Walter Loomis Newberry

Who was Walter Loomis Newberry?

Walter Loomis Newberry was an American businessman and philanthropist, best known for his bequest that resulted in the creation of the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Newberry received an appointment to the United States Military Academy, but had to decline for health reasons. In 1822, Newberry and his brother Oliver went into the shipping business in Buffalo, New York. They moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1826 and founded a successful dry goods company. Newberry joined a syndicate that included William Astor and Lewis Cass, investing in real estate in what would become Chicago, Milwaukee, and Green Bay; he moved to Chicago in 1833 and continued to prosper in banking and real estate. He became President of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, the first railroad built from Chicago.

Newberry died in 1868 on the steamship Periere while en route to France. His will provided for his wife and daughters during their lifetimes, and further provided that if his daughters Julia Rosa and Mary Louisa died without issue, half his remaining estate would go to found a public library in Chicago. Mary Louisa died in 1874, and Julia Rosa in 1876, neither having married or had children. By the time that Newberry's widow, Julia Butler Newberry, died in 1885, the Chicago Public Library was already well-established as a circulating library. The trustees of Newberry's will therefore used the bequest to establish the Newberry Library as a noncirculating reference library.