversary: an on-line Heritage Archive and DuPont: From the Banks of the Brandywine to the Miracles of Science

As one of the few major corporations to grow up with the nation, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company was acutely aware of the significance of its approaching the 200-year mark. The company turned to HAI to help commemorate the event in ways that were reflective of the company itself: tell the story in a time-honored fashion with a book and make a more contemporary anniversary resource available.

HAI first turned to the high-tech solution: consultations with DuPont resulted in the creation of an "on-line archive," a web-based collection of hundreds of essays covering focused topics including people, facilities, products, and product categories as well as broader subjects such as "research," "corporate culture," and "investor relations." The DuPont Heritage site, http://www.heritage.dupont.com, went on-line in late 2001, a valuable resource for students, employees, retirees, and journalists seeking information about the venerable firm.

The exhaustive documentary and photographic research HAI conducted for the on-line archive was also put to work in creating a less cutting-edge if more durable product, a richly illustrated 268-page book that combined an authoritative text with high quality graphics and design. DuPont's charge to author Adrian Kinnane in writing From the Banks of the Brandywine to the Miracles of Science was, in the words of company officials, to "occupy the middle ground"—to observe the highest historical standards but produce a work that was "still eminently readable by employees, retirees and the general public." HAI's success at obtaining this dual objective was confirmed by noted historian John Kenly Smith who pronounced the book "intelligent, informative, and honest to a fault."