by There’s a lot going on at the Hagley Museum, the site of the first-built of the trifecta of remaining du Pont estates in Wilmington, Del. (the others being Winterthur and Nemours, both of which we also visited). The site is located on 235 acres along the Brandywine River. It’s here that E.I. du Pont founded a gunpowder works in 1802, using the energy of the river to power the mills; it grew to be the largest in the world. You can visit the remains of the powder works today, seeing the old machinery, waterwheels and turbines, along with demonstrations.
The family built their Georgian-style home high up on a hill overlooking their business. Over the many generations of family living there, the house, known as Eleutherian Mills, was expanded but still remained somewhat modest and understated compared to the opulent homes that were to come for the du Pont family.
The ruins of the 1920s Renaissance Revival garden lay below the home; you can see them from the home and the shuttle, but not otherwise visit them. The foundation plans to restore them when funds allow. There is also a garden near the home that is open to visit; it was used to grow food for the family and provide flowers for the home, rather than the showy pleasure gardens found at the other estates.
The most interesting part of the visit was the Nation of Inventors exhibit, which, per their website, takes “visitors on a journey from the early years of the patent system, in the 1790s, through the “golden age” of American invention, in the late 1800s.” I know that doesn’t sound like fun, but back in the day, those applying for patents had to include a model along with their patent application, and there are more than 120 wacky models from the fanciful to the practical on display. I had no idea such a thing existed, and we had a few laughs as we moved through the displays.
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