About Henry Francis du Pont

HENRY FRANCIS DU PONT (1880-1969)

Henry Francis du Pont, the only son of Henry Algernon and Pauline du Pont, was born at Winterthur in 1880 and, in his own words, "always loved everything connected with it." A scion of Delaware's industrialist du Pont family, he entered New England's Groton School in 1893 and later attended Harvard from 1899 to 1903. In 1901 he began taking courses at Bussey Institution, Harvard's college of practical agriculture and horticulture, and took his first trip abroad.

In 1906 du Pont's father was elected to the United States Senate. Soon afterward, he ceded responsibility of supervising the garden at Winterthur to his son. One of the first areas that Henry Francis created was the March Bank. He also developed and improved the formal garden areas east of the house. During these years before World War I, du Pont traveled extensively to study the great gardens of Europe, especially those in England.

Henry Francis du Pont married Ruth Wales in 1916. Shortly thereafter, he became interested in American antiques and began amassing his renowned collection of early American decorative arts. He continued to develop Winterthur's farmland, raised a prizewinning herd of Holstein-Friesian cows, and worked with landscape architect Marian Cruger Coffin to blend the garden into the rural landscape. By 1925 Winterthur had its own turkey, chicken, sheep, pig, and dairy farms as well as vegetable and flower gardens, greenhouses, a sawmill, a railroad station, and a post office.

Between 1928 and 1932, du Pont doubled the size of the existing house at Winterthur and converted it into a showplace for his collections. Throughout the next two decades, du Pont and his family lived in a museum-in-progress. His two daughters grew up with the sights and sounds of construction, surrounded by beautiful--but delicate--objects. In 1951 du Pont turned his house over to the Winterthur Corporation, a nonprofit educational institution, and moved into a smaller home on the estate, as the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum opened to the public.

In 1961 the first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, visited Winterthur and invited du Pont to head the Fine Arts Committee, which oversaw the restoration of the White House. Until his death in 1969, du Pont divided his time among his homes at Winterthur; Southampton, Long Island; Boca Grande, Florida; and an apartment in New York City.