CHARLES L. FREER: AN AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR. 
By J. Olivier Curwood. 
One of the most notable events in the world of art 
within recent years is the act of Charles L. Freer, the mil¬ 
lionaire art collector of Detroit, who has offered his paint¬ 
ings, porcelains, potteries, and similar treasures to the 
Smithsonian Institution. Mr. Freer has for twenty years been 
collecting these works of art, spending much energy and money 
in the hunt, and his collection has come to be regarded as 
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one of the finest in the world. It is especially rich in 
Whistlers, and includes the decorations of the famous 
ft peacock room'*, which Mr. Freer bought in London and carried 
off to Detroit. The collection includes Chinese, Japanese, 
Corean, Babylonian and Central Asian masterpieces of paint¬ 
ing and pottery, and is valued at $600,000. Mr. Freer pro¬ 
poses to add to it to the extent of $400,000, and to give a 
further bequest of $500,000 to the Smithsonian Inst it Tit ion 
to erect a building for the exclusive purpose of sheltering 
it. 
The 0 ¥/ner of this wonderful collection of art treasures 
is, without doubt, one of the most interesting and remarkable 
men in America. From the study of time sheets as a railway 
clerk on ten dollars a week to the work of a bibliophile is 
a far cry, yet this is the transition that Mr. Freer has 
made. Thirty-five years ago, when Mr. Freer was a young man 
of twenty, he had few dreams of ever becoming a multimillion- 
