Fast Facts

• Winterthur Museum & Country Estate is a nonprofit, educational institution directed by a Board of Trustees.
• Henry Francis du Pont was on the Board of Directors of the DuPont Company from 1915 to 1958. He was also a director of General Motors, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the New York Botanical Garden and other cultural institutions, and a trustee of the University of Delaware.
• H. F. du Pont married Ruth Wales of New York on June 24, 1916.
• Mr. and Mrs. du Pont had two daughters--Ruth (Ruth Lord Holmes), who lives in Connecticut, and the late Pauline Louise du Pont Harrison.
• Winterthur is situated on 982 acres, with 60 acres of naturalistic garden. There were 2,500 acres when it functioned as a country estate.
• There are 175 period-room displays in the museum and approximately 85,000 objects. The collection spans two centuries of American decorative arts, from 1640 to 1860.
• The Winterthur Library and Research Center includes more than 87,000 volumes and approximately 500,000 manuscripts and images.
• There are about 400 volunteers at Winterthur.
• Nearly 170,000 guests visit Winterthur annually.
• Winterthur's square footage:
  • Main museum (Period Rooms and offices) = 96,582 sq. ft.
  • The Cottage (home of H. F. du Pont after opening of the museum) = 21,345 sq. ft.
  • The Galleries = 35,000 sq. ft. (22,000 sq. ft. display area)
  • Research Building = 68,456 sq. ft.
  • Visitor Center = 18,755 sq. ft.
• There are 365 lightbulb changes in the Galleries annually. Changes in the Period Rooms occur less frequently because of the new, state-of-the-art Slot Lux lighting system.
• Winterthur has its own Post Office, located at the far end of the Coach House on the lower-level parking side. Post Office hours are 8:00 am to 3:30 pm, Tuesday through Friday. A U.S. postal mailbox is also available in the Visitor Center.
• The Winterthur house was electrified in 1891.
• The house was heated by natural gas and was air conditioned in the early 1960s.
• There are 50 nonworking fireplaces in the museum and the wing. The fireplace chimneys are capped.
• Winterthur includes an on-site Fire Department--1 pumper, 1 minipumper, and 24 fully certified firefighters on staff, available 24 hours a day.
• Water is supplied from wells on the property.
• The color of the outbuildings is Sage Gray.
• The color of the Cottage (now the Museum Store) is a custom mix without a name. The exterior woodwork color is Sandstone.
• In 1926 Winterthur's dairy operation included 300 prizewinning Holsteins producing 11,000 pounds of milk per year per cow.
• 10 miles of paved roads, 1.3 miles of unpaved roads, 4.6 miles of paths, and 3.6 miles of perimeter roads wind throughout the estate.
• The total planting of bulbs, perennials, shrubs, and trees for the year 2006 numbered more than 10,000.  This number varies from year to year.
• The oldest tree on the Winterthur property is the "William Penn" tree, a tulip-poplar in Chandler Woods. It is old enough to have been growing when William Penn was alive.
• There were approximately 4,022 garden tram tours in the year 2000.