View source for Hagley Museum and Library

{{short description|Nonprofit museum and library in Wilmington, Delaware}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2016}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2012}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name           = Hagley Museum and Library
| nrhp_type      = nhld
| nocat          = yes
| image          = Hagley museum.JPG
| caption        =
| nearest_city   = [[Wilmington, Delaware]], U.S.
| coordinates    = {{coord|39|46|50|N|75|34|30|W|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin       = Delaware#USA
| area           = {{convert|235|acre|ha}}
| built          = beginning 1802
| architect      =
| architecture   =
| website        = {{URL|https://www.hagley.org}}
| added          = November 13, 1966
| refnum         = 84000819<ref name="nris">{{NRISref |refnum=84000819|2008a}}</ref>
| sigdate1_label = Opened
| sigdate1       = 1957
| sigdate2_label =
| sigdate2       =
| sigdate3_label = 
}}

The '''Hagley Museum and Library''' is a nonprofit educational institution in [[unincorporated area|unincorporated]] [[New Castle County, Delaware]], near [[Wilmington, Delaware|Wilmington]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hagley.org/|title=Home|publisher=Hagley Museum and Library|access-date=2021-07-03|quote=200 Hagley Creek Road Wilmington, DE 19807}} - It is outside of the [https://www.wilmingtonde.gov/home/showpublisheddocument?id=364 Wilmington city limits]</ref> Covering more than {{convert|235|acre}} along the banks of the [[Brandywine Creek (Christina River)|Brandywine Creek]], the museum and grounds include the first [[du Pont family]] home and garden in the United States, the powder yards, and a 19th-century machine shop.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-06-25|title=In Delaware and Pennsylvania, a peek at the homes that big money built|url=https://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-delaware-pennsylvania-mansions-gardens20150624-htmlstory.html|access-date=2021-11-08|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref> On the hillside below the mansion lies a [[Renaissance Revival architecture|Renaissance Revival]] garden, with terraces and statuary,<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-04-23|title=Crowninshield Garden|url=https://www.hagley.org/plan-your-visit/what-to-see/exhibits/crowninshield-garden|access-date=2021-11-08|website=Hagley|language=en}}</ref> created in the 1920s by [[Louise E. du Pont Crowninshield|Louise Evelina du Pont Crowninshield]] (1877–1958).<ref name="Hagley Museum and Library: What is Hagley">{{cite web|url=http://www.hagley.org/about-us/what-is-hagley|title=What is Hagley|date=January 15, 2016 |publisher=Hagley Museum|access-date=29 November 2016}}</ref>

== History ==
In 1802, French immigrant [[Éleuthère Irénée du Pont]] founded [[Eleutherian Mills|black powder mills]] on the banks of Brandywine Creek<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bradner|first=Liesl|date=2015-06-25|title=In Delaware and Pennsylvania, a peek at the homes that big money built|url=https://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-delaware-pennsylvania-mansions-gardens20150624-htmlstory.html|access-date=2020-08-22|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref> after purchasing the property in 1801 for {{USD|6700|1801|round=-3}}.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Gordon|first=Renée S.|date=2019-10-04|title=Smooth Traveler: Wilmington, Delaware's "Chateau Country"|url=https://www.philasun.com/travel/smooth-traveler-wilmington-delawares-chateau-country/|access-date=2020-08-22|website=The Philadelphia Sunday Sun|language=en-US}}</ref> He chose the location for the river's tumble over the [[Atlantic Seaboard fall line|Fall Line]] which provided power, 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 [[gneiss]] that would provide construction materials for the mills.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Brandywine River Powder Mills|url=https://www.asme.org/About-ASME/Engineering-History/Landmarks/221-Brandywine-River-Powder-Mills|access-date=2021-11-12|website=www.asme.org|language=en}}</ref> The [[DuPont (1802–2017)|E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company]]'s black powder factory became the largest in the world.

In 1921, the mills along the Brandywine closed and parcels of the property were sold. Plans for a museum were established 31 years later, on the occasion of the DuPont Company's 150th anniversary in 1952.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hagley Museum, a DuPont History, Wilmington, Delaware - Travel Photos by Galen R Frysinger, Sheboygan, Wisconsin |url=http://www.galenfrysinger.com/delaware_hagley_museum.htm|access-date=2021-11-12|website=www.galenfrysinger.com}}</ref>

=== Etymology ===
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.<ref name="Hagley Museum and Library: What is Hagley" />

It seems likely that Delaware's Hagley was named for an English estate, [[Hagley Hall]] 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 entitled ''[[The Seasons (Thomson poem)|The Seasons]]'' by [[James Thomson (poet, born 1700)|James Thomson]]. Hagley Hall was the seat of Thomson's patron the [[George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton|Baron Lyttelton]], 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. The English Hagley estate is located in the [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands]] countryside about ten miles southwest of [[Birmingham]].<ref name="Hagley Museum and Library: What is Hagley" /> Perhaps coincidentally, Delaware's Hagley is about 8 miles south of [[Chadds Ford Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Chadds Ford Township]], officially known as Birmingham Township before 1996.

At about the same time, Hagley Plantation on the [[Waccamaw River]] in [[South Carolina]] got its name when the owners, who were admirers of English culture, chose the name Hagley to remind them of the well-known parkland of that name near London.<ref name="History">{{Cite web|url=http://www.hagleyestates.com/History.htm|title=History|website=www.hagleyestates.com|access-date=2016-03-09}}</ref>

=== Timeline ===
* November 1952: The Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation, a non-profit, educational corporation received its charter from the State of Delaware.
* May 1957: Hagley Museum was dedicated with the opening of the Henry Clay Mill building.
* 1961: The Longwood Library, founded in 1954 by [[Pierre S. du Pont]], merged with Hagley Museum and opened at the site of the original DuPont Company's powder works at Hagley.
* 1962: Eleutherian Mills, the du Pont family's ancestral home, was opened to the public.
* 1966: Designation of museum property as a [[National Historic Landmark]].
* 1969: Restoration of the first DuPont company office was completed.
* 1971: Restoration of the E.I. du Pont Garden began.
* 1982: Workers' Hill opened. First fireworks show produced for Hagley members in honor of the museum's 25th anniversary. The annual fireworks continues on two weekends in June.
* 1984: Hagley Museum and Library was designated as the official name of the institution. (Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation continued as the legal corporation name of the organization.)
* 1996: Hagley's first car show, 100 Years of Cars, held to honor 100 years of America's automotive heritage. The annual car show continues on the third Sunday in September.
* 1999: The kitchen in Hagley's Eleutherian Mills opens to visitors.
* 2002: Two new exhibits, "DuPont Science and Discovery" and "DuPont: The Explosives Era", open at Hagley in honor of the DuPont corporation's 200th anniversary.
* 2007: Accessible entrance to Visitors Center welcomes visitors to the museum's 50th anniversary exhibit, "Hagley at Fifty: Exploding with History."

==Operations==
Opened in 1957, the Hagley Museum features exhibits and demonstrations that show the connections between early industrial technology and early American history, focusing on the histories of the du Pont family, DuPont company, explosives and [[gunpowder]], and innovation (through a large collection of American [[Patent model]]s<ref>{{cite web |title=American Patent Models |url=https://www.hagley.org/patentmodels |website=Hagley |date=February 27, 2017 |publisher=Hagley Museum and Library |access-date=19 September 2021}}</ref>).<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Mordock|first1=Jeff|last2=Fishman|first2=Margie|last3=Mordock|first3=Jeff|date=March 23, 2017|title=DuPont gives hotel art to 3 area museums, United Way|url=https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2017/03/22/dupont-gives-hotel-art-3-area-museums-united-way/99486618/|access-date=2020-08-22|website=The News Journal|language=en-US}}</ref> There are indoor and outdoor exhibitions, along with restored mills, a workers community, and the original home of the du Pont family with an attached garden.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Dyroff|first=Denny|date=July 31, 2020|title=What To Do: Beat cabin fever, enjoy local outdoor attractions |url=https://chescotimes.com/?p=32577|access-date=2020-08-22|website=The Times of Chester County}}</ref>

The Museum also explores personal stories of the 19th-century DuPont Company employees, how they lived, and how their lifestyles changed along with new machinery and new production methods.<ref name="Hagley Museum and Library: Collections Overview">[http://www.hagley.org/research/collections Hagley Museum and Library: Collections Overview]</ref> Visitors can ride a narrated bus tour, through the Powder Yard Trail and is the only way to the home.<ref name=":1" />

== Library ==
The '''Eleutherian Mills Historical Library''' was dedicated on October 7, 1961.<ref name="EMHL">{{cite web |url=https://digital.hagley.org/2011324 |title=Eleutherian Mills Historical Library Dedication |website=Hagley Museum and Library |access-date=March 18, 2021}}</ref> It was renamed as the '''Hagley Library''' in 1984.<ref name="EMHL"/>

Hagley's library houses a major research collection of manuscripts, archives, photographs, pamphlets, and books documenting the history of American business and technology.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hagley Museum and Library {{!}} Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine|url=https://www.chstm.org/member-institutions/hagley-museum-and-library|access-date=2021-11-12|website=www.chstm.org}}</ref> A member of the Independent Research Libraries Association, the library serves scholars from this country and abroad. Holdings include 37,000 linear feet in the Manuscripts and Archives Department, 290,000 printed volumes in the Imprints Department, 2 million visual items in the Pictorial Department, and more than 300,000 digital images and pages in the Digital Archives Department. The library and archival collections owned by Hagley are open to the public for research; a catalog and partial digital archive are available online.<ref name="Hagley Museum and Library: Collections Overview" />

The library includes the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society, which coordinates Hagley's interactions with the world of scholarship in the fields of American economic, business, and technological history. The center offers a scholar-in-residence program and competitive fellowships. It also hosts the [[Business History Conference]], the largest US-based professional organization of business historians, and the editorial office of the peer-reviewed journal, ''[[Enterprise & Society]].''<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-01-15 |title=About the Center |url=https://www.hagley.org/research/center |access-date=2022-08-02 |website=Hagley |language=en}}</ref>

== Property description ==
=== E. I. du Pont residence complex ===
On the property is the home of [[Éleuthère Irénée du Pont|Éleuthère]] Irénée du Pont, who built the [[Georgian architecture|Georgian-style]] home and surrounding buildings and gardens to serve as a center for familial and business life. The home was inhabited by five generations of the du Pont family, with many pieces of furniture, American folk art, and family pieces brought from France still on view. Other buildings that are a part of the complex are a barn, the "First Office" of the company, [[Lammot du Pont I|Lammot du Pont]] Workshop, and the garden.<ref name=":2" />

The estate home was the first residence of the du Pont family in the United States.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Great American Homes|publisher=Reader's Digest Association|year=1997|isbn=9780895779649|pages=29}}</ref>

=== Grounds and plants ===
Located on the property are multiple national and state ranked trees. One, an [[Maclura pomifera|Osage orange]] tree, was named a Co-National Champion Tree in 2011 and featured in the Delaware Forestry Service's "Big Trees of Delaware"<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-05-21|title=New book offers guide to "Big Trees of Delaware"|url=https://news.delaware.gov/2019/05/21/new-big-trees-of-delaware/|access-date=2020-08-22|website=State of Delaware News|language=en-US}}</ref> but was partially felled by a storm in August 2020.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|author=<!--staff writer-->|date=August 12, 2020|title=Extreme weather topples champion trees at Hagley, spawns new life|url=https://www.hockessincommunitynews.com/story/news/2020/08/12/extreme-weather-topples-champion-trees-hagley-spawns-new-life/3358489001/|access-date=2020-08-22|website=The Community News|language=en-US}}</ref> The tree was speculated to have been over 300 years old or planted via seeds brought back from the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition|Lewis and Clark expedition]].<ref name=":0" /> Two other trees felled during the storm were state champions, including a 90-foot tall [[Acer saccharum|sugar maple]] and a 62-foot tall [[Quercus imbricaria|shingle oak]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Steele |first=Kelli |date=August 19, 2020 |title=Extreme weather topples champion trees at Hagley Museum and Library |url=https://www.delawarepublic.org/post/extreme-weather-topples-champion-trees-hagley-museum-and-library |access-date=2020-08-22 |website=[[Delaware Public Media]] |language=en}}</ref>

== Depiction in media ==
The Museum was featured on ''[[Mysteries at the Museum]]'' television show.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tv.com/shows/mysteries-at-the-museum/the-invention-of-cellophane-the-eruption-of-mt-edgecumbe-the-king-in-the-parking-lot-3072828/ |title=Mysteries at the Museum episode overview |access-date=November 29, 2016 |archive-date=November 30, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130042200/http://www.tv.com/shows/mysteries-at-the-museum/the-invention-of-cellophane-the-eruption-of-mt-edgecumbe-the-king-in-the-parking-lot-3072828/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Gallery ==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="190">
Image:Hagley_Restored_Mill_01.jpg|Restored Gunpowder Mill
Image:Hagley_Mill_Race.jpg|Mill Race
Image:Hagley_Mill_Equipment.jpg |Restored Mill Equipment
Image:Hagley_Unrestored_Mill_01.jpg|Unrestored Gunpowder Mill
File:PutnamLatheHagley02.jpg|Machinery in Hagley's workshop
Image:Hagley-Steps.jpg|Hagley Museum steps
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[List of botanical gardens in the United States]]
* [[List of museums in Delaware]]
* [[Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library]]
* [[Nemours Mansion and Gardens]]
* [[Longwood Gardens]]
* [[Delaware Historical Society]]
* [[David A. Hounshell]], historian and academic who started his career at the Hagley Museum
* [[Breck's Mill Area]]
* [[Industrial heritage]]

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{osmrelation|7128671}}
* {{Official website|https://www.hagley.org}}
* {{HABS |survey=DE-2 |id=de0154 |title=DuPont Powder Mill, Hagley Museum, on Brandywine River, Greenville vicinity, New Castle County, Delaware}}
* [http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/1968_010.xml Collection of DuPont Company powder yards on the Brandywine Creek photographs]

{{Education in New Castle County, Delaware}}
{{National Register of Historic Places in Delaware}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Historic districts in Delaware]]<!--not in the Wilmington city limits-->
[[Category:Libraries in Delaware]]
[[Category:Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums]]
[[Category:DuPont]]
[[Category:Brandywine Museums & Gardens Alliance]]
<!--not in the Wilmington city limits-->
[[Category:History museums in Delaware]]
[[Category:Industry museums in the United States]]
[[Category:Du Pont family residences]]
[[Category:Museums established in 1957]]
[[Category:Houses in New Castle County, Delaware]]
[[Category:Houses completed in 1803]]
[[Category:1957 establishments in Delaware]]
[[Category:Historic American Buildings Survey in Delaware]]
[[Category:Research libraries in the United States]]
[[Category:Special collections libraries in the United States]]
[[Category:Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Delaware]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Delaware]]<!--not in the Wilmington city limits-->
[[Category:Museums in New Castle County, Delaware]]
[[Category:History of the chemical industry]]