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.
WALKING TOUR: Laurel Hill West from Pencoyd to Barmouth
ABC #044: Some James Garfield Connections at Laurel Hill
BBB #013: Every Brilliant Thing: Ice Cream and Laurel Hill
ABC #043: Tick Tock: Clocks, Watches, and Laurel Hill, Part 1
BBB #012: Turbaned Warrior for Justice - C. DeLores Tucker
ABC #042: Mint Condition: Some Laurel Hill Coinage Connections
BBB #011: The Red Rose Girls and Henrietta Cozens
ABC #041: Three More Drinker Siblings to Know - Harry, Cecil, and Kitty
BBB #010: Lincoln’s Railroad Man - Herman Haupt
ABC #040: Friends of Thomas Jefferson, Part 1 - I’m Just a Bill
BBB #009: A Forgotten Pioneer in Gender Studies - Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley
WALKING TOUR: West Laurel Hill from Barmouth to Pencoyd
ABC #039: In Heaven There Is No Beer- Brewers of Laurel Hill
BBB #008: Every Writer’s Writer, Every Human’s Human - Loren Eiseley
ABC #038: Through the Looking Glass: Lewis Carroll Connections
BBB #007: Altering History - Francis, Clara, and Susanna Dercum
ABC #037: Boies Will Be Boys - Senator Penrose and His Brothers
BBB #006: A Life for Peace - Hannah Clothier Hull
ABC #036: The Three Remarkable Wister Sisters
BBB #005: Philadelphia’s First Black ”Power Couple” - Raymond Pace & Sadie T.M. Alexander
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