Background
Henry Walters was born on September 26, 1848 in Baltimore, Md. , the son of William Thompson Walters and Ellen (Harper).
Henry Walters was born on September 26, 1848 in Baltimore, Md. , the son of William Thompson Walters and Ellen (Harper).
After attending Loyola College in Baltimore he entered Georgetown University, Washington, where he was graduated in 1869 and in 1871 received the degree of M. A. He then spent two years in the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, where in 1873 he was awarded the degree of B. S. , and two years in study at Paris.
His father having already engaged in the linking of Southern railroads, Henry was destined for the same career. He had much more technical knowledge than the elder Walters, however, and carried on much more extensive operations. He had his first experience in the engineering corps of the Valley Railroad in Virginia, then being extended by the Baltimore & Ohio to Lexington; later he was in the operating superintendent's office of the Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad. Joining the staff of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, of which his father was the chief organizer, he became in 1889 vice-president and general manager. He participated in the formation of the Atlantic Improvement & Construction Company (later the Atlantic Coast Line Company), a holding company incorporated in 1889 which enabled the Walters, Michael Jenkins, B. F. Newcomer, and other Baltimore men to build up and retain control of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and greatly to expand the system. The Petersburg Railroad was purchased by the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad, and in 1900 the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company of Virginia was incorporated and became the parent company in consolidations which by the time of his death gave Walters - as chief stockholder, and chairman of the board - control of 10, 000 miles of railway. In many of the transactions leading to this result the Safe Deposit & Trust Company, of Baltimore, of the board of directors of which Walters was chairman, took a leading part. Important acquisitions were the Plant system of railroads in Georgia and Florida in 1902, which brought in over 1600 miles of line, and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, a controlling interest in which was purchased in 1903 for $50, 000, 000 from J. P. Morgan & Company; Walters became chairman of the board of the Louisville & Nashville. Besides holding directorships in many railroads and several financial institutions, he represented the railroad owners on the staff of the director-general of railroads from 1918 to 1920. Art collecting, which with his father had been an avocation, became with Henry Walters a serious study and a ruling passion. From the time that he first went abroad with his father, during the Civil War, he knew painters and sculptors in their studios. Later he returned to Europe annually, usually spending about three months in acquiring objects of art. Besides many paintings and prints, he purchased oriental and occidental ceramics, sculptures in marble, stone, alabaster, metal and wood, jades and jewelry, textiles of all sorts, lacquer, miniatures, watches, illuminated manuscripts, and incunabula; he also acquired a large art library. For L. S. Olschki, Incunabula Typographica (1906) he wrote the preface. His largest single purchase was the collection of Don Marcello Massarenti, containing 900 pieces, in 1902. His collections were housed in a new gallery in Baltimore, opened in 1909. In his will he left his galleries with all of their contents to the city of Baltimore, together with one quarter of his estate for an endowment. They were opened under public ownership in 1934. He was an officer of the Legion of Honor of France. Continuing work almost to the end, he died in New York City and was buried in Baltimore.
Walters had earlier made other benefactions to Baltimore, among them four public baths. He spent most of his time in New York and had several other homes besides that in Baltimore. An enthusiastic yachtsman, he owned the steam yacht Narada, and was regularly a member of the syndicate which built defenders of the America's cup. He was of small stature, though stout in his later years, with rather thin face and high-bridged nose. A quiet, modest man, he was always fending off photographers and avoiding every kind of publicity. Like his father, he was fond of finger rings, which he changed daily.
At the age of seventy-three, April 11, 1922, he married Sarah Wharton (Green) Jones, of Wilmington, N. C. , whom he had known since his youth.
