Catharine Lorillard Wolfe
| Catharine Lorillard Wolfe | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Wolfe by Cabanel, 1876
|
|
| Born |
March 8, 1828 Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Died | April 4, 1887 (aged 59) Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York |
| Residence | "Vinland" in Newport |
| Parent(s) | John David Wolfe Dorothea Lorillard |
| Relatives |
Pierre Lorillard II (grandfather) Pierre Lorillard III (uncle) George Bruce (uncle) |
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (8 March 1828 – 4 April 1887) was an American philanthropist and art collector. Though she gave large amounts of money to institutions such as Grace Episcopal Church and Union College, her most significant gifts were two bequests to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She left her large collection of popular contemporary paintings to the museum, together with $200,000.
Wolfe was the daughter of John David Wolfe (1792–1872), and Dorothea Ann Lorillard (1798–1866). Her father was a New York merchant and real estate developer who was the president and a founder of the American Museum of Natural History while her mother was a partial inheritor of the Lorillard tobacco fortune. Her sister was Mary Lorillard Wolfe (1823–1847), who was married to William Bayard Hoffman (d. 1880) before her early death, and her brother was David Lorillard Wolfe (1825–1829), who died young.
Her paternal grandfather was David Wolfe (1748–1836), an officer during the Revolution in the Paymaster's department, and her maternal grandfather was Pierre Lorillard II (1764–1843), both of New York Her aunt, Catherine Wolfe, married George Bruce (1781–1866).
Wolfe led a private and sheltered life after the death of her mother in 1867. After the death of her father in 1872, she inherited the family fortune which was estimated at $12,000,000 (equivalent to $239,900,000 in 2016). She used to continue their philanthropic activities. She supported the Newsboys' Lodging House and Industrial School (an outgrowth of Charles Loring Brace's movement to help care for New York's homeless children; she financed archaeological missions, including one that unearthed Nippur; she was also involved with the American Museum of Natural History.
...
Wikipedia