Joseph Early Widener (August
19, 1871] – October 26, 1943) was a wealthy American
art collector who was
a founding benefactor of the National Gallery of Art
in Washington, D.C.
and a major figure in Thoroughbred horse racing as head of
New
York
's Belmont
Park
and builder of Miami, Florida
's Hialeah
Park
racetrack.
Born in
Philadelphia
, he was the second son of Hannah Josephine Dunton
(1836 –1896) and the extremely wealthy entrepreneur Peter A. B. Widener (1834 – 1915).
Joseph Widener
attended Harvard
University
and for a short time studied architecture at the University of
Pennsylvania
. He married Ella Pancoast with whom he had
two children,
Peter A.
B. Widener II born in 1895, and
Josephine "Fifi" Pancoast Widener, born
in 1902.
Joseph
Widener raised his family at Lynnewood Hall
in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
. The 110 room
Georgian-style mansion designed by
Horace Trumbauer along with its
extensive and important art collection, was part of the huge
fortune inherited from his father.
RMS Titanic
tragedy
In April
1912, Joseph Widener lost his elder brother George Dunton Widener and George's son
Harry Elkins Widener when they
went down with the RMS
Titanic
. Mrs.
Eleanor Widener was with her husband and was one of the passengers
rescued from lifeboats by the
RMS
Carpathia.
Shortly after, Mrs. Widener, in the name of
her deceased son, made a gift to Harvard University to build the
monumental Harry Elkins
Widener Library
, which
opened on June 24, 1915. Not on the ship was their second
son,
George D. Widener, Jr., who would later be one
of only four people in the history of
American Thoroughbred horse racing
to be named an "Exemplar of Racing" by the
National Museum of
Racing and Hall of Fame.
Thoroughbred horse racing
Joseph Widener used his great wealth to pursue his interest in
Thoroughbred horse racing on a large scale.
Not only did he become
an owner of a large stable of racehorses, Widener acquired the
Elmendorf Farm in Lexington,
Kentucky
and the Belmont Park racetrack in New York, plus he
built Hialeah Park racetrack in Miami, Florida.
In 1901, thirty-year-old Joseph Widener began purchasing
Thoroughbred horses to compete in both
flat
racing and
steeplechase events. He hired
future
U.
S Racing Hall
of Fame horse trainer,
J. Howard
Lewis. For the next four decades they combined to race fourteen
Champions, two in flat racing and
twelve
Steeplechase
Champions. Widener's steeplechase horses won numerous important
races including three editions of the
American Grand National with
Relluf (1914),
Arc Light (1929), and
Bushranger (1936). His steeplechasers
Bushranger and
Fairmount were both elected to the U. S
Racing Hall of Fame.
Following the death of
August
Belmont, Jr., Joseph Widener and friends
W. Averell Harriman and
George Herbert Walker, purchased much
of Belmont's Thoroughbred breeding stock. For his Elmendorf Farm
breeding operation, Widener acquired Belmont's very important
sire Fair
Play and the
broodmare Mahubah, the parents of
Man o'
War. He also purchased a son of Fair Play named
Chance Shot who would go on to win the 1927
Belmont Stakes and following the 1929
death of Fair Play would become Elmendorf Farm's leading sire.
Widener had a life-size statue of Fair Play erected by his grave at
Elmendorf Farm.
As part of
the selloff of the August Belmont, Jr. estate, in 1925 Joseph
Widener also acquired majority control of Belmont Park in Elmont, New York
and would serve as the race track's president until
1939 when failing health necessitated his stepping
down.
In 1930, he imported the stallion
Sickle from
Lord Derby in England who
came to visit the U.S. that year and was Widener's guest at the
1930
Kentucky Derby. A son of the
very important sire
Phalaris,
Sickle would produce 45
Graded stakes
race winners and be the
Leading sire in North America
in 1936 and 1938.
Following Chance Shot's win in the 1927 Belmont Stakes, Widener's
racing stable won the race two more times with
Hurryoff in 1933 and with a son of Chance Shot in
1934 named
Peace Chance. He also had
five horses compete in the Kentucky Derby with his best finishes a
second place earned by Osmand in 1927 and by Brevity in 1936.
Joseph
Widener's father had had business interests in France
and like
other wealthy elite Americans of that era, maintained a place in
fashionable Paris
. In
addition to racing horses in the United States, Widener also kept a
stable of Thoroughbreds in France. Competing in French
grass racing, his horses won the 1923 and 1926
editions of the
Prix La Rochette
and the 1923, 1924, and 1937 runnings of the
Prix d'Aumale.
Widener also owned English
Hackney
horses who competed at various shows.
Hialeah Park
In 1930,
Joseph Widener built a 40,000 square foot mansion in Palm Beach,
Florida
. where he would spend a good part of most
winters. That same year, he purchased a controlling
interest in the Miami Jockey Club and in 1931 renovated Hialeah Park. Hailed as one of the most beautiful
Thoroughbred
race tracks in the world, in
1979 Hialeah Park was listed on the United States
National Register of
Historic Places. Major races here were the
Widener Handicap inaugurated in 1936, and
the
Flamingo Stakes, an important
stepping stone to the
Kentucky Derby
for 3-year-old horses. Following Widener's death, ownership of the
facility changed hands several times and after running into
financial difficulties it closed in 2001.
Art collector
Joseph Widener added to the extensive and valuable art collection
he had inherited from his father. His collection included a dozen
or more works by
Rembrandt as well as
those by
Johannes Vermeer,
Edouard Manet,
Pierre Auguste Renoir and others. In
1939, Widener made a number of donations from his assorted
collections including manuscripts of historical and artistic
importance gifted to the Rare Book Department at the
Free Library of Philadelphia.
However,
his most important philanthropic endeavor was as a founding
benefactor of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.. Widener's 1939 donation of a vast
collection was announced by
U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Gallery's opening
ceremony. Known as the Widener Collection, the more than 2,000
sculptures, paintings, decorative art, and porcelains went on
display in 1942. Joseph Widener's own 1921 portrait by
Augustus John hangs in the National Gallery of
Art.
In poor
health for several years, Joseph Early Widener died at his
Lynnewood Hall estate in 1943 and was interred in the Laurel Hill
Cemetery
in Philadelphia.
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