Isabella Stewart Gardner

Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924), American art collector. She founded the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. As an art collector, she specialized in works of the Renaissance (14th century through 17th century) and of 17th-century Dutch masters. Her private art gallery in Boston was opened as a public museum in 1903.

Born in New York and educated in Paris, France, she married a prominent Boston manufacturer, John Gardner, in 1860. She was a participant in the intellectual life of the city (for instance, she was a patron of the Boston Symphony Orchestra), but as a tireless world traveler, socialite, and local celebrity, she scandalized Bostonians with her lavish parties and public appearances.