The American Widener family of Peter Arrell Brown Widener (1834–1915) and his wife Hannah Josephine Dunton (1836–1896) were from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and were one of the wealthiest families in the United States. In 1883 Widener was part of the founding partnership of the Philadelphia Traction Company and used the great wealth accumulated from that business to become a founding organizer of U.S. Steel and the American Tobacco Company.
The legacy of Peter and Hannah Widener includes the Widener Library at Harvard University but even more important was the implanting of a social conscience in their children that has been passed down from generation to generation. While the family fortune dwindled over time through estate taxes and the natural division and redivision by inheritors, many of their 21st century descendants continue to be involved in charitable works. Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, is named after the Wideners as a result of a very large contribution the family made when the college was transitioning from an all-male military college to a co-educational civilian university.
Peter and Hannah Widener built Lynnewood Hall in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, a 110-room Georgian-style mansion designed by Horace Trumbauer where they assembled one of the most valuable art collections in the country. Left a vast fortune, their offspring became one of the most prominent factors in American Thoroughbred horse racing history as well as founding benefactors of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, and the Widener School for Crippled Children.
The descendants of Peter Arrell Brown Widener and Hannah Josephine Dunton include:
Widener related subjects: