Henry Francis du Pont
Henry Francis du Pont | |
---|---|
Winterthur, Delaware | |
Resting place | Du Pont de Nemours Cemetery |
Education | BA Horticulture (1903) |
Alma mater | Harvard University |
Known for | Founder of Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library |
Spouse | |
Children |
|
Relatives | Louise E. du Pont Crowninshield (sister) |
Henry Francis du Pont (May 27, 1880 – April 11, 1969) was an American
Early life and education
Henry was born on May 27, 1880, at Winterthur. He was the only son of Henry Algernon du Pont and Mary Pauline Foster to live to maturity; by the time he was born, his parents had already buried five children.[4] Their only other surviving child, Louise E. du Pont Crowninshield, was a historic preservationist and founding trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.[5]
A shy and lonely boy who contrasted with his authoritarian father, young du Pont attended boarding school at Groton School in Massachusetts. After graduating from Groton at the bottom of his class of sixteen, du Pont went on to study horticulture at the Bussey Institution at Harvard University, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1903. His best grade at Harvard was a B minus, for a garden study class. His mother, to whom he was close, died shortly before he graduated, which shook him profoundly and deepened his lifelong reticence. His father recalled him home to oversee the estate, a task at which he would excel.[4][6][7]
Holstein herd
When he bought a herd of cows from
Winterthur estate
Du Pont became interested in antique furniture in 1923 after visiting the farmhouse of Electra Havemeyer Webb in Shelburne, Vermont, and Beauport, the home of Henry Davis Sleeper in Gloucester, Massachusetts.[3][9] He recalled, “I had always thought of American furniture as just kitchen furniture. I didn't dream it had so much richness and variety.” His first purchase was a 1737 Pennsylvania chest that is one of more than 90,000 objects on display at Winterthur.[4]
Over the decades, Henry Francis du Pont expanded his family estate from the 30-room house he inherited to a 175-room mansion with many
Awards and honors
Du Pont was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1961.[13] In 1964, du Pont became the inaugural recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award from the American Society of Interior Designers (then called the National Society of Interior Designers). He received honorary doctorates from Yale University, Williams College, and the University of Delaware, along with a Medal of Honor from the Garden Club of America in 1956. He belonged to the American Antiquarian Society, the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, the American Philosophical Society, and the Walpole Society and served as a trustee of the Whitney Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the New York Botanical Garden, among other cultural organizations.[3]
Personal life
In 1916, after a seven-year courtship, he married socialite Ruth Wales (1889–1967), a Hyde Park neighbor of du Pont's Groton classmate Franklin Roosevelt, who attended their wedding.[6] Ruth had little interest in farming and disliked Winterthur, dismissing the rural estate as "Frog Hollow" and preferring to spend most of the year at their Park Avenue apartment in Manhattan or their summer residence at Southampton on Long Island.[7][14] Southampton's Ruth Wales du Pont Sanctuary was named after her.[14]
Henry and Ruth had two children, Pauline Louise du Pont (1918–2007) and Ruth Ellen du Pont Lord (1922–2014). Their younger daughter, Ruth, wrote a memoir about her father and his estate, Henry F. du Pont and Winterthur: A Daughter's Portrait (Yale University Press, 1999), which portrayed du Pont as a kindly but aloof parent.[7]
The du Ponts were lifelong Republicans and openly expressed distaste for their friend Roosevelt's New Deal programs.[14]
Du Pont died on April 11, 1969.[15] He was buried in Du Pont de Nemours Cemetery.
Legacy
Established by du Pont in 1951, the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is the premier collection of American decorative arts in the world.[2]
First Lady
Du Pont organized and chaired A Committee to Save the Cooper Union Museum, which had closed in 1963. In response to the public outcry and the du Pont-led lobbying campaign, the Smithsonian Institution acquired the museum in 1968, relocated its collections to the Andrew Carnegie Mansion, and reopened it to the public in 1976.[18]
At the behest of nephew
References
- ^ "About H. F. du Pont". Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. December 15, 2020. Archived from the original on May 12, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
- ^ a b c Solis-Cohen, Lita (December 29, 1985). "Looking Anew at the Wonders that are Winterthur". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 154. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8109-1785-9 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ a b c d Moskow, Shirley (July–August 2003). "Henry Francis du Pont: Brief Life of a Passionate Connoisseur, 1880–1969". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved July 31, 2022.
- ^ Catanese, Lynn (2012). "Finding aid to the Louise du Pont Crowninshield papers". Hagley Museum and Library Archives. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
- ^ a b Karp, Walter (April–May 1983). "Henry Francis du Pont and the Invention of Winterthur". American Heritage. 34 (3). Retrieved August 2, 2022.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
- ^ Fleming, E. McClung. History of the Winterthur Estate.
- ^ .
- ^ Dallabrida, Eileen Smith (February 2, 2021). "Winterthur's Chandler Farm Houses Beauty and History". Delaware Today. Archived from the original on August 2, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
- ^ McKinstry, E. Richard (2003). Guide to the Winterthur Library: The Joseph Downs Collection and the Winterthur Archives. Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. pp. 1–3.
- OCLC 1008077996.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
- ^ a b c Cummings, Mary (December 22, 2020). "High Style in the Gilded Age: Ruth Wales du Pont". Southampton History Museum. Archived from the original on August 2, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
- New York Times. April 12, 1969. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-4013-0395-2.
- ISBN 978-1-316-94972-6.
- ^ "Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum". Smithsonian Institution Archives. April 14, 2011. Archived from the original on August 2, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
Further reading
- Lord, Ruth (1999). Henry F. du Pont and Winterthur: A Daughter's Portrait. New Haven, CT: OCLC 469929318.
External links
- Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library
- Henry Francis du Pont Papers at Winterthur: Series 1–5 and Series 6–11