Henry Francis du Pont
Henry Francis du Pont (1880-1969) was a prominent American horticulturist, antiques collector, and the founder of the Winterthur Museum, which showcases his extensive collection of American decorative arts. Born into a wealthy and influential family in Delaware, du Pont’s early life was marked by the expectations of his father, a U.S. senator, and his own passion for gardening and collecting. After studying practical agriculture at Harvard, he dedicated himself to transforming the family estate, Winterthur, into an expansive and meticulously designed garden and museum.
Du Pont's interest in American antiques began in the 1920s, leading him to acquire a remarkable array of historic items that reflect the nation’s aesthetic evolution. His dedication culminated in the expansion of the Winterthur mansion, which became a repository for his collections and opened to the public in 1951. In addition to his work at Winterthur, du Pont contributed to American art conservation education and managed interests in various businesses, including E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.
His legacy is not only embodied in the museum’s extraordinary collection but also in the educational opportunities he fostered, emphasizing excellence in art and design. Winterthur continues to serve as a vital cultural institution, illustrating the lifestyle of America's wealthy elite in the early twentieth century and preserving the history of American craftsmanship.
Henry Francis du Pont
- Born: May 27, 1880
- Birthplace: Winterthur, Delaware
- Died: April 10, 1969
- Place of death: Winterthur, Delaware
American art collector, horticulturist, and philanthropist
Du Pont amassed the world’s most extensive collection of American antique furniture, furnishings, and decorative arts. He housed the objects in Winterthur, his Delaware mansion, where he used the estate and the collection to create the Winterthur Museum and its extensive gardens for the enjoyment and education of the public.
Sources of wealth: Inheritance; real estate
Bequeathal of wealth: Children; museum; educational institution
Early Life
Henry Francis du Pont (dew pont) was born into one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in the United States. His autocratic father, Henry Algernon du Pont, valedictorian of his class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and later a U.S. senator from Delaware, was disappointed in Henry Francis (better known as Harry), a shy boy who loved flowers and collecting birds’ eggs and stamps. The only surviving son of seven children, Harry was very close to his mother, Mary Pauline Foster du Pont.
At age thirteen, the young du Pont was sent to board at the Groton School in Massachusetts. Never a good student, he graduated last in his class. Du Pont went on to Harvard University, where he studied planting procedures, the cultivation of shrubs and trees, and greenhouse maintenance at the Bussey Institution, Harvard’s college of practical agriculture and horticulture. He graduated in 1903.
First Ventures
For the first time in 1901 and then almost every summer until the outbreak of World War I, du Pont traveled to Europe with his father to visit the great gardens, nurseries, and exhibitions of the times. He was particularly impressed with the design and color of English formal gardens.
After his father’s election to the U.S. Senate in 1906, du Pont relocated to Washington, D.C., to serve on the senator’s staff. However, a nervous condition that caused his fidgeting, poor handwriting, and mumbled speech made him unable to perform his job. His heart was at his family’s Delaware mansion, Winterthur, where he had already planted daffodils in the estate’s March Bank. It was not long before Senator du Pont realized that he should cede management of the estate’s grounds and gardens to his son.
Du Pont worked assiduously at developing the two-thousand-acre farm. He raised a prizewinning herd of Holstein-Friesian cattle (the familiar black and white dairy cows), and he engaged landscape architect Marian Cruger Coffin to help him integrate planned gardens with the natural environment. By the early 1920’s, the Winterthur estate had become almost a village unto itself. The approximately 250 inhabitants worked at the dairy farm and managed the estate’s turkeys, chickens, Dorset sheep, hogs, purebred Percherons and other horses, guinea hens, Muscovy ducks and mallards, wheat fields, vegetable and flower gardens, greenhouses, a sawmill, tennis courts, a golf course, a railroad station, and a post office.
In 1916, du Pont married Ruth Wales, a New York neighbor of future president Franklin D. Roosevelt. The couple had two daughters, Pauline Louise and Ruth Ellen.
Mature Wealth
On tax returns and travel documents, du Pont listed his occupation as “farmer,” but in 1923 a visit to friends J. Watson and Electra Webb in Vermont stimulated the career that would win him world-class recognition. Electra Webb collected American antiques, and a huge cupboard and its Staffordshire dishes caught du Pont’s appreciative eye. For the next thirty years he sought out and acquired examples of historic American craftsmanship. (Both the cupboard and the Staffordshire dinnerware are displayed at the Winterthur Museum.) He became known as a discriminating connoisseur who always acted as his own agent, personally inspecting, judging, and negotiating every purchase.
When he inherited the Winterthur estate and another $50 million in 1927, du Pont conceived the idea of housing a great collection in a great mansion, and he expanded his father’s house. Between 1929 and 1931, construction progressed on a $4.3 million, 150-foot-long addition that doubled the size of the main house at Winterthur. More than one hundred stonecutters and masons worked on the project, and much of the stone was quarried on the estate’s property. Other, smaller expansions and renovations were contracted between 1931 and 1951.
As he worked at filling his 175 rooms with themed collections, du Pont could not help but compare his acquisitions to those of the new American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In 1949, as befits a member of a hugely competitive family, he hired Joseph Downs, curator of the American Wing, to be the full-time photographer and cataloger of his holdings. He also employed Charles Montgomery, a Harvard graduate and antiques collector, to establish a professional staff to manage Winterthur as a museum.
Before Winterthur could be opened to the public, however, the du Ponts needed a place to live. Du Pont initiated construction of a new home to be called The Cottage a few hundred yards from the mansion. Hardly a “cottage” by any standards, the multistory stone building was designed in the Regency style by architect Thomas Waterman. The house had 21,345 square feet of living space.
In his report to classmates at his fiftieth Harvard reunion, du Pont wrote, “I have not wandered very far afield.” Indeed, he spent his entire eighty-eight years deeply attached to Winterthur. After opening the museum in 1951, he devoted most of his time to his gardens. One of his greatest pleasures was walking among his plantings. He also loved the sunlit meadows, the paths through the woods, and the peaceful quiet of perhaps the finest country estate in America.
In 1961, du Pont was asked by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to chair the committee overseeing the renovation of the White House. Using his extensive contacts and his expertise, du Pont was able to obtain many donations of fine art and antique furniture. He frequently disagreed, however, with the consulting interior designer, Stéphane Boudin.
Henry Francis du Pont died in 1969, a month before his eighty-ninth birthday, and is buried in the Du Pont de Nemours Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware.
Legacy
The rare and exquisite objects of du Pont’s Winterthur collection are a magnificent gift to the American people, a gift that chronicles the evolution of the nation’s aesthetic development and its lifestyle preferences. Perhaps equally important, however, is the estate itself. By observing the mansion and other buildings and the breathtaking gardens, visitors can learn what it meant to be an incredibly wealthy person living in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. In addition to the pleasures and treasures of Winterthur, du Pont contributed to the development of courses of study in American culture and art conservation at Winterthur and at the University of Delaware. The Society of Winterthur Fellows, established in 1951, continues to function in support of du Pont’s ideas and goals.
Despite his passions for art, collecting antiques, horticulture, and breeding livestock, du Pont also took an active part in the management of both E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and General Motors. In everything he did, he reached for excellence or perfection. His life exemplifies the American ideals of leadership, generosity, public service, and outstanding planning and management.
Bibliography
Cooper, Wendy A., et al. American Vision: Henry Francis du Pont’s Winterthur Museum. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2002. Both the history of the museum and its holdings are the focus of this volume. Includes color photographs.
Karp, Walter. “Henry Francis du Pont and the Invention of Winterthur.” American Heritage 34, no. 3 (April/May, 1983). This very readable article tells how the character and personality of Henry Francis du Pont affected the creation of the Winterthur Museum. It can be accessed without charge at http://www.american heritage.com.
Lidz, Maggie. Life at Winterthur: A du Pont Family Album. Winterthur, Del.: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 2001. Recounts du Pont’s family life in a brief text and black and white photographs.
Lord, Ruth. Henry F. du Pont and Winterthur: A Daughter’s Portrait. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. This intimate and tasteful book records the heritage of the du Pont family and a daughter’s search for the real person that was her father. Includes index, black and white photographs, family trees, and references.
Winkler, John K. The Dupont Dynasty. Reprint. Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger, 2005. Follows the du Pont family from the time they left France in 1802 to becoming gunpowder manufacturers for the U.S. military through the development of DuPont, one of the world’s largest chemical companies.