Hagley Museum and Library facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Significant dates

Hagley Museum and Library
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District


Location in Delaware Show map of Delaware Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Nearest city	Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.
Area	235 acres (95 ha)
Built	beginning 1802
NRHP reference No.	84000819
Opened	1957
Added to NRHP	November 13, 1966

The Hagley Museum and Library is an exciting place to visit in New Castle County, Delaware, close to Wilmington. It's a museum and library that teaches people about American business and technology.

This huge area covers more than 235 acres along the Brandywine Creek. Here, you can explore the very first home and garden of the famous du Pont family in the United States. You'll also see the old powder yards and a machine shop from the 1800s. There's even a beautiful garden with terraces and statues, created in the 1920s.

Discovering Hagley's History
- How Hagley Got Its Name
What You Can See and Do at Hagley
The Hagley Library
Exploring the E. I. du Pont Family Home
Amazing Trees at Hagley
Hagley's Important Dates
Gallery
See also

Discovering Hagley's History

In 1802, a French immigrant named Éleuthère Irénée du Pont started a business making black powder. He bought land along the Brandywine Creek for $6,700. This spot was perfect because the river's fast-moving water could power his mills. The area also had lots of timber and willow trees, which were important for making good quality charcoal for the powder.

The location was also close to the Delaware River. This made it easy to ship in other ingredients like sulfur and saltpeter. Plus, there were quarries nearby that provided strong stone for building the mills. Soon, his company, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, became the biggest black powder factory in the world!

In 1921, the powder mills along the Brandywine closed down. Parts of the property were sold. Many years later, in 1952, plans began to turn the area into a museum. This happened when the DuPont Company celebrated its 150th birthday.

How Hagley Got Its Name

Historians at Hagley aren't completely sure how the name "Hagley" started. They know the name was already used before E.I. du Pont bought more land in 1813. An old paper from 1813 calls the land "Hagley." It might have been called Hagley as early as 1797.

Back then, the owner was a merchant from Philadelphia named Rumford Dawes. He applied for insurance on buildings that were said to be in a place called Hagley on the Brandywine. Dawes had bought the property in 1783. Since the name Hagley wasn't on the papers when he bought it, it seems likely that Dawes gave the name to this spot.

It's thought that Delaware's Hagley was named after a famous English estate called Hagley Hall. This estate was well-known in the late 1700s. Rumford Dawes might have chosen the name because of a popular poem called The Seasons by James Thomson. Hagley Hall was the home of Thomson's friend, the Baron Lyttelton. The poem describes a beautiful valley that sounds a lot like the Brandywine Valley. The Seasons was very popular in Philadelphia when Rumford Dawes named Hagley.

The original Hagley estate in England is about ten miles southwest of Birmingham. Interestingly, Delaware's Hagley is about 8 miles south of Chadds Ford Township. This town was officially known as Birmingham Township before 1996.

Around the same time, another place called Hagley Plantation in South Carolina also got its name. Its owners loved English culture and chose the name Hagley to remember the famous parkland near London.

What You Can See and Do at Hagley

The Hagley Museum opened its doors in 1957. It has many exhibits and demonstrations that show how early industrial technology changed American history. You can learn all about the du Pont family, the DuPont company, and how explosives and gunpowder were made. There's also a huge collection of American Patent models, showing how people came up with new ideas.

You'll find both indoor and outdoor exhibits. There are restored mills, a community where workers lived, and the original home of the du Pont family with its beautiful garden. The museum also shares personal stories of the DuPont Company employees from the 1800s. You can learn how they lived and how their lives changed with new machines and ways of making things. Visitors can even take a bus tour with a guide through the Powder Yard Trail. This is the only way to get to the du Pont family home.

The Hagley Library

The Eleutherian Mills Historical Library opened in 1961. It was later renamed the Hagley Library in 1984.

Hagley's library has a huge collection of old papers, photos, books, and documents. These items tell the story of American business and technology. The library is a member of a group of important research libraries. It helps scholars from all over the world with their studies.

The library has a massive amount of materials. This includes 37,000 feet of manuscripts and archives, 290,000 printed books, and 2 million pictures. They also have over 300,000 digital images and pages online. Anyone can visit the library and its collections for research. You can also find a catalog and some digital archives online.

The library also has a special center called the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society. This center helps Hagley work with scholars who study American economic, business, and technology history. They offer programs for scholars to stay and research. They also host the Business History Conference, which is the biggest group of business historians in the U.S. The library also publishes a journal called Enterprise & Society.

Exploring the E. I. du Pont Family Home

On the property, you'll find the home of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont. He built this Georgian-style house, along with other buildings and gardens. It was the center of his family and business life. Five generations of the du Pont family lived in this home. You can still see many pieces of furniture, American folk art, and family items that were brought from France.

Other buildings that are part of this area include a barn, the company's "First Office," and the workshop of Lammot du Pont I. The garden is also a beautiful part of the complex. This estate home was the very first place the du Pont family lived in the United States.

Amazing Trees at Hagley

The Hagley property is home to some truly special trees. Some of them are even ranked as national or state champions! One of these is an Osage orange tree. In 2011, it was named a Co-National Champion Tree. It was even featured in Delaware Forestry Service's "Big Trees of Delaware" list.

Sadly, a storm in August 2020 partially knocked down this amazing tree. People think the tree might have been over 300 years old! Some even believe it was planted from seeds brought back from the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition. Two other state champion trees were also knocked down during that storm. These included a 90-foot tall sugar maple and a 62-foot tall shingle oak.

Hagley's Important Dates

Here are some key moments in Hagley's history:

November 1952: The Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation, a non-profit group, officially started in Delaware.
May 1957: The Hagley Museum opened its doors with the Henry Clay Mill building.
1961: The Longwood Library joined with Hagley Museum. It opened at the site of the original DuPont Company's powder works.
1962: Eleutherian Mills, the du Pont family's old home, opened to the public.
1966: The museum property was named a National Historic Landmark.
1969: The first DuPont company office was fully restored.
1971: Work began to restore the E.I. du Pont Garden.
1982: Workers' Hill opened. The first fireworks show for Hagley members happened to celebrate the museum's 25th anniversary. This annual fireworks show still happens on two weekends in June!
1984: The official name became Hagley Museum and Library.
1996: Hagley held its first car show, "100 Years of Cars," to celebrate America's car history. This annual car show still takes place on the third Sunday in September.
1999: The kitchen in Hagley's Eleutherian Mills opened for visitors.
2002: Two new exhibits, "DuPont Science and Discovery" and "DuPont: The Explosives Era," opened. This was to celebrate the DuPont corporation's 200th anniversary.
2007: A new entrance to the Visitors Center opened. It welcomed visitors to the museum's 50th anniversary exhibit, "Hagley at Fifty: Exploding with History."