Wilhelmina Holladay

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay (born 1922, New York) is an American art collector and patron, and co-founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Holladay, known as "Billie", graduated with a degree in art history from Elmira College in 1944 and also studied art at the University of Paris. After working for the United States Air Force and the Embassy of China, she married Wallace Holladay.

The Holladays began collecting art in the 1950s. On a trip to Europe, they saw and admired paintings by Clara Peeters, and were dismayed to discover that neither Peeters nor any other female artist was mentioned in the leading art texts of the time. From that point, they began specializing in acquiring significant works by female artists such as Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Angelica Kauffmann.

In 1981, Wilhelmina and Wallace Holladay founded the National Museum of Women in the Arts, donating their collection of works by female artists. For the first few years, the collection was housed in the Holladays' home. In 1987, the museum acquired a former Masonic temple in Washington, D.C. as its permanent facility.

Wilhelmina Holladay was elected to the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996 and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2006. Also in 2006, Wilhelmina Holladay was awarded the Légion d’honneur by the French Government.

External links

* [http://www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=77 National Women's Hall of Fame biography]
* [http://www.nmwa.org/about/history.asp National Museum of Women in the Arts profile]
* [http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/hollad05.htm 2005 interview with Wilhelmina Holladay (Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art project)]