Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is much more than the dozen and a half rooms on the standard tour, its famed gardens and the annual festivities of Yuletide and Point-to-Point that draw thousands of visitors.
The property covers almost 1, acres, the stewardship by the du Ponts go back to , and the collection numbers almost 90, items. Winterthur founder Henry F. Du Pont redecorated seasonally, pulling the colors and shapes from what was blooming outside for drapery, upholstery and even rugs, she said. The museum today rethinks fabrics every other year or so, because handling them too much risks damage.
Staff members have rearranged furniture in some rooms to accommodate the flow of visitors. In the s, the board froze the arrangements in some spaces, including 14 on the introductory tour.
The tour runs 17 to 19 spaces, depending on the season, and counting spaces that you can only see into. All of these moves are documented down to the most minute detail.
The records are impressive. The dozens of objects in each room — whether in the same spot for decades or in a new one — can provide new experiences for repeat visitors, Lynch said. That insight about how du Pont felt about shape and color among nearby objects evokes the famous stance of Pennsylvania art collector Albert C. Barnes in his eponymous museum. And yes, du Pont and Barnes knew each other and exchanged letters. This conversation piece invites an array of questions.
