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Henry F. du Pont and Winterthur: A Daughter's Portrait
World renowned for its vast woodland gardens, its 175-room house, and its unrivaled collection of American decorative arts, Winterthur in Delaware is today among the most beloved museums in the United States. In its earlier days Winterthur was the family home where Ruth du Pont Lord grew up and where her father, Henry F. du Pont (1880–1969), envisioned and then brought to fruition his great museum of Americana.
In this memoir, Ruth Lord engagingly describes the development of Henry F. du Pont from a shy, lonely child, a seemingly hopeless student who had bad times at school, to a man who went on to achieve singular distinction in three disparate fields—as art connoisseur, horticulturist, and eminent cattle breeder. Based on her personal experience, and on extraordinary family archives, the author provides a behind-the-scenes view of the legendary lifestyle of the du Pont family, brings to life other family members, including her brilliant mother and irrepressible aunt, Louise Crowninshield, and tells of her father’s many additional activities, which culminated in his leadership role in Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House restoration.
In this memoir, Ruth Lord engagingly describes the development of Henry F. du Pont from a shy, lonely child, a seemingly hopeless student who had bad times at school, to a man who went on to achieve singular distinction in three disparate fields—as art connoisseur, horticulturist, and eminent cattle breeder. Based on her personal experience, and on extraordinary family archives, the author provides a behind-the-scenes view of the legendary lifestyle of the du Pont family, brings to life other family members, including her brilliant mother and irrepressible aunt, Louise Crowninshield, and tells of her father’s many additional activities, which culminated in his leadership role in Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House restoration.
322 pages, Hardcover
First published March 11, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 9, 2016
From backwards, near-reject child to lord of the manor, and most of the back story from the typewriter of Henry F. du Pont's thoughtful, honest daughter..... Winterthur is technically the focal point of the book but in many ways the least of this story of a life that spanned the Gilded Age to Jackie Kennedy's White House. Not only Harry's but several more generations of one of the chief du Pont lines are described here in detail only a family member could know. An enormous trove of letters author Ruth du Pont Lord found in the archives at the Hagley Museum (a fabulous place downstream on the Brandywine River) revealed much that she had not known or had never understood before about her antecedents. That helped her to write this insightful book.
Which I greatly enjoyed reading! Harry du Pont struggled mightily to get through his Groton private school education, managed only with a lot of tutoring and special efforts, and his social and academic failures may have contributed to the sometimes diffident and remote man and father he became. But he had loved flowers from the beginning, even growing up was something of a collector, to become an insatiable one as an adult -- and the du Pont money enabled him to keep expanding his birthplace home of Winterthur into an 8-story, 175-room mansion full of thousands of remarkable objects of crafts and art, especially those with an American origin.
I have been meaning to update this review for a while, and having spent yesterday at Winterthur, this seems a good time. Even with all the resources their astounding fortunes could buy, tragedy was a frequent presence in family lives. Also adventure, feuds, and a full assortment of human traits and foibles. Ruth begins at the beginning, with the Pierre du Pont whose poetry was praised by Voltaire but who finally fled to America after a narrow miss from the guillotine -- Robespierre was arrested the day before Pierre's scheduled execution.
There is lots more. She has a light touch, telling at least most of the truth and only rarely judging. For example, of her grandfather Henry Algernon du Pont, she writes thusly: "Several months before his marriage, he wrote his fiancée, 'I am fully conscious that you are 50 times more sweet-tempered & better in every way than I am,' and in fact this seems to have been only slightly exaggerated."
She writes of a few attempts she made at different ages to break through her father's reserve and the results are usually painful to read. Yet look at the extraordinary institution he created. If that money had been more thoroughly eaten up in today's tax mill, would our government have been able to equal a Winterthur? Of course not. So the sense of privilege a reader will notice regularly in these pages (sometimes to astounding degrees, as even Ruth marvels) is at least somewhat dissipated by the special legacies so many du Ponts left. Some might resent the whole thing, but that seems misplaced and misjudged. For me envy, yes; disapproval, no.
Winterthur http://www.winterthur.org/ Then also Longwood Gardens http://longwoodgardens.org/, built by his much more worldly cousin Pierre S. du Pont; Nemours and the Nemours Children's Hospital http://nemoursmansion.org/ , http://www.nemours.org/, both the work of family renegade Alfred I. du Pont, known in part for a delicious marital scandal that divided the family.
Which I greatly enjoyed reading! Harry du Pont struggled mightily to get through his Groton private school education, managed only with a lot of tutoring and special efforts, and his social and academic failures may have contributed to the sometimes diffident and remote man and father he became. But he had loved flowers from the beginning, even growing up was something of a collector, to become an insatiable one as an adult -- and the du Pont money enabled him to keep expanding his birthplace home of Winterthur into an 8-story, 175-room mansion full of thousands of remarkable objects of crafts and art, especially those with an American origin.
I have been meaning to update this review for a while, and having spent yesterday at Winterthur, this seems a good time. Even with all the resources their astounding fortunes could buy, tragedy was a frequent presence in family lives. Also adventure, feuds, and a full assortment of human traits and foibles. Ruth begins at the beginning, with the Pierre du Pont whose poetry was praised by Voltaire but who finally fled to America after a narrow miss from the guillotine -- Robespierre was arrested the day before Pierre's scheduled execution.
There is lots more. She has a light touch, telling at least most of the truth and only rarely judging. For example, of her grandfather Henry Algernon du Pont, she writes thusly: "Several months before his marriage, he wrote his fiancée, 'I am fully conscious that you are 50 times more sweet-tempered & better in every way than I am,' and in fact this seems to have been only slightly exaggerated."
She writes of a few attempts she made at different ages to break through her father's reserve and the results are usually painful to read. Yet look at the extraordinary institution he created. If that money had been more thoroughly eaten up in today's tax mill, would our government have been able to equal a Winterthur? Of course not. So the sense of privilege a reader will notice regularly in these pages (sometimes to astounding degrees, as even Ruth marvels) is at least somewhat dissipated by the special legacies so many du Ponts left. Some might resent the whole thing, but that seems misplaced and misjudged. For me envy, yes; disapproval, no.
Winterthur http://www.winterthur.org/ Then also Longwood Gardens http://longwoodgardens.org/, built by his much more worldly cousin Pierre S. du Pont; Nemours and the Nemours Children's Hospital http://nemoursmansion.org/ , http://www.nemours.org/, both the work of family renegade Alfred I. du Pont, known in part for a delicious marital scandal that divided the family.
October 22, 2020
Very good biography and story of how the Winterthur Museum came to be, written by his daughter. An engaging read.
February 5, 2022
Didn't finish
January 10, 2017
Excellent writing of a life well lived, including satisfying biographical information of du Pont ancestry. Unhesitating yet compassionate disclosure of the many challenges Henry Francis du Pont faced beginning early in his life, balanced with the opportunities he made of his gifts and resources. It is comforting to realize upon reflection that Mr. H.F. du Pont acknowledged that "he owed his ability to accomplish a great deal in his long life to the fact that he had 'never had to do anything for myself'.... [that for example] he had never set food inside a post office [and had told his daughter, the author] that had he ever been obliged to pack a suitcase, he would never have left home." [pp 221-222] With this book as background, visits to Winterthur will no doubt be enriched and significantly more meaningful. The book was published in 1999 and the author passed away in 2014.
April 3, 2014
This was a good book to see inside Winterthur to the actual people who lived there. Much better than some of the other books that I read that looked only at Henry F. du Pont's collecting. It was a nice, enjoyable read coming from his daughter and really did make portraits of the people behind the house and the names.
July 29, 2025
An interesting look into the world of a family, their money, their businesses, and their home. It hurt my heart that Henry said the house-turned-museum was his legacy since he didn't have a son.
October 3, 2017
If you find yourself wondering how one of the preeminent museums of American furnishings ended up in a remote corner of Delaware, this is the book for you. Henry F. du Pont and Winterthur: A Daughter’s Portrait is a wonderful insight into Henry Francis duPont, a very late bloomer and Winterthur’s creator. Recommended for every Delawarean and anyone with an interest in the museum.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews