Helen Clay Frick

Helen Clay Frick
Helen Frick and her father, portrait by Edmund Charles Tarbell, c. 1910
Born	1888 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	1984 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	philanthropist
Parent(s)	Henry Clay Frick Adelaide Howard Childs Frick

Helen Clay Frick (1888–1984) was an American philanthropist and art collector. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the third child of the coke and steel magnate Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919) and Adelaide Howard Childs (1859–1931). Two of her siblings did not reach adulthood, and her father played favorites with his two surviving children, Childs Frick (1883–1965) and Helen. After the reading of their father's will, which favored Helen, the brother and sister were estranged for the rest of their lives. Nonetheless, Helen developed as a strong, independent and spirited young woman. She was equally interested in art history and philanthropy, making a catalogue of her father's art collection as a young woman, a collection which became the Frick Collection in New York.

Her interest in the history of art resulted in her establishing the Frick Art Reference Library, which was originally housed in the bowling alley of the Frick family mansion in New York City at 1 East 70th Street. In 1924, a separate two and one-half story building was constructed at 6 East 71st Street to house the library, which was replaced in 1935 by the present thirteen story building at 10 East 71st Street. The Library houses photographs and archival records that document the history of Western art, many works of which were lost during World Wars I and II. She also established an art library at the University of Pittsburgh and, later in her life, built the Frick Art Museum on the grounds of Clayton to house her private art collection.

Helen's father was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, a partner in business with Andrew Carnegie; together the two men founded United States Steel Corporation. Helen's early life was shaped by her father's wealth and reputation as a ruthless industrialist and union strikebreaker, and especially by the attempt on his life by Alexander Berkman, after the Homestead Strike of 1892. The strike lasted 60 days, resulted in 10 deaths and 60 wounded – the Pinkertons had been brought in to quell the strike – and only ended when the National Guard were sent in by the order of Pennsylvania's governor. Frick's actions were seen as heroic by men such as Andrew Mellon and J. P. Morgan but earned him a reputation as an enemy of the working class, and he became known as "Frick, the strike breaker". Two days after that assassination attempt Frick's son died.