Interior of the Walters Art Museum. COURTESY THE WALTERS ART MUSEUM
The Walters Art Museum is confronting the uglier parts of its 126-year-old history, starting with a revised biography of its founding family. As part of an ongoing effort to promote diversity and equity, the museum has addressed the Walters’ ties to the Confederacy. William Walters and his son, Henry, were staunch supporters of the Confederacy, and directly benefited from racist labor practices before and after the Civil War. Museum staff will also examine how their racist worldview shaped the collection that is owned by the city.
“As historians, the process we have embarked on is to research and share the facts we have about our founders and our institution accurately and openly,” said museum director Julia Marciari-Alexander. “This museum was given to the city of Baltimore in 1931, and this is fundamentally a story of Baltimore’s history—and one we hope can lead to more inclusive dialogue going forward.”
Already wealthy from a venture producing iron in Pennsylvania, William Walters moved to Baltimore in 1841. When the Civil War broke out, he fled the city with his family for Paris, where he waited out the conflict. During that time, he traveled widely in Europe, amassing a collection of contemporary European painting, as well as Egyptian artifacts and Asian art and ceramics. After his death in 1894, his son left the collection, which then counted around 22,000 works, to the city “for the benefit of the public.” Throughout the museum, wall panels within the galleries and special installations focused on the founders’ philanthropy to Baltimore.
