Symposium Highlights the Beauty and History of the Brandywine Valley

The Decorative Arts Trust featured the beautiful Brandywine Valley, spanning sections of northern Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania, during our Spring 2025 Symposium. A bustling itinerary of tours and lectures facilitated a breadth of knowledge about the region’s material culture, architecture, and landscape.

Wednesday Pre-Symposium Tour in New Castle

On Wednesday, April 23, Trust members headed to New Castle, DE, for an Optional Pre-Symposium Tour. Located on the western bank of the Delaware River, New Castle is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the United States, founded in 1651. The morning began with a guided architectural walking tour, a tour of the 1803 Read House and Gardens, and a visit to the 1738 Amstel House. Following lunch at the historic Jessop’s Tavern, participants continued to the state’s earliest residential building, known as the Dutch House, and were welcomed to Keith Adams’s impressive collection at Rosemont House.

Thursday Pre-Symposium Tour in West Chester

West Chester, PA, was the destination for the Optional Tour on Wednesday, April 24, and this historic county seat did not disappoint. A walking tour gave us the lay of the land of the area developed around Thomas U. Walter’s impressive courthouse. The Chester County History Center, founded in 1893 as the Chester County Historical Society, shared an enviable collection of southeastern Pennsylvania decorative arts. After dining at a local favorite, participants visited the meticulously restored 1738 Primitive Hall and the c. 1790 Joseph Pennock Jr. house on Mark Myers’s farm. Members then returned to downtown Wilmington, DE, to prepare for Opening Night!

Main Symposium Begins

The Spring Symposium kicked off at the renowned Hotel Du Pont with Jeff Groff, Retired Winterthur Estate Historian, presenting A Notable Legacy: Houses and Gardens of the du Ponts, the Jonathan L. Fairbanks Lecture. A convivial reception followed in the hotel’s stunning Du Barry Room. The Trust is grateful for the generosity of Freeman’s | Hindman for their sponsorship!

On Friday, April 25, our group spent the day exploring the many wonders of the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. The day began with a welcome by Chris Strand, Charles F. Montgomery Director & CEO, followed by Alexandra Deutsch, Director of Winterthur Collections, lecturing about Inspiration and Expansion: The Evolution of Collecting at Winterthur, and Catharine Dann Roeber, PhD, Director of Academic Affairs, speaking on Tea Tables and Glitter: Research at Winterthur, 1951-2025. Brock Jobe, President of the Trust’s Board of Governors and Winterthur’s Professor of American Decorative Arts Emeritus, shared closing remarks, preparing us to tour a variety of the institution’s offerings. In the afternoon, we rotated through three one-of-a-kind experiences. curators and scholars guided us through Winterthur’s mansion, offering behind-the-scenes access, including the examination of an important Boston japanned high chest with Brock Jobe. Senior Curator of Ceramics and Glass Leslie Grigsby led a close study of ceramics, featuring standout objects from the Museum’s extensive holdings. Librarian Allie Alvis displayed highlights of the Library’s renowned design resource collection, and flipping through the pages was delightful and inspiring!

Saturday, April 26, commenced with tours of the Brandywine Museum of Art, famous for its Wyeth family collections, and the spectacular Longwood Gardens. After a private lunch at Longwood, members departed for rotations of two noteworthy sites pertaining to the du Pont family’s impact on the Brandywine Valley. Hagley Museum and Gardens is located on the land which Éleuthère Irénée du Pont purchased in 1801 to start the family’s gunpowder manufactory. Alfred I. du Pont’s 1909–10 Nemours Estate represents a later generation’s development of great country estates in the region. In the evening, members at the Sponsor level and above were treated to a reception at the Wilmington Club.

Sunday morning featured four captivating lectures. Anastatia Spicer, a Lois F. McNeil Fellow at the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware presented the John A.H. Sweeney Emerging Scholar Lecture, Looms for Technical Education at the Philadelphia Textile School, 1880–1910. Tammy Hong, the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Paper Conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art lectured about Bridging Asian-America: Export Art from Canton to the United States, and Catherine Morrissey, Associate Director of the Center for Historic Architecture and Design, spoke on Recognizing and Preserving the Lesser-Known Architectures of Delaware’s Country House Landscapes. Following the talk From Firebacks to Cannons: Iron, Liberty, and Unfreedom in the Early Republic with Jennifer Van Horn, PhD, Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Delaware, Executive Director Matthew A. Thurlow thanked participants for a successful program, and onto the Post-Tour we went!

Post-Symposium Tour in Odessa 

Delaware’s Historic Odessa has roots to the 1660s, when the Dutch first settled the region, but gained prominence as an inland port in the late 18th century. After a convivial lunch, members participating in the Optional Post-Symposium Tour enjoyed expert-led tours of the remarkable 1772–74 Corbit-Sharp House, the exquisitely proportioned c. 1769 Wilson-Warner House, and the quaint c. 1700 Collins-Sharp House (which featured a hearth cooking demonstration). We continued to the nearby Cooch Homestead, which was centered around a c. 1760 house that witnessed Delaware’s only Revolutionary War battle and is being converted from a private residence to a public site. The day concluded with a vibrant reception at Rockwood, a charming 1851 Gothic Revival mansion with a superb collection.

The Brandywine Valley certainly had a lot to offer! See Facebook and Instagram, and YouTube for the full playlist of lecture recordings.

Visit our calendar of events for upcoming programs, and sign up for our email list to receive updates. Members at the Ambassador level and above receive advance registration benefits.