Ellen Rendle

New Castle County (Images of America) Ellen Rendle

Of Delaware's three counties, New Castle County is the smallest in the area, even though two-thirds of Delaware's residents call it home. Aldous Huxley once mused that "the charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different." Certainly this is true of New Castle County. Images of America: New Castle County begins in 1875, as steamboats plied the waters of the Christina and Delaware Rivers and farmers worked the county's fertile farmland. Over the next 100 years, the population skyrocketed 400 percent, and suburban shopping centers and housing developments covered what had been farmland. By 1975, New Castle County boasted corporate giants, the world's largest twin-span bridge, and the stories of individuals as varied as DuPont family members; Emily Bissell, who introduced the Christmas Seal; and thousands of blue-collar workers making automobiles. New Castle County's history is as rich and colorful as the changing of the seasons and the imaginations of those who have lived here.