William Collins Whitney

William Collins Whitney 1841-1904, American financier and political leader, b. Conway, Mass. After attending (1863-64) Harvard law school, he moved to New York City, became successful as a corporation lawyer, and was associated with various public utility companies and transportation interests. He helped lead the fight that brought about the downfall of William Marcy Tweed and the election (1874) of Samuel J. Tilden as governor. As city corporation counsel (1875-82) he helped save New York City much money. Whitney, important in Democratic politics, served (1885-89) as Secretary of the Navy under President Cleveland and secured legislation for the making of armor-plated war vessels. In 1892 he supported Cleveland for the presidency, but in 1896 he refused to support the candidacy of William Jennings Bryan. He was a society leader and an outstanding sportsman.

Bibliography: See biography by M. D. Hirsch (1948, repr. 1969).

Collins, William (1788–1847). English painter. He was initially taught by Morland (of whom his father, a picture dealer, wrote a biography) and specialized in sentimental rustic landscapes and genre scenes that won him great popularity. As with Morland, his work became very repetitive. He was a lifelong friend of Wilkie, after whom he named his elder son, the novelist Wilkie Collins, who published a biography of his father in 1848. His second son was Charles Allston Collins (1828–73), a friend of Millais and painter of the well-known Convent Thoughts (1851, Ashmolean Mus., Oxford, 1851), which Ruskin rated highly because of its botanical detail, done in a fastidious Pre-Raphaelite manner. He abandoned painting for writing in the late 1850s and married one of Charles Dickens's daughters in 1860.