Reunion
Weekend and Conference
"Educated at Winterthur: A Half Century of Achievement"
September 21-22, 2001
Keynote Address
The Winterthur Programs,
'51 to '01: Are We There Yet?
by
Charles F. Hummel (WPEAC '55)
(as
presented on September 21, 2001)
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(page 2) Fellowship support was received from Antiques Magazine, Mr. Copeland, Louise Crowninshield, Charles K. Davis, Mrs. Beverly Robinson, and the Wilmington Trust Company, by mid May 1952. The New York Times, Wilmington News Journal, Newsweek and Antiques Magazine printed stories about the new Program between January and February of 1952. Most important, the Fellowship Committee chaired by Mrs. Copeland named the first group of Fellows to participate in the Program in April 1952. That committee recommended that the Fellows be housed by the University, but Dr. Carl Rees, Dean of the Graduate School, informed Charles Montgomery that the University had no dormitory or other housing suitable for graduate students, especially those who were married and had families. Renovation of the Gray Building at Winterthur was explored but found to be both impractical and too expensive. Contrary to persistent rumors, Mr. and Mrs. du Pont's new home, "the cottage," was never considered as a future residence for Program Fellows. Mr. du Pont's correspondence and memos are explicit about the fact that his residence might some day house Winterthur's library and provide a home for the Museum's curator. So the practice of subsequent classes of Fellows "inheriting" the digs of previous classes was established at the beginning of the Program. |
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 Grey Building, Winterthur |
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In anticipation of the first class of Fellows reporting to Winterthur, Charles Montgomery and Frank Sommer went to England on a book-buying spree for the Winterthur Library early in the summer of 1952. Following Charles Montgomery's return to Winterthur, Frank Sommer dug in at Cambridge in order to prepare for his initial Program course at the University. In an exchange of letters, Dr. Sommer noted that he was "wallowing in books, books, books--Haydock, Adam, Wittkower, Palladio, Serlio, Shute, Chambers, Whieldon, Reade, Whitney, etc. The course next term should be a humdinger if I can do my materials justice." During that first orientation session at Winterthur, Charles Montgomery informed Frank Sommer that "Florence and I are spending on an average of four or five hours a day with the Fellows in addition to trying to prepare material for presentation. But they are making progress, seemingly at a dizzy pace. All are working very hard, with apparently no laggards in the lot. . . . Soon you will have a chance to judge for yourself." |
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 American Furniture autograph party |
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At that time, the new Program still did not have an official name. "The Winterthur Program in Early American Culture" was selected at the first meeting of the Winterthur Committee (later to become the Executive Committee of the Program) on a Sunday afternoon in September 1952. Meeting in the office of Dean Rees, were Dr. Frank Squire, Dean School of Arts and Science; Professors John Munroe, H. Clay Reed, and Walter Woodfill of the History Department; Frank Sommer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology; Harriet Baily, Department of Art; Ernest Moyne, Department of English; William Lewis, Librarian of the University; and Charles and Florence Montgomery. Dr. Sommer was elected coordinator of the Program, a post that he held until 1955 when he was succeeded by Dr. Moyne who served through 1962. Coordinators of the Program were rotated among the Art, English, and History Departments until the University appointed a director of the Program, a post that Professor James Curtis of the History Department has held with distinction for eighteen years. Just as there are few guarantees in life, the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture faced a number of crises during its fifty-year history. The end of the Rockefeller Foundation grant to the University in 1955, recurring budget crises, the need to raise funds for Fellowship stipends each year, turnover of teaching personnel through retirement or a change of jobs, and the ongoing drain of time demands on the small staff at Winterthur were problems that had to be resolved. But if there were factors threatening the existence of the Program, there were stronger elements that assured its continuity. No formal contract binds the co-sponsors, substituting commitment and goodwill on the part of both institutions. An Executive Committee of the Program that represents both institutions; an Academic Committee appointed by Winterthur's Board of Trustees that has members from both institutions; recurring internal and external reviews of the Program to fine-tune goals and curricula; dedicated, strongly interested body of graduates sensitive to any hiccups or coughs emanating from the Program; strong commitment from staff involved with the Program at both institutions; Henry Francis du Pont's strong support of, and interest in, the Program from 1951 through his death in 1969; and the very generous gifts and bequests to Winterthur of Henry and Lois McNeil in 1983 and 1999 to suppport students of the American decoratives arts have all helped to assure the continued existence of the Program. McNeil Funds provide for Fellowship stipends with increases as deemed necessary. Thus, the Program is able to compete for the best and brightest students. Managed conservatively, the Fund has also provided income used for grants in Winterthur's Research Fellowship Program, a national competition. Many graduates of the Program have competed successfully for such grants. And for the first time in 2001, McNeil Funds have been earmarked to support a Lois F. McNeil Curatorial Internship at Winterthur, to be selected as part of a national competition in 2002. |
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 Winterthur Fellows, 1958 |
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Class of '63
Class of '64 with
Charles Montgomery
Class of
'65/'66
Class of
'68/'69
Benno Forman,
class of '68
Class of '70
Class of
'71/'72
Class of
'73
Class of '74
Classes of '76 and '77
Class of
'78
Class of
'88