An Impossible Quest: Capturing the Grandeur and Magnitude of The Winterthur Museum

The class of 2017 has been at Winterthur for six months now and one of the most unexpected challenges we have encountered as fellows isn’t the workload, but describing Winterthur to curious friends and family. Despite our best efforts to communicate the grandeur and magnitude of Henry Francis du Pont’s estate and collections, words never seem to do it justice. Rising to meet this challenge, I set out on the last day of fall classes with two other fellows in my cohort, Emelie and Michelle, to try and snap a few pictures that we feel capture the vastness and wonder of the collections at Winterthur.

With 175 rooms containing almost 100,000 objects spread out over nine floors, finding a place to start presented a challenge all its own. Beginning on the seventh floor, we decided that from the top of the Montmorenci staircase we could capture the full magnificence of one of Winterthur’s most iconic spaces. Emelie climbed up to the eighth floor in order to find a better vantage point, and Michelle and I peered down two flights of spiraling stairs, trying not to succumb to dizziness.  Even with our photographer a floor above us, we still couldn’t photograph the entire staircase. Lucky for us, however, we still had plenty of spots to explore on our quest to document Winterthur’s grandeur.

 Fellows Kristen and Michelle at the top of the Montmorenci Staircase

Michelle suggested our next stop on the fourth floor, where we photographed what my cohort refers to as the “Wall of Iron”.  H.F. du Pont liked to display groups of similar objects together, and the wall of iron is one of many of these type of displays. Unbelievably, even though it contains almost one hundred iron and metal objects, this wall represents only a small fraction of the entire metals collection at Winterthur!

Emelie and Michelle in front of the “Wall of Iron”

Putting our heads together, we knew that we could top the Wall of Iron if we tried. Emelie’s suggestion to photograph the China Room took us one floor down and through a labyrinth of hallways. As students, we have visited the China Room before, but being surrounded by this gargantuan collection of Chinese export porcelain never fails to inspire awe. Plates, bowls, figurines, and soup tureens galore are displayed in every nook and cranny of the room in what I imagine to be a bull’s worst nightmare and a porcelain scholar’s dream.

Emelie and Michelle take in the China Room

Of course, part of what makes Winterthur so amazing is the scope of its collections. Adjacent to the China Room and the last stop of this quest, is my favorite room, Shop Lane. Impressive as the China Room is, nothing communicates the museum’s grandeur more than strolling through half a city block without leaving the building. Although difficult to imagine at first, Winterthur’s almost 97,000 square feet of floor space allowed H.F. du Pont to install this collection of architectural elements —cobblestone street, building facades, and all—into this section of the house. Although not part of regular visitor tours, this space along with the first floor courtyard constitutes two of the most impressive architectural displays at Winterthur.

Shop Lane as seen from the End Shop

And so ended my quest to capture some of what makes the Winterthur Museum such a grand and inspiring place to work and study. Thanks to Emelie and Michelle’s help, explaining this unbelievably vast collection to friends and family will certainly be easier, however, I now realize there is so much about Winterthur that words and pictures can never express. Come see for yourself; we’d love to show you around!

By Kristen Semento, WPAMC Class of 2017