The University of Delaware Library will house nearly two centuries of archives related to the Rockwood Mansion.
New Castle County, which owns and operates the Victorian mansion as a museum, has gifted the archives to the University, while the Friends of Rockwood have established the John Sweeney Fellowship to assist in their preservation.
Spanning the 17th century until the late 1970s, the Rockwood Archives document generations of the Shipley, Bringhurst, Hargrave and Sellers families, all of whom resided in the home. An extensive collection of correspondence, photographs, albums, diaries, deeds, business records, ephemera and other items documents the families' personal lives and businesses, the Civil War, travels abroad, Delaware social and cultural life, and the building of Rockwood and its later restoration.
"We are very excited about this transfer...to the University of Delaware Library where this exceptional collection will be getting the care and online archival description that will enable the collection to take its rightful place in the broader scope of Delaware history,” said Philip Nord, Rockwood Museum director.
The fellowship honors John A. H. Sweeney (1908-1995), one of the first class of Winterthur Fellows and adviser for Henry Francis du Pont, founder of Winterthur Museum and Country Estate. He also served on the board of directors of the University of Delaware Library Associates for several years.
