WINTERTHUR, DE.- Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library mourns the loss of prominent leader and respected former Winterthur Board of Trustees Member Dorrance Dodo Hill Hamilton, who died April 18, 2017, at her home in Boca Grande, Florida.
It is with great sadness that we mourn the death of our dear friend Dodo, a valued Member of the Winterthur Board of Trustees from 1995 to 2001 and an enormously inspiring and visionary leader, said Winterthur Director David P. Roselle. Winterthur is grateful to Dodo for her more than 20 years of spirited friendship and loyal service. Her warmth and dedication to causes in which she believed resulted in remarkable successes at Winterthur and beyond.
An energetic and visionary member of the Winterthur Garden Committee from 1996 until her death, Dodo, the affectionate nickname by which she was known, was a Founding Member and driving force behind the Winterthur Garden and Landscape Society, serving as Honorary Chairman and providing successive challenge grants to encourage new memberships. Her tireless dedication and influential recruitment efforts were critical in recruiting Founding Members.
As a Member of the Winterthur Collectors Circle, Dodo spearheaded the highly successful fundraising efforts that brought to Winterthur the Campbell Collection of Soup Tureens, a world-renowned collection of elegant ceramic and metalwork vessels on exhibit in the specially designed Dorrance Gallery. The exquisite collection was a legacy of her grandfather, the late John T. Dorrance Jr., chairman of the Campbell Soup Company, and W. B. Murphy, the company president, and includes a wide range of tureens and soup-related objects made in Europe, Asia, and America from 1720 to modern times. In celebration of its arrival in May 1997, Winterthur curators published Campbell Collection of Soup Tureens at Winterthur, an important, well-illustrated book on the collection (Winterthur, Delaware, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 2000).