William Thompson Walters (1820-1894)
Industrialist, Businessman & Art Collector, of Baltimore, Maryland
He was born in a two-story brick house facing the river at Liverpool, Pennsylvania, to a general merchant who was then one of the wealthiest individuals in the small town of two hundred households. He became a civil engineer and the first person in the United States to produce iron from mineral coal. In 1841, he moved to Baltimore where he became a grain merchant and established William T. Walters & Co., liquor wholesalers. As a sympathizer of the Confederacy, he spent the duration of the Civil War in Europe, based in Paris, where he began his love affair with art. On his return, he invested in banking and railroads, founding the Atlantic Coastline Railroad, and in the 1880s he imported Percheron horses with Samuel Hopkins.
His European and contemporary art and bronze collection grew to include 2,400 pieces of Chinese ceramics and soon became one of the largest and most valuable in the country. Brokered by Heber R. Bishop, he bought Brayton Ives' collection of rare swords valued at $15,000 which he donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. From 1874, he began opening his house to the public in the spring for a 50-cent entrance charge which went to charity. This alone saw him raise $30,000 for Baltimore's poorest. When he died he left his $10-million fortune to his two children and his art collection to his son, a fellow collector, who founded the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore in 1931.
In 1846, he married Ellen, daughter of Charles Alexander Harper, Merchant, of Philadelphia. They lived at 65 Mount Vernon Place (now 5 West Mount Vernon Place), Baltimore, and had three children, two of whom (listed) lived to adulthood.
His European and contemporary art and bronze collection grew to include 2,400 pieces of Chinese ceramics and soon became one of the largest and most valuable in the country. Brokered by Heber R. Bishop, he bought Brayton Ives' collection of rare swords valued at $15,000 which he donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. From 1874, he began opening his house to the public in the spring for a 50-cent entrance charge which went to charity. This alone saw him raise $30,000 for Baltimore's poorest. When he died he left his $10-million fortune to his two children and his art collection to his son, a fellow collector, who founded the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore in 1931.
In 1846, he married Ellen, daughter of Charles Alexander Harper, Merchant, of Philadelphia. They lived at 65 Mount Vernon Place (now 5 West Mount Vernon Place), Baltimore, and had three children, two of whom (listed) lived to adulthood.
