The origins of the Walters Art Museum date back to 1931, when Henry Walters bequeathed to the city of Baltimore an extensive art collection started by his father, William T. Walters. Today, the museum is reckoning with its founders’ white-supremacist legacy.
Walters Art Museum, Centre Street Addition (1973-1974, Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott).
Photograph by Eli Pousson
The Walters Art Museum is among numerous American institutions confronting the legacy of racism and exclusion that permeates virtually all aspects of social life in the United States. After a nearly four-month closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum reopened on March 17 with updated wall texts and a newly written institutional history posted on its website. These changes focus on the Walters and their previously undiscussed support of the Confederacy and racist ideologies. The updated history also reflects on the manner in which the family’s views informed their approach to collecting and shaped the museum’s early holdings and institutional identity.
Walters Art Museum. Photograph by Mike Steele
The Foundational Collection When he died, Henry Walters (1848–1931) bequeathed his collection of nearly 22,000 art objects, as well as two buildings, and an endowment to the city of Baltimore, “for the benefit of the public.” Originally called the Walters Art Gallery, the institution opened as a municipal museum in 1934. The foundational gift reflected Henry’s tastes, as well as those of his father, William T. Walters (1819–1894), who started the collection. William’s early purchases mostly…
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