The Papers Of Sir Edwin Alfred Grenville Manton, 1927-2007

Sir Edwin Alfred Grenville Manton was born in Earls Colne, Essex in 1909. He grew up and was educated in Britain. During the First World War, Manton and his family moved to Shaftsbury where he attended grammar school, and where he later stayed when his family returned to London. After graduating secondary school, he turned down a scholarship to Cambridge University and began to work at the Caledonian Insurance Company. In 1933, his work caught the attention of the American International Underwriter Group (AIG) in New York. Manton moved to the United states in 1933; in 1936 he married his wife, Florence “Gretchen” Brewer. The pair were married for 67 years and had one child together. Manton worked as a casualty underwriter until his first promotion to vice president of the company in 1938. During his time with AIG, Manton was promoted to President (1942-1969), Chairman (1969-1975), and finally as the Senior Advisor to A.I.G until his death in 2005.

Manton became interested in art, specficially British art, following the Second World War. The first painting Manton collected was “View of the Stour” by John Constable in 1949. By the 1960s and 1970s, Manton had amassed what was generally considered one of the best collections of 19th century British art in private hands. Manton worked with many experts in researching his collection, such as Leslie Parris of the Tate Gallery in London. The work of Parris and others revealed that much of Manton’s Constable collection was not created by Constable himself but by Constable's son, Lionel, and other followers. Manton deemed these objects “Constabiles." Manton's relationship with the Tate led to many charitable contributions to The Tate for the remainder of Manton’s life.

Among the most significant of Manton's gifts to the Tate Gallery was the creation of its American Fund, in 1988. The fund was established to raise money for the purchase art from the Americas, and the facilitate collaboration between arts institutions in the UK and US. The fund is still functional. Over his lifetime Manton contributed greatly to The Tate; the bulk of these donations, made in the 1990’s, made Manton one of the most generous benefactors in the museum's history. For this, Manton was knighted in 1994 by Queen Elizabeth II.

The Manton Foundation was created in 1991 to support Sir and Lady Manton’s local patronage of the arts. Since the creation of the Foundation, and following Edwin Manton's death in 2005, charitable contributions have been provided to institutions such as The Hospital for Large Animals at Tufts, The North Bennet School in Boston, and smaller libraries and museums. The foundation also created The Manton Center for Orphan diseases which aids in the research and treatment of rare illness and diease in children.