April is National Volunteer Month

Hagley thanks all it volunteers! There are 538 adults and 220 teens that worked more than 19,500 hours in 2010.

Hagley Launches New Digital Exhibit: Delaware’s Industrial Brandywine

CONTACT:    Meg Marcozzi, Marketing Manager

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

Wilmington, Delaware – April 2011 – Hagley Museum and Library’s new digital project, “Delaware’s Industrial Brandywine,” tells the story of business along the Brandywine from the seventeenth century to the present. This is the first comprehensive, online guide to industry along the Brandywine. The project currently identifies and explores 112 companies, 19 geographic locations, and 16 industries.  Access to “Delaware’s Industrial Brandywine” is online at http://industrialbrandywine.org.

            Visitors to the exhibit will recognize familiar Delaware names such as Bancroft, Broom, Canby, du Pont, Gilpin, Hollingsworth, Kirk, Pusey, Shipley, and Tatnall and familiar locations such as Alapocas Woods, Augustine, French Street, Kentmere, Rockford, and Rockland. Hagley encourages visitors to the site to comment and citizen historians to share their knowledge of the area.  Each page has a place for visitors to provide feedback.

             “The goal of this project is to produce a resource for teaching and scholarship,” says Hagley’s Digital Curator Kevin Martin. “In addition, while the project focuses on a specific region, it offers insight into the broad arc of industrial development in the United States from the colonial period to the present.”

            The Brandywine Valley was a center of industry and a vital part of Delaware’s economy. The Brandywine River drops 125 feet in elevation from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, to Wilmington, Delaware, making it an ideal area for water-powered mills, the driving force in early manufacturing. This was one factor in DuPont Company founder E. I. du Pont’s decision to build gunpowder mills in the Brandywine Valley and why so many other industries also prospered on the Brandywine.

This project is partially funded by a grant from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

            The Hagley Library is the nation’s leading business history library, archives, and research center. Current holdings comprise 36,000 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 100,000 digital images and pages in the Digital Archives Department. 

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

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Take A Walk On the Wild Side (May 2011)

CONTACT:  Meg Marcozzi, Marketing Manager

Skunk Cabbage Blooming at Hagley

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

Wilmington, Delaware – May 2011 – Join Hagley for its third annual May Day Walk honoring the du Pont family’s tradition of searching for wildlife on the first of May. On Sunday, May 1, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Hagley visitors may join a team of intrepid explorers searching for the myriad forms of life that call Hagley, a “Certified Wildlife Habitat,” their home.  Local experts will point out the different habitats and discuss the plants and animals that live there. The program is included in the cost of general museum admission: $11 for adults, $9 for students and seniors, $4 for children ages six through fourteen, and free for children five and under and Hagley members.

            New this year: Hagley will have nature-based activities for kids from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. In addition, Hagley’s “Easy Does It!” exhibit will be open for exploration. “Easy Does It!” is a hands-on exhibit of simple machines.

            Visitors may choose to attend one walk or two. Each will begin with an introduction from Geoff Halfpenny about the property. Participants should wear comfortable walking shoes and weather-appropriate attire.  The schedule is below:

 1:00-1:45  Wildlife and Habitats Along the River (Executive Director Geoff Halfpenny)

 1:00-1:45  Plants and Wildflowers at Hagley (Amateur Botanist Extraordinaire Stephan de la Veaux)

 1:45-2:00  Break at the “Easy Does It!” exhibit

 2:00-2:45  The Trees of Hagley (Hagley Gardens and Grounds Supervisor Richard Pratt)

 2:00-2:45   Birding at Hagley (Delmarva Ornithological Society President Sally O’Byrne)

            “I love the May Day walks,” says Executive Director Geoff Halfpenny. “There is always a sense of adventure. Just as in Sophie’s day, we never know what surprises Mother Nature may have in store!”

            Sophie du Pont (1810-1888) was E. I. du Pont’s youngest daughter and took great pleasure in documenting her life along the Brandywine in sketches and watercolors.  In May 1828, she describes one of her explorations in a letter to her sister: “The Dogwood and hawthorn are in bloom all around it [a meadow], and their white blossoms contrast beautifully with the varied green of the young leaves, that just begin to throw a shadow over the thousand flowers that bloom beneath them.”  Hagley’s May Day event is held in her honor.

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

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Enron Board Minutes Available Online at Hagley

CONTACT:  Meg Marcozzi, Marketing Manager

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

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

            Wilmington, Delaware – March 2011 –  Hagley Museum and Library has digitized its Herbert S. Winokur, Jr., Enron Board Records collection. This collection spans from 1997 through 2001 and documents the landmark corporate bankruptcy. To access these records, visit www.hagley.org/library/enron.

            Herbert “Pug” Winokur donated his Enron board minutes to Hagley in 2010. This collection includes board minutes; records of the executive, finance, and audit committees; and memoranda and emails. Mr. Winokur also funded the digitization of these records.

            “This is one of the most complete collections of Enron board records in existence,” according to Lynn Catanese, curator of manuscripts and archives at Hagley. 

            The Hagley Digital Archives allows online access to digitized versions of selections from our library collections.  The Archives includes images, documents, and publications related to the history of business, technology, and society accessible online through Hagley’s web site. It currently holds more than 100,000 digital images and pages from Hagley’s library collections. 

            Researchers and other interested parties may also access the records at Hagley Library. The library is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and the second Saturday of each Month, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

            The Hagley Library is the nation’s leading business history library, archives, and research center. Current holdings comprise 36,000 linear feet in the Manuscripts and Archives Department, 290,000 printed volumes in the Imprints Department, and 2 million visual items in the Pictorial Department.  The Library operates a research grant program, and offers conferences, research seminars, and a public lecture series. 

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