Sir Alfred Chester Beatty | |
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| Born | 7 February 1875 New York City, US |
| Died | 19 January 1968 (aged 92) Monte Carlo, Monaco |
| Education | Columbia School of Mines |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Spouses | Grace Rickard
(m. 1900; died 1911)
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Alfred Chester Beatty (7 February 1875 – 19 January 1968) was an American-British mining magnate and philanthropist. A successful businessman, Beatty was given the epithet "the King of Copper" in reference to his fortune. He became a naturalised British subject in 1933, was knighted in 1954, and was made an honorary citizen of Ireland in 1957.
He collected African, Asian, European and Middle Eastern manuscripts, rare printed books, prints and objets d'art. After moving to Dublin in 1950, he established the Chester Beatty Library on Shrewsbury Road to house his collection; it opened to the public in 1954. The collections were bequeathed to the Irish people and entrusted to the care of the state in his Irish will. He donated several papyrus documents to the British Museum, his second wife's (Edith Dunn Beatty) collection of Marie Antoinette's personal furniture to the Louvre and a number of his personal paintings that once hung in the picture gallery of his London home to the National Gallery of Ireland. He also made possible the expansion and relocation of the Cancer Research Institute, which was renamed the Chester Beatty Institute, and later renamed the Institute of Cancer Research, in 1939.[1]
- ^ Brunning, D.A.; Dukes, C.E. (1965). "The Origin and Early History of the Institute of Cancer Research of the Royal Cancer Hospital". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. 58 (1): 33–36. doi:10.1177/003591576505800109. PMC 1898295. PMID 14267496.