chapter one

Collis P. Huntington
1862 to 1884

T he economic expansion that followed the Civil War led to an

immense accumulation of wealth for the new industrial elite and
formed the basis for an extraordinary growth of both art collecting and
philanthropy. Much of this expansion was generated by the building of
railroads, and beginning in the early 1860s, Collis P. Huntington was a
key player in this enterprise.

F R O M CA LI F O R N I A B ACK TO N E W YORK , 1862–70

Collis’s role representing the Central Pacific Railroad’s interests in
Congress necessitated frequent trips from Sacramento, California, to
East Coast cities, especially New York and Washington, D.C. By late 1862
Collis [fig. 1.1] and his wife, Elizabeth Stoddard Huntington [fig. 1.2],
and their informally adopted daughter, Clara [fig. 1.3], had settled in
New York City, although they continued to travel on railway business
[fig. 1.4]. While in New York, they stayed at the luxurious Metropolitan
Hotel, their residence for the next four years.1 This well-appointed hotel
occupied a 300-foot frontage of four floors above fashionable shops along
a full block on Broadway, near Prince Street. Massive in scale, with steam-
heated rooms for as many as 600 guests, it also had elegant family apart-
ments, with private drawing rooms decorated with furnishings imported
from Europe.
In 1867, Collis decided to buy a house and property at 65 Park Collis P. Huntington
(detail of
Avenue, his home for the next twenty-six years, throughout his first
fig prolog.1).
marriage and during the early years of his marriage to his second wife, Hispanic Society of
Arabella. He bought it in Elizabeth’s name for $60,041.95 [$951,461].2 America, N.Y.
Located in the Murray Hill area, it was only a block from the Union
League Club, an influential men’s club closely associated with the arts.
After the Civil War, fashionable mansions and elegant brownstone
fronts began to appear in the Murray Hill area along Fifth, Madison, and
Park Avenues at 34th Street, ranging in price from $100,000 to $200,000
[$1.5 to $3 million]. Among these was the grandest house in post–
Civil War New York, the A. T. Stewart mansion, completed in 1869.3

9
 clockwise from left

fig 1.1 Collis P. Huntington,

c. 1860. Mariners’ Museum,
Newport News, Va.

fig 1.2 Elizabeth Stoddard

Huntington. Mariners’
Museum, Newport News, Va.

fig 1.3 Clara Prentice

Huntington. Hispanic Society of
America, N.Y.

10 t he art of wealth
 fig 1.4 Collis and Elizabeth
Huntington with friends at
Niagara Falls, c. 1866. Mariners’
Museum, Newport News, Va.

bac k to n e w yo r k 11
 Collis’s Park Avenue residence was a more unassum-
ing three-story structure.4 Immediately after his purchase
of the house on October 15, 1867, he began to buy mod-
est works of art to decorate the residence. In December
1867, he bought three bronze figures from George W.
Platt, who was both an importer and a manufacturer; all
three were included in an invoice of January 3, 1868.5
For the walls of his dwelling, Collis purchased prints and
had them framed;6 he also bought an array of furnishings
from Fischer and Brown and from William H. Lee, lesser-
known New York furniture makers,7 and silver-plated
goods and chinaware. He also purchased a few inexpen-
sive contemporary works for the Park Avenue house,
such as Daniel Huntington’s Study in a Wood (1861).8
Collis’s initial preference for moderately priced
décor and art for his Park Avenue house was soon to
change. With the driving of a golden spike on May 10,
1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, the tracks
of the two great railroads, the Central Pacific and the
Union Pacific, were joined. America now had a trans-
continental railroad on which it was possible to travel
from coast to coast in eight days, and money began to
roll in to the Central Pacific coffers. On April 1, 1871,
the New York Times reported the company’s gross earn-
ings as nearly $8 million for 1870, with substantially
greater revenues and profits projected for 1871: “the
increase for January and February . . . indicates that the
earnings for 1871 will not be less than from $10,000,000
[$185 million] to $12,000,000 [$222 million] with a net
profit of not less than $5,000,000 [$92 million].”
TH E B I ER S TA DT C O M M I SSI O N
Collis marked this explosion of wealth with his first
significant foray into the arts. In 1871 he commissioned
from Albert Bierstadt a 6-×-10-foot landscape painting,
Donner Lake from the Summit [fig. 1.5]. The painting
was intended to celebrate the Central Pacific’s triumphant
12
progress over the extremely rugged terrain of the Sierra
Nevada mountains. With this commission Collis may
well have been entering the world of art patronage, but
he was still the hardheaded businessman. Archer Hun-
tington later recorded the negotiation in his diary: “My
father told me . . . that the painter had asked 25,000 dol-
lars [$460,000] for it—but that he only paid him 17,000
[$315,000] as the other price was too high and the
painter said he thought so too.”9 Even at this reduced
price, the painting was by far Collis’s most expensive
art purchase in this period, other works costing him less
than $8,000 [about $148,000]. The commission was,
however, of immense personal as well as professional
significance to Collis.
Bierstadt, primarily a New York City artist, had
been inspired by Carleton E. Watkins’s suite of mam-
moth photographs of the Yosemite Valley, displayed
at Goupil’s Gallery at 170 Fifth Avenue in New York
in December 1862. With a customized cabinet camera
capable of producing 18-×-22-inch plates, Watkins had
traveled to the Yosemite Valley for the first time in 1861
and returned on several other occasions. The Watkins
exhibition seems to have inspired Bierstadt to make
an expedition to Yosemite, where he spent about seven
weeks in July and August 1863, sketching the landscape
before returning to New York.10
By the 1860s and 1870s, several artists in the San
Francisco area were producing landscapes of the moun-
tains of the West, including Thomas Hill, William Keith,
Gilbert Munger, and Virgil Williams. These artists
were part of the thriving art culture of San Francisco
at the time,11 and several found their patronage among
the Big Four, who commissioned oversized landscape
paintings of the Yosemite region and the Sierra Nevada
mountains. In August 1869, for example, Charles Crocker
purchased Thomas Hill’s Yosemite Valley (1868) for
$10,000 [$166,000].12
t he art of wealth
 Collis’s commission, done on a more ambitious fig 1.5 Albert Bierstadt, Donner Lake
from the Summit, 1871–73,
scale than Crocker’s, was probably what lured Bierstadt
oil on canvas. Collection of
to California nearly ten years after his Watkins-inspired The New-York Historical Society, N.Y.
visit. Bierstadt and his wife, Rosalie, arrived in San
Francisco on July 20, 1871.13 Collis and his family had
arrived in Sacramento about two months earlier, staying
at the Orleans Hotel from June 26 until July 22, 1871.14
Less than a week after Bierstadt’s arrival he and Collis
journeyed to an area called Donner Lake, north of Donner
Pass in the High Sierra. As Archer Huntington later
recalled, “My father told me he had selected the spot
from which the picture [Donner Lake from the Summit]
was to be painted.”15

bie rsta dt c o mm is s io n 13
 Collis was likely inspired in his choice of terrain
by powerful memories of his own trips into the Sierra
wilderness during his early days in Sacramento. As he
related to a biographer in the 1880s:
I used to take runs alone over the hills and
mountains of California. I would picket my
horse, [and] spread my blanket on the ground
enjoying the vastness and solitude of the wilder-
ness about me. I think now with intense pleasure
of these excursions into the mountains among
the great trees and the torrents of the Sierra.
When thus out among the rocks in the forest
I thought I could enter into the spirit of the
Indians: I sympathized [with] them fully. I could
appreciate their love of nature and their dread
of the artifices of civilization with which the
encroachment of the white man threaten them.16
fig 1.6 Alfred A. Hart, Donner Lake, Tunnels No. 7
and 8, from Summit Tunnel, Eastern Summit in
Distance, c. 1867. Hart no. 203. Albumen photograph
on stereographic card. Huntington Library.
14
The selection of Donner Lake was probably influenced
by the stereographs taken between 1866 and 1869 by
Alfred A. Hart, the official photographer for the Cen-
tral Pacific Railroad. Although Carleton Watkins also
published photographs of the same site, his Donner Lake
photos are part of his New Series, completed after 1876.
Evidence suggests that Collis was familiar with Hart’s
stereographs, one of which, Donner Lake, Tunnels No. 7
and 8, from Summit Tunnel (no. 203; c. 1867), depicts a
view of the lake with Senator Milton Latham’s party in
the foreground [fig. 1.6].17 Since Collis played a crucial
role in managing the railroad’s interests in Congress, he
no doubt knew this image by Hart and, due to his long-
standing relationship with Watkins, he may well have
been instrumental in providing Watkins access to Hart’s
negatives.18 Watkins’s connections with Collis date back
to his early days in Oneonta. Watkins and Collis were
related through birth and marriage: they had the same
t he art of wealth
great-grandparents, and Watkins would name his son
after Collis. Records also suggest that Watkins was one
of the five men from Oneonta who joined Collis on his
journey to Sacramento on March 15, 1849, during the
early days of the gold rush.19 Watkins subsequently
photographed numerous scenes related to the Big Four’s
railways.20
The Bierstadt landscape depicts the area where engi-
neering and construction crews had faced their greatest
challenges in the completion of the trans-continental
railroad. To pass through the mountains at this point,
railroad workers had to construct nine tunnels through
solid granite, and thirty-seven miles of snow sheds were
built to facilitate travel through the snowbound pass—
daunting under any conditions, and far more difficult
and dangerous during one of the harshest winters on
record.21 Severe weather in the Donner Pass inevitably
recalled the ghastly Donner Party tragedy of the winter
of 1846–47, when settlers trying to cross the Sierra
were trapped by the onset of a fierce winter, leading to
starvation, cannibalism, and death. A reporter suggested
as early as 1873 that “the two associations of the spot
are . . . sharply and suggestively antithetical: so much
slowness and hardship in the early days, so much rapid-
ity and ease now; great physical obstacles overcome by a
triumph of well-directed science and mechanics.”22
On Bierstadt’s first visit to the summit at Donner
Lake in July 1871, he made preliminary sketches for the
painting before returning in January the following year
to set up a studio in San Francisco.23 From June 21 until
about August 4, Collis was also working in San Francisco
and Sacramento,24 but the two men did not cross paths.
In spite of this, the artist and his patron remained in
close communication about the painting and its progress.
On July 18, 1872, Bierstadt wrote: “I regret exceedingly
not having been able to join you at the ‘Summit’ . . .
I leave for the mountains tomorrow and hope to find
bie rsta dt c o mm is s io n
something grand. I shall return to the Summit mean-
while should you have seen anything there which . . .
you would like transferred to my canvas please let me
know . . . if you have any suggestions to make do not
hesitate to make them.”25
During the remaining months of 1872, Bierstadt
continued to work on small sketches for Donner Lake
from the Summit, the most finished of which—View
of Donner Lake, California, an oil-on-paper study
mounted on canvas—focuses on the central portion
of the final composition.26 However, it was not until
January 1, 1873, that Bierstadt could tell Collis that the
painting would be “completed in about two weeks.”
Bierstadt also reported on interest in the picture in
San Francisco and inquired if Collis would object to its
exhibition: “the Mayor of San Francisco as well as the
Art loving people in general are very desirous of seeing
the picture and I propose to let them have it in the Art
Gallery [the San Francisco Art Association] for a few
days before sending it East. Should you object however
to its public exhibition here please let me know by
telegraph.”27 Evidently, even though Collis had not yet
had the chance to see the finished work,28 he did not
object: the painting was unveiled to the public at the
San Francisco Art Association in mid-January 1873,
drawing a large number of visitors, “600 a day, and more
on Saturday to 1200,” as the Association’s Bulletin reported.
The exhibition of Collis’s first major art acquisition was
a great boost to the emerging art scene in San Francisco.29
Such was its popularity that the admission fees and
dues from people who signed up as members were of
great benefit to the San Francisco Art Association, which
now had the funding to establish the California School
of Design in San Francisco.30 In January 1873 Bierstadt
wrote to Collis: “Next Tuesday I shall send you the
picture ‘Donner Lake from the Summit’ and your own
judgment will tell you if I have done it justice. My own
15
conviction is that it is my best picture. This is the opin-
ion also of the few artists living here and the amateurs
who have seen it.” In the same letter, he proposed two
further public exhibitions of the painting: “I should
like to know the opinion of any brother artists in New
York and therefore I hope you will consent to its being
seen there. If it were possible for the picture to go to the
exhibition in Vienna I think it would not be a disadvan-
tage either to the owner or the artist.”31
Since there were few venues where the general
public could view art, the art market played a crucial
role in providing greater access to private collections,
often through exhibition in the galleries of local dealers.
The public exhibition of Donner Lake from the Summit
in San Francisco, New York, and then Vienna was part
of this growing trend in the early 1870s. It became clear
to many artists, including Bierstadt, that public display
of their art contributed to a higher profile and greater
sales—especially if the exhibitions of these works were
covered by such newspapers as the New York Times.
Donner Lake from the Summit was included in a special
exhibition in New York as part of the Artists’ Fund Sale
at the end of January 1873. In February Bierstadt again
asked Collis to lend the painting to the international
exhibition in Vienna. His request contained an appeal to
Collis’s pride, to his reputation as a person of cultivation
and standing: “like myself, [you] would value more the
criticisms of the general public so if you would permit
it to go to Vienna to the exposition it could be judged
there as a work of Art simply and not as the transcript
of a scene people have become attached to from famil-
iarity with it.” Bierstadt allowed that this would serve
his interests as well: “I am sure the picture would be
appreciated in Europe, indeed my reputation there is
becoming a solid and flattering one.”32
Collis agreed to lend the painting to the 1873
international Vienna exhibition, and after its return in
16
December of that year,33 he granted Bierstadt’s request
to include the painting in another public exhibition,
this time at the National Academy of Design in New
York City in the spring of 1874.34 In agreeing to these
many exhibitions of his Bierstadt painting, Collis seems
to have been pleased by the national and international
fame he garnered. Archer Huntington wrote in his diary
that the Bierstadt painting, when not on view at public
exhibitions, hung “in the hall at the foot of the stairs by
the front door” of Collis’s house at 65 Park Avenue.35
E N TE R ARAB E LLA
At this propitious moment in his fortunes, nineteen-
year-old Arabella Duvall Yarrington entered the life
of Collis Huntington, who was twenty-nine years her
senior and considerably richer. Born on June 1, 1850,
she was the third of the five children of Catherine James
Simms (1818/19–after 1880) and Richard Milton
Yarrington (1808–1859), a machinist. Her middle name,
Duvall, was the maiden name of her paternal grand-
mother, whose family was French. Very little is known
about Arabella’s early years [fig. 1.7]. She may have
been born in Union Springs, Alabama,36 but spent most
of her youth in Richmond, Virginia. After Arabella’s
father died in 1859, when she was only nine, her mother
ran a boarding house in Richmond to sustain the family.37
Although the exact date of Arabella’s move to
New York is unknown, she most likely traveled there
in the mid-1860s, when she was in her teens [fig. 1.8],
with John Archer Worsham (1828–1878), also called
“Johnny,” who was some twenty years her senior.
Worsham was born in Henrico County, Virginia, the
son of Archer W. Worsham and Margaret R. Wingo. In
about 1849 he may have married Mary A. Worsham,
and eventually they had two children. Sometime
before 1857, Johnny married Sarah Annette Worsham.
The 1870 U.S. census recorded his residence as
t he art of wealth

Henrico County, Virginia, with his wife, Annette, and a
twenty-year-old son.
By 1861 Worsham was running a faro gaming
house in New York City, which the police shut down
in 1862,38 and the next year he was operating a gaming
saloon in Richmond.39 Worsham was back in New York
City by 1865, working as a faro banker. In 1866 he sold
a house at 17 West 24th Street, which was in the names
of “John A. Worsham and Annete Worsham his wife.”40
By 1867 Worsham was renting a house at 92 Prince Street41
while operating a gambling parlor with James Bailey
at 138 Fulton Street.42 It was probably during this year
en t e r a r a b e l l a
fig 1.7 Arabella D.
Yarrington. Hispanic
Society of America, N.Y.
that Arabella Yarrington, then age seventeen, arrived in
New York City. Arabella’s mother, Catherine J. Yarring-
ton, and her other children also moved in 1867 from
Richmond to 35 Bleecker Street in New York, a house
that was only a few hundred feet from 92 Prince Street,
where Worsham, and presumably Arabella, resided.43
Collis Huntington was living close by, at the Metro-
politan Hotel, on Broadway near Prince Street, and on
October 15, 1867, he bought the house at 65 Park Avenue.
Thus, in 1867 Collis (and Elizabeth), Arabella (and her
mother, Catherine), and John Worsham were all living
in close proximity.
17
right

fig 1.8 Arabella D. Yarrington, in her late

teens. Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

below

fig 1.9 a & b Photograph of Arabella D.

Yarrington, mounted with photograph of
Collis P. Huntington, both c. 1870–72.
Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

18 t he art of wealth
 Arabella became pregnant in July 1869, prob-
ably in New York City or possibly in Richmond.44 No
conclusive evidence survives to verify the paternity of
her child, and the truth may never be known without
DNA testing. Numerous scenarios have been proposed
identifying either John Worsham or Collis Huntington
as the father. It is undeniable that Collis and Arabella’s
son had many physical characteristics in common, and
they referred to each other as father and son.
Evidence suggests that Collis may have met
Arabella as early as 1867, and at the latest in Novem-
ber 1869. Following Collis’s return in November 1869
from a business trip to California,45 Arabella, then about
four months pregnant, and her mother moved from
35 Bleecker Street to 5 Bond Street, between Broadway
and Lafayette Streets. Since Arabella refers in a letter of
1871 to an earlier act of kindness by Collis, it is likely
that he underwrote their move to 5 Bond Street
[fig. 1.9 a & b].46 The Yarrington family was living there
when Archer Milton was born on March 10, 1870.47
A surviving photograph shows Arabella in about 1871
with her infant son [fig. 1.10]. Arabella (as the fictitious
Mrs. Worsham), her mother, and her son were living at
the Bond Street address, as recorded by a U.S. census-
taker on June 12, 1870. John Worsham, it was claimed,
was also present in the household,48 but a month later, a
census-taker in Richmond recorded that Worsham was
a resident of that city and head of a household there
that included his wife, Annette.49 It seems that some-
time between late 1869 and mid-1870, Worsham had
departed New York City, moving permanently back to
Richmond.50 To avoid various complications, Arabella
claimed that he died in 1870, although in fact he died
later, in 1878.51
Arabella’s place of residence for the two years
following the 1870 census is unknown. It has been
suggested that in the guise of a young widow, Arabella
en t e r a r a b e l l a
boarded, along with her son, with the family of David L.
Campbell, a cotton buyer, in Austin, Texas. Campbell’s
daughter, Caroline, would later become Arabella’s paid
companion; she was eventually considered a member of
the family.52 It is more likely that Archer and his grand-
mother, Catherine Yarrington, resided at this time with
Arabella’s older sister, Emma J. Yarrington Warnken, on
a ranch near San Marcos, Texas. A dramatic letter makes
clear that Arabella remained in New York City while
the eighteen-month-old Archer stayed in Texas with his
grandmother [fig. 1.11]. The letter was written in New
York on November 10, 1871, by “Belle D. Worsham” to
“Collis P. Huntington”:
Mr. Huntington, I am so worried that I don’t
know what to do, and I am going to ask your
advice and assistance again. I have received
another letter from home stating that my
little boy is still very sick and mama thinks
I had better come on as early as possible. I
am ashamed to ask you but you have been so
kind that I shall impose on your good nature
again. I want you to give me a ticket to Texas,
and assist me in getting the family back here
in the spring, for I know they will starve out
there. I am asking a great deal Mr. Huntington
but you are the only friend I have in the
world. If you will do this for me I shall never
be able to repress my gratitude, but if you can
think of anything that will be better for me
to do, I am perfectly willing to agree to any
proposition you may make. Respectfully,
B. D. Worsham.53
Collis complied with Arabella’s requests, as he would
often do in the future. By the next spring he had
purchased a furnished house at 109 Lexington Avenue,
19
20 t he art of wealth
opposite

fig 1.10 Arabella D. Yarrington with her

son, Archer Milton Yarrington, c. 1871.
Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

above

fig 1.11 Arabella D. Yarrington, early

1870s. Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

en t e r a r a b e l l a 21
between 27th and 28th Streets, which he “rented” to
her mother, Catherine Yarrington, for a minimal sum.54
He bought the house and property on April 19, 1872,
for $14,000 with a $6,000 mortgage, a total of $20,000
[$370,000].55
Archer lived with his mother and grandmother at
the Lexington Avenue house,56 and the three of them
then moved to a house at 68 East 54th Street, between
Park and Madison, which Catherine Yarrington bought
on October 24, 1874 [figs. 1.12, 1.13, 1.14]. No doubt
she made the purchase with financial backing from
Collis, because the house and property cost a total of
$43,000 [$843,000].57 The day after the purchase, she
conveyed the property to her daughter. Three years
later, Arabella sold the East 54th Street house and prop-
erty and, on the same day in 1877, bought the house
and property at 4 West 54th Street. In the next two
22
years, she also purchased two neighboring parcels
of land, bringing the total price for the West 54th
Street property to $331,500. By the time she was
twenty-seven, Arabella, a single mother, owned prop-
erty in her own name that today would be worth about
$6.5 million.
When it came to his own family, Collis was more
reserved in his expenditures. His nephew, Henry E.
Huntington (1850–1927), began working in the autumn
of 1869 in a hardware store owned by the family that
was located in Cohoes, a few miles north of Albany,
New York. By the next spring, Henry was employed in
the office of Sargent Co., a wholesale hardware business
in New York City, where he remained for about a year.
It was not until 1871 that he assumed his first job
working for his Uncle Collis. Collis sent Henry, then
twenty-one, to St. Albans, West Virginia, to supervise
t he art of wealth
 opposite

fig 1.12 Catherine J. Yarrington

with her daughter Arabella and
son (Richard, born 1853, or
John, born 1854/5), early 1870s.
Huntington Library.

left

fig 1.13 Arabella D. Yarrington,

tintype photograph, early 1870s.
Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

below

fig 1.14 Catherine J. Yarrington.

Huntington Library.

en t e r a r a b e l l a 23
fig 1.15 Henry E. Huntington, at the
time of his marriage to Mary Alice
Prentice, c. 1873. Huntington Library.

fig 1.16 Mary Alice Prentice, at

the time of her marriage, c. 1873.
Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

24 t he art of wealth
the operations of a saw mill he had recently purchased.58
A year after taking up the position, Henry announced
his plans to marry Mary Alice Prentice, writing on
April 7, 1872, to his mother that “Mary knows that you
know of our engagement” [figs. 1.15, 1.16].59 The young
couple married on November 17, 1873. Following the
failure of the saw mill business,60 Henry and his family
moved back to Oneonta in 1876. He lived there for the
next five years, assisting his father, Solon Huntington,
in supervising the properties he owned in the area.
Henry began working in Collis’s railroad business in
1881 at the age of thirty-one, taking up positions related
to railroad construction in Tennessee and Kentucky.
TH E PA R K A VE N UE H O U SE
A N D I TS D EC O RAT I O N
Although Collis lived modestly in the Park Avenue
home he had bought in 1867, in 1872 he decided to
update the house and its furnishings. He turned to
George Platt and his son, Russell, to provide drawings
and estimates for alterations.61 A surviving invoice from
George Platt & Son, dated May 2, 1872, provides details
about Collis’s requirements for the interior design, and
also reveals that he had a model in mind:
The house to be handsomely decorated through-
out—the style to be suited to the various
purposes . . . of rooms. Ceiling of drawing room
& library to be rich; attic rooms, quite plain
. . . in basement . . . kitchen perfectly plain;
second story to be handsomely decorated and
third story neatly[?] . . . It is understood by this
contractor that all work is to be done . . . on a
similar basis as the work done for A. S. Hatch
Esq.—except decoration of dining Room &
Library walls . . . The cost of the above work
not to exceed Eight-thousand five hundred
dollars, $8,500.00 [$157,000].62
par k av e n ue h o u s e
Who was A. S. Hatch, how was his home decorated, and
why did Collis want to emulate it?
The residence of Alfrederick Hatch, at 49 Park Avenue,
was only eight houses south of Collis’s. Hatch was a
prominent Wall Street broker, later president of the
New York Stock Exchange,63 and Collis knew him well.
By 1865 or even earlier, Hatch and Harvey Fisk were
his New York brokers, helping him sell about $5 million
in Central Pacific and U.S. government bonds. By 1873
the Central Pacific owed Fisk and Hatch $1.7 million,
while the Chesapeake & Ohio owed the brokers an
additional $2 million.64
Hatch, like many wealthy businessmen of his day,
was an avid collector of art. One painting in particular is
of interest to our story, the portrait of the Hatch family
painted by Eastman Johnson in 1870–71, which shows
three generations of the family in the library of their
residence at 49 Park Avenue [fig. 1.17]. Hatch is shown
seated on the right, with his wife, his wife’s mother,
his father, and the children.65 The painting depicts the
kind of library typical of fine brownstone mansions in
the post–Civil War period in New York. The opulence
and monumental dimensions of these homes were
intended to display the refinement and social position of
their owners. The houses often rose to four stories and
offered the latest advances in heating and plumbing.66
The formal rooms on the first story were elaborately
decorated with gilt and furnished with overstuffed
sofas and chairs covered with damask or plush uphol-
stery, while the woodwork was in rich, deeply colored
mahogany, black walnut, and rosewood.67 Invoices
provide a record of the furnishings Collis purchased
for his Park Avenue house, but the Hatch family portrait
fleshes out the details so that we can appreciate the style
of decoration.68
By the 1870s, prominent American furniture-
making firms, such as the Herter Brothers and the
Pottier & Stymus Manufacturing Company of New York,
25
above
fig 1.17 Eastman Johnson, The Hatch Family,
signed and dated 1871, oil on canvas.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Gift of Frederic H. Hatch, 1926. Image
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
opposite
fig 1.18 William Trost Richards, Indian
Summer, signed and dated 1875, oil on
canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 1900.
Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
26
had evolved from furniture manufacturing to interior
decorating.69 They assumed a new and all-inclusive role,
often providing a rich variety of styles for the principal
rooms of the mansions that were springing up in New
York. Such firms supervised every aspect of interior
furnishing, including decorative paneling and mantels,
wall and ceiling decoration, patterned floors, and carpets
and draperies. They also supplied furnishings in a rich
variety of period styles, ranging from the Neo-Greek,
Renaissance revival, and Egyptian revival styles to mod-
ern Gothic, as well as the newly popular Anglo-Japanese
style.70 In 1872–73 Collis purchased only two individual
pieces of furniture from Herter Brothers and Pottier &
Stymus, but the Herter Brothers firm would later deco-
rate a full room at his Park Avenue house. In November
1878, Collis also began to work with a firm of furniture
decorators, George A. Schastey & Co., which he and,
later, Arabella would often turn to.71
t he art of wealth
 In the mid-1870s, having created the setting, However, the initial contact between the two men was
Collis began more actively to collect art for display in through Collis’s art purchases at auctions, where Avery
his fashionable, newly renovated house. To do so, he was equally active.
drew upon the growing market for art in New York.72 Avery often relied on local auctions for selling the
William Schaus, Michael Knoedler, and Samuel P. Avery collections of paintings he acquired on annual trips to
were the most prominent among New York art dealers Europe. The paintings would be exhibited to the public
by the 1870s, and dealers at this point played a crucial for several weeks before the auction, often at the
role in the buying and selling of art. Collis acquired National Academy of Design or at the galleries of the
artworks from all three of them, ranging in price from art dealers, for example Robert Somerville. On April 25,
about $12,750 to $90,000 in today’s currency.73 Many 1872, the New York Times reported on one such exhibi-
of these works, painted by established American and tion and public auction, including a purchase by Collis
European artists, represented contemporary scenes from Huntington: “The sale of Mr. Samuel P. Avery’s pictures
everyday life, such as August Friedrich Siegert’s Girl was concluded yesterday evening at the Somerville Gal-
Reading, which Collis purchased for $5,000 [$90,000] lery. The room was densely crowded with ladies as well
from William Schaus’s gallery.74 Collis also purchased as gentlemen, but the prices realized were not upon the
modern American and European paintings from Michael whole satisfactory to the importer . . . Piot’s ‘Rose-bud’
Knoedler’s gallery,75 including William Trost Richards’s was bought by Mr. Huntington, President of the Union
Indian Summer for $650 [$12,000] [fig. 1.18],76 Etienne Pacific, for $700 [about $13,000].”
Adolphe Piot’s The Love Letter for $1,600, J. Coomans’s
The Admonition for $1,400,77 as well as Alexandre
Cabanel’s Mary Hearing the Voice of Christ after His
Resurrection for $3,500 [$64,750] and William-Adolphe
Bouguereau’s Shepherdess for $4,000 [$74,000].78
Though they often appear sentimental to modern eyes,
such paintings, which were of moderate size and modest
cost, had a large and appreciative audience.
Above all, it was from Samuel P. Avery that Collis
bought artworks, from 1872 until his death in 1900.
Avery, owing to his extensive knowledge of art, was
held in particularly high esteem by the collectors of his
day. In addition to Collis, his clients included wealthy
businessmen, such as A. T. Stewart and William H.
Vanderbilt, who often gathered at the influential
Union League Club, which was closely associated with
the arts, as noted above. Avery played a critical part
in the Union League’s efforts to establish a public art
museum in New York, which culminated in 1870 in
the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
where he was to serve as a trustee for thirty-two years.

par k av e n ue h o u s e 27
below
fig 1.19 Eastman Johnson, The New Bonnet,
signed and dated 1876, oil on academy
board. The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 1900.
Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
opposite
fig 1.20 Adolphe Piot, Italian Woman, oil on
canvas. Huntington Art Collections.
fig 1.21 Thomas Couture, Pierrot in
Criminal Court, c. 1864–70, oil on wood
panel. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio,
Bequest of Noah L. Butkin 1980.250.
28
Avery also acted as the manager for the sale of
well-known private collections by auctioneers such as
George A. Leavitt, who operated the upscale auction
house at the Clinton Hall Sale Rooms between 1871 and
1884. An important early Leavitt auction was the sale of
the LeGrand Lockwood collection, held on April 19, 1872,
in which a large and well-known Bierstadt landscape
painting, The Domes of the Yosemite, sold to A. S. Hatch
for $5,000 [about $92,000]. Collis, who bought two or
three pictures at this sale, would probably have known
that LeGrand Lockwood commissioned the painting
from Bierstadt in 1867 for $25,000 [$400,000], while
in 1872 Collis paid $17,000 for Donner Lake from the
Summit. Collis must have been somewhat chagrined
at the drop in the market value of Bierstadt paintings.
On the other hand, he must surely have been pleased
in 1876 when a painting by Eastman Johnson, The New
Bonnet [fig. 1.19], which he had just purchased for
t he art of wealth
$1,250 [about $26,000], was singled out as an estab- Collis purchased these artworks for his private
lished favorite a week later in the New York Times enjoyment in his home on Park Avenue, but the public
review of the National Academy of Design exhibition.79 exhibits and auctions were expanding the audience
Collis’s acquisitions gradually increased in price, for art. Now, as later—and with other members of the
volume, and quality during the later 1870s, and his Huntington family—cultural acquisitions represented
purchases became grander, literally so in his commission a complex mix of market forces, personal taste, and
of a full-length portrait of his daughter, Clara, from public display.
Daniel Huntington in 1877.80 He continued to buy from
the galleries of New York art dealers. From Knoedler
he bought Piot’s Italian Woman for $1,000 [$20,800]
[fig. 1.20] and A. Toulmonche’s Lady Arranging Flowers
for $2,000 [$41,600] in 1877.81 In addition, Collis con-
tinued to buy at local auctions, making five purchases at
the March 1877 sale of Silas C. Evans’s collection (sold
by the auctioneer, Somerville, under the direction of
Avery), including Seymour Joseph Guy’s The Crossing
Sweeper (c. 1860).82
Avery directed several of the major auctions held
at a luxurious new 1,450-seat venue, Chickering Hall,
designed by the architect George B. Post and opened
in 1875 at Fifth Avenue and 18th Street. The audito-
rium could accommodate big crowds,83 and art auctions
began to feature prominently in the newspapers. Collis
attended the sale of the William T. Blodgett collection of
paintings in Chickering Hall on April 27, 1876, where
he bought Schreyer’s Halt in the Desert for $7,300
[$152,000] and Thomas Couture’s Pierrot in Criminal
Court for $5,800 [$120,000] [fig. 1.21].84 While the
auctions themselves drew large crowds, showings prior
to the sales attracted audiences, too, as the New York
Times noted: “the pictures had been on exhibition for a
number of days in Kurtz’s art gallery, where they had
daily drawn a large crowd of art lovers.” At a sale on
April 4, 1879, of the Albert Spencer painting collection,
the Times observed Collis’s presence “among the buy-
ers, connoisseurs, and dealers.” At this sale he bought
five paintings, including Alberto Pasini’s A Mosque for
$2,500 [$59,000].85

par k av e n ue h o u s e 29
TH E PA N I C OF 1 8 7 3 A N D
TH E TU R N TO P H I LA N T H R O P Y
By the 1870s railroads had become one of the larg-
est industries in America, second only to agriculture.
The rapid growth in railway construction, however,
was unregulated, and it was riddled with corruption.
Railroads were high-risk, volatile financial ventures;
thus, speculators proliferated, feeding large amounts of
money into the railroad industry and generating over-
expansion. This instability contributed to the Panic of
1873 and the long economic depression that followed.
The panic began on September 18, 1873—known
as Black Friday—with the failure of a major bank, the
firm of Jay Cooke, the nation’s top investment banker
and a principal backer of the railways. This quickly
led to catastrophe in the financial markets and the
collapse of the U.S. economy. Prices fell so rapidly on
the New York Stock Exchange that it was closed on
September 20, not to reopen until ten days later. Credit
dried up, businesses were liquidated, and bankruptcies
followed. The financial collapse also forced Collis’s
brokers, Fisk and Hatch, into bankruptcy.86
The crisis was due in large part to the unstable
finances of the railroad industry, which was the target of
increasingly violent attacks. These greatly undermined
Collis’s efforts to negotiate financial concessions for the
railroads from Congress.87 The crisis proved a turn-
ing point for Collis in another way: he had engaged in
various forms of philanthropy, but Black Friday gave
fresh impetus to these activities. He turned to a variety
of means, including social and cultural philanthropy, to
counterbalance and mitigate the damage done on Black
Friday. This was a harbinger of efforts that would reso-
nate into the next decades and beyond.
One of Collis Huntington’s earliest philanthropic
undertakings was the support of the Chapin Home for
the Aged and Infirm, to which he contributed funds
30
from 1872 until the end of his life.88 The Chapin Home
was named in honor of Edwin Hubbell Chapin, a famous
author, orator, and social reformer, and the minister
of the Fourth Universalist Society in New York City.89
Collis was a member of this congregation, beginning in
1868 and for the rest of his life.90 Other notable mem-
bers included the celebrated journalist Horace Greeley
and the famous showman P. T. Barnum. Collis’s wife,
Elizabeth, bequeathed $10,000 [$238,000] to the Chapin
Home in her will of September 27, 1883,91 and Collis,
in turn, bequeathed $25,000 [$665,000] to it in his will
of 1897.92
As is still a common practice today, Collis made
gifts to charitable organizations supported by his busi-
ness associates. He and his agent, Hatch, both supported
the Howard Mission and Home for Little Wanderers at
40 New Bowery, where Hatch served as vice president
and later president of the board of trustees. Records
survive of Collis’s $50 [about $800] cash gift for the
Mission in 1869, as well as donations in 1870 and
1881.93 In addition, Collis began to join prominent
cultural associations in New York and to contribute to
them. A brief overview of Collis’s involvement with
a few of these organizations reveals the range of his
philanthropic activity at this time. As The Mail and
Express of New York summed it up in an obituary,
Collis “was a liberal patron of artists. He belonged to
the Union League Club, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New England Society, American Geographical Society,
American Museum of Natural History, American Fine
Arts Society, and the New York Genealogical and
Biographical Society.”94
Beginning in 1874, Collis was a member of the
influential Union League Club of New York, founded
in 1863 to raise money to support the Union war effort
and abolitionist causes.95 After the Civil War the Union
League provided aid in registering freedmen to vote.
t he art of wealth
By the time Collis joined the Union League, however,
it functioned primarily as a rich man’s social club that
included among its members many of the most promi-
nent businessmen of the day—for example J. Pierpont
Morgan, who joined in 1873. Although political issues
were no longer a central concern, members of the Union
League actively sponsored civic projects, and the encour-
agement of art was closely associated with the club
from its beginnings. Club membership was also offered
to artists, such as Albert Bierstadt, providing reduced
dues and admission fees in exchange for the donation of
a painting for the club’s collection.96 Initially, the club
hosted exhibitions exclusively of works by its member
artists, but by 1867 general exhibitions were mounted,
including the first loan exhibition in 1871.
The Union League was also involved in the found-
ing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, incorporated
by the state of New York on April 13, 1870, for the
purpose of establishing and maintaining a museum to
encourage the study of the fine arts. By 1877, Collis had
become a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
which required a hefty annual fee of $1,000 [$20,800], a
commitment he maintained for the rest of his life.97
His membership began the same year that Luigi
Palma di Cesnola joined the staff as secretary of the
museum, two years later becoming its first director; he
served in the position until his death in 1904. Cesnola
periodically solicited funds from Collis to support
acquisitions, but the response could be hardheaded at
times, and business considerations shaded into questions
of the merit of the acquisitions themselves. On June 20,
1883, Cesnola wrote asking for assistance in purchas-
ing “a collection of prehistoric American antiquities
composed of gold idols . . . and of unique specimens
of pottery” formed by W. W. Randall, U.S. Consul at
Bogota in Colombia, who was selling it for $10,000.98
Collis queried two days later: “In what do you wish to
pan i c o f 1 8 7 3
be helped; by donation or loan? Has the Association
no funds of its own for this purpose? I know little of
the value of this kind of property, and should want to
know something more about it, before I could comply
with your request.”99 Although Collis initially was not
inclined to make a donation for the antiquities collec-
tion, within a few days he changed his mind, writing to
Cesnola: “Mr. Marquand certainly has been very liberal
in contributing $24,000 [$570,000] to secure two col-
lections in Europe. As far as the collection of W. Randall
is concerned I would have no objection to giving $1000
toward securing it, if it is worth the money he asks for
it; but I have an opinion that the value he attached to
his pottery is considerably exaggerated and I hesitate
to contribute anything until some competent judge
of these specimens of ancient art can inform us just
what the museum will receive by their acquisition. Ten
thousand dollars ought to buy a good deal of old pottery,
and its antiquity should not add very much, either, to its
value as an article of commerce.”100 Despite his concerns,
Collis did make a $1,000 donation for the purchase of
the Randall collection.101
Over the ensuing years, Collis continued to make
financial gifts to the museum. In 1881, he joined with
fellow members to fund the purchase of a Gilbert Stuart
portrait, David Sears, Jr. (c. 1815), for the museum.102
Collis’s most significant gift came at the end of his life,
when he bequeathed his entire art collection to the
museum.
Collis also joined the American Museum of Natural
History in 1874.103 Founded in 1869, the AMNH estab-
lished a department of anthropology four years later to
focus on the acquisition of cultural artifacts from around
the world. In 1879 Collis deposited at the museum
William Bradford’s large painting The Polaris in the Ice
at Thank-God Harbor, Greenland, which he later
donated to the AMNH.104 In 1881 he made a notable gift
31
to the museum, funds to support the AMNH’s acquisi-
tion of an ethnological collection of 243 artifacts from
the west coast of Africa.105
In 1881 Collis also provided free passage over
his railroad for an AMNH expedition to explore the
antiquities of the Pacific coast.106 Two years later, he sup-
plied free transportation for wood specimens acquired
by the museum,107 and in 1891 he donated a section of
a giant sequoia tree, named the “Mark Twain.” To this
day it is considered one of the highlights of a visit to
the museum.108 In the last year of his life, Collis made
what was perhaps his most adventuresome gift to the
AMNH, financial support for a groundbreaking expedi-
tion directed by Franz Boas to undertake “work among
the vanishing tribes of California.” Boas, a preeminent
scholar and curator, urged that “the [clue] to much of
the earliest history must be sought among the tribes of
California.”109 The “Huntington Expedition,” as it was
called, is discussed in more detail in chapter 2.
32
Collis’s philanthropic support of these cultural
institutions in New York City in the mid-1870s was
motivated, in part, by business considerations, as noted
above. His roles in these public organizations brought
him into close contact with the powerful industrialists
of his day, and these personal associations helped him
build a wide network of professional contacts. However,
in one area of his social philanthropy, Collis’s financial
support was directed by his own deep-seated convic-
tions. From 1874 until his death in 1900, Collis was an
ardent supporter of Hampton Normal and Agricultural
Institute of Virginia, one of the first schools dedicated to
the education of African American youths [fig. 1.22].110
Collis declared: “I have always taken a great interest in
the colored race, and have probably contributed more
money for the aid of that people, since I was 12 years
old, than any other man in the United States. I was an
Abolitionist when a boy, and as I grew older I thought
slavery a great curse.”111 Collis, who often expressed his
t he art of wealth
views on abolition, was personally engaged with the fate
of the Hampton Institute students, proudly noting in
about 1886: “I used to give money to General Armstrong
[principal of the institute] every year to support his
school for colored boys and girls at Hampton, Virginia,
contributing about $40,000 [$1 million] to its support . . .
From this institution school teachers are going out all
through the South.”
Collis first came into contact with Hampton Normal
and Agricultural Institute between 1872 and 1875.112 By
1879 Thomas K. Fessenden, the treasurer and a trustee
of the institute, was soliciting funds from him, propos-
ing an ambitious project to be named in his honor: “I
confess the hope that it [the Industrial Building] will
so commend itself to you that you will take pleasure in
defraying the cost of, and thus providing The Huntington
opposite
fig 1.22 Hampton Normal Institute class of 1875, with Booker T.
Washington seated in the front row, second from left. Hampton
University Archives, Hampton, Va.
pan i c o f 1 8 7 3
Industrial Building.”113 The building is represented on
the far right side of the frontispiece to Twenty-Two
Years’ Work of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural
Institute (1893) [fig. 1.23]. Like many of the workshops
and school farms at Hampton Institute, the Huntington
Industrial Building, an operational saw mill, was intended
to provide the students with hands-on training while
generating income to support the school. In May 1880,
J. F. B. Marshall, the new treasurer and trustee, wrote
to Collis that “in recognition of Mr. Huntington’s
munificence [to] the building it [will] . . . be known by
the name of the Huntington Industrial Works.”114 The
lengthy and detailed correspondence from Collis regard-
ing operations of the Industrial Works at Hampton
Institute indicates his dedication to this project.115 His
donations to it from 1878 through 1883 came to about
above
fig 1.23 Frontispiece to Twenty-Two Years’ Work of the
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute {1893).
33
$15,205 [$361,000], and by 1891 totaled about $58,340
[$1.4 million].116
Collis also funded fellowships for Hampton Insti-
tute students, as did both Elizabeth and Arabella.117
Arabella, for example, provided in 1888 a gift of $700
[$17,000] for ten annual scholarships.118 Collis took
a close personal interest in the achievements of the
students. Surviving letters from them, as well as the
biographical summaries that are included in Twenty-
Two Years’ Work of the Hampton Normal and Agricul-
tural Institute, show what Collis’s support helped them
to overcome and what they achieved.119 For instance,
in June 1881 General Armstrong sent Collis letters
from Edward Stewart and Douglass A. Freelon120 with
accounts of the hardships they had experienced and of
what they were learning at Hampton Institute. One of
their teachers was Booker T. Washington, who added the
following comments to their letters: “Edward Stewart
works in the saw mill and attends night school. He is
one of the most faithful workers and brightest students
here. He makes the best of his chances in every way and
deserves help.” About Douglass Freelon, Washington
wrote: “[He] works in the saw mill and goes to night
school. This is about the only opportunity he has ever
had of attending school. He came here with nothing, but
now is doing well and a great improvement is appar-
ent. He is very faithful and earnest in study and work.”
Correspondence with Collis continued beyond these
exchanges. In 1883, Freelon wrote once again to Collis:
“Dear Sir . . . I think my chance of making my-self a
man lies altogether in myself. My reasons are these,
my teachers are very kind to me, and my Boss [at the
Huntington Industrial Works] gives me ample time to
improve myself which all learners must have . . . I hope
what I have learned at Hampton may not only do me
good but my people.”121 Another remarkable student,
34
Samuel T. Miller, wrote to Collis in 1877 when he was
attending the Hampton school and again in 1881 when
he was a missionary in Bailunda. Collis noted that
“Miller, now in Central Africa, wrote me some time
after that he had five men there from the United States
[serving as missionaries], and that they were helping
him.”122 Hampton Institute was one of the earliest
schools in America to establish a program for the study
of Africa, beginning in 1873, and students like Miller
provided a direct link to the continent.123 In addition,
Hampton Institute began in about 1880 to collect Afri-
can artworks for its museum. Collis’s encounters with
African art at Hampton Institute may have inspired his
support, mentioned earlier, for the purchase of a large
collection of African artifacts by the American Museum
of Natural History.
The Hampton Institute art museum also included
an extensive Native American collection,124 linked to its
innovative program in the education of Native Ameri-
cans. The principal, S. C. Armstrong, had written to
Collis to solicit funds for this endeavor in 1879.125 The
program, which ran for forty-five years, was “the first
off-reservation boarding school in the east for American
Indians after the Civil War,” teaching more than 1,450
students from sixty-six tribal groups.126 It is possible
that the later donations of Native American artifacts by
Collis, Arabella, and Archer to the Museum of Natural
History can also be traced back to the Huntingtons’
close association with Hampton Institute.
In his philanthropic activities during the late 1870s
and the 1880s, Collis Huntington was motivated at
times by personal beliefs and on other occasions by
an expedient business strategy designed to further his
commercial interests. Although his motives could be
inconsistent, his personal financial gifts were made in
the interest of promoting public benefits.
t he art of wealth
NO B H I L L M A N SI O N S
Promoting public benefits was hardly the motivation
behind the enormous sums paid during this same period
by Collis’s partners, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker,
and Mark Hopkins, to build their palatial mansions on
Nob Hill in San Francisco, following the move of the
Central Pacific Railroad’s headquarters from Sacramento
to San Francisco. Collis later wrote with disapproval of
“my associates, who were modest men with respect to
their financial means—as we all were—[but] built two
quite large houses in Sacramento, which made people
jealous of them, and that did us some harm and lost
us some friends, though less than the later building of
three great mansions in San Francisco, costing in the
aggregate about five millions of dollars, which were
built at a time when the Company was owing large
amounts in nearly all the great money centers of the
United States and western Europe.”127 Despite his critical
comments, twenty years later Collis himself became the
fig 1.24 Residence of Mrs. Mark
Hopkins (on left) and that of
Leland Stanford, San Francisco,
Artistic Homes of California
(1887–90).
no b h i l l ma n s i on s
proud owner of the Colton mansion on Nob Hill.
The influential San Francisco businessman David
Colton persuaded Collis’s partners to build on Nob Hill,
near the Palladian-style mansion he had built for
himself on California and Taylor Streets in 1872–73. In
1875, Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific,
was the first to begin construction of his mansion on
Nob Hill, bounded by California, Pine, Powell, and
Mason Streets. He was followed by Charles Crocker,
the railroad’s vice president, in 1876, and Mark Hopkins,
the treasurer, in 1877. Prior to his move, Stanford
lived in a two-story eight-room Greek revival house in
Sacramento that he had purchased in 1861, similar in
scale and function to Collis’s Park Avenue house. After
the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869,
Stanford renovated his Sacramento residence, as did
Collis his New York house.128
When Stanford began to build his Nob Hill residence
[fig. 1.24], he turned to the firm of Samuel C. Bugbee,
35
who had designed the Colton home. In a study of the
Stanford mansion, Diana Strazdes vividly conveys its
outsize dimensions: “with fifty rooms and 41,000 square
feet of interior space, it was the largest private residence
yet under way in the state. At an estimated cost between
$1 and $2 million, it exceeded New York’s largest mansions
in size, as well as cost.”129 Six years earlier, Alexander T.
Stewart had completed his white marble mansion on
Fifth Avenue in New York for the unprecedented cost
of $1 million.130 Stanford’s palace, which cost even more
than Stewart’s, demonstrates that the fashion for lavish
residences flourished on both coasts.
Like Stewart, Stanford used the acclaimed New York
firm of Pottier & Stymus for furnishing the mansion,
and he displayed his art collection throughout the prin-
cipal rooms, in some cases for unusual dramatic effects.
36
For example, in the music and art room, decorated in the
Louis XVI style, Stanford hung his California landscape
paintings of the Sierra, including William Keith’s
Upper Kern River (1876) and Thomas E. Hill’s
Yosemite Valley (1876).131 Stanford avidly collected
western landscape paintings, as did Collis, but to a lesser
degree. No doubt there was a rivalry between these two
men in the formation of their art collections, as there
was in their business dealings. The competition seems
to have been played out in both major and minor
chords. For example, Bierstadt had apparently been
pressed to delay the shipment of Donner Lake from the
Summit to Collis because Governor and Mrs. Stanford
had asked to see it: “now they have seen it and it has
been sent off,” Bierstadt apologized, “there will be no
further detentions.”132
fig 1.25 Residence of Charles
Crocker, San Francisco, 1887,
Artistic Homes of California
(1887–90).
t he art of wealth
 In 1876 Charles Crocker began the construc-
tion of a Nob Hill mansion at the corner of California
and Taylor Streets [fig. 1.25]. The palatial structure,
designed and built in the French Renaissance–period
style,133 was hung throughout with his art collection.134
Crocker turned, perhaps at the suggestion of Collis, to
the New York furniture designer George A. Schastey
for the interiors. Crocker, however, reported to Collis in
1878 that he was unhappy in his dealings with the firm:
“I have this day drawn on you for $5997.32 currency,
in favor of George A. Schasty. You will notice that the
draft states that it is a compromise settlement of all
claims which said Schasty has against me for materi-
als, furniture and labor furnished for my house, corner
of California and Taylor streets in San Francisco. If he
will not give a full receipt to that effect, I do not wish
you to pay the draft, but if he will give a full receipt as
a compromise settlement, please pay it and charge the
same to my account.”135 Despite Crocker’s displeasure
with Schastey over the interiors, there is no evidence
that he was dissatisfied by the impression made by his
massive palace.
In 1877 Mark Hopkins began the construction of
an enormous Gothic-styled residence on Nob Hill at the
corner of California and Mason Streets (see fig. 1.24).
The mansion was built under the direction of William
Wallace Barbour Sheldon, an architectural engineer.
Hopkins died in 1878, before the house was finished, so
his wife, Mary Frances Sherwood Hopkins, oversaw its
completion. Herter Brothers played a central role in the
interior designs, an even more dominant one after
Hopkins’s widow married Edward F. Searles, the firm’s
West Coast representative, in 1887.136 As was the norm
for this period, Herter Brothers incorporated a wide
range of period styles, designing some of the most
sumptuous spaces in the firm’s fashionable interpretation
of the Anglo-Japanese style.137 The Nob Hill mansions
cen t e n n i a l e x p o sit io n
of Stanford, Crocker, and Hopkins displayed the whole
array of architectural and furnishing styles that flour-
ished nationally, on the West and East Coasts, as well as
internationally, by the late 1870s.
TH E 1876 CE N TE N N I AL E XPOS I TI ON
I N PH I LADE LPHI A
The international flavor of architectural and interior
styles was inspired by exhibits at the 1876 Centennial
Exposition in Philadelphia. The first official World’s Fair
in the United States, it commemorated the centennial
of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in
Philadelphia. It was opened by President Ulysses S. Grant
on May 10, 1876, for a six-month run. About 10 million
visitors attended, equivalent to approximately 20 percent
of the U.S. population at the time (though many were
repeat visitors). There were more than 30,000 exhibits
in more than 200 buildings constructed within the expo-
sition’s grounds. Covering more than twenty-one acres,
the Main Building was the largest such structure in the
world; other major buildings included the Machinery
Hall, the Agricultural Hall, the Horticultural Hall, and
the Memorial Hall, which housed the art exhibits, as
well as a separate annex for the display of photography.
The exposition was several years in the making,
and numerous businessmen were called upon to support
the effort. For example, John W. Forney, a newspaper
publisher, headed a Philadelphia commission that trav-
eled to Europe, at his expense, to invite other nations to
exhibit at the exposition. Collis was approached to help
with the crucial matter of transportation—how were
goods to reach Philadelphia? On December 13, 1875,
the New York Times reported on the logistic challenges:
“the difference between the tariffs of the various
companies and trouble of the railroad wars have caused
unexpected delay.” Working closely with the Bureau of
Transportation commission, Collis offered to provide
37
free transportation for the exhibits from China and
Japan to depots close to the exposition.138 Collis not only
provided in-kind support but also attended the exposi-
tion personally.139 There he would have seen several
exhibits that would likely have influenced his collecting
of art. Particularly relevant were the exhibits of con-
temporary furniture by the major designers of the day,
such as Pottier & Stymus, who displayed Egyptian-style
furnishing and individual pieces in the popular Renais-
sance revival style, and Kimbel & Cabus, who exhibited
pieces in the modern Gothic style. Exhibits such as a
popular Turkish coffeehouse inspired the later vogue for
Moorish-style furnishings.
Equally notable were the displays of African arti-
facts [fig. 1.26] in the Main Building, which included
showcases with tusks, sculpture, and other goods from
the Orange Free State in southern Africa, as well as a
collection of musical instruments and carved figures
38
from the Gold Coast of Africa. These displays most
likely helped to engender Collis’s interest in African art,
and to inspire his gifts, five years later, to the American
Museum of Natural History.140
Collis would also have seen the Japanese Dwelling
[fig. 1.27]. Captions for lithographs of this exhibit by
Thomas Hunter note that “during its erection, [it]
created more curiosity and attracted infinitely more
visitors than any other on the grounds. It was erected
by native Japanese workmen, with materials brought
from home . . . the best-built structure on the Centennial
grounds.”141 In the nearby Japanese Bazaar, “the tables
of the Bazaar are loaded with curious goods . . . Of the
gilded and varnished articles know[n] as japanned ware
there is a great variety” [fig. 1.28].142 The ebonized
Anglo-Japanese style—popularized after the exposition
by a variety of decorators, including Pottier & Stymus
and Kimbel & Cabus, but particularly the Herter Brothers
t he art of wealth
 opposite

fig 1.26 “Curios from Gold

Coast,” stereograph by Centennial
Photographic Co., Centennial
Exposition, Philadelphia. Free
Library of Philadelphia.

above

fig 1.27 “Japanese Dwelling,”

lithograph by Thomas Hunter,
Centennial Exposition,
Philadelphia. Free Library
of Philadelphia.

left

fig 1.28 “Lacquer Ware—Japan,”

silver albumen print, Centennial
Exposition, Philadelphia. Free
Library of Philadelphia.

cen t e n n i a l e x p o sit io n 39
firm—was closely linked to this Centennial display. It
was a style that appealed to Collis as well as to Arabella.
As mentioned earlier, Collis turned to the most
fashionable decorators of the day, including several who
had exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, and
to the George A. Schastey firm to refurbish the interiors
at 65 Park Avenue in 1877–79.143 In September 1877
Collis wrote to his brother-in-law: “I have at least 20 men
working in our House. Elizabeth & Clara are in W[est]
V[irginia]. I got a letter from Elizabeth yesterday . . . she
expects to come home this week. I hope she will for I
40
am very lonesome.”144 As work on the house continued,
Collis, Elizabeth, and Clara moved out, and they stayed
at the Windsor Hotel in New York City from October 10
to November 24, 1877.145
Collis’s most significant purchase for the house was
an exceptional bedroom suite [fig. 1.29a & b], one of the
largest and most important surviving Herter Brothers
sets in the ebonized Anglo-Japanese style.146 This superb
suite, now at the Saint Louis Art Museum, includes a
bed, a dressing table and glass of ebonized cherry richly
inlaid with white holly, as well as several other pieces.
t he art of wealth
 opposite

fig 1.29a Herter Brothers, N.Y.,

bed, 1879, ebonized cherry,
holly and purpleheart marquetry,
white pine, padouk, brass, and
gilding. Saint Louis Art Museum,
Funds given by Mrs. Harold Baer,
Mrs. Ernest Eddy, the Weiss
Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. L. K. Ayers,
and the Decorative Arts Society.

left

fig 1.29b Herter Brothers, N.Y.,

dressing table and mirror, 1879,
ebonized cherry, holly and
purpleheart marquetry, padouk,
marble/mirrored glass, brass, and
gilding. Saint Louis Art Museum,
Funds given by Mrs. Harold Baer,
Mrs. Ernest Eddy, the Weiss
Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. L. K. Ayers,
and the Decorative Arts Society.

cen t e n n i a l e x p o sit io n 41
The provenance of the set can now be traced back to
Collis’s purchase of the suite for his
Park Avenue home in 1879; it was moved to his mansion
at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue in the late 1890s, when
he and Arabella took up residence. The Herter Brothers
firm also supplied a similar Anglo-Japanese style
bedroom set in 1880 for Darius O. Mills’s residence
in Millbrae, near what is now Burlingame. Mills, one
of the leading bankers in California,147 was a lifelong
friend of Collis’s, beginning in the early gold rush days
through the end of his life; he served as a pallbearer
at the funeral for Elizabeth Huntington in 1883, and
at Collis’s funeral in 1900. When the two friends and
associates, now successful, planned their opulently fur-
nished residences, they commissioned similar bedroom
suites from the Herter Brothers.148 Between 1879 and
1881, the Herter Brothers firm also decorated, to great
acclaim, the interiors of William H. Vanderbilt’s man-
sion at 640 Fifth Avenue, as well as supplying pieces in
the Anglo-Japanese style for Jay Gould’s residence at
579 Fifth Avenue. Collis’s choice of this cutting-edge
Aesthetic Movement style for his Park Avenue home
was no doubt influenced by Arabella Yarrington’s tastes,
as will be seen in the furnishing of her West 54th Street
residence, done at the same time that Collis was updat-
ing his home.
TRA VEL , A R T, A N D R E A L E STAT E ,
18 7 6 – 8 4
At some point in the 1870s Arabella began to travel
with Collis on his railroad business trips [fig. 1.30].
Archer was at this time again living with relatives in
San Marcos, Texas, when he was about eight years
old [fig. 1.31].149 He remained in Texas until he was
about twelve.150
Collis spent much of his time from early 1876
through mid-1879 residing at the Willard Hotel in
42
Washington, D.C., while handling negotiations with
Congress [fig. 1.32]. But he was apparently renting
another residence as well, from William Windom, at
25 Lafayette Square. A receipt suggests that someone
associated with Collis, probably Arabella, was living
there while he stayed at the Willard Hotel.151 It seems
that William Windom, a Republican politician who held
office intermittently from 1859 until his death in 1891,
owned two adjacent houses on the same property at
25 Lafayette Square, living in one house and renting
the other. Arabella may have occupied the rental house
from October 1876 until February 1877, when Robert G.
Ingersoll, a Republican activist famous for his speeches
on abolition, moved into the house, living there until
1883 along with his family. The four-story townhouse
on Lafayette Square was a showplace, ideal for enter-
taining, as described by a journalist writing in the
Washington Gossip about the home when the Inger-
solls were in residence: “The house is admirably fitted
for entertaining, with its three rooms opening into one
another and the dining room beyond. The first parlor
has crimson hangings, dull red walls and a dark Turkey
carpet, with deep velvet furniture. The second parlor is
in light colors, with cream walls, pearl-tinted carpet and
a large book case . . . The third room contains the piano
and more books, while the walls all through are hung
with paintings and fine engravings.”152
Although the Lafayette Square house would have
served as an ideal location for entertaining members of
Congress on behalf of Collis’s railroad interests, Arabella’s
role in such activity remains unclear. Surviving docu-
ments indicate, however, that Collis’s association with
Arabella was well known by this time. Two letters
describe a trip taken by Arabella, as Mrs. Worsham,
traveling with Collis and U.S. Senator George Robertson
Dennis and his wife, as well as a few other Huntington
family members, on a trip to Yosemite in August 1878.153
t he art of wealth
 counterclockwise from above

fig 1.30 Arabella D. Yarrington, photograph

taken by Mora, 707 Broadway, N.Y., late
1870s. Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

fig 1.31 Archer M. Yarrington, photograph

taken by Mora, 707 Broadway, N.Y., late
1870s. Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

fig 1.32 Collis P. Huntington, 1879.

Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, Va.

tr av e l , a rt, a n d r ea l estate 43
Since family members as well as a U.S. senator accom-
panied them, it is likely that Arabella’s relationship
with Collis was no longer a well-kept family secret but
publicly known, if not accepted.
Letters from Archer to his mother also indicate that
Arabella accompanied Collis in the summer of 1879 on
a trip that entailed ocean travel to a foreign country. On
July 7, Archer, then nine years old, wrote to his mother:
“My Dear Mama, I am so glad to hear that you have landed
safe . . . Grandmother says were you very seasick [?] . . .
good bye I am your Dear boy—Archer M Worsham.”154
On July 21, he wrote again, “My Dear Mama, I receive
your letter this morning. I was very glad to hear from
you this is the third letter that I have written you . . .
those were lovely pictures you sent to Grandma and
me to look at . . . I am your darling boy. Archer M.
Worsham. P.S. I enclose you a present, save me all the
Foreign stamps.”155 It seems likely that Arabella accom-
panied Collis on a trip by rail to Panama and then by ship
to San Francisco, where she was traveling with Collis
the following month, August 1879.156
Arabella’s public presence in Collis’s life by the late
1870s is also obvious from his purchase of art on her
behalf at auctions. The New York Times account of the
auction of the Benjamin Nathan collection, published
February 11, 1880, illustrates how energetically Collis
now participated in the bidding for works of art before
a large audience:
There were very many prominent collectors
among the audience, and some of the gems of
the collection were secured by . . . Huntington
. . . The greatest interest and warmest competi-
tion of the evening were of course elicited by
the beautiful large canvas of the distinguished
Parisian, W. A. Bouguereau, entitled “Crossing
the Stream.” When it was placed upon the easel
44
a burst of hearty applause rang through the
hall, and instantly the bid $1,000 was spoken.
With incredible rapidity the bids jumped by the
thousands until $6,000 was reached, when the
competition narrowed down to Mr. Huntington
and Mr. Lyll, the Brooklyn tobacco manu-
facturer, who, amid loud plaudits, secured it
for $6,000. Bouguereau’s other superb work,
“Mother and Child” [fig. 1.33], almost equal
to the companion work in choice of subject
and beauty of treatment, started some sharp
bidding, but was finally knocked down [to Collis]
for a little less than $3,000 [$69,000] . . .
Another great painting, C. Zamacois’s charm-
ing “Rivals,” brought $4,550 quickly, the bids
going by the thousands at a jump [when it was
purchased by Collis Huntington].157
Several articles in the New York Times reveal the
high drama of the art auctions. On March 13, 1880,
the Times reported on the auction of works from the
J. Abner Harper collection, held at Chickering Hall, at
which Collis made a purchase:
The attendance was remarkably good, the body
of the hall being entirely filled, and the balcony
nearly so. Numerous ushers were stationed at
convenient points in the hall, to whom bidders
could make their bids quietly, while they were
instantly repeated in loud tones to the auc-
tioneer. Admission to the body of the hall was
by ticket, a fact of which a great many people
were ignorant, and there was not a little bad
feeling and confusion in consequence; but half
an hour after the sale opened, the auctioneer
announced that the hall was then open to
everybody, whereupon there was a rush from
t he art of wealth

the balcony down stairs to get seats, from
which a view of the pictures could be obtained
as they were successively exhibited, as least,
near enough to see the subject. The bidding was
spirited throughout.
By 1880 Collis had clearly attained public acclaim
for the artworks he had acquired for his Park Avenue
home, for his collection was included in the celebrated
Art Treasures of America, edited by Edward Strahan,
a pseudonym for the art critic Earl Shinn. Shinn first
tr av e l , a rt, a n d r ea l estate
fig 1.33 William-Adolphe Bouguereau,
Mother and Child (Temptation), 1880, oil on canvas.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Putnam Dana
McMillan Fund and the M. Knoedler Fund.
began to write about art collections in America in the
early 1870s. One of his early publications was a cata-
logue of the art gallery at the Centennial Exposition of
1876, but his best-known work was The Art Treasures of
America: Being the Choicest Works of Art in the Public
and Private Collections of North America (1880). He
gathered essays on the private art collections formed
45
in America since the Civil War. First published in serial
form, the essays were then reprinted in multivolume
sets between 1879 and 1882.158 The publisher, George
Barrie, contacted Collis and asked if he could see the
collection in the company of “Strahan”: “Mr. Collins
informs me that you have an important collection.
Would you kindly permit Mr. Strahan and me to see it
at your convenience?”159 Although the public did not
for the most part have direct access to private collections
at this time, publications such as The Art Treasures of
America provided information about the works they
contained and enlarged the audience for art.
Shinn began his essay “The Collection of Mr. Collis P.
Huntington”160 with a lengthy discussion of Thomas
Couture’s The Trial of Pierrot (also known as Pierrot
in Criminal Court; see fig. 1.21), noting that “there
are several of these pantomime-satires by Couture in
America. Mr. C. P. Huntington, in his residence at New
York [65 Park Avenue], preserves the ‘Trial of Pierrot’
(36 × 24 inches); his friend, D. O. Mills, in his California
collection, cherishes the ‘Pierrot and Harlequin Reading
the Moniteur,’ and Mr. Robert Hoe, Sr., of New York,
is owner of a passage of the same drama.” In addition
to the Couture, the following paintings are illustrated
in the essay: Bouguereau’s Shepherdess, Casanova’s
Monks (also called Two Friars), Diaz’s The Faggot
Gatherers, and Charles Landelle’s Dolce Far Niente
(also called Sweet Nothings).
TH E TR I U M P H O F A RA BE LLA
Not all of Collis’s acquisitions before 1880 were included
in The Art Treasures of America, because he had given
some of them to Arabella. For instance, he gave Bou-
guereau’s Mother and Child, now called Temptation
(see fig. 1.33), to her for display in the drawing room of
her West 54th Street residence, while his purchase from
Knoedler of Piot’s Italian Woman (see fig. 1.20) was
hung by Arabella in her library.
46
In 1877, Arabella had purchased a residence on West
54th Street, and over the next three years acquired the
adjoining parcels of land. She purchased the brownstone
house and property at 4 West 54th Street [fig. 1.34]
from Isaac Henderson for $156,000 cash and a $100,000
mortgage, a total of $256,000 [$5.3 million].161 The next
year, on November 1, she bought a second parcel, at no. 6,
for $33,000, and on July 1, 1880, she purchased a third
parcel, at no. 2, for $27,500 and a $15,000 mortgage. The
total was $331,500 [$7.6 million] for her purchase of
185,000 square feet of property on West 54th Street.162
It is abundantly clear, however, that Collis handled the
bond and mortgage payments for the property. On
October 10, 1882, she wrote: “My dear Mr. Huntington.
The bond and mortgage on lot 2 West 54th Street fell
due yesterday. Will you please find out from Mr. Storrs
the exact amount, fill in the enclosed check and send
to Mr. Gross Bank of the Metropolis immediately.”163
Evidently, the nature of her relationship with Collis had
changed considerably since her pleading letter of 1871.
Arabella probably began her major refurbishment of
the interiors of the West 54th Street house in the winter
of 1881. She rented a house at 616 Fifth Avenue from
Frederick C. Hoey164 while she transformed the interior of
the West 54th Street mansion into a stunning exemplar
of the Aesthetic Movement style [figs. 1.35a & b].165
Several of the best-known decorators of the day worked
for her in the refurbishment project, including Herter
Brothers, Pottier & Stymus, George A. Schastey, and
Sypher & Co., all of whom, except for Sypher & Co.,
had been employed by Collis for earlier renovations at
his Park Avenue residence. Schastey seems to have been
the principal designer,166 as a letter to John D. Rockefeller,
the subsequent owner, reveals: “We desire to state that
the interior woodwork and decoration of your new
residence (#4 W. 54th St) was designed and executed by
us. We should be pleased to receive your order for any
alternations or additions that you may require.”167
t he art of wealth
 fig 1.34 Exterior, West 54th Street residence.
Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

fig 1.35a Moorish Room, 1882–84,

West 54th Street residence. Hispanic Society
of America, N.Y.

tr i ump h o f a r a b el l a 47

The house included the Entrance Hall, Parlor, Recep-
tion Room, Drawing Room [fig. 1.36], Dining Room,
Conservatory, Library, Dressing Room, and Bedroom.168
Two sets of photographs of the interiors were made
during Arabella’s residency, and another set was taken
by Samuel H. Gottscho after the death of Rockefeller in
1937.169 They depict several of the sumptuous interiors,
including the Reception Room, also known as the Moor-
ish Room, which was decorated in a mixture of Spanish
and Islamic styles that became popular after the Centen-
nial Exhibition.170 A sepia photograph of this interior
[fig. 1.35a] shows the room as furnished by Arabella,171
while another image taken by Gottscho [fig. 1.35b]
48
fig 1.35b Moorish Room, c. 1937,
photograph taken by Samuel H.
Gottscho, the Rockefeller Family
Photograph Collection.
The Rockefeller Archive Center,
Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.
depicts the Moorish Room in about 1937.172 The décor of
the Master Bedroom [fig. 1.37] is now the best known.
It contained a suite of furniture in the Japanese style of
ebonized wood with inlays in a leaf-and-vine motif.173 It
is unclear which decorator supplied this suite of furniture
(whether it was George A. Schastey, which he implied in
his letter to Rockefeller in 1884; or Sypher & Co., as was
later suggested). Although the supplier cannot be identi-
fied with certainty, Arabella’s commission is revealing:
she bought this bedroom set, in about 1881, in the same
ebonized Anglo-Japanese style as the Herter Brothers
bedroom suite that Collis purchased in 1879 for his
Park Avenue house.
t he art of wealth
 fig 1.36 Drawing Room, 1882–84,
West 54th Street residence.
Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

tr i ump h o f a r a b el l a 49
 Although photographs and inventories tell us much
about the interior design of the West 54th Street resi-
dence, there are no surviving records detailing Arabella’s
art purchases prior to her marriage to Collis. Nonethe-
less, a catalogue of Collis’s collection, published privately
in 1896, indicates which of the paintings belonged to
Arabella at that time.174 Some of the artworks in her
collection can also be identified in the photographs of
the interiors of the West 54th Street house. Henry E.
Huntington must have visited there on many occasions,
50
for he later expressed fond memories of several of these
works, and after her death in 1924, he bought them
when her collection was dissolved.175 Among the items
he purchased were F. G. Villa’s statue Cupid Blindfolding
Venus, a sculpture that Arabella placed in the hall at the
West 54th Street residence [fig. 1.38]; Hugues Merle’s
Charlotte Corday; Diaz’s The Pets, which she displayed
in the Drawing Room; and Adolphe Piot’s Italian
Woman (see fig. 1.20), hung in the Library of the
West 54th Street house [fig. 1.39].
t he art of wealth
 opposite

fig 1.37 Master Bedroom,

1882–84, West 54th Street
residence. Hispanic Society of
America, N.Y.

left

fig 1.38 Hall, 1882–84,

West 54th Street residence.
Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

fig 1.39 Library, 1882–84,

West 54th Street residence.
Hispanic Society of America, N.Y.

tr i ump h o f a r a b el l a 51
fig 1.40 Collis P. Huntington,
1879. Hispanic Society of
America, N.Y.

52 t he art of wealth
 Arabella’s circumstances had changed profoundly
since her letter to Collis begging for help in 1871. By
1880 she was making her own financial investments, as
a letter to Collis [fig. 1.40] reveals: “My dear Mr. Hun-
tington, Enclosed find check for twenty thousand dollars.
Since writing you I have invested nearly thirty thousand.
Be kind enough to let the balance remain for a few days,
on which I will pay you interest.”176 By 1882, she was also
able to bring her twelve-year-old son, Archer, from Texas
to live with her. Moreover, she departed in 1882 with
Archer (but not Collis) on her first trip to Europe, staying
in London and Paris from June to August.177 While she
was in Paris, Arabella had the not inconsiderable funds
to commission a full-length portrait of herself from the
most fashionable French painter of the day, Alexandre
Cabanel. She had herself portrayed wearing a wedding
ring, as the fictitious “Mrs. Worsham,” a strategic choice
[fig. 1.41]. By now Arabella evidently had her own
financial means to draw upon. Although Collis may
have secretly transferred funds to her, she enhanced
them through her own financial dealings, particularly
in real estate, and she apparently treated some of his
financial assistance as a loan.178 After her return from
her 1882 trip to Europe, she wrote to Collis: “My dear
Mr. Huntington, Many thanks for your kindness in
settling Custom House bill. Please find enclosed check
for the amount.”179
In comparison to Arabella’s lavish lifestyle at this
time, Henry Huntington’s circumstances were modest.
He worked for Collis as the superintendent of con-
struction for the Chesapeake, Ohio & South Western
railroad, living in Memphis, Tennessee. Henry’s for-
tunes would improve remarkably in the ensuing years,
as would Arabella’s.
tr i ump h o f a r a b el l a
Events that unfolded in 1883 brought momentous
changes. In the early months of that year, Elizabeth
Huntington became seriously ill, perhaps with cancer,
and she died on October 5. A newspaper account of her
funeral quoted the eulogy and remarked on the size of
the gathering: “Services were conducted at Mr. Hunting-
ton’s residence, No. 65 Park Avenue by the Rev. Charles
H. Eaton . . . Mr. Eaton spoke feelingly of the dead lady’s
Christian character and charitable deeds. He alluded
particularly to her earnest devotion to the Chapin
Home . . . The body was taken to Woodlawn Cemetery.
A large party of relatives and friends witnessed the
interment.”180
In December 1883, just two months after Eliza-
beth’s death, Collis, perhaps at the prompting of
Arabella, again began to spruce up the 65 Park Avenue
house. On June 17, 1884, Collis deeded the property,
which was previously listed in the name of Elizabeth S.
Huntington, to “Belle D. Worsham,” prior to their
marriage on July 12, 1884. Arabella sent for the real-
tor, Charles MacRae, and let him know that she wished
to sell the West 54th Street residence immediately.181
The realtor conveyed the news to John D. Rockefeller
on July 16: “[Mr. and Mrs. Huntington] have gone to
live in the Havemeyer place [the Homestead in Throggs
Neck] which I sold to her. I want to see you very much
. . . I think this a very favorable moment to strike a good
bargain with the Lady. And I think you can depend on
me to do my best for you.”182 With the help of MacRae,
Arabella’s residence at 4 West 54th Street was sold to
Rockefeller.
The conveyance for the sale of the West 54th Street
mansion gives her name as Arabella D. Huntington, wife
of Collis P. Huntington (formerly Belle D. Y. Worsham).183
53
On November 24, 1884, she transferred two parcels of
land on this site to Rockefeller in trade for his property
at 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Arabella had already
sold the third parcel of land on West 54th Street to
William Henry Vanderbilt. The sale of all three lots at
4 West 54th Street brought a total of about $660,000
[$16 million] and netted her a profit of $328,500
[$8.1 million].184
Beginning in 1862, when Collis moved to New York
City with Elizabeth, until 1884, the year of his marriage
to Arabella, he explored diverse types of cultural and
social philanthropy and differing means of collecting
art, ranging from direct personal engagement with an
artist to a reliance on intermediaries, such as art dealers,
in assembling a collection. In the succeeding years, from
1884 until his death in 1900, Collis Huntington con-
tinued to explore a variety of modes to ensure a public
stage for his art collection and a public function for his
philanthropy. 1234

54 t he art of wealth
fig 1.41 Alexandre Cabanel, Arabella
D. Yarrington, 1882, oil on canvas.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,
Gift of Archer M. Huntington, 1940.

tr i ump h o f a r a b el l a 55