This Delaware attraction is a winner of the 2024 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards
Hagley Museum and Library near Wilmington is a winner in the Best Open Air Museums category of the 2024 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards.
The USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice Awards highlight the very best in travel, food and drink, and lifestyle. Every week, USA TODAY 10Best invites a panel of industry experts to nominate their favorite points of interest and attractions across a wide range of categories.
10Best editors then vet these nominations and select a final set of nominees to be presented to the voting public for four weeks.
Hagley Museum and Library, off Delaware Route 141 in Greenville, is the home of the gunpowder works founded by E. I. du Pont in 1802. The 235-acre property is situated along the banks of the Brandywine and includes restored mills, a workers' community, and the ancestral Eleutherian Mills home and gardens of the du Pont family.
In June 1997, the museum had a famous visitor: Oprah Winfrey. Before starring in the film adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel "Beloved," Winfrey had to learn how to cook on a 19th-century stove. She came to Hagley because it had a wood-fired stove from 1846 that was still functional.
Hagley's library delves into the study of business and technology in America. The collections include individuals' papers and companies' records ranging from 18th-century merchants to modern telecommunications and illustrate the impact of the business system on society.
DuPont's Atomic Energy Division documents and records on atomic weapons and nuclear energy also are stored at Hagley Museum and Library. The records offer a greater insight into the top-secret nature of the Manhattan Project conducted during World War II and the DuPont Co.'s involvement.
Top Secret diary at Hagley Museum: A Delaware company had a big role in the Manhattan Project. Is it a part of 'Oppenheimer'?
Visitors can tour Eleutherian Mills, the ancestral home for five generations of the du Pont family.
It overlooks the Brandywine and is located up the hill from Hagley's gunpowder yard. The house, which had fallen into disrepair after it was damaged during an 1890 gunpowder explosion, was restored by Louise du Pont Crowninshield.
She and her husband, Francis "Frank" Crowninshield, who rode with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish–American War, lived there for a few months out of the year. The house was converted into a museum in 1957 and highlights family artifacts and decorative arts with links to major events from the Louisiana Purchase to the Civil War.
Guess who came to Hagley Museum? Secret revealed: The time Oprah Winfrey came to this Delaware attraction to make pies
Much of the museum's outdoor property is walkable and picnics are allowed on the grounds. During "Summer Nights at Hagley" on Wednesdays in June, July, and August, the museum allows guests to bring their leashed canine companions.
Hagley is closed on the fourth Thursday of November for Thanksgiving and on Dec. 25 for Christmas.
Other museums that made the 10Best Open Air Museums list include the National Transportation Museum in St. Louis; Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and several more.
To see all of the museums that were chosen in the 2024 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Museum Awards, visit 10Best.usatoday.com
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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: This Delaware museum won a 2024 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Award
