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Family at Heart of Winterthur

Family has been at the heart of Winterthur’s story since the du Ponts settled here more than 200 years ago.

Today, Winterthur is still about family, with the Enchanted Woods play area enthralling young children for hours and upcoming programs that will entertain and educate family members, young and not-as-young alike. In fact, this fall we’re expanding our family programming on Saturdays, so stay tuned for more on that.

But summer is here, and there is much to do. We have Story Time scheduled for July 6 and 20, and our popular Terrific Tuesdays begin July 4 and continue weekly in July and August from 10 am to 3 pm.

Terrific Tuesdays this year will tell the story of the families who lived, worked, and played at Winterthur for decades before it became the museum, garden, and library that it is today.

Crafts, games, and demonstrations— all inspired by families who called this place home— will introduce history, art, conservation, and storytelling to kids ages 3 to 10 and the adults they bring along.

Winterthur has been home to three generations of the du Pont family, and it was a self-sufficient community where more than 250 people ran a thriving farming operation that included beef and dairy cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, horses, fruit, and vegetables.

Today we’re going to tell you some stories that were collected in 1973 from Maurice Gilliand, who began in 1944 to serve as a footman to Winterthur Museum founder Henry Francis du Pont (1880–1969). As Gilliand would quickly learn, du Pont was a renowned horticulturist with specific tastes, a love of food, an eye for décor, and a complicated disposition that could be prickly and kind, oftentimes at once.

Gilliand came from France to America in 1930 and he worked in houses on Long Island before coming to Winterthur. Gilliand’s wife, Doris, was hired as a chambermaid, and the couple lived in a small house on the estate.

There were about five footmen and a butler among a staff of 20. After two years, Gilliand was promoted to butler. Gilliand was flattered when du Pont made the offer, although he noted that du Pont warned him at the time that he was demanding and expected perfection. Gilliand nonetheless accepted and went on to learn a lot from du Pont.

“My duties were to set the table, of course, serve the meals, serve the teas, and serve cocktails and all that, and I was the man responsible to Mr. du Pont for the rest of the staff,” Gilliand recalled during an interview that is part of ongoing initiatives to preserve the history of the estate.

Maurice Gilliand prepares for guests

“And you directed the rest of the staff?” the interviewer inquired.

“I must say Mr. du Pont was the head butler,” Gilliand replied.

“Just as he was head gardener,” the interviewer observed. “Was the operation here different in any way from the other houses you had worked in? Was Mr. du Pont special in his approach?”

“Well, yes, much more so because any other house where I worked, the lady was in charge, but here Mr. du Pont was in complete charge of the house and planned everything, planned all the menus, and planned all the table settings,” Gilliand said.

On the weekends, the house would be filled with 16 to 18 house guests, with other visitors present only for meals, making two dozen people for a formal dinner.

On Wednesdays, a gardener would bring flower samples into the house for du Pont and Gilliand to match with china, table mats, and glassware for the dinner.

“Sometimes Mr. du Pont would ask me my opinion and then would say, ‘Maurice, Maurice, you must be color blind!’,” Gilliand remembered. “Now and again, Mr. du Pont would give me a free hand to make a selection. On one occasion when guests entered the dining room, they exclaimed, ‘Oh, Harry, Harry what a beautiful combination,’ and Mr. du Pont replied, ‘Oh yes, I have had this set of china for a long time, and this is the first that I was able to match it successfully.’ As I was standing nearby, he looked at me with the corner of his eye and winked, but he said, ‘I must admit to you it was Maurice who achieved this masterpiece.’ After dinner, Mr. du Pont put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Maurice, you have learned your lessons well, you are not color blind any longer.” This shows you that when you knew Mr. du Pont’s likes and dislikes, it did not take much to make him happy.”

The weekend guests arrived on Friday afternoons and were received in Port Royal Hall.

In the hall, it was mandatory for guests to sign the guestbook. Then tea was served in Port Royal Parlor, after which guests were taken to their rooms, Gilliand said.

Port Royal Hall
Port Royal Parlor

The footmen served cocktails at 8 pm in the Chinese Parlor and dinner at 8:30 in the Du Pont Dining Room.

Chinese Parlor
Du Pont Dining Room

“The food was plain, but the best, as it was nearly all produced on Winterthur Farms,” Gilliand recalled.

While the guests were dining, footmen and chambermaids took turns scrambling upstairs to tidy the guests’ bedrooms and put away all their clothes and belongings. They also removed the “good bedspreads” so no one would lie on them. Those bedspreads were just for decoration.

The du Ponts and their guests played bridge after dinner (Mr. du Pont was an expert) in the Chinese Parlor and the Marlboro Room.

Marlboro Room

Footmen served refreshments and sandwiches at 11 pm, and the game would resume until the wee hours of the morning.

Other nearby rooms—the Baltimore Room, Chestertown Room, and Empire Parlor–were never used for entertaining.

Baltimore Room
Empire Parlor

“These rooms were only for show,” Gilliand said. “Guests were never allowed to sit. Mr. du Pont was very strict about that. If he caught any sitting or leaning— No those were not used.”

Chestertown Room

Though the Chestertown Room was referred to as the “breakfast room,” the du Ponts and guests never ate there. They were instead always served breakfast in their bedrooms.

Gilliand said he believed he had only ever made one serious mistake for Mr. du Pont, and it wasn’t leaning on the furniture.

“I’ll never forget it the rest of my life,” Gilliand said.

Du Pont had told Gilliand to telephone a woman and include her on the guest list for an upcoming occasion. Unfortunately, Gilliand misunderstood the name.

“I came back to Mr. du Pont, and I said, ‘Mr. du Pont, Mrs. So-and-So accepts with pleasure,’” Gilliand said. “He said, ‘What lady?’ I said, “Mrs. So-and-So you invited.’ He said, ‘Maurice, damnation, damnation, how could you do such a thing, how could you? I didn’t want that lady for this dinner.’”

At that point, it was up to Gilliand to find a gentleman who could accompany the woman to the dinner. Or, at least, those were Mr. du Pont’s orders.

But Gilliand chose to solve the problem in a more straightforward way: He called her back and admitted his mistake.

He asked the woman if he could tell Mr. du Pont that she had overlooked a scheduling conflict and could not attend. He also asked whether she would keep the matter between herself and Gilliand.

She said, “Oh, don’t worry, Maurice, it won’t go any further.”

Gilliand returned to the study where Mr. du Pont was speaking with someone. Du Pont immediately told Gilliand to enter, as he always did, and the butler explained, “Mrs. So-and-So didn’t realize she had a previous engagement and she will not be able to keep your dinner date.”

Du Pont replied, “Maurice, too bad, too bad, sorry to hear about that.”

Gilliand said he did not know du Pont’s wife, Ruth, very well because she dealt exclusively with the female servants.

But Gilliand did know that she liked to tease her husband by pretending she could not hear him.

“So, he would repeat it and she would say, ‘What did you say, Harry?’ and he would blow his top,” Gilliand said. His wife would laugh and smile.

One time, du Pont yelled at Gilliand for something similar.

Gilliand legitimately did not understand something du Pont was saying, partly because he was speaking while holding a cigarette in his mouth.

After Gilliand twice asked du Pont to repeat himself, du Pont began to yell.

“So, I just walked out very quietly into the pantry and stayed there for a couple of seconds and I walked back and said, ‘Now, sir, what is it you are trying to tell me?’ Very nicely he came and told me what he wanted. After that, he never shouted at me, never.”

Du Pont treated his staff well and worked alongside them, Gilliand said.

During the week, Mr. du Pont would be up at 6 am and have a simple breakfast of “a glass of milk and a glass of orange juice.” He would then receive all the supervisors of the estate in his study to get an update on operations.

On the occasion of a large wedding with several hundred guests at the estate, du Pont threw a party for the staff when the wedding and reception were over.

“He left me enough wine, champagne, and whiskey to share with the staff,” Gilliand said.

Maurice Gilliand

“Mr. du Pont was a very good employer, kept many of his people for a lifetime,” Gilliand said. “He never was too busy to chat, or discuss problems, if any, and help you if he could. To me, he was a friend. I am still grateful for all the knowledge he gave me of American art, and he is missed by many of us.”

You can learn more about life at Winterthur during the upcoming Terrific Tuesdays.

The family that will be featured on the first Terrific Tuesday had roles running Winterthur’s post office, with the father also serving as a chauffeur to Mrs. du Pont.

One of the girls in the family recalls being on the farm with the du Ponts’ daughter, Ruth, and going with her to drink milk “straight from a cow.”

Bottoms up, and see you at Terrific Tuesday!

Cows on Winterthur farm
Featured

Millions of Bulbs?

The upcoming Bank to Bend event on March 9 celebrates the snowdrops on the March Bank, which also features winter aconites, snowflakes, and crocuses—and this year, because of the mild weather we are already seeing daffodils, scilla, and squill popping through the leaf litter. One of the questions that comes up often but that I am always a little hesitant to answer is, “How many bulbs are there in the March Bank?” I always say millions, with my fingers crossed behind my back because, after all, I have not counted them.

I finally decided to resolve this nagging doubt. Using Google Earth, I plotted the area of the March Bank, following the general boundaries of the area that we used for its restoration, but decreased them slightly. I drew a line from the Scroll Garden to the 1750 House, then over to Magnolia Bend, but I excluded the Glade. The area enclosed by this measurement is 6.9 acres, or 300,564 square feet.

Looking at one square foot of the March Bank, I chose an estimate of 10 bulbs per square foot. This number is very conservative—some areas have as many as 40–50 bulbs in a square foot, whereas others have only a few or no bulbs, including the paths and watercourses. So, 10 is probably a fair guess.

Next, I multiplied 300,564 (the number of square feet) by 10 (the average number of bulbs per square foot) and got 3,005,640 bulbs. Even if my assumptions are off by half, it would still be more than a million bulbs. I propose that saying the March Bank has “millions of bulbs” is well within the margin of error.

Please join us on March 9 to see these beautiful bulbs for yourself on a guided or self-guided walk.

Post by Chris Strand, Charles F. Montgomery Director and CEO of Winterthur

Point-to-Point returns for 46th year

WINTERTHUR, DE (March 13, 2024) – The 46th Annual Point-to-Point Races—with thrilling steeplechase horse races, an unparalleled tailgating atmosphere, delightful parades, and family fun—will take over the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library estate on May 5.

Tailgate parking spaces and event wristbands are on sale now. For more information and to purchase, visit winterthur.org/PTP. The Point-to-Point web page details pre-event offers, contests, hospitality tents, and more. The page will be updated periodically as the event approaches.

The sights and sounds of Point-to-Point will thrill spectators while the Winterthur Hunt area will entertain with games and activities for all ages. Point-to-Point is Winterthur’s largest annual fundraising event.

Proceeds from this year’s Point-to-Point support key environmental and landscape stewardship initiatives such as Winterthur’s Natural Lands program managing woodland, meadow, and wetland habitats throughout the estate; preservation of the Winterthur Garden; and initiatives to invite members and visitors to enjoy almost 1,000 acres of conserved land.

Tailgate Parking Spaces and Tailgate Tents

Tailgate parking spaces start at $300, and tailgate parking tents start at $750; both include four adult guest wristbands. Additional tailgate wristbands are available for purchase: $60 Guest; $30 Under 21; Children under 10 free, wristband required.

Member Wristbands

Winterthur Members can pack a picnic and join us on Members Hill for the races. Individual Member wristbands are $60 and can be purchased online.

Parking Options

Guest parking is free for wristband holders. Shorten your walk by purchasing closer parking. Premium Parking North $25/car; Premium Parking South $50/car (limited quantities).

ABOUT WINTERTHUR MUSEUM, GARDEN & LIBRARY

Winterthur—known worldwide for its preeminent collection of American decorative arts, naturalistic garden, and research library for the study of American art and material culture— offers a variety of tours, exhibitions, programs, and activities throughout the year.

Winterthur is located on Route 52, six miles northwest of Wilmington, Delaware, and five miles south of U.S. Route 1. Winterthur is committed to accessible programming for all. For information, including special services, call 800.448.3883 or visit winterthur.org.

Alexandra Cade and Tommy Dougherty

About the Artists

Alexandra Cade is a Ph.D. candidate in the history of American civilization at the University of Delaware. An interdisciplinary scholar and musician, Cade studies the material culture of music, performance, and tourism in the early 19th-century Atlantic World. She has worked at the Sigal Music Museum and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and has undertaken fellowships through Winterthur, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, and the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. Cade received her bachelor of music in viola performance from the Eastman School of Music and her master of arts degree from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, where she completed her thesis on amateur-made antebellum American pianos.

Tommy Dougherty is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is a violinist and composer of orchestral, chamber, and solo works. The Orchestra of St. Luke’s recently premiered a new work by Tommy through his participation in the DeGaetano Composition Institute, where he worked closely with mentor composer Anna Clyne. His music has been performed by the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, the Modern Violin Ensemble, and Alarm Will Sound, and he is the recipient of three ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Tommy currently lives in San Diego where he plays with the San Diego Symphony. 

The Winterthur Suite and Ruth’s Fugue in Chinese Parlor

The fugue composed by Ruth du Pont is the most complete of her musical creations. Trained in piano at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Ruth found joy and solace in playing and listening to music. While seeking inspiration for their own Winterthur composition, Allie Cade and Tommy Dougherty found Ruth’s fugue in the archives. This became the inspiration for the final movement of the Winterthur Suite. You can hear this movement in the Chinese Parlor on the introductory tour of the house rooms.

Beginning June 8, you can listen to the full Winterthur Suite in the Transformations exhibition.

Daniel Feinberg

About the Artist | The Radish Project in Empire Parlor

Working with radish and root-vegetable plants, artist Dan Feinberg, soil scientist Dr. Mary Parr, and teams at Winterthur and from Berea College are breaking up asphalt to improve drainage on the estate. The plantings are inspired by floors and carpets in the house. The pattern of the floor in the Empire Parlor is replicated near the Greenhouses, and a planting inspired by two carpets at Winterthur runs along the trail leading to the Dairy Barn. As the radish project winds down, Winterthur will replace the radishes with native species that can continue to provide ground cover and improve drainage and soil quality. 

Read more about the radish project at Winterthur.

From June 8, 2024 to January 5, 2025 additional installations related to the radish project will be on display in the Galleries Reception Atrium and in the Galleries. 

It’s Electric! New Tram a First for Winterthur

Winterthur staff recently enjoyed a serene journey around the estate aboard the museum’s inaugural—and pleasantly quiet—electric tram.

Priced at just over $70,000, the electric tram comes with a significant advantage: it’s approximately 40 percent cheaper than its gas-powered counterpart. During a recent test run with various staff taking turns on board, the tram gracefully traversed the garden paths for three hours, utilizing only half of its battery charge.

Eileen Scheck, manager of tour programs, said staff affectionately dubbed the tram “EVelina.”

The name was chosen, not just because of the play on the term “EV” for “electric vehicle,” but also for du Pont ancestor Evelina Gabrielle du Pont Bidermann (1796-1863), the first generation of du Ponts to garden at Winterthur.

Plans are underway to procure more electric trams if EVelina proves to be a success.

Charging EVelina is a breeze, with dedicated outlets conveniently located in a barn on the estate. With Winterthur boasting 118 buildings across nearly 1,000 acres, this strategic placement ensures easy access for maintenance and charging, said John Castle, director of facilities services.

Scheck praised EVelina’s agility, noting its narrower frame effortlessly navigated the estate’s winding pathways and Garden Lane. It’s a seamless addition to Winterthur’s fleet, which now includes six vehicles for guided tours: four gas-powered trams, one wheelchair-accessible garden bus, and EVelina.

“The introduction of our electric-powered tram enhances the multi-sensory experience of our open-air tours,” remarked Scheck. “Visitors can now engage fully in the sights, sounds, and scents of the garden, making for an unforgettable journey.”

With EVelina leading the charge, Winterthur continues to embrace innovation while preserving its rich heritage, offering visitors an eco-friendly and immersive way to explore the estate’s natural beauty.

The next time you come to explore our gardens on a guided Garden Tram Tour, be on the lookout for our very own electric tram and experience for yourself the gentle serenity of a ride aboard EVelina.

By the smiles on their faces, it seems Eileen Scheck, in the driver’s seat at left, and John Castle, in the rear-facing seat at the back of the new electric tram, enjoyed the recent test run of “EVelina.”

Richard Saja

About the Artist

Richard Saja is an artist making work in Catskill, New York. After first attending the University of the Arts in Philadelphia to study surface design, he devoted his studies to the great books of Western Civilization at St Johns College in Santa Fe, NM and received a BA as a math and philosophy major. After a brief stint working as an art director on Madison Avenue, all his interests coalesced and a small design firm, Historically Inaccurate Decorative Arts, was born in the early aughts and gradually evolved into a fine art practice. 

Though he occasionally feels the need to explore avenues of expression beyond that of the needle, the majority of Saja’s work focuses on creating interferences on the formal patterns of French toile through embroidery. 

He has exhibited internationally with shows in London, New York, Paris, Berlin and South Korea and will have a solo exhibition at the Toile de Jouy Museum in Jouy en Josas, France in 2023. 

Evolving Utopia in Port Royal Parlor

Richard’s enduring love and fascination for textiles derives from the absolutely unlimited interplay of pattern, color and texture – there is no other medium where this trinity is so fully realized. He came up with the embellished toile concept while waking from sleep years ago. The original idea was to embroider Maori facial tattoos onto figures in the print but he soon discovered there were no toile prints available where that concept could be realized because of the relatively small scale of nearly all toile prints.  He thus amended the concept slightly to include any and all embellishment. Historically, toile de Jouy is a print that through its dense repetition becomes anonymous. It’s a tabula rasa begging for context not unlike a child’s coloring book. The act of selectively embellishing small areas of it automatically inverts its historical usage: suddenly the anonymity of the print is broken and it evolves through its subversion which appeals greatly to Richard. With an economy of means, a whole new context is created. There is another story there, it just needs to be drawn out. 

Samara Weaver

About the Artist

Samara grew up making artwork her whole life. Having an artist for a father deeply influenced her. Samara received a bachelor’s and master’s in architecture from Temple University which further enhanced her artistic abilities and added another layer of reasoning and functionality to her work. Through college she was also able to add other skills to her artistic repertoire, taking oil painting and glass blowing alongside architecture classes. Samara uses many different mediums, includingpaper, watercolor, clay (ceramic), wood, photography, glass, wool (felt), dyes, oil paint, and metal. Using these different mediums allows her to choose the best ones for the project she’s working on. Her work has been displayed at venues including the Delaware Contemporary, The MEzeanine Gallery, Delaware Art Museum, and the Blue Ball Barn.

Conception to Realization in Readbourne Stair Hall

Samara has always been fascinated with materiality, resulting in her artistic exploration of various materials, using them to explore texture, color, and perspective. She combines large numbers of smaller, often simple elements into multi-faceted compositions, gaining complexity and space from their combination. In Conception to Realization Samara drew inspiration from objects in Readbourne Stair Hall and Parlor—the undulating pattern of the Anna Maria Garthwaite –designed silk depicted in the gown Ann Shippen Willing wears in her portrait and the intricately rolled paper pieces in the quillwork sconces. The work also resonates with these Winterthur objects made by, or depicting women, drawing attention to the skill and creativity of women makers from the past and today.

Heather Ossandon

About the Artist

Heather Ossandon creates ceramics that reflect her distinct background. Throughout her career, she has traveled through Asia, Central America, Europe, and the United States exploring and researching ceramics. These experiences have cultivated techniques and methods that are incorporated into her studio practice. Focusing on functional pottery and sculptural still lifes, traditional practices and everyday objects take the spotlight of her work. Ossandon creates and lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and is a Professor of Art at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland. She has shown her artworks both nationally and internationally and is represented by M.T. Burton Gallery, New Jersey. 

The Dinner Party in Du Pont Dining Room

Dishes with printed and painted decoration often encapsulate imagery of an idealized vision, a moment, or historical dramas. They are forever a curious and complicated object that exemplify the nuance of class, society, consumption, but also utility, ubiquity, and charm. Pink transfer-printed dishes adorning a pine cupboard that Henry Francis du Pont credited as inspiration for beginning a collection became the starting point for the “The Dinner Party” installation.  

The details of the miniature narratives found on these pink ceramics such as Abbey Ruins, European Landscape, and Willow Pattern were used to create a newly formed ceramic assemblage. The motifs and imagery that pepper the table create a playful vision of that stretches somewhere between the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional world. The assemblage was intended to be a puzzle of sorts, inviting the viewers to dissect and discover objects hidden within.

Read more about Heather’s previous installation at Winterthur.

Sharon Williams

About the Artists | Gee’s Bend Quilt in Montmorenci Stair Hall

Sharon and Jemica Williams are part of a community of quilters from Gee’s Bend (also known as Boykin), Alabama. Sharon learned to quilt from her mother and grandmother, and passed on this tradition with her daughter, Jemica. The quiltmakers in Boykin are well-known for making colorful patchwork designs that embody creativity, beauty and resilience. While museums and private collectors around the world have owned and showcased Gee’s Bend quilts for decades, the remote location of Boykin made direct sales from the quilters difficult. However, recent support from Nest, a nonprofit promoting greater gender equity and economic inclusion for makers, connected the quilters with Etsy where they can sell to customers around the world.

Blossom by Blossom, the Spring Begins

The Winterthur Garden is the embodiment of Swinburne’s sentiment. Henry Francis du Pont crafted his gardens to provide continuous waves of color throughout the year, with the most stunning display in springtime. What better way to bid winter adieu and herald spring’s reappearance than with a visit to Winterthur? Each year a host of vibrant beauties burst from the thawing ground as yellow aconites join white snowdrops until purple crocus, lavender glory of the snow, and blue scilla arrive to delight on the March Bank. Yellow and white daffodils begin to pop next, with hundreds of thousands emerging in masses thereafter around the estate. As the season progresses, bright red, pink, and white azaleas lure us to wander Azalea Woods in May.

“Blossom by blossom, the spring begins.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne

These are a just a few highlights. Join us all season long for invigorating exploration. Enjoy our annual outdoor spring offerings, including Bank to Bend, Daffodil Day, Sip Among the Blooms, and our exhilarating Point-to-Point steeplechase race. Don’t miss our House of Style Weekend in March and our self-paced spring house tour, Contemporary Art at Winterthur.

We hope you will be inspired and delighted by our many offerings this spring at Winterthur, where there’s always something new to discover!

Explore all of this season’s events and join us for the start of the season on March 2!

Andrew Raftery

About the Artist

Andrew Raftery is an artist specializing in fictional and autobiographical narratives of contemporary American life. Andrew loves prints for their ubiquitous role in our world: on wallpaper, ceramics, textiles, and other functional objects, such as bandboxes. He welcomes the challenge of using seemingly antiquated techniques such as engraving to treat contemporary subject matter. Andrew’s studio practice is research based, branching out into collaborations with museums and scholars. He is Professor of Printmaking at Rhode Island School of Design and is represented by Ryan Lee Gallery in New York. His home and studio are in Providence, Rhode Island.

Vues d’Italie by Dufour – Scene I and II in Baltimore Drinking Room

The rooms in this house-turned-museum are filled daily with the modern clothes, technology, and behaviors of the visitors and staff who walk these halls. Artist Andrew Raftery explores this collision of old and new, often adding intentional glimpses of museum life to his recreations of the scenes he observes, which he calls “a pictorial fiction.”  In 2021 Raftery first visited Winterthur and, over many visits, spent hours sketching and “reverse engineering” the Vues d’Italie wallpaper in this room. He decided to make sketches “that showed how I see the room, not what it looks like.”

Visit the Transformations exhibit in the Winterthur Galleries from June 8, 2024 – January 5, 2025 to see the Bandbox Project by Andrew Raftery and a collective of printmakers.