In what industry did the DuPont family originally make its fortune?

The DuPont family originally made its fortune in explosives, especially gunpowder.

Éleuthère Irénée du Pont founded E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in 1802 after immigrating from France to the United States. He established a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware, where the waterpower and local resources supported manufacturing.

DuPont’s powder gained a reputation for consistent quality, helping the company become one of the leading explosives producers in the United States. Demand from construction, mining, railroads, and the military expanded the business. During World War I, DuPont became a major supplier of explosives and munitions, greatly increasing the family’s wealth.

The company later diversified into chemicals and synthetic materials, producing innovations such as nylon, neoprene, and Teflon. That later chemical identity can cause confusion, but chemicals and advanced materials were expansions of the original business. The family fortune began with gunpowder and other explosives.