February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Chief among his interests was collecting American art, a practice that eventually led him to establish the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., one of the greatest institutions of its kind.
William W. Corcoran was born in Georgetown, Md.,
(present-day Washington) on Dec. 27, 1798. His father, Thomas Corcoran, hailed from Limerick and had immigrated to the United States in 1783. Thomas ran a successful grocery store in Georgetown and served in a wide range of public offices, including mayor and postmaster. His son grew up in a comfortable household and received an excellent private education, including tutoring at the nearby Catholic college, Georgetown, founded recently in 1789.
When he was just 17, William Corcoran joined with one of his brothers in a dry goods venture. It was a propitious time, for the War of 1812 had just ended and the economy soon entered a period of prolonged expansion. The two Corcoran brothers prospered and presently expanded their activities to include wholesale auction and commission business. But a sharp recession in the early 1820s forced them, along with thousands of other businesses, into bankruptcy. Years later, when Corcoran prospered a second time, he repaid the debts from this misadventure, which totaled some $45,000.
Fortunately for Corcoran, his success in business had brought him into contact with many men of influence and he was soon presented with a new opportunity. He accepted a position offered by a local banker and found the work to his liking. A few short years later, he took a position at the Washington, D.C., branch of the Bank of the United
States, then the nation’s most important financial institution. In 1835, following the demise of the Bank, thirty-seven year-old Corcoran started his own banking and brokerage firm. He also married Louise
Morris that year. They would have one daughter before his wife died in 1840.
Corcoran added a partner, George W. Riggs, in 1837 and their business grew rapidly. By the mid-1840s Corcoran & Riggs was handling the sale of millions of dollars in U.S. government bonds. Both were rich men by the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846, but Corcoran’s bold decision to take $12,000,000 in U.S. bonds and personally sell them to the top investment houses in London made him one of the wealthiest men in the country. A few years later, in 1854, the 55-year-old did what few in his line of work had the courage to do: he sold his share of Corcoran & Riggs and dedicated the rest of his life to philanthropy and public service.
Over the next 44 years Corcoran established charitable institutions and donated vast sums to Georgetown and other educational institutions. He also served on innumerable boards and commissions involved in civic causes such as the erection of the Washington Monument. But Corcoran’s greatest and most enduring legacy was his commitment to patronizing and celebrating American art.
At first the collection of paintings and sculpture adorned Corcoran’s mansion on Lafayette Square. But soon after his retirement, Corcoran decided to build a large gallery that would exhibit artwork and encourage future creations. In 1859 he hired James Renwick Jr., the acclaimed architect who designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, to turn his dream into reality. Renwick’s extraordinary structure was nearly completed before the Civil War broke out. Corcoran, a Marylander by birth with a daughter married to a son of a prominent New Orleans family, probably sympathized with the Confederacy, but kept his sentiments quiet. Nonetheless, when his daughter headed for Paris during the war, Corcoran accompanied her and remained there for the duration. The Union government declared Corcoran a Confederate outcast and seized his property. The Gallery was converted to a government building while his house became a hospital.
It was not until 1869 that the U.S. government returned the property to Corcoran and paid a large sum of money to compensate him for his troubles. A year later, Congress chartered the Corcoran Gallery of Art (the same year the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Art in Boston were chartered). Corcoran endowed the institution with a gift of $900,000 and donated nearly his entire personal collection of art. His most prized possession and one highly regarded by the public, a statue by Hiram Powers called “The Greek Slave,” was given its own special room. The Gallery finally opened to the public in January 1874.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art proved enormously popular with the public and this fact, along with a constantly expanding collection, led to the construction of a newer and larger facility (designed by the renowned Ernest Flagg) that opened in 1897. The man who made it all possible, William Corcoran, died the following year at the age of 99.
He was hailed as one of the great figures of his day in the obituaries that followed. “The memory of Mr. Corcoran,” wrote the New York Times, “will be more deeply cherished in Washington that that of any other man who has yet lived there.”
Today, more than a century later, few Americans remember William Corcoran. But his gallery remained one of the premiere institutions of its kind in the nation.
HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
March 30, 1955: Grace Kelly wins an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in “The Country Girl.”
April 4, 1859: Minstrel show star Dan Emmet writes the song “Dixie.” Even though written by a Northerner living in New York, the song quickly becomes the anthem of the Confederate cause.
April 5, 1955: Richard J. Daley wins election as mayor of Chicago, beginning his extraordinary political career as “Boss” of the Windy City.
HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES
March 30, 1880: Writer Sean O’Casey is born in Dublin.
April 1, 1839: Union Army General and Medal of Honor winner St. Clair Mulholland is born in Lisburn, Co. Antrim.
April 5, 1916: Academy Award winning actor Gregory Peck, is born in La Jolla, Calif.
Visit Edward T. O’Donnell’s Web site at www.edwardtodonnell.com.