HMUSEUM AND LIBRARYaglVOL.e 36 NO. 1 ySPRING 2007 Hagley’s Fiftieth Anniversary Anniversaries seem extra the company. It is also one of special for Hagley, since it was considerable importance to a an anniversary that inspired the proper appreciation of American creation of the institution. This history,” du Pont noted in his May, Hagley celebrates with a speech. “History, whether it is special ceremony and exhibit, of a country, an institution, or “Hagley at Fifty: Exploding with a family, is meaningless unless History.” The exhibit opens its lessons can, by precept and to the public on Monday, May 21, with festivities to include a ceremony at the Visitor Center. On Thursday, May 24, the actual anniversary, the museum will be open to the public free of charge with extended hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Be sure to mark your calendars for both dates and read on to relive some of the highlights of Hagley’s inception and history. Early in the discussions of how to celebrate an important DuPont Company anniversary, the idea of a permanent example, be brought home to commemorative was considered. future generations. The history As Henry B. du Pont, a great- of the Brandywine and its early great-grandson of E. I. du Pont mills is an eloquent testimonial and vice president of the DuPont of a lesson and ideal which Company, noted at a ceremony should never be forgotten….” for Hagley on May 23, 1957, So began the plans for a “the idea behind this museum historic site, open to the public, and the opening of the grounds that today is known as Hagley as a historic park goes back to Museum and Library. The 1952 when we were making museum opened to the public on plans for the company’s 150th May 24, 1957, and the stream of anniversary.” visitors began. Like the company, The remnants of E. I. which grew from a small, one- du Pont’s early powder mills, product, family-run business the dams, the millraces, and to an international corporation the family residence were in whose plants and products a rustic setting of great and spanned the world, Hagley would natural beauty on the banks of see progress and change. the Brandywine. “This site is By the time of the museum one of great sentimental value opening a professional staff was to many of us in the family and in place and had been working NEWSLETTER continued Hagley’s Fiftieth Anniversary (continued) for several years. Henry Clay Birkenhead Mills once again in nineteenth-century lifestyle, Mill, formerly a textile mill, was turned in the Hagley Yard, and visitors could now see the renovated and famed industrial attention shifted to the “upper foreman’s home on Workers’ designer Walter Dorwin Teague property” with an archaeological Hill, the Sunday school where the children were educated, and an operating machine shop along the millrace. With the success of the educational program on Workers’ Hill, more programs Louise du Pont for families were created in the Crowninshield on 1990s to bring new audiences the steps of the Visitor to Hagley. These included the Center, 1957 Storybook Garden Party event, the Powder Keg Kids club, the Kid Central area at Fireworks, and the Hagley Car Show. In 2002 another DuPont Company anniversary, this time the bicentennial, brought marked improvements to Hagley. The museum’s 1884 Power Plant was renovated to be the new home of the school program. Also, two exhibits were added to the museum’s Visitor Center. “DuPont: The Explosives Era” focuses on the company’s first 100 years and its contribution was selected to design the dig where the garden had been to building the infrastructure exhibits. The introductory and restoration of the First of America. The DuPont exhibit was a large relief map Office. In 1964, the Eleutherian Company’s story is continued of the Brandywine Valley with Mills Residence was opened in the “DuPont Science and narration and light sequence. In to the public as part of the Discovery” exhibit, which takes addition to working models and museum. visitors through the company’s displays of artifacts, dioramas Jacqueline A. Hinsley, who transition from a nineteenth- Identification told the story of early industry headed the museum research century manufacturer of Statement on the Brandywine. department for many years, explosives to the research-based Publication Title: The decade of the 1960s noted: “By the end of its second firm that has helped transform Hagley Museum was a time of growth for Hagley decade, in the mid-seventies— everyday life in the twentieth and Library in its collections, programs, with full-scale restorations, century. With the opening of Statement of restorations, and research. In operating machinery, and some these exhibits, the museum Frequency: Published Quarterly 1961 the Longwood Library, two-dozen buildings connected offered visitors a complete look which contained du Pont family by hillside and river paths, or at 200 years of the DuPont Name and Address: Hagley Museum and DuPont Company papers by bus—Hagley had clearly Company’s history. and Library collected by Pierre S. du Pont, become an indoor/outdoor As the anniversary P.O. Box 3630 merged with Hagley and was museum with a major focus on approaches, you can look Wilmington, Delaware relocated to a new building education.” forward to a year of related 19807-0630 on the Brandywine. Later By the early 1980s, activities (see details in the Phone: (302) 658-2400 that decade the Millwright the museum’s emphasis had Director’s Column) plus some Editing: Jill MacKenzie Shop opened and brought shifted to encompass the lives exciting changes on the property Suzanna Rogers the technology of gunpowder of the workers who worked that will be announced in the Design: Adam Albright manufacture to life for in the mills. Building on the next issue of this newsletter. Photography: visitors. The waterwheel in the museum’s educational program Kathleen Buckalew PAGE 2 Collections Highlight The DuPont Magazine operations, including product Photograph Collection, 1960-1965 research, design, testing, and marketing. In 1955, Time As a corporation based on Magazine cited the monthly scientific discovery, E. I. du Pont as one the country’s best de Nemours and Company corporate publications. has promoted its technological The DuPont Magazine contributions to American society Photograph Collection, 1960- in a variety of ways. Before the 1965, consists of more than advent of the internet and the 1,000 photographs organized company’s web-based Daily News into 280 sets of negatives Report, The DuPont Magazine was and prints created for use in its prime source of communication particular articles, many of with the American public and its which were never published business clients. in the magazine. The photos Beginning as a pocket were shot by a number of tabloid in 1913, The DuPont photographers, including Magazine and Agricultural Cornell Capa, Ezra Stoller, Blaster featured columns such and Larry Keighley. The as “Farming with Dynamite,” collection includes images of with reports from “blasters” DuPont products used in a around the country. In 1918 variety of consumer goods, the magazine moved to a larger such as clothing, kitchenware, magazine layout with a color home furnishings, and cover, geared to attract a more firearms. It also includes urban audience with articles such images of workers on the job as “A Topcoat for Your Car.” using DuPont explosives, After World War II, The paints, fabrics, plastics, DuPont Magazine introduced and other products in the color photography and modeled construction, auto, aerospace, itself after publications such publication, food packing, and as Life Magazine. The new telecommunications industries. format emphasized the many The collection is open for uses of a broad range of research, and an inventory is DuPont products in the home available in the online catalog at and on the job. Readers were www.hagley.org. also provided with a behind- the-scenes look at company Top: Promotional photo used for the 1964 DuPont Touring Fashion Show. The glen plaid suit was by Bill Blass for Maurice Rentner and was made of DuPont Antron®, a wool and metallic yarn fabric. Middle: View of the construction of the Goodyear blimp Columbia at the company’s hangar in Litchfield Park, Arizona, in 1963. The Columbia flew advertising missions over public events on the West Coast until 1998 and was constructed of DuPont Dacron® fabric. Right: Interior view of the Trans World Airlines New York passenger terminal, shot shortly after its completion in 1963. The terminal’s free form was designed by Eero Saarinen and employed DuPont Tontine Triglas® fabric for its vertical blinds. PAGE 3 Happening at Hagley Art and Antiques The Delaware Foundation collections, including that of the In the DFVA tradition, for the Visual Arts (DFVA) White House. this year’s show will present an proudly presents the eighth An impressive group extraordinary opportunity to own edition of its Art and Antiques of more than seventy other a collection of framed miniatures Show at the Hagley Soda House. well-known artists from the painted by outstanding artists of This year’s show, featuring the Brandywine Valley area will the area. The silent auction for work of local artist (and owner also exhibit and sell new works the miniature collection benefits of Newark’s Hardcastle Gallery) created for the event. They the DFVA. Michael Brock, will take place include Charles Allmond, Larry Hagley members are invited on Saturday and Sunday, March Anderson, Kathy Ruck, Roy to a special preview reception 24 and 25. Brock is a DFVA Blankenship, Thomas Frey, on Friday, March 23, from 5 to member and a self-taught artist Lorann Jacobs, Joyce Ziegler, 7 p.m.