Wilhelmina Holladay

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay ( born October 10, 1922 in New York City ) is an American art collector and patron. Together with her husband Wallace Holladay, she founded the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC

She graduated in 1944, the Elmira College with a degree in art history and studied subsequently in Paris, worked for the United States Air Force and married the contractor and real estate developer Wallace F. Holladay.

The couple began collecting art in the 1950s. Holladay was enthusiastic about the work of Clara Peeters, but found this unnoticed. As a result, Wallace's wife began to collect art and acquired, among others, works by Élisabeth Vigée- Lebrun, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Angelica Kauffmann.

In 1981, she founded the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which was initially housed in their private home. Since 1987 it is located in a former Masonic Temple.

Wilhelmina Holladay learned numerous honors. She was inducted into the National Women 's Hall of Fame, for example, in 1996, received the 2006 National Medal of Arts in the same year and was a member of the French Legion of Honour.