Editing Hagley Museum and Library (section)

== History ==
In 1802, French immigrant [[Éleuthère Irénée du Pont]] founded [[Eleutherian Mills|black powder mills]] on the banks of Brandywine Creek<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bradner|first=Liesl|date=2015-06-25|title=In Delaware and Pennsylvania, a peek at the homes that big money built|url=https://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-delaware-pennsylvania-mansions-gardens20150624-htmlstory.html|access-date=2020-08-22|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref> after purchasing the property in 1801 for $6,700.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Gordon|first=Renée S.|date=2019-10-04|title=Smooth Traveler: Wilmington, Delaware's "Chateau Country"|url=https://www.philasun.com/travel/smooth-traveler-wilmington-delawares-chateau-country/|access-date=2020-08-22|website=The Philadelphia Sunday Sun|language=en-US}}</ref> He chose the location for the river's tumble over the [[Atlantic Seaboard fall line|Fall Line]] which provided power, timber and willow trees (used to produce quality [[charcoal]] required for superior black powder), the proximity to the [[Delaware River]] (on which other ingredients of the powder – [[sulfur]] and [[saltpeter]] – could be shipped); and the quarries of [[gneiss]] that would provide construction materials for the mills.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Brandywine River Powder Mills|url=https://www.asme.org/About-ASME/Engineering-History/Landmarks/221-Brandywine-River-Powder-Mills|access-date=2021-11-12|website=www.asme.org|language=en}}</ref> The [[DuPont (1802–2017)|E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company]]'s black powder factory became the largest in the world.

In 1921, the mills along the Brandywine closed and parcels of the property were sold. Plans for a museum were established 31 years later, on the occasion of the DuPont Company's 150th anniversary in 1952.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hagley Museum, a DuPont History, Wilmington, Delaware - Travel Photos by Galen R Frysinger, Sheboygan, Wisconsin |url=http://www.galenfrysinger.com/delaware_hagley_museum.htm|access-date=2021-11-12|website=www.galenfrysinger.com}}</ref>

=== Origin of the name ===
Hagley historians only know that the name was already in use well before E.I. du Pont expanded downstream from [[Eleutherian Mills]] in 1813 by purchasing the land that became the Hagley Yards. An 1813 document refers to the land as Hagley and it had been called Hagley as early as 1797, when its owner, [[Philadelphia]] [[Quaker]] merchant Rumford Dawes, applied for insurance on buildings that were said to be located in a place called Hagley on the Brandywine. Dawes had acquired the property in 1783. Since the name Hagley did not appear on the documents transferring ownership at that time, it seems likely that Dawes gave this name to the Brandywine location.<ref name="Hagley Museum and Library: What is Hagley" />

It seems likely that Delaware's Hagley was named for an English estate, [[Hagley Hall]] that was well known in the second half of the eighteenth century. It is likely that Dawes chose the name based on an English narrative poem entitled ''[[The Seasons (Thomson poem)|The Seasons]]'' by [[James Thomson (poet, born 1700)|James Thomson]]. Hagley Hall was the seat of Thomson's patron the [[George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton|Baron Lyttelton]], and the poem's description of a sylvan dale is strikingly reminiscent of the Brandywine Valley. ''The Seasons'' was popular in [[Philadelphia]] at the time that Rumford Dawes acquired and named Hagley. The English Hagley estate is located in the [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands]] countryside about ten miles southwest of [[Birmingham]].<ref name="Hagley Museum and Library: What is Hagley" /> Perhaps coincidentally, Delaware's Hagley is about 8 miles south of [[Chadds Ford Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Chadds Ford Township]], officially known as Birmingham Township before 1996.

<span class="SpellE"><span class="SpellE">At about the same time, Hagley</span></span> Plantation on the [[Waccamaw River]] in [[South Carolina]] got its name when the owners, who were admirers of English culture, chose the name <span class="SpellE"><span class="SpellE">Hagley</span></span> to remind them of the well-known parkland of that name near London.<ref name="History">{{Cite web|url=http://www.hagleyestates.com/History.htm|title=History|website=www.hagleyestates.com|access-date=2016-03-09}}</ref>