Wilhelmina Holladay

[4][5] Her father, Chauncey Cole, worked as a businessman; her mother, Claire Elisabeth née Strong, was a housewife.

[1] During World War II, Holladay worked for the United States Air Force and the Embassy of China.

On a trip to Europe during the 1970s, they saw and admired paintings by Clara Peeters at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

From that point, they began specializing in acquiring significant works by female artists such as Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Angelica Kauffman.

[3] Holladay and her husband founded the National Museum of Women in the Arts in 1981, donating their collection of works by female artists.

[13] Holladay also received two foreign honors: the Legion of Honour from the French government and the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit.