Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library
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The museum building
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 Location in Delaware
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| Location | Winterthur, Delaware |
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| Nearest city | Wilmington, Delaware |
| Area | 979 acres (396 ha) |
| NRHP reference No. | 71000233 |
| Added to NRHP | February 24, 1971 |
The Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is a famous estate and museum located in Winterthur, Delaware. It holds one of the largest collections of early American art and objects in the United States. This special place was once the home of Henry Francis du Pont (1880–1969). He was the person who started Winterthur and was known for collecting antiques and loving plants.
Discovering Winterthur's Past
How Winterthur Began
The land where Winterthur stands was first bought by Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (E. I. du Pont) between 1810 and 1818. He used it for farming and raising sheep. Later, in 1837, some of E. I. du Pont's family sold part of the land to his business partner, Jacques Antoine Bidermann, and his wife, Evelina Gabrielle du Pont. Evelina was E. I. du Pont's daughter.
Between 1839 and 1842, the Bidermanns built a 12-room house on the property. They named their estate Winterthur, after Bidermann's family home in Winterthur, Switzerland. They also added beautiful gardens and kept farm animals.
Growing the Estate
After Jacques Bidermann passed away, the property was sold to Henry du Pont, who bought it for his son, Henry Algernon du Pont. Henry Algernon and his wife, Pauline, moved to Winterthur in 1876. They made the house bigger and added more land, including pastures for Holstein cows.
When Henry Algernon's father died in 1889, he officially inherited Winterthur. He changed the main house to look like a French manor. Their son, Henry Francis (H. F.) du Pont, started managing the estate after his mother died in 1902.
H. F. du Pont's Vision
H. F. du Pont married Ruth Wales in 1916. In 1923, they visited a collector of American decorative arts named Electra Havemeyer Webb. H. F. du Pont said this trip made him interested in collecting American antiques. He was also inspired by interior decorator Henry Davis Sleeper, who decorated his home with American antiques and parts of old houses.
H. F. du Pont officially inherited Winterthur in 1927. At that time, the estate had over 2,600 acres and 90 buildings. H. F. and Ruth made the manor house three times bigger! They used parts from old American homes from the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. For example, they used wooden wall panels from historic houses. Each room in their home was decorated to show a different time period.
Winterthur Becomes a Museum
Winterthur is known as one of the "largest and richest museums of American furniture and decorative arts in the world." In 1951, H. F. du Pont turned his main mansion into a public museum. He then moved into a smaller house on the estate.
By 1959, the museum had grown to include a library, lecture halls, and more "period rooms." These rooms are set up to look exactly like homes from different historical times. When H. F. du Pont passed away in 1969, he had collected between 50,000 and 70,000 objects!
Today, the museum has several buildings. A large building for the library and conservation (caring for old objects) was opened in 1969. It was named after H. F.'s sister, Louise E. du Pont Crowninshield, who helped protect historic places. A special building was also built in the 1960s to welcome more visitors. In 1992, new galleries opened next to the main house. These galleries show special exhibits that change often.
Museum Leaders
Many people have led the Winterthur Museum since it opened. The current leader is Chris Strand. He used to be in charge of the gardens and estate before becoming the CEO.
Winterthur Today
The Museum Experience
Winterthur is located in northwestern Delaware, about six miles north of Wilmington. The museum and estate cover 979 acres, with 60 acres of beautiful, natural gardens.
The museum has 175 period rooms and about 90,000 objects. Most of these rooms can be seen on small, guided tours. The collection shows over 200 years of American decorative arts, mostly from 1640 to 1860. It includes some of the most important pieces of American furniture and fine art.
In 2002, the National Gallery of Art showed 300 objects from Winterthur in a special exhibit. The TV show Antiques Roadshow also filmed some episodes at Winterthur in 2019.
The Winterthur Library
The Winterthur Library started in 1952. It has more than 87,000 rare books and over 800,000 old papers and pictures. The library is free to visit by appointment. It has rare books, old magazines, catalogs, and photographs. These help people study American history, decorative arts, architecture, and gardening.
The library's history goes back to Pierre Samuel du Pont, an ancestor of the du Pont family, who collected 8,000 books. Later generations continued to add to the collection. H. F. du Pont especially loved collecting rare books from the 1600s and 1700s. He wanted the library to be a place for serious research. In 1969, the library moved to the Crowninshield Research Building.
Amazing Gardens and Grounds
H. F. du Pont loved plants and started taking care of the estate's grounds in 1909. He worked with a landscape architect, Marian Cruger Coffin, to design 70 acres of gardens. The estate also had greenhouses, an orchard, a vegetable garden, and a flower garden. It even had a butcher shop, a saw mill, and a dairy where H. F. du Pont raised award-winning Holstein cattle.
There are at least six garden "follies" (small, decorative buildings) throughout the grounds. You can take a tram ride through the gardens from March to December.
One person who inspired the gardens at Winterthur was William Robinson. His book The Wild Garden (1870) suggested planting large groups of strong plants in natural settings. The colors of the plants at Winterthur are chosen carefully. You can see hundreds of types of rhododendrons and azaleas, as well as peonies, daffodils, and dogwood trees. There is also a pinetum with different kinds of pine trees, firs, and hemlocks.
Chandler Farm, an old house on the Winterthur grounds, is where the director of Winterthur lives. Since 1991, Winterthur has offered paid internships for young people who want to learn about gardening and taking care of natural lands.
In 2002, Winterthur made sure that its land would always be protected and never be built on.
Learning Programs
Winterthur and the University of Delaware work together to offer two master's degree programs. One is about American material culture (studying objects from American history), and the other is about art conservation (learning how to care for and fix old art and objects). These programs have helped many students become artists, curators (people who manage museum collections), and scholars.
Winterthur also offers special study programs for researchers. These programs help people use the museum's collections for their studies.
Winterthur Journal
Since 1964, Winterthur has published a journal called Winterthur Portfolio: A Journal of American Material Culture. This journal shares new research about American history and objects.
What You Can See at Winterthur
- Main Museum: This is where you'll find the famous period rooms and offices.
- The Cottage: This was H. F. du Pont's home after the museum opened.
- The Galleries: These spaces hold special changing exhibits and permanent displays.
- Research Building: This building houses the library and facilities for caring for the collections.
- Visitors Center: This is where you start your visit, with a cafeteria and museum shop.
See also
In Spanish: Finca rural y museo Winterthur para niños
