Henry Plumer McIlhenny: Philadelphia’s First Gentleman

Biographical Bytes from Bala #023

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.”