Helen Clay Frick

Common card · No. 412259

Helen Clay Frick (September 2, 1888 – November 9, 1984) was an American philanthropist and art collector. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the third child of the coke and steel magnate Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) and his wife, Adelaide Howard Childs (1859–1931). Two of her siblings did not reach adulthood, and her father favored her over his other surviving child, Childs Frick (1883–1965). After the reading of their father's will, which greatly benefited Helen, the brother and sister were estranged for the rest of their lives. She was equally interested in art history and philanthropy, and she made a catalogue of her father's art collection as a young woman. The best of these works became part of the Frick Collection, a museum in New York, while others remained in Pittsburgh. Her interest in the history of art resulted in her establishing the Frick Art Reference Library, which was originally housed in the bowling alley of the Frick family mansion in New York City at 1 East 70th...

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