Du Pont Houses and Gardens

The du Ponts

Houses and Gardens in the Brandywine, 1900-1951

By Maggie Lidz

Foreword by George A. Weymouth

10 X 12”, 228 pages

Nearly 300 illustrations in color and duotone
Cloth, dust jacket
ISBN-13: 978-0-926494-69-5

September 2009

No American family dominated a single state longer than the du Ponts of Delaware. French immigrants who arrived in America January 1, 1800, the du Ponts became a dynasty of publicity-shy entrepreneurs, engineers, horticulturists, and collectors. They built neighboring houses, gardens, and farms that spanned miles of rolling hills in Delaware’s Brandywine Valley and earned the region the sobriquet “Chateau Country.” With their riches from the DuPont Company, the family pursued many passions, resulting in the exquisite art collections, botanical gardens, and libraries now enjoyed by the American public.

The du Ponts: Houses and Gardens in the Brandywine, 1900–1951 features 25 du Pont family houses and farms, including the celebrated Winterthur, Longwood, and Nemours estates. There are unexpected surprises: Bellevue, a replica of James Madison’s Montpelier; Eleutherian Mills, the 19th-century “partnership” house overlooking the Brandywine Creek, resurrected in the 1920s as a colonial mansion with a garden that was considered one of most successful romantic conceits of the 20th century; and Hod House, the “Hodgson” system prefabricated residence built as a summer retreat on 550 acres.

Winterthur Museum’s estate historian Maggie Lidz captures the life of the du Ponts at home with hundreds of rare period photographs from private archives and family albums and never before published autochromes, diascopes, and Dufay color images. Frank and Louise Crowninshield, Rodney and Isabella Sharp, and the du Ponts—Henry Francis, Pierre Samuel, and Coleman—all come alive as we visit their country manors, horse farms, and spectacular gardens in the bucolic setting of the Brandywine Valley.

Many books have been written about the du Ponts, from many different perspectives. Quite a few center on individual houses: Mount Cuba, Longwood, Winterthur, Eleutherian Mills. Though several family places have become well-known as museums, there are still a wide array of houses and gardens whose history and design tell a much larger and particularly American story..

With so many destroyed, Maggie Lidz's book documents my family's varied architectural contribution to the Brandywine River Valley and reveals how it expresses our industrial, economic and personal history. Her book is a terrific contribution to a greater understanding of the 20th century.

— George A. "Frolic" Weymouth, founder of the Brandywine Conservancy and the Brandywine River Museum


	Price: $65.00