Hagley Museum & Winterthur
Homes of the Duponts
1 Days | Spring | Summer | Fall
Starting At $Flexible Pricing
Any visit to the Brandywine Valley should begin at Hagley — what you discover here will put your entire trip into context. It is here that the du Pont family first settled in America, built their first home, and began the black powder manufacturing business that became the foundation for all the other du Pont enterprises in the world. The continuing legacy of Hagley and the early family can then be explored in the splendor of Winterthur, Longwood Gardens and Nemours.
Highlights
Tour Highlights
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We are happy to accommodate Groups who want to add a night or two, or further customize their trip.
StarrGroups Flexible Pricing:
- Customizable Comps
- Commissionable or Net Rates
- Luxury or First Class Hotels & Meals
- Starr Tours Motorcoach Transportation & Professional Tours Managers are available
Whatever you want, StarrGroups will be happy to structure tour prices to match your needs. Just let us know!
Itinerary
Your trip begins early this morning when you board a Starr Tours Motorcoach and travel to Wilmington, DE. Any visit to the Brandywine Valley should begin at Hagley — what you discover here will put your entire trip into context. It is here that the du Pont family first settled in America, built their first home, and began the black powder manufacturing business that became the foundation for all the other du Pont enterprises in the world. The continuing legacy of Hagley and the early family can then be explored in the splendor of Winterthur, Longwood Gardens and Nemours.
At Hagley you will see demonstrations of the nineteenth-century machine shop, watch a water turbine make the eight-ton iron mill roll to life and witness a black powder explosion. On the second half of the tour, you will visit the du Pont family home, the first office, and their first garden and learn about how the family lived, worked, and played at Hagley.
On arrival at Winterthur, The Pavilion Cafe should be your first stop. Located in the Visitor Center it offers grab and go sandwiches, wraps, and salads; soup of the day; sweet treats and snacks; and coffee, tea, and assorted bottled beverages. It makes a nice light luncheon with the cost easily left to each person individually.
The afternoon begins with a self-guided tour into the premier entertaining rooms enjoyed by Henry Francis du Pont’s friends in the 1930s and ’40s. At that time, guests arriving at Winterthur for a country house weekend were ushered first to the Marlboro Room for afternoon tea and later were escorted to the magnificent dining room for a meal consisting almost entirely of foods grown on the estate.
After dinner, guests might retire to the Chinese Parlor to enjoy a game of cards while listening to Ruth du Pont play show tunes on her Steinway. Or, they might relax in the Conservatory amid H. F. du Pont’s ever-changing display of blooming plants, before ascending the elegant curving Montmorenci Staircase to their bedrooms.
Walk in their footsteps among the exquisite objects that make up Winterthur’s premier collection of American decorative arts and elegant rooms accented with abundant flowers taken fresh from the Winterthur cutting garden and greenhouse.
During your visit you will see highlights of the garden from a seat on the tram. Learn about the history of Winterthur and see what’s in bloom on this 20-minute narrated tour. The tour begins at the Visitor Center and ends at the museum. Stops include Azalea Woods, Magnolia Bend, and Enchanted Woods.
Also included during our visit is the Campbell Collection of Soup Tureens. It features sculpted metals, precious porcelains and elegant earthenwares among the materials found in this wide range of tureens and soup-related objects made in Europe, Asia and America. The dates range from 1720 to modern times.
This collection started in 1966, when John T. Dorrance Jr., chairman of the Campbell Soup Company, and W. B. Murphy, the company president, began collecting them. The collection came to Winterthur and the gallery opened in 1997.
The Winterthur Museum is filled with decorative objects collected and arranged according to the aesthetic principles of its visionary, Henry Francis du Pont. A passionate collector throughout his life, he turned his home into a showplace, then opened it as a museum to share America’s diverse stories with the public.
The collection of more than 90,000 objects includes items ranging from the streamlined, functional furniture produced by the Shakers to opulent masterworks of 18th-century craftsmanship. Fine art such as works by America’s greatest early painters also fill the rooms, as well as objects newly discovered and understood to be the work of enslaved individuals.
Du Pont created spaces where his visitors would be immersed in beauty as well as history and the museum honors that tradition today, preserving the aesthetics while also telling you the lesser-known stories of people and events that shaped our nation.