George Ingraham Seney

George Ingraham Seney (May 12, 1826 – April 7, 1893) was a New York City banker, art collector, and benefactor. He was the father of symphonic music executive Mary Seney Sheldon. He is best remembered for amassing a substantial collection of pre-Impressionist 19th-century European and American paintings, some of which he gave to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The donation included works by George Inness and Francis Davis Millet. Early life Seney was born in 1826 in Newtown (now called Elmhurst, Queens) in what was then Queens County, Long Island. He was the son of Jane Augusta ( Ingraham) Seney (1800–1871) and Robert Seney (1797–1854), a graduate of Columbia College who became a Methodist minister and preached in Astoria (in present-day Queens). He was a descendant of Joshua Seney, who represented Maryland in the Continental Congress, and Frances "Fanny" ( Nicholson) Seney (a daughter of James W. Nicholson, who was one of the first commodores in the United States Navy). His uncle, Joshua Seney Jr. was the father of Judge Henry William Seney.