photo by gusto

Wilmington, with a population of 71,500, is the state’s only large city and a metropolitan area where two-thirds of Delaware’s population resides. As well as being an important port on the Delaware River, Wilmington is a national banking and finance center, and one of the world’s largest centers for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

In the early 1800s, French immigrant E.I. du Pont and his two sons came here intending to establish a Utopian colony— instead they began gunpowder manufacturing. In 1803 their mill on Brandywine Creek, in Brandywine Valley, began producing gunpowder. Today, Wilmington is the headquarters of the chemical manufacturing and marketing giant E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company—known simply as “DuPont”—which has to a great degree shaped the fortunes of Wilmington and Delaware.

Many other corporations have also established headquarters here to take advantage of Delaware’s lenient tax and incorporation laws.

Wilmington grew from a Swedish colony founded in 1638. By 1664 the settlement had passed from Swedish to Dutch and then English control. William Penn and the Society of Friends (Quakers) were granted a deed to the region in 1682. In 1739 it was named Wilmington for Spencer Compton, the Earl of Wilmington.

In addition to nearby Brandywine Valley, Wilmington has the Delaware Art Museum, which includes a collection of English pre-Raphaelite paintings, as well as paintings by various American artists. The Delaware Museum of Natural History has a variety of exhibits in natural settings. Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, built in 1698, is thought to be the oldest active Protestant church in North America. Visitors can also tour the tall ship Kalmar Nyckel, a full-size replica of the 1638 ship that carried the first permanent settlers from Sweden to Delaware Bay. The ship features a 105-foot main mast, cannon, 7,600 square feet of sails, solid timbers, and elaborate wood carvings.