2021 Annual Report

2021 Annual Report

WINTERTHUR MUSEUM, GARDEN & LIBRARY 2021 A N N U A L R E P O R T

The Mission Winterthur builds upon the vision of Henry Francis du Pont to inspire and educate through its collections, estate, and academic programs by engaging diverse audiences in the study, preservation, and interpretation of American material culture, art, design, and history.

From the Chair

As I reflect on the past year, I can’t help pondering the idea of change.

There is a kind of subtle change that builds constantly, almost imperceptibly until, suddenly, everything seems different. And there are big events, sometimes unforeseeable, that seem to realign the axes of the earth. Through it all, we are often bit players or bystanders—until the change changes us, and not always in a way we saw coming. Then there is transformation, an intentional attempt to become something new, to take half a step outside the flow of events so we that we can chart a path that will put us exactly where we want to be in the new order of things. That is where Winterthur stands right now. With collections rooted in history and tradition, Winterthur is always searching for new ways of remaining relevant in this evolving world. We have never upheld our collections as merely representing the rich creative and social dynamics of the past. Our holdings are tied to legacies that are constantly subjected to study and scrutiny in the light of changing values and new scholarship. We feel obligated to constantly re-examine what Winterthur represents and to show how the past has shaped the present. Throughout this report, you will read about transformation that is obvious and transformation that is more nuanced. Highlights include an article about Transformations: Contemporary Art at Winterthur, which shows how makers and creators of today use the collections to inform and inspire their work. You will read about how an effort to attract children led to the creation of Enchanted Woods twenty years ago and made Winterthur a destination for families. You’ll see how our philosophy of collecting serves as a guide for new acquisitions that refine, and sometimes revolutionize, our understanding of the past. You’ll also hear from our new Charles F. Montgomery Director and CEO, Chris Strand, who represents one of the biggest recent changes at Winterthur. With sixteen years of prior experience as Brown Harrington Director of Garden and Estate, Chris is well acquainted with Winterthur’s past and clear-eyed about what lies ahead. A skilled communicator, Chris has been reaching out to the board, the staff, our dedicated volunteers, and supporters, past and present, to successfully steer Winterthur into the future. The Board of Trustees and I are immensely pleased with his work. We wish him continued success.

We invite you to be part of our ongoing transformation.

Katharine P. Booth Chair, Board of Trustees Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

INSIDE

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1 From the Chair The idea of change

4 From the Director A slice of all that Winterthur is and does

6 Highlights of 2021 New events exceed expectations, Bearing Witness tells new stories, the Dominy installation gets new life, and a Getty grant will make an important fraktur accessible to a wider audience. 11 Transformations: Contemporary Artists at Winterthur As Winterthur has influenced the work of contemporary creators, those creators are influencing Winterthur. 18 Honoring a Giant in Her Field The Linda Eaton Curator of Textiles endowment ensures the legacy of a beloved conservator, curator, and leader. 20 From an Acorn, a Mighty Oak Grows Support from the Vietor family’s Acorn Foundation helps maintain the popular Enchanted Woods.

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22 Goodbye to a Dear Friend As a trustee, collector, and scholar, our friend John Herdeg helped put Winterthur on the map. 24 Acquisitions Anna Pottery Liberty Monument, fraktur birth and baptismal certificates, and White House needlework picture

30 Milestones

Staff anniversaries in 2021

31 The Ultimate Networker Wayne Cox and his small-but-mighty team keep Winterthur up to speed with information technology.

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32 The Generosity of Friends The 2021 Honor Roll of Donors

34 A Social Media Star Collin Hadsell’s garden videos prove wildly popular. 38 Happy Together Melissa Donnelly works to ensure that visitors and visitor services staff have what they need.

44 Financial Statement 48 Board of Trustees

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Cover: A view of the Conservatory from the garden. This gorgeous image epitomizes the inside/outside theme of the year’s primary exhibition, Outside In: Nature-inspired Design at Winterthur. It is especially fitting for the cover since the Conservatory was made the museum entrance as part of a rearrangement intended to keep our visitors safe.

From the Director

The year 2021 was an exciting one.

While I could talk about our innovative ideas, fresh programs and exhibitions, and astonishing acquisitions here, I will let you read about them—and so much more—inside. Instead, I want to take this opportunity to simply say thank you. We are grateful for your involvement with Winterthur, your curiosity, and your steadfast support. This annual report captures just a narrow slice of all that Winterthur is and does. Throughout, you will see words like inspiration, creativity, contemporary, and community. These words might not immediately come to mind when you think of a museum filled with antiques. But they are words that reflect the strong desire of our amazing and talented staff, Board, and volunteers to reach out to our community and to find different and untold stories. Through innovative scholarship, we are learning new things about our collection. With our partners in the community, we are finding new relevance for the narratives we have to share. And with updated technology, we are reaching broader and larger audiences. I hope that you sensed the momentum building during 2021 and that you join us as we move forward. As you will read, our longtime Board member John Herdeg summed up this attitude nicely when he said, “The more we share ourselves with the world, the better off we’ll be.” I could not have said it better myself.

Chris Strand Charles F. Montgomery Director and CEO Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

Photo by Nat Caccamo

“The more we share ourselves with the world, the better off we’ll be.” —John Herdeg

The Path Forward

Our Values Agility

Our Priorities Preserve and Promote the Entire Winterthur Estate Engage Our Visitors Expand Our Educational Impact Secure Winterthur’s Future Build a Dynamic and Cohesive Team Transform Winterthur’s Digital Approach

The Vision Winterthur inspires exploration of American culture and landscapes through compelling stories and experiences.

Excellence Innovation Integrity Inclusion Transparency

Highlights of 2021

New events exceed expectations, Bearing Witness tells new stories, the Dominy installation gets new life, and a Getty grant will make an important fraktur accessible to a wider audience.

Summer Fun The first Artisan Market proves popular with vendors and visitors. By any measure, Winterthur’s first Artisan Market in July was a great success. More than 3,800 guests turned out July 17–18 to visit 90 high-quality vendors, who were grouped in clusters from Clenny Run to the Sundial Garden to Enchanted Woods. House tours were sold out all weekend long. The event grossed more than $31,000 in admission revenue and gained 74 new memberships. It also made Winterthur innumerable new friends as 66 percent of the visitors were not Members. “It far exceeded our expectations.” says Jennie Brown, manager of audience engagement. The Artisan Market was conceived to fill a gap in Winterthur’s schedule of big events and to connect with new audiences. Vendors proved a vital link, posting

information about the market to their followers on social media. The event paid off for them, too. “Every last detail was exceptional ― the email communication, the vendor packets, the smiles on everyone’s faces,” said Sarah Rafferty of Atwater Designs. “I had helpers help me unload, and the tents were a dream. Not only was everything thought of and ready for us, but the crowd was fantastic. They were kind, thoughtful, and so complimentary. I had two of my best market days ever in the history of Atwater Designs.” The 2022 Artisan Market is scheduled for July 16–17.

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Unlike the previous iteration of the first-floor galleries, which clustered groups of furniture, textiles, art, ceramics, and other objects by category, Bearing Witness places objects of all kinds in conversation. A painting such as the Benedict portrait stimulates exploration of the metals in the subject’s jewelry, the exotic feather in her hat, and the silver in her fashionable clothing—all sourced from locations around the world. The painting is placed in the gallery near a specimen of ore mined in Mexico, a Spanish real minted in Mexico City in 1743, and historic European textiles that incorporate metallic threads and laces. The placement puts their stories in a global context by showing how silver from South America was incorporated in products around the world and explaining why it became the preferred currency of trade partners in the East. “When we [curators] put our knowledge together with what we see in the examination of an object, we can identify that the layers of meanings that exist in one object really can be explored in everything we have,” says Stéphanie Delamaire, associate curator of art. “That representation becomes much more three- dimensional in the stories we can tell.” As ongoing curatorial and scientific research expands our knowledge about the collection, it provokes new conversations about cultural heritage. As the research and conversations evolve in coming years, objects in Bearing Witness will change, expanding the number of new stories that can be told and connecting Winterthur to communities associated with the objects as mutual resources. “ Bearing Witness lets us do what Winterthur does best, which is materials, construction, artistry, but it’s taking it in a totally new direction because it’s looking at things that we’ve always known about, but that we haven’t specifically interpreted, which is this global movement, this global connection,” says Laura Johnson, Linda Eaton Associate Curator of Textiles. “It lets us grab objects from anywhere and everywhere and say, we’ve always lived in a global marketplace. We’ve always talked about global circulation of ideas, and people and expertise. These are some objects that help us tell those stories and invite new people and new voices in.”

Bearing Witness Invites New Explorations The evolving installation puts new focus on complex stories. Featured prominently in a first-floor gallery is a portrait of Jerusha Benedict of rural Danbury, Connecticut, from 1790. In the painting, artist Ralph Earl depicts his subject wearing a feathered hat, jewels, and a fichu with silver thread. The obvious care given to the delicate shawl could indicate the help of a servant. Who was the helper? Whose labor made the adornment possible? They are among many questions viewers are invited to explore in Bearing Witness, a new installation in the first-floor galleries. Bearing Witness places new emphasis on the gallery spaces while signaling a further focus on storytelling through objects in the collection, specifically objects that reveal the diversity of the past, the origins of materials, the transmission of knowledge and technology, the complex networks of trade and labor across the globe, and their value to the cultural heritage of America.

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Highlights of 2021 continued

A Getty Foundation Grant Funds Important Fraktur Project As part of the Getty Foundation’s ongoing Paper Project initiative, Winterthur is one of nineteen institutions to receive a Getty grant to support exhibitions, publications, and digital projects that center on graphic arts. Launched in 2018, the Paper Project funds professional development and experimental projects for curators around the world who study prints and drawings to make graphic arts collections more accessible and relevant to 21st-century audiences. With that support, Associate Curator Stéphanie Delamaire will manage a project to digitize Winterthur’s Denig Illuminated Manuscript for use by scholars and other interested parties. The leather- bound quarto manuscript codex was an unexpected gift to Winterthur in 2020 from Alessantrina and David Schwartz and the Schwartz Foundation. Dated 1784, the volume has long been recognized for its historical significance and the artistic merit of the sixty full-page, ink-and-watercolor drawings. Illustrated and authored by Ludwig Denig (1755– 1830), a member of the Reformed Church who lived and worked in Lancaster and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the volume contains a family register, a series of hymns, and a series of pictures inspired by biblical texts and narratives written in the everyday German of 18th-century colonial Pennsylvania.

The manuscript mixes several genres that were popular at the time: the heavily illustrated Picture-Bible; the emblem book, which included depictions of everyday objects that were seen as carrying spiritual meaning; and a passional, or illustrated devotional book centered on the Passion of Jesus Christ. The volume can also be considered a Hauspostile, a book of sermons made to be used in Lutheran and Reformed homes on Sundays, and a personal songbook. “The volume is so fragile that it cannot be handled, and it is difficult to exhibit in the galleries without a strong digital component,” Delamaire notes. To make it available to others, the Getty Foundation grant will allow us to develop a digital platform that will incorporate a digital edition of the manuscript (with transcription and translation of the German texts), art historical and scientific studies, conservation research, and multimedia components such as musical recordings of the manuscript’s songs by New York Polyphony, a group that specializes in early American music. Two surrogates will also be printed for handling. The project will finish in 2024.

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New Guide Published on How to Care for Your Most Cherished Possessions Winterthur published a new book by Winterthur’s own highly trained conservation experts in summer 2021. Caring for Your Cherished Objects: The Winterthur Guide, edited by Joy Gardiner and Joan Irving, provides guidance on how to care for cherished objects and family heirlooms, whether they are personal letters, grandmother’s silver, or a favorite quilt from your childhood. “It’s easy to do an internet search to get information about taking care of the objects you own, but how reliable is that information? Will it help or harm the things you hold dear?” says Gardiner, director of conservation at Winterthur and co-editor with Irving, who is senior conservator of paper. “This book will give you practical information to help you know what you should and shouldn’t do to prolong the life of your objects.” Included is an overview of preventive conservation with subsequent chapters devoted to books, documents, and ephemera; ceramics and glass; textiles; photographs; metals, furniture; and more. Readers will find advice about proper storage and display, plus a variety of resources. Sidebars in each chapter address the science behind the hows and whys of caring for the range of objects covered. Caring for Your Cherished Objects outlines the procedures that can be done safely by an owner as well as those that require the services of conservation professionals—and includes a list of suggested suppliers. The book’s authors are current and former Winterthur conservation staff. In addition to caring for the collection at Winterthur, they teach, consult, and lecture on the care of cultural heritage. Each chapter draws on the expertise of its author’s specialized field. The book is available in the Museum Store for $24.95 and is distributed by Rowman and Littlefield in both printed and ebook formats.

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Highlights of 2021 continued

With Hammer in Hand Refreshes the Dominy Craftsmen Story A reinstallation of With Hammer in Hand: A Story of American Craft refreshes and updates the story of the Dominy family, skilled craftsmen who worked and traded in East Hampton, Long Island, in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The updated exhibition presents a more detailed, nuanced view of the Dominys as vital members of a vibrant, diverse community, that included English colonists, members of the Shinnecock and Montaukett communities, enslaved people, and free people of color who earned their living from offshore fishing and farming. “The Dominys reflected and helped shape the special regional identity of their community through furniture, clocks, and other objects that may appear to our eyes as common, simple, and practical, but they are beautifully designed and executed,” said Josh Lane, the Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Curator of Furniture at Winterthur. “We want visitors to understand the Dominy craftsmen as members of a multigenerational family living under one roof with their wives and children and apprentices and as a vital part of their

community where everyone turned to them for all sorts of woodworking and small metalsmithing needs.”

With Hammer in Hand displays nearly all the contents of the Dominys’ woodworking, clock making, and watch repair shops—including lathes, workbenches, and more than 1,000 hand tools. It also contains examples of furniture and tall clocks as well as extensive shop records and family papers. In addition, it features short video interviews with Charles F. Hummel, curator emeritus at Winterthur and the preeminent scholar of the Dominys, outlining how the collection survived and how it came to Winterthur. There are video excerpts about how the collection continues to intrigue and inspire craftspeople. A new floor-to-ceiling mural of a saltwater marsh situates the Dominys in the seaside community of their time. Together, the tools, shop products, and written records tell a richer story about the practices and roles of skilled craftsmen in preindustrial America than any other single grouping of artifacts and documents that have survived from this period.

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Transformations: Contemporary Artists at Winterthur

As Winterthur has influenced the work of contemporary creators, those creators are influencing Winterthur. With its emphasis on traditional decorative arts, Winterthur is not the first place that comes to mind when most people think about contemporary artwork installations. Yet the collection, the garden, and the library inspire creative professionals of all kinds, as Transformations: Contemporary Artists at Winterthur shows so beautifully. Transformations highlights artistic expressions created by Winterthur’s Maker-Creator Fellows, who are granted special access to the collections and staff for research and inspiration. The installations in Transformations celebrate how Winterthur’s landscape and material culture inspire the fellows to transform their impressions of the past into art that comments on the present. Transformations opened in September 2021 and is a multiyear commitment to showing the work of contemporary artists and makers in the galleries and garden. “It’s one way of working with a broader community and engaging with new audiences—of looking at what the collection means to them,” says Curator of Exhibitions Kim Collison. “It really begins with the success of the Maker-Creator program and looking at the collections as a resource for making new art. That, to me, goes back to our mission and thinking about Winterthur as a place of inspiration.”

Meet the artists on the pages that follow. Elissa Edwards, Kimberly Hall and Justin Hardison, Dan Feinberg, Stefania Urist, Rob Finn, and Heather Ossandon

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Transformations continued

Elissa Edwards Not all of the work in Transformation s can be viewed; some of it is heard. As visitors wander through the exhibition Outside In: Nature-inspired Design at Winterthur , they are surrounded by the sounds of harpsichord, flute, harp, birdsong, nature sounds, and the beautiful voice of soprano Elissa Edwards. Edwards is an exponent of early music, who has a particular interest in historical music manuscript collections owned by women. While researching in the Winterthur Library, Edwards found historical scores that celebrated the rich tradition of nature- themed music, connecting the gardens outside to the treasures within. Edwards breathed new life into these forgotten works, curating them for the Outside In soundtrack. In various locations, her husband Jeremy Sheeler of

Awarehouse Productions recorded the nature soundscape and music embellished with baroque ornamentation techniques. The couple captured the sounds of Winterthur—the burbling of Clenny Run, the buzzing of insects, breezes blowing through the trees and meadows—all of which were mixed into the musical soundtrack by her brother, Ryan Edwards of Coincident Sound. “It’s my hope that the music transports visitors to a place of heightened historical whimsy, this kind of pastoral romanticism, which is experienced whenever you walk the Winterthur grounds and garden,” Edwards says. “It’s an absolutely delightful place to experience, and I wanted the music to have unique surprises and to captivate the listener.”

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Kimberly Hall and Justin Hardison

The result is reflected in a redesign of the West Galleries Lounge, where Hall painted a folk art mural of the Winterthur landscape with Canada geese, blossoming tree limbs, leaves, twigs, and other objects that found their way into their sketchbooks while they wandered the grounds. Hardison decorated the shelves with woodblocks carved with similar nature images to acknowledge their work as printmakers. “One of the things that is so special about the Maker- Creator Fellowship is that it makes the collections come alive,” Hall says. “Artists and designers can use the collection to make new things. Objects are meant to be renewed.” “It’s also a paid fellowship, which is important for artists. It shows that art making is as valuable as other disciplines that have fellowship support.”

Kimberly Hall and Justin Hardison of the print design studio Nottene were looking for a way to expand their pattern design business when they decided to explore wallpaper. In developing their new work, they learned about the Winterthur Maker-Creator Fellowship at the Office of Research at Maryland Institute College of Art, where Hall is on the faculty. “We found there was so much more to learn about wallpaper.” Hall says. Sample books and business records in the library quickly became key sources for understanding the history, design, and trade of wallpaper. Pennsylvania German art and fraktur became important inspirations, as did frequent walks in the garden, which was a sanctuary to her young family during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Transformations continued

Dan Feinberg

At the intersection of art and science stands Dan Feinberg.

promote drainage to reduce pollution and other environmental damage from the runoff of surface water. “The pattern is an intentional signal that a problem is being addressed,” Feinberg says. With a special interest in patterns, Feinberg, a professor of art at Berea, found Winterthur rich with examples in its collections of wallpapers and textiles. In spring 2021, he spent about a month mapping the planting area, marking the patterns, drilling an estimated 1,500 holes through the asphalt, planting radish seeds with compost from Winterthur and with help from Winterthur staff, then waiting while nature took its course. Feinberg will return to replant the holes every fall and spring. Winterthur staff will document the project’s progress. Photographic documentation will result in a surprising, augmented reality project that will be revealed in the house in coming years. For now, visitors can see the radishes growing on the Winterthur property.

When Dan Feinberg sees a large expanse of unused asphalt such as the parking lot of an abandoned big box store, he sees damage he’d like to mitigate. So Feinberg and a colleague from Berea College, soil scientist Mary Parr, are experimenting with a way to break up that surface through plants. In a corner of the parking lot at the Brown Horticulture Learning Center and on a short stretch of road leading to the Dairy Barn, Feinberg has planted about 1,500 tillage radishes in patterns inspired by the parquet floor of the Empire Parlor and rugs in the Marlboro Room and the Port Royal Parlor. Tillage radishes were bred to relieve soil compaction. At Winterthur, Feinberg hopes, they will break up the asphalt. If successful, the project will encourage greening, revitalize nutrients in the underlying soil for the benefit of plants that will eventually replace the radishes, and

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Stefania Urist A resident of Vermont, Stefania Urist is keenly interested in trees and old-growth forests. She was exploring Winterthur in summer 2019, learning from staff conservators how to preserve outdoor sculptures, when she saw an Instagram post that changed her direction. In the photo, a staff member was counting the rings of a 300-year-old oak that had been felled by a tornado in 2020. “The tree was a wide as he was tall,” Urist says. “I knew right away it was old. When I saw it, I said, ‘I need a piece of that.’” Among other things, Urist’s art addresses ideas about the environment, in part by using materials in unusual ways. She used parts of the tree she discovered on Instagram, known as the Brown’s Meadow Oak, to create one of two related works in Transformations. Fragmented Memories, made of paper over wood,

expands a milling pattern into pieces the viewers can remove and keep, thus involving them in the work’s evolution. Bonded Memories, made of paper embossed with the oak’s rings, imagines the tree reassembled. “I came to milling patterns by being interested in the interaction between humans and nature, how we turn natural, curvy, inconsistent shapes into linear, industrialized products,” Urist says. “You can see different artistic shapes in there, and I found that really beautiful but also really sad. The tree rings are the lifeline and literal timeline of the tree made into a physical shape. So I just want people to think about it in a different way, think about our own consumption and how we use these beings to be objects and building materials when they existed for so long before that.”

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Transformations continued

Rob Finn Over his career as a portraitist of trees, watercolor painter Rob Finn has seen several variations on a peculiar theme. It began a few years ago with a large oak at the Northern California home where Jack London wrote Call of the Wild. “I loved that tree,” says Finn. “The next time I went back, it was gone because it was going to crush the house. I didn’t know that was going to happen when I originally took the picture of it.” Nor did he know it would happen to a 300-year-old oak that he photographed in Brown’s Meadow at Winterthur— the same tree that inspired Urist. When he heard it was destroyed by a tornado, he thought, “I have to paint that tree now.” His portrait of the old giant in Transformations is what he calls one of his “memorial trees,” images of icons that once were, like another beautiful tree at Winterthur, a Japanese pine that fell in 2021.

Unlike most watercolor painters, Finn does not work on a horizontal surface. “I do it on the wall,” he says. “The water and the pigment move a lot, but I paint in a way that keeps it from dripping.” He is aided by digital photography. When working where there is not enough focal distance for the camera to register an entire tree in one frame, he can photograph it in sections, then assemble them digitally into an undistorted top-to- bottom view for reference in his studio. “Trees seem like part of the landscape but they’re living creatures that are only on this earth for a short time, like us,” Finn says. “It’s a little scary, a little sad, but it’s life. It’s a good way to show folks how sweet and fleeting it is.”

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Heather Ossandon Born in the Philippines, Heather Ossandon spent her childhood in England and the United States, in homes filled with “traditional Japanese rice bowls and Korean objects, British teapots,” she says. The unique ceramics traditions of the countries where she has lived and traveled informs both the functional pottery she makes for the commercial market and her sculptural pieces, such as Still Life with Fruit in Transformations. Among Ossandon’s sources for the piece were Mary Jane Peale’s Still Life with Fruit; historic glasses, crockery, and tableware from the museum collection; and cookbooks and other resources from the Winterthur Library. Also incorporated into her assemblage are references to Winterthur’s past as a working farm. Through the objects in the work, Ossandon conveys a sense of place that is specific to one location while being relevant to any place and expressing something that is personally meaningful to everyone.

all related to food because I feel like that’s really universal,” Ossandon says. “I was also familiar with the Peales and I felt like I wanted to highlight Mary Jane’s work specifically, being a woman. I wanted to bring those to light.” The particular inspirations for Still Life with Fruit may be recent, but for Ossandon, inspiration from Winterthur is nothing new. As a high school student in southern New Jersey, she visited Winterthur on a field trip in the mid-1990s to see the newly acquired Campbell Collection of Soup Tureens, which includes outstanding examples of ceramic craft. “I really feel like the fellowship has influenced the work I’ve made ever since, but it was influencing me all along because of that trip I had back in the day. It has been a really special place for me. Winterthur doesn’t end.”

“I was looking at what people were eating, how people were communicating, how they were recording things

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Honoring a Giant in Her Field

students, for her background in the science, design, and interpretation of textiles. Johnson continues Linda’s important work in making the Winterthur collection a continual source of inspiration and education for students, Members, and visitors. “It’s an honor to inherit the stewardship and care of such a world-class collection,” Johnson said.

The Linda Eaton Curator of Textiles endowment ensures the legacy of a beloved conservator, curator, and leader. For more than thirty years at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Linda Eaton’s contributions to the field of textile arts and history were numerous and invaluable. Her impact and influence as both a conservator and curator made Winterthur a leader in the field.

Support for the endowment has been enthusiastic, with donations from more than seventy individuals, including members of the Henry Francis du Pont Collectors Circle who have fond memories of traveling with Linda, ardent supporters and attendees of Linda’s needlework conferences, and scholars who have been influenced by her work. “There are a couple of reasons that Pam and I chose to support this endowment,” says longtime Winterthur Trustee Bruce Perkins. “Above all, Linda was a consummate professional. Over the years that I had the pleasure of working with her and the Collections Committee, she faced innumerable difficult situations and issues that would have flustered almost anyone else. Linda was always able to step back, analyze the situation, and come up with the best possible solution for all involved.” “That said, she also was a wonderful friend. Her kind heart and wonderful mind made her a pleasure to work, play, and travel with.” Linda shared her knowledge and expertise through teaching hundreds of graduate students in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. She advised master’s theses, aided countless researchers, and inspired future curators by sharing her enthusiasm with everyone from kindergartners and her graduate students to serious quilters, stitchers, designers, embroiderers, and general

Throughout her long career at Winterthur, Linda oversaw the acquisition, interpretation, care, and exhibition of the museum’s textile collections, which includes nearly 20,000 furnishings, articles of clothing, rugs, quilts, and needlework. At the time of her passing in August 2021, after a courageous battle against a long-term illness, Linda was recognized around the world for her leadership in the field of interdisciplinary textile scholarship. A specialist in textile conservation and textile history, she advanced technical and scientific knowledge of textiles broadly. Winterthur believed it was important to honor Linda’s legacy by creating the endowed curator of textiles position in her name. Beginning with a generous challenge gift by trustees John and Marjorie McGraw, we continue to raise funds to complete the endowment. “The curator of textiles position needed to be made permanent,” said Marjorie McGraw, a collector of 18th-century American furniture who endowed the John L. and Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections position in 2012. “We just loved Linda so much. She was part of our family. She was so dear— and extremely knowledgeable.” Laura E. Johnson joined Winterthur as the first Linda Eaton Associate Curator of Textiles in fall 2020. At the time, Linda praised Johnson, one of her former

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audiences. Hundreds of loyal followers attended her regular needlework conferences at Winterthur.

Linda’s exhibitions and publications were among the most popular at Winterthur. She curated exhibitions about embroidery such as Quilts in a Material World; Needles and Haystacks: Pastoral Imagery in American Needlework; With Cunning Needle: Four Centuries of Embroidery; The Diligent Needle: Instrument of Profit, Pleasure, and Ornament; and Embroidery: The Language of Art, as well as Betsy Ross: The Life Behind the Legend, co-curated with Dr. Marla Miller. Linda also curated the popular Treasures on Trial: The Art and Science of Detecting Fakes and she was an instrumental partner in one of Winterthur’s most memorable exhibitions, Costuming THE CROWN in 2019, the only exhibition of costumes from the popular Netflix series. Her publications include Quilts in a Material World: Selections from the Winterthur Collection (2007), which placed the collection in a global context, and Printed Textiles: British and American Cottons and Linens, 1700–1850 (2014), a revision of Florence Montgomery’s seminal 1970 book. Linda’s latest publication, Erica Wilson: A Life in Stitches, co-authored with Anne Hilker, was released in December 2020.

Linda trained at the Textile Conservation Centre and the Courtauld Institute of Art before working for the National Museum of Scotland. Linda arrived at Winterthur in 1991 as a textile conservator. She became curator of textiles in 2000 and was promoted to director of museum collections and senior curator of textiles in 2009. Linda was named the John L. and Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections and Senior Curator of Textiles in 2012. She retired in December 2020. “Linda was a textilian to her core and a staunch—one might even say fierce—advocate for the objects made from fibers and the people who created them,” said Joy Gardiner, head of conservation for Winterthur. “In her generous sharing of this advocacy in teaching, publications, workshops, and exhibitions, she fostered an expanded appreciation of the medium at Winterthur and well beyond. Her influence will be long-lasting.” Those who wish to join us in honoring Linda’s legacy may make a donation to the Linda Eaton Curator of Textiles endowment.

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From an Acorn, a Mighty Oak Grows

“Whether you’re going in there as an adult or a child, it implores you to look at the world a little differently...” —Olivia Kirkpatrick

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Support from the Vietor family’s Acorn Foundation helps maintain the popular Enchanted Woods.

little sister by supporting the renovation of Enchanted Woods and, in particular, the Fairy Flower Labyrinth.”

The garden remains a significant reason that families decide to become Members of Winterthur. At the time Enchanted Woods was conceived in the late 1990s, not many visitors brought children to the estate, so the garden staff set out to create a place especially for them. This was no easy task. The space needed to fit the history of the estate while meeting the high standards of H. F. du Pont, whose garden designs are among the finest in the world. At the time, most children’s gardens were essentially playgrounds, purpose-built places full of features decorated in primary colors. The designers of Enchanted Woods wanted to create a true garden, a place that would delight and inspire, so they paid close attention to what children wanted: high spaces that offered a view, nooks to hide in, and water, water everywhere, all scaled to the size of a child.

The creation myth of Winterthur’s Enchanted Woods children’s garden says that its resident sprites missed the laughter of the two girls who once played on the swings and jungle gym there. Wanting to hear that laughter again, they gathered artifacts from across the estate and built a magical place that other kids would love. Twenty years since it opened—and now hosting a second generation of visitors—Enchanted Woods stands as a masterwork of design and intent, a place where kids can be kids but also a place where they and their grown- ups find great beauty. The delight it gives children and the beauty it provides adults are among the reasons that ongoing support from the Acorn Foundation Fund for Beautification is so important.

The Acorn Foundation Fund was founded by Anna Glen Butler Vietor, whose mother was a first cousin of Henry Francis du Pont. When Enchanted Woods was created in 2001, Vietor funded the Fairy Flower Labyrinth in memory of her daughter, Barbara Foster Vietor, who died at age nine.

The effect of the design wasn’t lost on Olivia Kirkpatrick, even if she couldn’t articulate it at the time. Kirkpatrick was about five years old when she started visiting the brand-new Enchanted Woods. Playing often in a space designed to set young imaginations free influenced her study of art in high school, then her choice to major in

In 2021, the Acorn Foundation Fund, now overseen by the six Vietor siblings—David Vietor, Richard Vietor, Louise Vietor Oliver, Pauline Vietor Sheehan, Sandy Vietor, and Martha Vietor Glass—made a grant to help restore some signature features in Enchanted Woods. These included the Fairy Flower Labyrinth, the Tulip Tree House, the Bird’s Nest, and the Maypole Circle. The gift also supported Winterthur’s Enchanted Summer Day, an annual June event that attracts hundreds of families for a day full of live music, crafts, magicians, jugglers, ice cream, and more. “Given her family connection to Winterthur and her love of children, my mother decided that the Fairy Flower Labyrinth would be a beautiful and appropriate memorial for her youngest daughter, Barbara,” says Louise Vietor Oliver. “Twenty years later, my siblings and I are delighted to honor both our mother and our

landscape architecture at the University of Delaware, where she completed a minor in horticulture. A Winterthur garden internship three years ago was the perfect way to learn more about garden maintenance and to think about design. “We don’t think about it, but every single space you enter is going to influence the way that you react to it,” says Kirkpatrick, gardener for the historic Wister Rhododendron Garden at nearby Tyler Arboretum since 2019. “Whether you’re going in there as an adult or a child, it implores you to look at the world a little differently and interact with it a little differently. It encourages that playfulness and whimsy. Even now, I get so excited when I get to play around in the garden. It’s such a nice space. I still go there, and it has never stopped being exciting.”

From an Acorn, a Mighty Oak Grows 21

Goodbye to a Dear Friend

furnishing, and decorating it with 18th-century New England furniture, English ceramics, American paintings, and 17th- and 18th-century needlework. Their love of 18th-century design included the landscape around their house, which they planted with flora introduced before 1775. “John and Judy created a total environment of great beauty” says Professor Emeritus Brock Jobe, who worked closely with the Herdegs and counts them among his dear friends. “House, grounds, collection— all conveyed a sense of tranquil artistry and grace. For John and Judy, this was a property to be shared. Time and time again, they hosted Winterthur students or welcomed countless groups of collectors from all across the country.” The restoration attracted local interest that resulted in an invitation for John, then a young lawyer, to join Winterthur’s Board in 1969. “We met others, and we loved it,” John said in 2019. In years to come, he would serve on the executive committee, as well as committees for finance, audit, development, collections, marketing, academic affairs, and others. He also served on Winterthur’s Fiftieth Anniversary Committee and as a member of the Strategic Planning Task Force. John worked with ten executive directors. Each, he said, made unique and significant contributions to the institution. Among the most important were those of James M. Smith, executive director from 1976 to 1984. John, as chair of the board from 1977 to 1986, worked with Smith to create vehicles for financial support that fundamentally changed operations at Winterthur. “Smith and Winterthur were a good match at the right time,” John said in 2019. “My job was to work closely with Jim. H. F. du Pont had never passed the tin cup. It was a one-man museum. Jimmade a major effort to put us in the public eye. He made it the modern museum it is today.” Among Smith’s successes is the creation of the Henry Francis du Pont Collectors Circle for significant donors, in 1984. John and Judy became founding members and co-chaired the group from 1997 to 2003. John’s time as

Photo by J. David Bohl

As a trustee, collector, and scholar, our friend John Herdeg helped put Winterthur on the map.

In June, Winterthur said goodbye to one of its greatest supporters. John Andrew Herdeg served on the Winterthur Board of Trustees for fifty-two years, contributing to advancements that turned the estate into one of the foremost museums of American decorative arts in the world. “John was one of a kind,” says Chris Strand, Charles F. Montgomery Director and CEO of Winterthur. “He was a dedicated collector, a preservationist, a serious student of early American art, a generous philanthropist, and a dedicated trustee. It is difficult to imagine a Winterthur without John’s guidance, support, and friendship.” John and his wife, Judith (“Judy”) Coolidge Carpenter Herdeg, shared a love for American history and 18th- century decorative arts. Their passion started in 1963 with their purchase of the William Peters House, a 1750s Georgian brick structure in Mendenhall, Pennsylvania, that became home to their family of five. John and Judy spent their lives collecting,

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board chair under Smith also saw Winterthur’s first national exhibition tour, the acquisition of the Historic Houses of Odessa, the launch of a licensing program for reproduction of historic furniture, and the birth of the annual Point-to-Point steeplechase races, Winterthur’s largest one-day fundraiser. “For more than fifty years, John and Judy were, in effect, Winterthur’s ambassadors to the worlds of collecting and gardening,” Jobe says. “No one has made a more valuable contribution to the institution.” Beyond Winterthur, John was a member of several historical organizations, including the Walpole Society, a group dedicated to the appreciation and study of American decorative arts, architecture, and history; the New England Historic Genealogical Society; the American Antiquarian Society; and the Society for Colonial Wars in the State of Delaware. He and Judy traveled widely in the United States and England to research their collection. His findings led to publication of scholarly articles such as “Son of Whom? A Collector’s Journey” and “The Story of a Serendipitous Find,” as well as his book, The Stories They Tell…from

the Herdeg Collection (2021, Newbury Street Press, an imprint of New England Historic Genealogical Society).

The Herdegs’ support of Winterthur is reflected in more than 150 museum objects and many gifts to the library. John also served as trustee at Historic Deerfield, Inc., in Massachusetts and president of the 1103 Market Street Foundation, a public charity dedicated to preserving the Historic John Merrick Mansion. He served as a trustee of Woodlawn Trustees, Inc., as well as in official positions for Pennsbury Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. In recognition of their support of the decorative arts and their commitment to collecting, research, and philanthropic leadership in the field, Winterthur recently presented the Henry Francis du Pont Award, its highest honor, to Judy and John. “It has been a great pleasure,” John said in his fiftieth year on the Board. With all of the giant strides of the past, he still saw great possibility for growth. “There is a whole new generation out there. The more we can share ourselves with the world, the better off we’ll be.”

Goodbye to a Dear Friend 23

24 2021 Annual Report

Acquisitions

Anna Pottery Liberty Monument

1873 Museum Purchase 2021.0017

The recently discovered Liberty Monument is a unique 150-year-old stoneware masterwork that dramatically depicts a racially motivated massacre in Colfax, Louisiana, in 1873 that has been largely ignored by mainstream history books. Winterthur acquired the Liberty Monument during the summer 2021 Crocker Farm auction of American stoneware and earthenware. The auction house described the commemorative work as “one of the greatest American ceramic discoveries to come to light in recent decades.” The Liberty Monument was created by Wallace and Cornwall Kirkpatrick, owners of Anna Pottery in Anna, Illinois, from 1859 to 1896. Known to be socially progressive, the brothers were vocal about their views and often commented caustically on events and politics through their work. The primary scene depicted on the Liberty Monument is the massacre of Black citizens who acted against efforts to overturn the result of the 1872 gubernatorial election in Louisiana. The commentary touches on political scandal, the struggle of Black Americans for basic human rights, the cost of the American Civil War, and other themes. The figure of Lady Liberty atop the monument gives the work its name. Leslie Grigsby, senior curator of ceramics and glass at Winterthur, and Alexandra Deutsch, the John L. and Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections, are

working to create a multivocal interpretation for this object by engaging with scholars, students, and others to depict the multilayered history the monument represents. “We expect the interpretation of this complex object to evolve over time,” Deutsch says. “We fully understand the responsibility we have when we present the challenging history this object represents.” Scholars have celebrated the acquisition. “This is an important object through which we can help uncover more of the history of this understudied massacre,” says Dr. Jonathan Michael Square. “I grew up in Baton Rouge (two hours from Colfax), and we did not talk about these kinds of traumatic historical episodes. The 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre sparked a conversation about the history of racial violence in this country. Winterthur, too, can contribute to these much-needed conversations.” Square is an assistant professor of Black visual culture at Parsons School of Design and a fellow in history of art and visual culture at the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He runs the digital humanities platform “Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom.”

The acquisition has been covered widely in the antiques press.

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Acquisitions continued

Fraktur Birth and Baptismal Certificates 1791 and 1789 Museum purchase 2021.0008.001 and 2021.0008.002

sponsors are the grandparents of the child.” The genealogical information is encircled by verses from a popular baptismal hymn. The Hottenstein name is well known to Winterthur. In the 1950s, Henry Francis du Pont purchased woodwork and a 1781 inlaid walnut schrank that came from a 1783 large stone farmhouse built for Dr. David and Catherine Hottenstein. In 2008, Winterthur acquired a previously undocumented fraktur baptismal and birth certificate for Wilhem Hottenstein (2008.0019.001), grandson of Catherine and Dr. David Hottenstein. Another Winterthur collection object connected to the Hottensteins is the family bible, printed in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1770 (2008.0019.002). The three fraktur and bible, along with other Winterthur objects, will contribute to the Denig Illuminated Manuscript project as comparative materials. (See Highlights section, page 8.)

These two beautifully crafted birth and baptismal certificates from the Hottenstein family add to an existing collection of Hottenstein family fraktur objects in the Winterthur collection. The first was made for Susanna Kemp, daughter of George Kemp and his wife, Susanna (nee Levan), born on July 10, 1791, in Maxatawny Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania (right). Her baptismal sponsors were Samuel Ely and his wife, Catharina. Susanna Kemp would marry Daniel Hottenstein. The second was made for Daniel Hottenstein, son of David Hottenstein [Jr.] and Elisabeth Klein, born on March 20, 1789, in Maxatawny Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania (below). His baptismal sponsors were David Hottenstein [Sr.] and Catharina, his “second beloved wife.” The maker added a handwritten note at the bottom left to clarify the relationship of the child and the godparents, writing “N.B. The baptismal

26 2021 Annual Report