ENTERTAINMENT

Winterthur's 'Downton' exhibit clocks 100,000th visitor

Betsy Price
The News Journal

Winterthur has a bona fide blockbuster on its hands with its "Costumes of Downton Abbey" exhibit.

“The Costumes of Downton Abbey” marked 100,000 visitors, and the exhibit is only in its fifth month. It has five more months to go at Winterthur Museum near Greenville.

The show registered its 100,000th visitor late Tuesday afternoon.

Winterthur's annual visitation usually numbers between 100,000 to 110,000. If ticket sales continue at that rate, the costumes exhibit could attract double the number of the museum's usual visitors.

"What's interesting is that it's a 10-month tenure, and this is the end of the fifth month, so we have five more months to go," says David Roselle, director of Winterthur Museum, Library and Gardens. "One would predict 200,000 but it may be larger than that, because the second five months will include Yuletide, where crowds are usually the largest of the year."

The museum, which was founded by H.F. du Pont as a decorative arts center, has augmented the show of 40 costumes from the popular PBS drama with related lectures, special events and special eating opportunities, including English teas and brunches. Still to come are lectures by designers and others who worked on the clothing.

Roselle says that visitors have come from all over the country, including Florida and Texas, and even from England and Winterthur, Switzerland – the city for which the Delaware mansion is named. Most, though, have come from a 150-mile ring around Delaware, he said. Many visitors have arrived in bus tours, and some of those are from a considerable distance, he says.

The majority of the visitors have never been to Winterthur before, and the staff there has worked hard to make sure people have a chance to tour the museum, ride the garden tram, see the collection of Campbell soup tureens or otherwise be exposed to Winterthur "so they have more of a concept of what this place is and what it has and what it values," Roselle says.

A major bonus is the museum memberships have risen 65 percent, Roselle says. That's on top of ticket sales, which are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and $5 for children and include the exhibit, the standing galleries, a garden tram tour and a house tour.

"I think we've had an opportunity and I think we've put our best foot forward," Roselle says.

Contact Betsy Price at (302) 324-2884 or beprice@delawareonline.com.