MY SAY: BRANDYWINE VALLEY- PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE AND THE DU PONTS
I just spent delightful days in the Brandywine Valley driving through the beautiful countryside. Included were visits to the Brandywine River museum which features paintings by three generations of the Wyeth family and their acolytes, the magnificent American antique furniture and woodland gardens of the former home of Henry Francis Du Pont- Winterthur Museum, and Longwood Gardens which defies description with one thousand acres of woodlands, flower gardens, ancient specimen trees of every variety, fountains, water gardens and a Conservatory that is dazzling with its almost endless displays of plants, trees and flowers.
All of the foregoing were a sampling of the generosity and public spirit of the Du Pont family, whose largess contributed and continues to contribute to conservation and restoration and maintenance of American historical treasures.
It also evoked a personal recollection of the Du Ponts. My husband’s brother in law was a very accomplished PhD in chemistry who worked for Du Pont de Nemours in Wilmington in the 1950s. It was bruited that a Jew could sooner become President of America than a president of Du Pont. At the time there were many institutions and academies with anti-Semitic policies so I did not pay too much attention.
Years later in 1974, I heard that expression again about anti-Semitism at Du Pont at a dinner sponsored by the Weizmann Institute of Israel. It was repeated with much humor by the guest of honor Irving Saul Shapiro who was the first non-Du Pont family member to be appointed CEO of the company in 1973 where he remained until 1981.
That is what I love about this country. Injustice and prejudice towards minorities and women have been overturned by the principles of democracy and not by thugs like Antifa and so-called “justice warriors.” God truly shed his grace on America the beautiful…..rsk
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