This photograph of students in front of the outside Alexis I. du Pont School (School for the Brandywine) was taken on this date, March 7, in 1894. The public school, located in Greenville, Delaware, was founded in 1893 and named after Alexis Irenée duPont in recognition of his longstanding participation on the boards of local schools.The school opened in January 1894, not long before this photograph was taken.
This photographic print is part of Hagley Library’s collection of Pierre A. Gentieu Brandywine River Valley photographs (Accession 1970.001). Pierre A. Gentieu (1842-1930) was a long-term employee of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. He was also a photographer and artist, and the du Ponts allowed him to photograph the family, their employees, and the built world and daily lives that made up their lives along the Brandywine.
His work, now the Hagley Library’s collection, provides an invaluable photographic record of the company's Brandywine Mills at the turn of the century. To view the collection online now in our Digital Archive, click here.