Peter Arrell Browne Widener (November 13, 1834 – November 6, 1915) was an American businessman, art collector, and patriarch of the

Widener family The Widener family is an American family from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded by Peter Arrell Browne Widener (1834–1915) and his wife, Hannah Josephine Dunton (1836–1896), it was once one of the wealthiest families in the United ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Widener was ranked #29 on the ''

American Heritage American Heritage may refer to: * ''American Heritage'' (magazine) * '' The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' * American Heritage Rivers * American Heritage School (disambiguation) See also * National Register of Historic Pla ...

'' list of the forty richest Americans in history, with a net worth at death of $23 billion to $25 billion (in 1998 dollars).

Early life

The son of a Philadelphia butcher, Widener was born on November 13, 1834, to Johannes Widener and Sarah Fulmer. He was named after Peter Arrell Browne (1782–1860), a noted lawyer in 19th-century Philadelphia.

Career

During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

, Widener won a contract to supply

mutton Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries''. A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Gen ...

to all

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

troops within 10 miles of Philadelphia. The city was a major transportation hub for troop deployment, and the location of many of the largest Union military hospitals. Widener invested his $50,000 profit in horse-drawn city streetcar lines. He grew to prominence in Philadelphia politics, and had become the City Treasurer by 1871. In 1883, he was a founding partner in the Philadelphia Traction Company, which electrified the city's trolley lines, and expanded into other major cities in the United States. Peter Widener Mausoleum

He and his business partner, William L. Elkins, invested with businessmen such as

Charles Tyson Yerkes Charles Tyson Yerkes Jr. ( ; June 25, 1837 – December 29, 1905) was an American financier. He played a part in developing mass-transit systems in Chicago and London. Philadelphia Yerkes was born into a Quaker family in the Northern Liberties ...

, the streetcar czar of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. Widener used the great wealth accumulated from public transportation to become a founding organizer of U.S. Steel and the

American Tobacco Company The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members ...

, as well as to acquire substantial holdings in

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co- ...

and

International Mercantile Marine Company The International Mercantile Marine Company, originally the International Navigation Company, was a trust formed in the early twentieth century as an attempt by J.P. Morgan to monopolize the shipping trade. IMM was founded by shipping magnate ...

. He is considered to have been among the 100 wealthiest Americans, having left an enormous fortune. He died on November 6, 1915, in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Personal life

In 1858, he married Hannah Josephine Dunton (1836–1896), and they had three sons. His first son Harry (1859-1874) died young, from typhoid fever. His son

George Dunton Widener George Dunton Widener (June 16, 1861 – April 15, 1912) was an American businessman who died in the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic''. Early life Widener was born in Philadelphia on June 16, 1861. He was the eldest son of Hannah Josephine Du ...

(1861–1912) died aboard the ''

RMS Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger Ocean liner, liner, operated by the White Star Line, which Sinking of the Titanic, sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton ...

''. His youngest son Joseph Early Widener (1871–1943) was a noted art collector. His grandson, George D. Widener Jr. (1889-1971), a noted horse racing figure, was also the chairman of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. P.A B. Widener died at

Lynnewood Hall Lynnewood Hall is a 110-room Neoclassical Revival mansion in Elkins Park, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Vacant today, it was designed by architect Horace Trumbauer for industrialist Peter A. B. Widener and built between 1897 and 1900. Consid ...

at the age of 80 on November 6, 1915, having suffered from poor health for three years. After his death, his estate was valued at $31,589,353. By 1945, the accumulated income plus the current value of the real and personal property totaled $98,368,058.

Residences

In 1887, Widener built an ornate mansion (designed by Willis G. Hale) in Philadelphia, at the northwest corner of Broad Street and Girard Avenue. He vacated it 13 years later and donated it (as a memorial for his late wife) to the

Free Library of Philadelphia The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves Philadelphia. It is the 13th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the City of Philadelphia gover ...

, which used it as a branch library from 1900 to 1946. The building burned in 1980, and it was demolished. In 1900, he completed

Elkins Park, Pennsylvania Elkins Park is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the northern suburbs outside of Philadelphia, which it borders along Cheltenham Avenue roughly from C ...

, a 110-room Georgian-style mansion designed by

Horace Trumbauer Horace Trumbauer (December 28, 1868 – September 18, 1938) was a prominent American architect of the Gilded Age, known for designing residential manors for the wealthy. Later in his career he also designed hotels, office buildings, and much of t ...

. Widener was an avid art collector, with a collection that included more than a dozen paintings by

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...

, as well as works by then-new artists

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Bor ...

and

Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...

. File:Widener Mansion Broad & Girard.jpg, Peter Widener Mansion, Broad St. & Girard Ave., Philadelphia, PA (1887), Willis G. Hale, architect File:LynnewoodHall front.jpg,

, Elkins Park, PA (1897-1900),

, architect File:USS Vixen 1898.jpg, Widener's yacht, '' Josephine''

Art collection

Widener amassed a significant art collection that included works by

Old Masters In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

such as

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual ...

and

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El ...

, British 18th- and 19th-century paintings, and works by French Impressionist artists such as

Corot CoRoT (French: ; English: Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) was a space telescope mission which operated from 2006 to 2013. The mission's two objectives were to search for extrasolar planets with short orbital periods, particularly th ...

Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is espec ...

and Manet. About 1905, he purchased the crucifixion panel from

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...

's '' Crucifixion Diptych'' (1460) in Paris. The following year he sold it to

John G. Johnson John Graver Johnson (1841, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – April 13, 1917, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American corporate lawyer and art collector. The Philadelphia law firm that he founded in 1863 continues under the name Saul Ewing. H ...

, who reunited the two halves and later donated them to the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin ...

. Widener's son Joseph donated more than 300 works—including paintings, sculpture, metalwork, stained glass, furniture, rugs, Chinese porcelains, and

majolica In different periods of time and in different countries, the term ''majolica'' has been used for two distinct types of pottery. Firstly, from the mid-15th century onwards, was ''maiolica'', a type of pottery reaching Italy from Spain, Majorca a ...

—to the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

in 1942.Widener Collection
from National Gallery of Art. ::Note: ''The artworks below are in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, unless otherwise listed.''

Old Masters

File:Rogier van der Weyden - Crucifixion Diptych (right panel) - WGA25679.jpg, ''Crucifixion'' (1460) by Rogier van der Weyden, Philadelphia Museum of Art File:The small Cowper Madonna, by Raphael.jpg, ''The Small Cowper Madonna'' (1505) by Raphael File:Giovanni Battista Moroni 016.jpg, ''The Schoolmaster'' (1575) by

Giovanni Battista Moroni Giovanni Battista Moroni ( – 5 February 1579) was an Italian painter of the Late Renaissance period. He also is called Giambattista Moroni. Best known for his elegantly realistic portraits of the local nobility and clergy, he is conside ...

File:El Greco - San Martín y el mendigo.jpg, ''Saint Martin and the Beggar'' (1597-1599) by El Greco File:Marchesa Elena Grimaldi c1623 Anthony van Dyck.jpg, ''Marchesa Elena Grimaldi'' (1623) by

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh ...

File:Rembrandt van Rijn - The Mill - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Mill'' (1645-1648) by Rembrandt van Rijn File:Rembrandt 229.jpg, ''Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves'' (1656) by Rembrandt File:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 107.jpg, ''Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan'' (1656) by Rembrandt File:Jan Steen - The Dancing Couple - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Dancing Couple'' (1663) by

Jan Steen Jan Havickszoon Steen (c. 1626 – buried 3 February 1679) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, one of the leading genre painters of the 17th century. His works are known for their psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour. Lif ...

File:Johannes Vermeer - Woman Holding a Balance - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Woman Holding a Balance'' (1664) by Vermeer

British paintings

File:Reynolds - Lady Elizabeth Hamilton.jpg, ''Lady Elizabeth Hamilton'' (1758) by Sir

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

File:The Hon. Mrs. Thomas Graham.jpg, ''The Honorable Mrs. Thomas Graham'' (1777-1778) by

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...

File:John Hoppner - The Hoppner Children (1791).jpg, ''The Hoppner Children'' (1791) by

John Hoppner John Hoppner (4 April 175823 January 1810) was an English portrait painter, much influenced by Reynolds, who achieved fame as a brilliant colourist. Early life Hoppner was born in Whitechapel, London, the son of German parents – his moth ...

File:John Constable - Wivenhoe Park, Essex - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Wivenhoe Park, Essex'' (1816) by

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, th ...

File:Turner - Venice-The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore.jpg, ''Venice–The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore'' (1834)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbul ...

File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight'' (1835) by Joseph Mallord William Turner

French Impressionism

File:Edouard Manet, The Dead Toreador, probably 1864, NGA 1179.jpg, ''The Dead Toreador'' (1864) by Édouard Manet File:The Artist's Studio by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, c1868.jpg, ''The Artist's Studio'' (1868)

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875), or simply Camille Corot, is a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast ...

File:Auguste Renoir, The Dancer, 1874, NGA 1211.jpg, ''The Dancer'' (1874) by Auguste Renoir File:Edgar Degas, Before the Ballet, 1890-1892, NGA 1158.jpg, ''Before the Ballet'' (1890-1892) by Edgar Degas

20th century

File:Peter A. B. Widener SC-000402.jpg, ''Portrait of Peter A. B. Widener'' (1902) by

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

File:The Raphael Room at Lynnewood Hall.jpg, ''The Raphael Room at Lynnewood Hall'' (1917) by

William Bruce Ellis Ranken William Bruce Ellis Ranken (11 April 1881 – 31 March 1941) was a British artist and Edwardian aesthete. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Robert Ranken, Robert Burt Ranken, a wealthy and successful lawyer, and his wife Mary. He attend ...

Decorative arts

File:Florentine Cassone.JPG, Florentine Cassone (late 15th century), unknown Italian maker File:Giovanni di domenico, vergine annunciata, 1498-1503.JPG, ''Vergine Annunciata Window'' (1498-1503) by Giovanni di Domenico File:Negroli - Helmet in the Form of a Dolphin Mask (side).jpg, ''Dolphin Helmet'' (1540-1545) by Giovanni Paolo di Negroli File:Guanyin at National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (6265051106).jpg,

Guanyin Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She ...

figure, Kangxi period (1662–1722), unknown Chinese porcelain artist

References

External links

Article on Widener and Widener Mansion in Philadelphia
PhillyHistory.org. {{DEFAULTSORT:Widener, Peter Arrell Browne 1834 births 1915 deaths American transportation businesspeople American art collectors Widener family Businesspeople from Pennsylvania People from Cheltenham, Pennsylvania 19th-century American businesspeople Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia)