Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Wilmington, Delaware, features a vast collection of American decorative arts displayed in a 175-room mansion, complemented by 1,000 acres of gardens and woodlands.

Planning your visit

Henry Francis du Pont inherited a country estate and turned it into the largest collection of American decorative arts in existence — around 90,000 objects made or used in America between 1640 and 1860, installed across 175 period rooms in his own house.

The rooms are the method. Rather than cases, du Pont assembled complete interiors with their panelling, furniture, ceramics, textiles, silver and glass, arranged to show how Americans actually lived at each period, and the standard of the objects is exceptional.

The garden is equally serious: around 60 acres of naturalistic planting within a thousand-acre estate, designed for a continuous succession of bloom from late winter onward.

The research library makes it a centre for scholarship in material culture.

Winterthur is in the Brandywine Valley near Wilmington. Allow half a day. Current availability is shown below.