Henry Plumer McIlhenny (October 7, 1910 – May 11, 1986)[1] was an American connoisseur of art and antiques, world traveler, socialite, philanthropist, curator, and chairman of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Early days
McIlhenny attended Harvard and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in fine arts in 1933. After graduation, McIlhenny studied art history with Paul Sachs at the Fogg Art Museum.[2] Sachs influenced his future collecting, as did his parents, Frances Galbraith (Plumer) and John Dexter McIlhenny, who also played an active role in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.[3]
During World War II, McIlhenny served in the United States Naval Reserve, with one and a half years on the USS Bunker Hill in the Pacific theater. He was photographed in his uniform by George Platt Lynes.
Career
McIlhenny served as a curator of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 1939 to 1964 and chairman of the board in 1976. His older sister Bernice McIlhenny Wintersteen was president of the museum in the 1960s.[4]
His collections of French masterpieces, 18th- and 19th-century silver, furniture, and other decorative arts were housed in both his Rittenhouse Square townhouse and at Glenveagh Castle, his country house in Ireland. Many acquisitions were made through his interior designers Denning & Fourcade of New York City and Paris.[5]
Private life
A lifelong bachelor,[6] McIlhenny was presumed to be gay.[7] Andy Warhol claimed that McIlhenny was "the only person in Philadelphia with glamour," a sentiment echoed by the Philadelphia Art Alliance, which dubbed him the "first gentleman of Philadelphia."[5]
McIlhenny was the last private owner of the Glenveagh Estate, which covers a large, remote region of County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in Ireland. He bought the 170 square kilometre estate in 1938, having rented during the summers since 1933, and used it regularly as a part-time residence until 1982. Henry made a gift of Glenveagh Castle and gardens to the Irish State in 1979, while retaining the right to live there for his lifetime. He had previously sold the bulk of the estate lands to the Irish state in 1974–75, to enable the creation of Glenveagh National Park.[8]
McIlhenny has an indirect connection with the Death Mask Murder. In what The New York Times dubbed a "glamorous conquest," McIlhenny was reported to have hired a young Andrew Crispo as a prostitute when Crispo was still "turning tricks in Rittenhouse Square."[9] McIlhenny deepened their connection by "tutor[ing] Mr. Crispo in art" and "finding him an apt pupil."[10] Andrew Crispo would go on to become the "disgraced manhattan gallery owner...involved [in] murder, torture, tax evasion, extortion, and two terms in prison"[11] in part for his role in the "Death Mask Murder," a "bizarre sadomasochistic scenario created by Mr. Crispo" and his assistant which resulted in the murder of Norwegian student Eigil Dag Vesti.[12]
Death and legacy
McIlhenny died on May 11, 1986 "with no immediate survivors"[13] and left his entire estate to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Items from McIlhenny's collection that were not retained for the Philadelphia Museum of Art's collection were sold by Christie's at a two-day sale. Prior to the sale, which brought $3.7 million, 200 guests gathered at Christie's for a benefit dinner in McIlhenny's honor. The proceeds from the auction went into a museum acquisition fund.[5]
McIlhenny is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
