About Hagley Museum and Library
Hagley Museum and Library preserves the Brandywine River site where E. I. du Pont established the DuPont Company's first American black-powder works in 1802. Spread across roughly 235 acres, the museum combines industrial archaeology, restored mills and machinery, a workers' community, and Eleutherian Mills, the du Pont family's first American home and garden, while Hagley's research library documents the history of American business and technology.
A visit moves between indoor exhibits and a dramatic outdoor manufacturing landscape shaped by waterpower. Guests can encounter working nineteenth-century machinery, historic powder-yard structures, demonstrations, the du Pont residence and garden, and stories of the workers and families whose lives were tied to a dangerous but influential industry. Hagley is especially worthwhile because it makes early American industrialization tangible at the physical place where a major company began, connecting technology, labor, family life, and innovation.
