7 am - Brandywine Valley Day Trip!

Our day began bright an early at 7 am when Nicole and I got together to plan our route and figure out how to work the TomTom (our GPS device that speaks in a British accent). After planning our day and thorughly abusing the TomTom we set off and made it to Winterthur with only three wrong turns on the way there. Winterthur (pronounced Win-ter-ter, after the Jacques Antoine Biddermann's native town in Switzerland) is a beautiful estate in Wilmington, Delaware. The history of the DuPonts and their mansion had a large impact on the development of Delaware itself. I believe our tour guide Jenni even proclaimed "Without the DuPonts there would be no Delaware."

The DuPont legacy began with Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, a French immigrant who founded a gun powder mill in Wilmington, DE in 1802. Eleuthère Irénée's enterprise rapidly grew, and the DuPont's supplied almost half of the Union Army's gunpowder during the Civil War. Winterthur was orginally built by the daughter of E.I. du Pont Evelina and her husband Jacques Antoine Bidermann. The couple left it to their son James Bidermann, however James was much more content living abroad in France and in turn sold it to his Uncle General Henry Du Pont. Two generations later and General Henry du Pont's grandson Henry Francis du Pont is born in 1880. By the time H.F. du Pont finished his education at Harvard he began to manage the grounds around 1903. In 1928-32 H.F. du Pont constructs a new wing to Winterthur. By 1930 H.F. du Pont establishes the Winterthur Corporation (a nonprofit, educational, corporation), and on October 30, 1951 as a museum H.F. du Pont opened his home to public.

Currently the DuPont company is the 3rd largest chemical company in the United States (by revenue). The company led the way with innovations such as: neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Mylar, Kevlar, Lycra, etc.