2 Best Sights in Wilmington, Delaware

A treat for art lovers, the Delaware Art Museum is housed in a splendid 85,000-square-foot building. The lighted roofline changes colors according to the celestial calendar, and Dale Chihuly's Persian Window installation draws attention to the entrance. The museum's holdings include a good collection of paintings by Howard Pyle (1853–1911), a Wilmington native known as the "father of American illustration," as well as works by his students N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, and Maxfield Parrish. Other American artists represented are Benjamin West, John Sloan, Winslow Homer, Edward Glackens, and Edward Hopper. The museum also has the largest American collection of 19th-century English pre-Raphaelite paintings and decorative arts and a children's interactive gallery. The Crying Giant, by Tom Otterness, is one of the highlights of the 9-acre Sculpture Park.

The first du Pont gunpowder mills still stand on this site, offering a glimpse of the du Ponts at work and an enlightening look at the development of early industrial America. You can tour the mills, a 19th-century machine shop, and the family home and gardens, all set on 240 acres. Wear comfortable shoes.