Background
William Wagner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest child of John Wagner, a cloth merchant and importer, and his wife Mary (Ritz) Baker Wagner, a daughter of Christian Ritz.
William Wagner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest child of John Wagner, a cloth merchant and importer, and his wife Mary (Ritz) Baker Wagner, a daughter of Christian Ritz.
William graduated from the Philadelphia Academy in 1808. Four years later he was placed in the counting house of a relative, but soon afterward was entered as an apprentice to Stephen Girard. He continued his studies in Latin, French, and mathematics, attracting the favorable attention of his master.
In 1814 Girard placed the youth in charge of a convoy of goods to be stored in Reading, Pa. , in the fear that the British might reach Philadelphia. Two years later, Wagner was made assistant supercargo of Girard's ship, Helvetius, sailing on a two-year voyage to the Far East. As a boy he had begun to collect specimens of ores and minerals, and during this voyage he managed to gather a large collection of minerals, shells, plants, and organic remains, the nucleus of a museum which became the foundation of the Wagner Free Institute of Science. Upon his return to Philadelphia in 1818 he retired from Girard's employ and engaged in business on his own account. In 1833 he attempted to mine anthracite coal in Schuylkill County, with heavy financial loss, but seven years more of successful commercial pursuits permitted him to retire from business, in 1840, to devote himself to studies in geology and mineralogy. His first wife having died, he married Louisa Binney in March 1841, and after a two-year tour of Europe bought a large property known as "Elm Grove, " in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where he lived until his death. In the residence he built on this land Wagner arranged a museum for his collections, and in 1847 began to give free lectures on geology, mineralogy, and conchology. After a few seasons his house was found to be too small to accommodate the audiences that desired admittance, but in 1852 he obtained permission to use part of Commissioners Hall, in the District of Spring Garden; and in 1854, when that district was absorbed into the city of Philadelphia, he received permission from the city government for continued use of the building, which was then unoccupied. The opportunity thus offered he seized upon to establish his cherished project - a free institute of science. He gathered around him a distinguished faculty, all of whom served gratuitously. Wagner himself occupied the chair of geology, mineralogy, and mining. The legislature of Pennsylvania granted a charter for the Wagner Free Institute of Science, and its first season was inaugurated May 21, 1855. The lecture room was always filled to overflowing. When in 1859 the Philadelphia city government desired possession of the building, a new building was at once projected, and on June 2, 1860, on property owned by Wagner, the cornerstone was laid. The structure was completed in 1864, but was not occupied for lectures until the end of the Civil War. Dedicated May 11, 1865, the Wagner Free Institute of Science, together with an ample endowment for the continuance of the work, was turned over by its founder to a board of trustees. It had been incorporated March 30, 1864, and by the act of incorporation was empowered to confer degrees. Wagner died in Philadelphia some twenty years later, and was buried in a tomb in the institution he had founded. He had "struggled for more than three-score years to found his Free Institute of Science, and not only worked and waited but denied himself many of the luxuries, if not what many persons would deem the necessaries, of life". His wife also gave her encouragement and even her private patrimony to the establishment of the Institute.
He married Caroline M. Say, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Say, on January 1, 1824.