It's a lovely day to get outside for a stroll in the gardens (so long as you bring an umbrella), and the grounds of the Hagley Museum and Library are calling. But until we can get outdoors ourselves, we'll just have to make do with this 1922 hand-colored lantern slide depicting the Upper Gardens at Longwood, then the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Pierre S. du Pont.
This image was captured on June 10, 1922 by William C. Spruance (1873-1935), an engineer and executive at E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. Spruance was also an amateur photographer and used these skills to photograph the gardens of his wife, Alice Moore Lea Spruance, as well as gardens of other wealthy residents of New Castle County between 1920 and 1925. Most of the gardens photographed were those of members of the Wilmington Garden Club. Spruance used a 3A Eastman Kodak camera adapted to accommodate lantern slide plates, which he then hand colored. As an advisory member of the Wilmington Garden Club, Spruance displayed his work in several slide lectures presented to the organization in the early 1920s.
More images from the Hagley Library's W.C. Spruance lantern slide collection (Accession 1984.217) can be found in our Digital Archive by clicking here.