Charles Lang Freer
American manufacturer and collector, 1854-1919
Charles Lang Freer (February 25, 1854 – September 25, 1919) was an American industrialist, art collector, and patron. He is known for his large collection of East Asian, American, and Middle Eastern art. In 1906, Freer donated his extensive collection to the Smithsonian Institution, making him the first American to bequeath his private collection to the United States. To house the objects, including The Peacock Room by James McNeill Whistler, Freer funded the construction of the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Biography
Early life
Charles Lang Freer was born in Kingston, New York, United States, in 1856. He was the son of Jacob Roosa Freer (1819–1875) and Phoebe Jane Townsend Freer (1826–1868). He was a direct descendant of Hugo Freer, a New Paltz patentee and the first Freer to the United States. The third child of six, his family had little money. Freer's mother died when he was fourteen years of age. After the seventh grade, Freer left school and took a job in a cement factory. In the early 1870s, Freer was noticed by Frank J. Hecker, then general superintendent of the New York, Kingston, & Syracuse Railroad, while working as a clerk in a general store.
The public source identifies “Charles Lang Freer” as american manufacturer and collector, 1854-1919. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Charles, Lang and Freer.
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This entry incorporates text from “Charles Lang Freer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.