PAB Widener
P.A.B. Widener (1834-1915) was a Philadelphia transit magnate and art collector whose fortune, built through streetcar lines and political connections, funded one of America's greatest art collections while his business practices exemplified the Gilded Age's combination of entrepreneurship and corruption. His Lynnewood Hall estate in Elkins Park, with its vast galleries displaying Old Masters, represented wealth on a scale that few Americans achieved. Widener's career illustrated both what Philadelphia business could accomplish during the city's industrial height and the political manipulation that such success often required.[1]
From Butcher to Baron
[edit | edit source]Peter Arrell Brown Widener was born on November 13, 1834, in Philadelphia, his career beginning in the butcher trade where he supplied meat to Union troops during the Civil War—a contract that provided the initial capital for his subsequent ventures. His transition from butchering to transit, and his cultivation of political connections that transit franchises required, demonstrated abilities that extended beyond mere business acumen. His partnerships with William Elkins and Thomas Dolan created the syndicate that would dominate Philadelphia's streetcar lines.[2]
His acquisition of streetcar franchises, which required city council approval that his political connections facilitated, created the monopoly whose profits funded his subsequent activities. The relationship between his business interests and the political machine, particularly his alliance with Republican boss Matthew Quay, illustrated the corruption that Progressive Era reformers would later attack. His financial participation in the machine's operations, and the favoritism his businesses received, demonstrated practices that his era accepted though subsequent generations would condemn.[1]
His expansion beyond Philadelphia transit to include investments in tobacco, steel, and other industries diversified the fortune that his streetcar monopoly had initiated. His participation in the syndicate that created American Tobacco Company demonstrated the national scale that his ambitions reached. The wealth these ventures generated, estimated at over $100 million at his death, placed him among the richest Americans of his era while funding the art collection that his son would eventually donate to the nation.[2]
Art Collection and Estate
[edit | edit source]Widener's art collecting, which began in the 1880s and continued until his death, assembled masterpieces whose value has multiplied enormously since his purchases. His acquisitions of Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Raphael, and other Old Masters created a collection rivaling those of European aristocracy. His purchases at the 1892 Secretan sale in Paris, and his subsequent acquisitions from British aristocrats liquidating family holdings, demonstrated the shift of cultural property from Old World to New that American wealth enabled.[1]
His Lynnewood Hall estate in Elkins Park, designed by Horace Trumbauer and completed in 1900, provided the palatial setting his collection required. The 110-room mansion, surrounded by extensive grounds, represented domestic architecture on a scale that even Gilded Age Americans rarely attempted. The galleries designed to display his paintings created museum-quality spaces within a residential setting. The estate's decline following the family's departure, and its current uncertain status, demonstrates the difficulty of maintaining such properties beyond their original context.[2]
His son Joseph, whose collecting continued after P.A.B.'s death, eventually donated the collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, where it remains one of the museum's foundational holdings. The donation, made after Joseph's death in 1943, followed his wishes that the collection remain together in public hands rather than dispersing at auction. The Widener family's contribution to the National Gallery, including both artworks and funds for construction, established their permanent memorial in the nation's capital.[1]
Legacy
[edit | edit source]P.A.B. Widener died on November 6, 1915, his fortune and his collection passing to his son whose own death would result in their donation to the nation. His legacy includes the National Gallery masterpieces that bear his family's name, the transit systems whose evolution shaped Philadelphia's development, and the example of Gilded Age wealth accumulation that combined entrepreneurship with political manipulation. Widener represents what Philadelphia business could achieve during the city's industrial height, his career illustrating both the possibilities and the ethical compromises that such achievement sometimes required.[2]