Joseph Longworth (2 October 1813 – 29 December 1883) was an American lawyer, real-estate magnate, art collector, and philanthropist.

Longworth was the "prime mover" for the Art Academy of Cincinnati, arranging the movement of the school to Eden Park, planning its integration with the museum, and endowing it with $370,000.

He purchased the first building for the company, a former schoolhouse, in a sheriff sale,[9] and provided funds to cover the pottery's losses during its early years.

[13] This included an elaborate mantelpiece with a grapevine design inspired by the vineyards that first made the Longworth family successful.

[14] In 1857 Longworth befriended the Düsseldorf School painter Carl Friedrich Lessing during a family trip to Europe.

[15][16] Over the years Longworth purchased many works by Düsseldorf School painters through his intermediary Worthington Whittredge, especially landscapes by Andreas Achenbach and Lessing.

[17][18] Longworth also gifted the massive Benjamin West painting Laertes and Ophelia to the museum, which had been in his father's collection since 1830.