The Art of Wealth provides a fresh perspective on the complicated mix of public and private motives and models that characterized art collecting and philanthropy in America in the early twentieth-century. The author focuses on four remarkable individuals: Collis Huntington, who started out as a peddler and went on to found a railroad empire; his second wife, Arabella, a woman of great intelligence and taste; her son, Archer, who devoted his life to creating and supporting museums; and Collis's nephew, Henry E. Huntington, who built up an extraordinary foundation and then gave it to the public as an enduring legacy.

Shelley M. Bennett is Senior Research Associate at the Huntington Library.

"A fascinating account of one of the great plutocratic and philanthropic dynasties of gilded-age America. Across three generations, the Huntington family were entrepreneurs and investors, conspicuous consumers and energetic collectors. They were also munificent benefactors in New York City and in Southern California; they were pioneering in the legal structures they created to give effect to their generosity; and their private lives were as complex and intricate as their finances. Here is a true account of American riches to rival anything dreamed up by Edith Wharton or Henry James."—David Cannadine, Princeton University

"A rigorously researched study of what must be one of America's most exceptional collecting families. Collis, Arabella, Archer and Henry E. Huntington together constituted an amazing quartet of hunters and gatherers. Documenting their extraordinary string of art purchases, Shelley Bennett has put together a meticulous account of their varying tastes, cultural ambitions, multiple philanthropies, and innovative institutions."—Neil Harris, University of Chicago

"This thoughtful and impeccably researched volume gives new meaning to the notion of nouveaux riches. The saga of the dynasty founded by Collis P. Huntington, a penniless easterner who made good in the gold rush and the 'Railroad Era,' is recounted with surprising honesty but also with a convincing sympathy for what this family accomplished as collectors, builders, and donors. The volume's carefully selected and beautifully reproduced images convey the complexity, depth, and breadth of the good taste of Collis, Arabella, Henry, and Archer Huntington. This deeply serious book will interest anyone curious about the relation of wealth to high culture in twentieth-century America."—Stanley N. Katz, Princeton University