Walpole Society (Great Britain)

The Walpole Society was founded in April, 1911. The objects of the Society are a) to provide for the collection of materials for the study of the history of British art and b) to publish, so far as practicable, an annual volume containing original documents and results of research in the history of British art.

The Walpole Society is an organization that is dedicated to the appreciation and study of American decorative art, architecture, and history. It took its name from Horace Walpole (1717-1797), an English writer, political figure, and collector. The society was established in Boston in October 1909, by H. Eugene Bolles, H.W. Kent, and Luke Vincent Lockwood. Early leaders of the society held an organizational meeting on January 21, 1910, at Heublein's Hotel, Hartford, Conn., and it is this day that the group recognizes as its date of origin. At that time 25 individuals were invited to join the society; 21 accepted. Membership included--and still includes--scholars, antiquarians, writers, collectors, and museum and library professionals.

Throughout the years, many Walpoleans have enjoyed the personal wherewithal to assemble their own significant collections of Americana. From its inception in 1910 through 1994, there have been 125 members, by design all male. The Walpole Society meets regularly, customarily two or three times each year.

Early members included Edwin Atlee Barber, writer and expert on pottery and porcelain and director of the Philadelphia Museum and School of Industrial Art; Clarence Brigham, bibliophile and director of the American Antiquarian Society; Thomas Benedict Clarke, art collector, connoisseur and agent; John Cotton Dana, director of the Free Public Library of Newark, NJ and also of the Newark Museum Association; Henry Francis du Pont, collector of American decorative arts and founder of the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library; Mantle Fielding, an architect by training and an author of studies on American painting; R.T.H. Halsey, a broker by vocation and an art critic, collector, and writer by avocation; and Thomas W. Streeter, lawyer, businessman, and book collector.

The society has an impressive list of publications to its credit. As well, from 1926 the society has published its own annual, The Walpole Society Note Book, in which former members are remembered through memorials, meetings are recounted and pictured, and writings on topics of interest are shared. In addition to works issued by the society, its membership has an impressive independent publishing record.