The Board of Trustees of Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library announced on Wednesday the appointment of Carol B. Cadou as the first Charles F. Montgomery Director and CEO of Winterthur. The newly endowed title is named in honor of the first director of Winterthur. Ms. Cadou, currently Senior Vice President, Historic Preservation and Collections at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, will succeed David P. Roselle in late spring, when Dr. Roselle retires after ten years as director.Ms. Cadou has more than two decades of experience in the museum field and earned her master’s degree from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, co-sponsored with the University of Delaware.

In accepting the directorship at Winterthur, Ms. Cadou said, “I am honored and delighted to be chosen for this position. Henry Francis du Pont had a remarkable vision for the role of his collections in telling the American story. I look forward to working with the highly engaged Board of Trustees and talented staff to bring those compelling stories to a wide range of visitors, and to broaden Winterthur’s educational outreach as we build a future for the study of America’s past.”

Katharine P. Booth, chairman of the Board of Trustees, noted, “On behalf of the Board, I am so pleased to welcome Carol Cadou as our new director. The Board looks forward to working closely with Carol as we steer Winterthur into an even brighter future.”

Carol Cadou began her career at Mount Vernon in 1999, subsequently holding the positions of Robert H. Smith Senior Curator, Vice President of Collections, and, since 2014, Senior Vice President, Historic Preservation and Collections. She has championed and directed Mount Vernon’s preservation and collections goals and objectives to ensure the long-term physical and financial sustainability of George Washington’s historic architecture, collections, gardens, landscapes, and rare breeds. She was instrumental in determining the strategic direction of preservation and collections initiatives and fundraising goals and orchestrated the blending of the curatorial, collections, archaeology, and architecture staff into the newly created Historic Preservation and Collections Department.  Ms. Cadou was responsible for oversight of the Donald W. Reynolds Museum in addition to managing the care, administration, and exhibition of Mount Vernon library holdings. She played a crucial role in the planning and construction of the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, working closely with architects, designers, and contractors.

Ms. Cadou has curated numerous exhibitions, including Saving Mount Vernon: The Birth of Preservation in America (2003) at the National Building Museum; Treasures from Mount Vernon (2006) at the Winter Antiques Show; and A Son and His Adoptive Father: George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette (2006–2007) at Mount Vernon.

She lectures frequently and is the author of several publications: George and Martha Washington’s Mount Vernon: At Home in Virginia, 1759–1799 (forthcoming, 2020); The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (2006); and The Installation of Historic Architecture at Winterthur, co-authored with Nancy A. Holst (1998).She is the editor of Stewards of Memory: The Past, Present, and Future of Historic Preservation at George Washington’s Mount Vernon (forthcoming, 2019) and contributed to Dining with the Washingtons (2011).

Ms. Cadou has also worked at the Historic Charleston Foundation and with the Maryland Commission on Artistic Property, part of the Maryland State Archives. Among her professional activities, she has served on the Board of Governors for the Decorative Arts Trust since 2008. In addition to her masters degree at Winterthur, she holds a bachelor of arts degree from Wellesley College and will complete the MBA program at Ohio University College of Business in 2019.