Henry Francis du Pont didn't just buy antiques, he bought entire rooms and their contents. Winterthur displays American decorative objects created between 1640 to 1860 in 175 room-like settings and three exhibit galleries. The museum is set amid 983 acres of woods, ponds and gardens landscaped with native and exotic plants. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Last admission one hour and 15 minutes before closing.
Last tour begins one hour before closing.
The three-floors of paintings demonstrate that the famous Helga paintings are just the tip of this family's iceberg of painting genius. Also on display in changing exhibitions are works by Howard Pyle and other illustrators as well as painters of the Brandywine region. Displays offer exhibits of everything from the natural inhabitants of Delaware to the wildlife of Africa's Mount Kenya. Collections include one of the hemisphere's finest collections of sea shells and displays of extinct and endangered birds. More than 300 acres of gardens and woodlands surround Nemours, the estate of Alfred I. du Pont.