[4]: 17  In the 1870s, a group of investors from Detroit decided to build a rail line in Logansport, Indiana; they hired Hecker to manage the project.

The economic depression of the 1890s paired with the stress of Freer's position within the company caused both physical and psychological trauma to the industrialist.

Freer died in 1919 while staying at the Gotham Hotel at Fifth Avenue and 55th Street, New York City of what was described as a stroke of apoplexy.

[10] The legacy of Charles Lang Freer is not just his wealth or art collection, but it is also his generosity as a patron to artists and the public.

The boy who left school to work in a cement factory ultimately presented the United States its very first collection of Fine Art.

Freer is known for his collection of late nineteenth century American painting and Asian art, developed largely after his retirement in 1899.

[9]: 8 Freer's interest in Whistler was born in a New York City bachelor pad belonging to lawyer and art collector, Howard Mansfield, in 1887.

Although scholars debate why Freer began concentrating on collecting Asian Art, records indicate that his first purchase, a Japanese Rimpa fan painting, occurred in 1887.

In addition to Whistler, Freer developed large collections of the artists Dwight Tyron, Abbott Thayer, Thomas W. Dewing, and Frederick Church.

[13] Tyron, Thayer, Dewing, and Whistler all contributed to Freer's Detroit mansion, designed by Aesthetic Movement architect, Wilson Eyre in 1890.

[14] Although they met in the early 1890s, it wasn't until 1901 that Freer developed an important relationship with Ernest Fenollosa, the son of a Spanish immigrant, and authority on the art of China and Japan.

[9]: 12  Fenollosa's choice to divorce his wife in 1895 led to his subsequent resignation from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in the summer of 1896.

In their book Freer: A Legacy of Art, Thomas Lawton and Linda Merrill describe Freer's belief as a system in which "a masterpiece required neither explanation nor cultural context to communicate its message: its importance lay in its aesthetic integrity, not in the evidence it might incidentally provide about religious, social, political, or economic issues".

[9]: 16 In addition to the 2,250 objects set promised in the original gift to the Smithsonian, Freer collected avidly for the duration of his life.

[1] The historian Warren Cohen concludes that Freer and Ferguson were primarily responsible for the "golden age" of East Asian art collecting.

Senator, and partner in the Michigan Car Company, championed the idea of a shaping Washington, DC into a beautiful capital city.

The first provision established an income stream, sourced from stocks and cash dividends, to ensure that the museum employed a highly skilled curator.

The patron designated two additional funds to decorate and maintain the museum grounds, specifically interior and exterior ornamental gardens.

[1]: 385 In his most stringent restriction, Freer stated that the museum may not accept gifts of works of art for the permanent collection.

[17] Freer spent part of his life in Capri where he owned the famous Villa Castello, together with Thomas Spencer Jerome, a socialite, clubman and lawyer from Detroit.