Colin B. Bailey, Director, Morgan Library and Museum, New York

 In his comic novel, The Outcry, published in 1911, Henry James characterized the new breed of American collectors as “conquering hordes…only armed now with huge check books instead of spears and battleaxes.” The creation of outstanding private collections of European art in America was a phenomenon of the Gilded Age. James based the character of the American banker, Breckenridge Bender — “the wretch who bagged Lady Lappington’s Longi” —on John Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), one of the three collectors to be discussed. Morgan is joined by two younger “squillionaires” — as Bernard and Mary Berenson called them — born in the same year: Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), the Pittsburgh industrialist, and Michael Henry De Young (1849–1925), founder of San Francisco’s Daily Dramatic Chronicle. All three have left institutions that bear their names; yet each can be seen as quite distinct in their taste, education, and motivation as collectors and founders of museums.

Michael de Young in his home with some of his collection objects, c. 1880s–1890s 

The Magnet, centerfold from Puck magazine, June 21, 1911 (caricature of J. P. Morgan)