:The sounds and smells of Christmas past pervade the Winterthur
Museum and Country Estate throughout this holiday season in
decorations and recreations of American Yuletide traditions since
the mid-Eighteenth Century.
Winterthur was from its inception the country house of a man of
wealth. Built by Jacques Antoine Bidermann and his wife, Evelina
Gabrielle du Pont, around 1837, the house passed from generation
to generation in the du Pont family. In 1951 Henry Francis du
Pont established the museum to accommodate the 60,000 pieces of
American furniture, textiles, silver, clocks, needlework,
porcelain, Oriental rugs and paintings, and the architectural
features and the occasional building that he acquired in his
lifetime. Since his death the collections have grown to some
85,000 objects.
Over the years its owners expanded the house's original 12 rooms
and increased the land holdings to 2,500 acres at its largest. At
the same time the house remained a family home and it is a family
yuletide that is celebrated during the 2005 holiday season. The
house has been decorated accordingly and the tableau of du Pont
family Christmas customs past have been installed. Family
heirlooms, ornaments and traditions are on view. Where that was
not possible, they have been recreated.
Like the rest of Winterthur, Christmas celebrations were the work
of Henry F. du Pont.
The du Pont dining room table was made in Baltimore just after
the Revolutionary War and the dining chairs were made in New
York for Victor Marie du Pont, who lived there until 1805. The
room has been the setting of generations of du Pont
festivities.
Du Pont's daughter Ruth Lord recalled in her book about her
father, Henry F. du Pont and Winterthur: A Daughter's
Portrait, that his interests extended to nearly complete charge
of Christmas, from its decorations to stocking presents, beginning
with a kumquat and a lady apple in the toe. Christmas stockings on
view echo that interest.
As American Christmas traditions evolved from the simple to the
extravagant, the season was observed accordingly at Winterthur.
Yuletide at Winterthur is a celebration and a recreation of
American Christmases past. This year's observance is
three-pronged: American Christmas celebrations in the Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Centuries, the du Pont Christmas celebrations of
the 1930s and 1940s and four rooms that blend the traditional and
historical with the Twenty-First Century. Designer Thomas Jaynes,
who has effected an innovative blend of antique and contemporary,
has reinterpreted Christmas in those rooms.
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