Winterthur and My Delaware Trip

In the 1920's Henry Francis DuPont inherited his family home and estate in the countryside of Delaware. Named for his ancestor's home town in Switzerland, Winterthur became DuPont's realization of an American version of the ancient old estates in the countryside of England, but instead of housing just one family's collection of heirlooms and art, DuPont sought to ensure the heritage of all of America's fine and decorative arts.

He was an avid collector of antique furniture and decorative arts, and in a time when most American's were focusing on modernization and technological advances, DuPont sought to preserve America's heritage in a great museum. Over the years he transformed Winterthur into a showcase of America's treasures. He filled rooms with gorgeous arrangements of furniture, textiles, ceramics, silver, and art, from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. When he ran out of rooms, he built more and more. As old buildings were being torn down in New York and elsewhere, DuPont bought entire rooms from those old houses and installed them in his house/musuem.

Not only did DuPont create an elaborately beautiful museum of interiors, he paid special attention to the hundreds of acres around his home. Today, oak forests and glades of conifers open up into lush meadows of rolling hills, which surround enchanted gardens of peonies, azaleas, and, depending on the season, multitudes of other flowers. A surprisingly stunning view can be seen around every corner, even in winter.

In the 1950s Winterthur became a museum in reality. DuPont lived nearby, overseeing things and collecting, right up until the end of his long life. Now, Winterthur is known as a leader in the preservation and scholarship of American antiques and decorative arts. It houses an extensive library, conservation lab, and even a graduate school.

My class spent three days there, learning and studying and soaking it all in. I learned so much! The rooms are amazing, full of incredible pieces in the most beautiful arrangements. I've never seen so many superb antique treasures in one place in my life. I learned about the conservation of textiles, paper, and paintings. I got to look through the library of rare books and ephemera, even leaf through paper dolls from the early 1800s, and I saw technicians busy at work restoring a badly damaged Charles Willson Peale painting.

Our trip coincided with the Delaware Winter Antiques Show, an annual event at which dealers from around the country get together to sell their wares to collectors. Though just students, we were able to gain admission to the opening night gala, and spent that night dressed to the nines, hobnobbing with big collectors and antiques experts, eating fancy appetizers and frantically trying to select an appropriately fine antique specimen to be the subject of a certain 10-page paper due in two weeks.

I chose a charming Lehn-ware cup and saucer, made by Joseph Lehn, a Pennsylvanian Mennonite farmer in the mid 19th century. His turned and painted wood pieces were made and sold just for fun, and now are highly collectible. I was charmed by the little strawberries painted on it, and its bright, rare, yellow color. During the upcoming week I'll research it as much as I can--my paper has to be an argument about why it would be a good purchase for a collector or museum.

This trip was short but extremely packed. I feel like I learned an incredible amount in such a short time. But my favorite part, by far, was the free time I had to just stroll around the grounds of Winterthur on my own, breathing in the clean fresh country air, and admiring the colorful fall foliage. No flowers, save a few late lilies, were in bloom, but the gardens were still enchantingly beautiful. I wandered through the Pinetum, where little brown birds clucked inside bushes covered in red berries. Old twisted cherry trees contrasted with enormously tall straight pines, and everywhere I looked I found a secluded nook with a bench, or a sundial, or a terrace overlooking a spacious meadow. Behind the huge house/museum I caught a view of myself in a deep leaf-covered reflecting pool, and, walking over a Japanese bridge, a dozen gigantic silver and gold carp rose from muddy depths to follow me along the edge of their pond.

Reluctantly, I returned to New York, on a cold rainy, traffic-filled Friday evening, with the peace and still beauty of Winterthur in my heart.