55th Annual Delaware Show

You Recognize a Classic When You See It Retirement? The man has never uttered the word. Resting on his considerable laurels? Heaven forbid. Abandoning his beloved Winterthur for greener pastures? Not in this lifetime! Charlie Hummel, as he is affectionately known, is a true scholar, teacher, and Winterthur cheerleader. Celebrating an association with the museum that goes back some 65 years, he can be found most days in the Winterthur Library, researching, writing, and advising any number of students just starting out in their careers. Pure energy. Charles F. Hummel graduated from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture in 1955. After a two-year stint in the Army, he returned to Winterthur in 1958 as assistant curator. He rose through the ranks and contributed to every facet of the institution, including the publication of With Hammer in Hand (1968), the definitive work on the Dominy family of craftsmen in East Hampton, Long Island. His proudest moment, however, came with the co-founding of the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, which graduated its first class in 1974. At the time, it was one of only three such programs in the country. Charlie became senior deputy director of Winterthur in 1985 and retained that position until his official “retirement” in 1991. He serves on the boards of numerous museums, consults and lectures around the country, and continues his research on the Dominys, whose business and family papers are housed in the Winterthur Library and whose clockmaking and woodworking tools, acquired by the museum in 1957, are displayed in the Dominy Gallery. He is currently working with Josh Lane, curator of furniture, on the reinstallation and enhancement of that gallery. He is unstoppable. So our “hats off ” to Charlie Hummel, a true classic in every sense of the word! Charles Hummel — 176 —