George W. Lininger

"George W. Lininger" (1834-1907), was an implement dealer, art collector, private gallery owner, and civic leader in Omaha, Nebraska. Many of the art works Lininger collected became the foundation of the permanent collection at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha.

George Washington Lininger was born on 14 December 1834 in Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, the son of David Lininger and Elizabeth Betz. His father was a tailor by trade, and later a school teacher and a miller. The family moved to Peru, LaSalle County, Illinois when Lininger was a boy. It was in Illinois that Lininger began selling agricultural implements, first as a retailer and later as a jobber. In 1868 Lininger relocated to Council Bluffs, Iowa and opened the first agricultural and vehicle jobbing operation on the Missouri River, under the name Shugart & Lininger. Then in 1874 he moved his business across the river to Omaha. After arriving in Omaha, Lininger purchased a large brick Second Empire mansion at 18th and Davenport Streets. The house had been built in the late 1860s by George M. Mills. Omaha remained Lininger's home for the rest of his life.

Lininger's art collection had its beginnings with four paintings he bought from a street peddler in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This spur of the moment purchase inspired Lininger's lifelong hobby of art collecting. Of this purchase Lininger would later muse, "I then made up my mind that when I had money enough I'd fill my home with art."

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