Winterthur and the American Country House
A former du Pont estate turned museum holds one of the world's great collections of American decorative arts, set amid hundreds of acres of gardens.
Set in the rolling countryside of the Brandywine Valley, Winterthur is what happens when enormous wealth meets an obsessive eye for craftsmanship. The former country estate, now a museum, houses one of the world's finest collections of American decorative arts, displayed in a sprawling house that is itself the principal exhibit.
The scale is hard to grasp. Room after room is furnished with American antiques — furniture, ceramics, textiles, and metalwork — arranged to show how earlier generations actually lived, rather than isolated behind glass. The house is less a gallery than a time machine.
The grounds are their own attraction. Hundreds of acres of naturalistic gardens surround the museum, designed to unfold through the seasons, and for many visitors the landscape rivals the collection indoors.
Winterthur reflects a particular chapter of American history, when industrial fortunes were turned toward collecting and cultivation on a grand scale. The result is a place that manages to be both intimate and immense — a private passion, opened at last to the public.
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