Andy Warhol considered him "the only person in town with glamour." The Philadelphia Art Alliance deemed him "the first gentleman of Philadelphia." Connoisseur Magazine named him one of the top ten art collectors of all time.
When Henry Plumer McIlhenny died in 1986, he left everything - an estimated $100M worth - to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where he had served for 50 years as curator, trustee and chairman of the board. His collections were housed in both his magnificent Rittenhouse Square townhouse and at Glenveagh in Ireland, the largest privately-owned plot of land in the country. His parties were legendary. His friends were society's giants.
At his death, someone commented "I had always thought that no one was irreplaceable, but Henry is irreplaceable."
Fellow volunteer tour guide and historian Thomas Keels tells you of this remarkable man in the mid-August edition of “Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories.” Wherever you get your podcasts.
BBB#032: Philadelphia's Jazz Lodestar - Dennis Sandole
ABC#062: Three More Philadelphia Magazines - Graham's, Peterson's, and Lippincott's
BBB#031: Gladys Hall & Russell Ball - Glamourizing Early Hollywood
ABC#061: Play Ball!, Part 3 - Four More Baseball Pioneers at Laurel Hill
BBB#030: Grayce Nottage Nicholas - Black Is Beautiful
ABC#060: Three More Women Who Changed Philadelphia
BBB#029: MOVE and Laurel Hill
ABC#059: Three More Black Pioneers
BBB#028: The Philadelphia Orchestra & Laurel Hill West
ABC#058: Laurel Hill & Big Pharma
BONUS: Anna Weightman Penfield and the Fioretta Follies
BBB#027: An Old Soul Guitarist - Jack Rose
ABC#057: Murder Most Foul, Part 1
BBB#026: The Surgeon Is a General - I.S. Ravdin
ABC#056: Philadelphia and Oil
BBB#025: Free Science for All - William Wagner
ABC#055: The Supremes - Justices at Laurel Hill
BBB#024: The Female Bobby Jones - Glenna Collett Vare
ABC#054 Hey! I Know That Song! - Composers and Interpreters
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