Hagley Museum and Library

Museum And Research Library On The Site Of The Black Powder Works Founded By E.I. Du Pont In 1802, Part Of The Eleutherian Mills National Historic Landmark District On Brandywine Creek · Wilmington, Delaware

Hagley is where the DuPont company began. In 1802 Eleuthere Irenee du Pont, a French immigrant who had learned powder-making in France, built black powder mills on the fast water of Brandywine Creek just outside Wilmington, and the works ran for more than a century until they closed in 1921. The site is now a 235-acre museum along the creek, spread over about a mile and a half, and it is more of an industrial landscape than a museum building. You see the stone rolling mills built with heavy walls and a light roof so an explosion would blow upward over the water, the water wheels and turbines that drove them, a working machine shop and a demonstration of the power of black powder. A bus runs through the grounds between the visitor center in an old cotton mill, the powder yard, the workers' community on Blacksmith Hill and Eleutherian Mills, the first du Pont family home in America, with its garden and barn. The library is a major research collection on American business history. It is a rewarding, unhurried visit, but much of it is outdoors and the house is shown by guided tour.

200 Hagley Creek Road, Wilmington, Delaware, 19807, United States

Hagley generally opens daily from mid-morning to late afternoon for most of the year, but it closes on major holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day and has in past years reduced its schedule or closed for periods in the depth of winter, so confirm before a January or February trip. Admission is sold at the visitor center, and the site bus that carries visitors between the visitor center, the powder yard and Eleutherian Mills runs on a loop during open hours; the last bus up to the house leaves well before closing. Eleutherian Mills, the du Pont residence, is seen only on guided tours that start at set times from the house, and the machine shop and black powder demonstrations run on a schedule posted for the day, so check the times when you arrive and plan the rest of the visit around them. Some demonstrations stop in rain or high wind. The research library in its own building keeps separate weekday hours and prefers researchers to arrange a visit in advance. Special events such as the autumn car show change parking and hours. Confirm current hours on Hagley's own site.

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