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The Importance of Being True Blue: The Du Pont Company and the Color Revolution

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Cultures of Commerce
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Abstract

In August 1926, Irénée du Pont, vice chairman at E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, wrote to Henry H. Bassett, general manager of the Buick division at General Motors Corporation (GM). During the early 1920s Du Pont and GM, both under the leadership of Pierre S. du Pont, had collaborated to develop Duco Finish—a type of quick-drying, durable, inexpensive, and colorful automotive lacquer. More recently, Du Pont’s corporate colorists had created a distinctive palette for GM. Now the automotive giant, which used Duco on many of its cars, was trying to lure Du Pont’s premier colorist, H. Ledyard Towle, to its Fisher Body division. Irénée du Pont objected.1

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© 2006 Elspeth H. Brown, Catherine Gudis, and Marina Moskowitz

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Blaszczyk, R.L. (2006). The Importance of Being True Blue: The Du Pont Company and the Color Revolution. In: Brown, E.H., Gudis, C., Moskowitz, M. (eds) Cultures of Commerce. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-07182-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-07182-8_3

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4039-7050-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-07182-8

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