Dollar Days at Hagley Begin in February

CONTACT: Meg Marcozzi, Hagley Museum and Library Marketing Manager

                     (302) 658-2400, ext. 238    mmarcozzi@hagley.org

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONE DOLLAR FOR ONE GREAT MUSEUM!

            Wilmington, Delaware – February and March 2012 – Admission to Hagley Museum and Library is $1 on Saturdays in February and March. Families can explore Hagley’s current exhibit “An Oath of Allegiance to the Republic: The du Ponts and the Civil War,” explore demonstrations in the Powder Yard, tour the du Pont ancestral home, or enjoy the riverside landscape – for just one dollar. Use Hagley’s main entrance off Route 141 in Wilmington, Delaware.

            “Once you’ve experienced Hagley, you’ll want to become more involved,” says Hagley Executive Director Geoff Halfpenny. “Consider a family membership and enjoy Hagley for free throughout the year.”

About the Exhibit

            The DuPont Company produced almost half of the gunpowder purchased for use by the Union forces during the Civil War. Hagley’s exhibit, “An Oath of Allegiance to the Republic: The du Ponts and the Civil War,” explores the roles played by several du Pont family members, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., and the local community in response to the Civil War. It also delves into their involvement at the state, national, and international levels in resolving the most devastating conflict Americans have ever seen. On Saturdays in the months of February and March, you can see this exhibit for only $1, or for free if you are a member.

The Visitor Center and Hands-on Exhibits

            A stop at Hagley’s visitor center will set the scene for a trip to the entire museum, included in your $1 admission. Exhibits and dioramas document the Brandywine Valley’s early eras, and history of the DuPont Company. In the exhibit “DuPont Science and Discovery,” visitors are welcome to sit in a replica of Jeff Gordon’s #24 DuPont NASCAR, have a close encounter with a space shuttle suit, watch and wonder about the “happy and sad balls,” pick out the polymers and so much more.

Powder Yard

            Also included for $1 is the chance to walk along the Brandywine to see how water power was used to run the mills. Stops include a line shaft, dam, millrace, and a restored nineteenth-century machine shop. Learn how gunpowder was tested using a device called an eprouvette – it is an explosive experience!

            Hagley Museum and Library collects, preserves, and interprets the unfolding history of American enterprise. The museum is located off Route 141 in Wilmington,Delaware. Call (302) 658-2400 weekdays for more information or visit www.hagley.org.

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Hagley Makes Film on African American Education in Delaware Available Online

CONTACT: Meg Marcozzi, Marketing Manager

                     (302) 658-2400, ext. 238    mmarcozzi@hagley.org

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

            Wilmington, Delaware – Hagley Museum and Library announces that its film, A Separate Place: The Schools P.S. du Pont Built (2003), is available for viewing and downloading at www.hagley.org/separateplace/index.html.  A Separate Place: The Schools P.S. du Pont Built presents the connection between Pierre S. du Pont’s philanthropy and efforts by African Americans to obtain quality education in Delaware.

            “The era of racial segregation is a deplorable episode in our nation’s history,” said Hagley staff member Roger Horowitz, one of the film’s producers. “A Separate Place tells an uplifting story of how P. S. du Pont and the Black community in Delaware came together to create better education for young African Americans during those difficult times.”

            The voices of former students and teachers in the du Pont schools provide most of the film’s content, supplemented by commentary from Dr. Jeanne Nutter, the film’s executive producer and herself a product of a du Pont-built school. A shortened 25 minute version of A Separate Place, intended for elementary and middle school students, is available along with the full 53 minute film.

            A Teacher’s Guide, produced by Hagley’s Education Department, may be viewed and downloaded from the website. The guide supplements the film, especially for school use, with documents from Hagley’s research collections, such as before and after pictures of African American schools and letters from children to P.S. du Pont written in the 1920s.

            Directed by Alonzo Crawford and edited by Kendrick Simmons, A Separate Place is a production of the Hagley Museum and Library. It was generously funded by the Longwood Foundation with partial support from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Hagley.

            The Hagley Library is the nation’s leading business history library, archive, and research center. Current holdings comprise 37,000 linear feet in the Manuscripts and Archives Department, 290,000 printed volumes in the Imprints Department, 2 million visual items in the Pictorial Department, and more than 200,000 digital images and pages in the Digital Archives Department.  Hagley’s Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society, which coordinated production of A Separate Place, offers conferences, research seminars, and a public lecture series, and operates a research grant program.

Hagley Museum and Library collects, preserves, and interprets the unfolding history of American enterprise. Hagley is located in Wilmington, Delaware. For more information, call (302) 658-2400 weekdays or visit www.hagley.org

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Victorine’s Valentine’s Day at Hagley Spreads Cheer to Elderly (Feb 2012)

CONTACT: Meg Marcozzi, Hagley Museum and Library Marketing Manager

                     (302) 658-2400, ext. 238    mmarcozzi@hagley.org

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wilmington, Delaware – February 2012 – Celebrate Valentine’s Day by enjoying an afternoon of sweets and fun at Hagley Museum and Library on Sunday, February 12, from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Hagley welcomes adults and children to enjoy crafts, snacks, and activities during Victorine’s Valentine’s Day program.  This year, Hagley is asking families to create two Victorian-style valentines at its “Scrap” Valentine’s Day Card workshop – one to keep and one to give to a resident of a local nursing home. Program is included in the cost of admission. 

Indulge your sweet tooth with freshly baked gingerbread hearts baked from a woodstove and warm up with a cup of hot chocolate complete with toppings like mint, butterscotch, marshmallows, and whipped cream too!

Explore our exhibit on candy-themed treasures including a display of antique Valentines, cookbooks, and vintage candy bar wrappers. Children can decorate a candy bar wrapper of their own to give to their favorite Valentine and write love poems with a quill pen.

This annual event honors the memory of Victorine du Pont Bauduy, the eldest daughter of the DuPont Company’s founder, who spent time as superintendent of the Brandywine Manufacturers’ Sunday School during the nineteenth century. While Victorine lost the love of her life only ten weeks after her marriage, she found love again in her passion for teaching. Learn more about her story, read her love poems, and find out how she fell in love again at Victorine’s Valentine’s Day. 

Hagley Museum and Library collects, preserves, and interprets the unfolding history of American enterprise. The museum is located on Route 141 in Wilmington, Delaware. Admission to the entire 235-acre museum is $11 for adults, $9 for students and senior citizens, $4 for children six to fourteen, and free for children five and under. Call (302) 658-2400 weekdays for more information or visit www.hagley.org.

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