Luman Reed

Luman Reed (1787–1836) was a successful American merchant and an important patron of the arts.

His support for the painters George Whiting Flagg and Thomas Cole were particularly significant contributions to the development of American painting during the early 19th century.

[1] Reed was born on a farm in Green River (in the area that is now Austerlitz), New York.

There he became one of the city's most prominent merchants with the Front Street dry-goods firm he established with various partners, the last being Jonathan Sturges (1802–1874).

With his wealth, Reed assembled in the course of six years one of the earliest and most significant collections of European and American art in the United States, which he displayed in a specially designed two-room gallery in his house on Greenwich Street in lower Manhattan.