Hagley Museum and Library - Chronology

Chronology

November 1952– The Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation, a non-profit, educational corporation received its charter from the State of Delaware.

May 1957– Hagley Museum was dedicated with the opening of the Henry Clay Mill building.

1961– The Longwood Library, founded in 1953 by Pierre S. duPont, merged with Hagley Museum and opened at the site of the original DuPont Company's powder works at Hagley.

1962– Eleutherian Mills, the du Pont family's ancestral home, was opened to the public.

1966– Designation of museum property as a National Historic Landmark.

1969– Restoration of the first DuPont Company Office was completed.

1971– Restoration of the E.I. du Pont Garden began.

1982– Workers' Hill opened. First fireworks show produced for Hagley members in honor of the museum's 25th anniversary. The annual fireworks continues on two weekends in June.

1984– Hagley Museum and Library was designated as the official name of the institution. (Eleutherian Mills- Hagley Foundation continues as the legal corporation name of the organization.)

1996– Hagley's first car show, 100 Years of Cars, held to honor 100 years of America's automotive heritage. The annual car show continues on the third Sunday in September.

1999– The kitchen in Hagley's Eleutherian Mills opens to visitors.

2002– Two new exhibits, "DuPont Science and Discovery" and "DuPont: The Explosives Era," open at Hagley in honor of the DuPont Company's 200th anniversary.

2007– Accessible entrance to Visitors Center welcomes visitors to the museum's 50th anniversary exhibit "Hagley at Fifty: Exploding with History."

The facility is located on 235 acres (0.95 km²) along the banks of the Brandywine Creek, the site of the gunpowder mill founded by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont in 1802, known as Eleutherian Mills. The museum and grounds include the first du Pont family home and garden in the United States, the powder yards, and a nineteenth-century machine shop. On the hillside below the mansion lies a Renaissance-Revival garden, with terraces and statuary, created by Louise Evalina du Pont Crowninshield (1877–1958) in the 1920s.

• Restored Gunpowder Mill

• Mill Race

• Restored Mill Equipment

• Unrestored Gunpowder Mill

• Machinery in Hagley's workshop

• Hagley Museum steps