Charles Callahan Perkins

Charles Callahan Perkins (March 1, 1823 – August 25, 1886) was an art critic, author, organizer of cultural activities, and an influential friend of design and of music in Boston.

Perkins attended several schools before entering Harvard College, where he found the prescribed academic course irksome.

In 1850-51 and from 1875 until his death he was president of the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston, and sometimes conducted their concerts and wrote music the ensemble performed.

Perkins was the largest subscriber to the construction of the Boston Music Hall, for which he also contributed the great bronze statue of Beethoven, modeled by his friend Crawford, which since 1902 has stood in the entrance hall of the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston.

After another European sojourn ended in 1869, he lectured frequently on Greek and Roman art before Boston school teachers, and on sculpture and painting at the Lowell Institute.

Prior to 1850, Perkins had proposed an art museum for Boston but had found the plan premature.

He was second among the incorporators of the Museum of Fine Arts, secured for its opening a gift of Egyptian antiquities, and made valuable suggestions for arranging its exhibits.

He systematically devoted part of each day to writing Tuscan Sculptors, published in London in 1864, which brought him a European reputation.

At the time of his death he had nearly finished his closely documented History of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, Massachusetts, which others completed.