Wallace Collection of the wealthiest families in Europe. They owned large properties in England, Wales and Ireland, and increased their wealth through successful marriages. Politically of lesser importance, the 3rd and 4th Marquess and Sir Richard Wallace became leading art collectors of their time. The Wallace Collection, comprising about 5,500 works of art, was bequeathed to the British nation by Lady Wallace in 1897. The state then decided to buy Hertford House to display the collection and it was opened as a museum in 1900. As a museum the Wallace Collection's main strength is perhaps its extraordinary array of 18th-century French art:
University of Hartford chartered through the joining of the Hartford Art School, Hillyer College, and The Hartt School in 1957. Prior to the charter, the University of Hartford did not exist as an independent entity rather in the chronicles of Hillyer College, The Hartford Art School, and The Hartt School. The Hartford Art School, which commenced operation in 1877, was founded by a group of women in Hartford, including Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain's wife, Olivia Langdon Clemens, as the Hartford Society for Decorative Art. Its original location was at the Wadsworth Atheneum, the first public art museum in the United States.