Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 12-14 September 2012
Winterthur
Six years ago, Meriam and I had the pleasure of spending one day at Winterthur. We realized at the time one day was nowhere near enough time to appreciate this jewel of an American museum. So on this trip, we returned to spend three days, hoping to see most of it.
Winterthur was the home of Henry Francis duPont, heir to the duPont fortune. Winterthur is located in Delaware, in the magnificent Brandywine Valley. The first part of house was built prior to 1867. It’s first addition was added in 1929 when Mr. duPont began his life quest of collecting/securing early American houses and furnishings. He decided at that time he would collect only handmade antique American furnishings to showcase in his house. He continued to made additions to the house until his death in 1959.
Mr. duPont had three passions in life. In addition to his interests in collecting early American furnishing and structures, he loved gardens and raising dairy cattle. His passion for dairy cattle resulted in the breeding of the modern dairy cow.
Almost from the beginning, after he inherited the house from his father in 1926, he planned to make Winterthur a museum. He opened his home as a museum in 1948. He then built a “cottage” adjacent to the museum for he and his wife to live in. This cottage only contained a measly 45 rooms, a significant step down from the museum with its 174 rooms!
As you review the attached photographs, please remember that all the architectural details in the museum such as moldings, paneling, wall paper, doors, chandeliers, etc were purchased and removed from original period houses from all across America. As Mr. duPont would purchase these various structures/items, he would then add a room (height, width, etc) to his museum to transplant the original house foot print and furnishings.
We could take photographs of the exterior and a “museum within the museum”. Of the numerous tours through the 174 rooms, only one tour allows photographing. This is unfortunate since most of the magnificence of the museum cannot be show here!
During the 3 days we sent here, taking reserved tours, we still did not get to see all the rooms. There is a limit of 5 people on each of the reserved tours. Through the Winterthur Institute, Meriam got to spend time with the textile curator of Winterthur and got to see the textile vaults of the conservatory.
In the attached photographs we hope you get a sense of Mr. duPont’s passions and the magnificence of his museum and a glimpse of his contribution to the world, for generations to come.
NOTE: Since there are 28 photographs associated with this posting, we have chosen to publish them on a separate page. Please select “Winterthur” from the Pages tab on the menu bar above.