Hagley's picturesque
grounds have been called "The Brandywine Valley's Most Beautiful Mile".
Company
K-1 Reunion in Pennsylvania…
Hagley Museum and Library is where the du Pont story begins. Located along
235-acres along the banks of the Brandywine, Hagley is the site of the gunpowder
works founded by E. I. du Pont in 1802. It provides a glimpse at early American
industry and includes restored mills, a workers' community, and the ancestral
home and gardens of the du Pont family. The museum grounds provide some of the
most beautiful scenery in Brandywine valley no matter what the season. Make sure
to budget some time just to soak in the views of the river.
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Hagley's picturesque
grounds have been called "The Brandywine Valley's Most Beautiful Mile". |
Exhibits and dioramas in the Visitor Center document the Brandywine
Valley's early eras, look at the role of explosives in the nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century life, and provide an interactive tour of the DuPont Company's
history.
The Powder Yard offers an in-depth look at the making of DuPont's
original product, black powder. The Eagle Roll Mill provides a particularly
dramatic demonstration as the energy of the river's falling water turns two
eight-ton iron wheels to mix the ingredients of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal.
At the base of Workers' Hill a restored machine shop of the 1880s offers an
exciting picture of change in the workplace. The din of old metal-working tools
in operation with whirring belts and grinding metal replaced the quiet,
painstaking hand-tooling of the earlier artisans. Volunteer demonstrators
explain the machines as they work.
On Workers' Hill a typical workers' community has been restored. There, a
visit through the Gibbons House reveals the lifestyle of a powder-yard Forman's
family-the foods they ate and the furniture and conveniences they acquired.
Nearby is the school they attended, with lesson demonstrations that show how
children were taught before there was a public school in the area.
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Hagley also focuses its attention on the lives of the mostly Irish families who
lived and worked in the yards, with interpreters in period dress conducting
tours and live demonstrations of domestic chores and activities in the actual
homes of the powder yard foremen and their families.
The Hagley grounds also include the charming Georgian-style mansion
Eleutherian Mills, the first du Pont family home in America. Built by du
Pont Company founder E.I. du Pont in 1803, the Georgian-style residence reflects
the tastes of the five generations of du Ponts who lived there. Empire, Federal,
and Victorian periods of furniture are highlighted in various room settings.
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Located in front of the du Pont home, an authentically restored
nineteenth-century garden, of French design, reflects E. I. du Pont's love of
botany and gardening.
Hagley's Belin House Restaurant is located on the museum's Workers' Hill.
This restored community depicts the home lives of the DuPont Company mill
workers and their families. Once home to several generations of company
bookkeepers, today the Belin House provides a panoramic view for visitors to
enjoy while dining. Visitors may enjoy selections from the menu daily from March
15 through November and on weekends in December. Their menu offers a wide
selection of soups, salads, sandwiches, and specialties like the Hagley Burger
(Boursin cheese and sautéed mushrooms).
The Hagley Store carries a delightful selection of decorative items,
reading materials, and gifts. Gift items include antique reproduction jewelry,
china, glassware, site-related posters and prints, carbide cannons and
transportation pieces, desk accessories, and stationery. Located in a historic
building, once used for cotton and wool picking, the store offers a lovely
shopping experience touched with the ambiance of nineteenth-century America.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hagley Museum and Library is a
nonprofit educational institution
located in
Wilmington, Delaware. Hagley Museum
and Library collects, preserves and interprets the history of American
enterprise.
Hagley Museum and Library, collects, preserves, and interprets the unfolding
history of American enterprise. Hagley Museum has been accredited by the
American Association of Museums since 1972.
Located on 235 acres along the banks of the Brandywine River in Wilmington, Delaware, Hagley is the site of the gunpowder works founded by E. I. du Pont in 1802. This example of early American industry includes restored mills, a workers' community, and the ancestral home and gardens of the du Pont family.
Hagley's library furthers the study of business and technology in America. The
collections include individuals' papers and companies' records ranging from
eighteenth-century merchants to modern telecommunications and illustrate the
impact of the business system on society.
The Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society organizes and
administers the Hagley Museum and Library's interaction with the world of
scholarship. It brings attention to Hagley's research collections and generates
intellectual dialogue at Hagley.
Hagley Museum and Library collects, preserves, and interprets the unfolding
history of American enterprise. Hagley’s collections document the interaction
between business and the cultural, social, and political dimensions of our
society from the late 18th century to the present.
The library is organized into six departments:
Manuscripts and
Archives,
Pictorial Collections,
Imprints,
Digital Archives,
Conservation,
and the Center for the
History of Business, Technology, and Society.
Current holdings comprise 34,000 linear feet in the Manuscripts and Archives
Department, 2 million visual items in the Pictorial Collections Department, and
280,000 printed volumes in the Imprints Department. The Center sponsors
conferences and
seminars and manages a
research grant program.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The Hagley Museum exhibits history from the early years of the du Pont family
and corporation in the Brandywine Valley. It features the original du Pont
mills, estate and gardens. The museum opened in 1957. The Hagley Museum and
Library extends over 235 acres (0.95 km²) along the banks of the
Brandywine Creek. Exhibits and
demonstrations showcase the connections between early industrial technology and
early American history. The Hagley Museum also exhibits personal stories of the
people who worked for the DuPont Company in the nineteenth century, how they
lived, and how their lifestyles changed during a century in tune with new
machinery and new production methods in their workplace.
In 1802 a French immigrant,
Eleuthere Irenee du Pont, chose the
banks of
Brandywine Creek to start his black
powder mills. He chose the location because of the natural energy that the water
provided; the availability of timber and willow trees (used to produce quality
charcoal required for superior black powder); the proximity to the Delaware
River (on which other ingredients of the powder, sulfur, and saltpeter could be
shipped); and the quarries of granite which would provide building materials for
the mills. The E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's black powder manufactory
became the largest in the world. In 1921 the mills along the Brandywine closed
and parcels of the property were sold. It was on the occasion of the DuPont
Company's 150th anniversary in 1952,that plans for a museum were established. Of
course this is the site that began the DuPont legacy and it is located at the
midpoint of the
DuPont Historic Corridor.
Hagley historians only know that the name was already in use well before E.I. du
Pont expanded downstream from
Eleutherian Mills in
1813 by purchasing the land that
became the Hagley Yards. An 1813 document refers to the land as Hagley and it
had been called Hagley as early as 1797, when its owner,
Philadelphia
Quaker merchant Rumford Dawes,
applied for insurance on buildings that were said to be located in a place
called Hagley on the Brandywine. Dawes had acquired the property in 1783. Since
the name Hagley did not appear on the documents transferring ownership at that
time, it seems likely that Dawes gave this name to the Brandywine location.
It seems likely that Delaware's Hagley was named for an English estate that was
well known in the second half of the eighteenth century. It is likely that Dawes
chose the name based on an English narrative poem by
James Thomson.
Hagley Hall was the seat of Thomson's
patron the
Baron Lyttleton, and the poem's
description of a sylvan dale is strikingly reminiscent of the Brandywine Valley.
The Seasons was popular in Philadelphia at the time that Rumford Dawes
acquired and named Hagley. No other place of that name is known to have existed
in eighteenth- century Europe or America. The English Hagley estate is located
in the
West Midlands countryside
approximately ten miles southeast of
Birmingham.
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