Frederick Richards Leyland born in Liverpool on September 30
Darwin begins voyage on the Beagle
1834
Slavery abolished throughout British Empire
1837
Euston Station, London's first railway station, opens
1838
First Canadian railway begins operation
1839
First Opium War between England and China (ends 1842 with Treaty of Nanking)
1840
World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London
1842
Treaty of Nanking signed; Hong Kong ceded to Great Britain
1844
Leyland begins work as an office boy at Messrs. Bibby, Sons, & Co., a Liverpool shipping company
1846
Mexican-American War
1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends U.S. war with Mexico
1851
Whistler enrolls at U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
1851
Crystal Palace/Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations opens in Hyde Park, London
1853
Railways introduced in India; Commodore Matthew C. Perry and four U.S. naval ships steam into Edo Bay
1855
Some 15,000 Chinese arrive in California to work on the transcontinental railroad
1855
First land grant railroad in the U.S. completed; first railroad bridge across Mississippi River is completed
1855
Leyland promoted to bookkeeper at Messrs. Bibby, Sons, & Co.
1856
Second Opium War between western nations and China (ends 1860 with Convention of Peking)
1860
Abraham Lincoln elected U.S. president
1861
Whistler in Paris, painting The White Girl
1861
Leyland becomes a partner in Messrs. Bibby, Sons, & Co.
1861
U.S. Civil War Begins
1862
Pacific Railway Act by U.S. Congress authorizes construction of first transcontinental railroad.
1863
Whistler exhibits The White Girl at the Salon des Refusés in Paris
1863
Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclaimation; Congress passes Homestead Act
1871
Whistler begins to paint Nocturnes - images of London after dark
Whistler publishes Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames
Whistler paints Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother
1872
La Princesse exhibited in London at the International Exposition
Leyland sells his first art collection (mostly romantic landscapes) for £15,5001
Leyland acquires Bibby & Sons and launches Leyland Line
1872
Leyland acquires La Princesse for his London home at 23 Queen's Gate
Freer becomes office clerk at Kingston & Syracuse Railway and is soon promoted to paymaster
1874
Whistler stages first one-man exhibition at Flemish Gallery in London
1874
First Impressionist exhibition in Paris
1876
Freer and Hecker move to Logansport, Indiana to work for the Detroit, Eel River and Illinois Railroad
1877
Press visit the Peacock Room in February
Grosvenor Gallery exhibition of Whistler nocturnes prompts critical diatribe from John Ruskin in May
Whistler commissions architect E. W. Godwin to build him the White House, a studio residence, in Tite Street
Jeckyll, in a manic state, is committed to Bethel Hospital
1877
Thomas Edison presents prototype of the phonograph in December
1878
Whistler brings a libel suit against Ruskin
1879
Whistler files for bankruptcy; bailiffs take possession of his studio-residence, the White House, in May
Whistler leaves for Venice, commissioned by the Fine Art Society to produce twelve etchings
1880
Freer and Hecker move to Detroit to help launch the Peninsular Car Works
Whistler exhibits Venice pastels at the Fine Art Society
1881
International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris
1882
Oscar Wilde lectures in Detroit on 'The House Beautiful'
1882
Detroit Club founded
1882
U.S. Congress passes Chinese Exclusion Act
1883
Whistler stages major exhibition of fifty-one Venice etchings at the Fine Art Society ('Yellow and White' exhibition)
1883
U.S. railroads adopt four standard time zones
1883
Freer acquires first artwork, a European etching, from the New York dealer Frederick Keppel
1884
Whistler stages solo exhibition 'Notes' -- 'Harmonies' -- 'Nocturnes' at Dowdeswell Gallery in London
1884
Third Reform Act passed by British Parliament
1885
Whistler presents 'Ten O'Clock' lecture
1886
Whistler publishes Twenty-Six Etchings (the 'Second Venice Set')
1888
Detroit establishes an art museum; inaugural exhibition features etchings from Freer's collection
1890
Theodore Child publishes 'A Pre-Raphaelite Mansion' in Harper's New Monthly Magazine (December) - an account of Leyland's mansion that includes the first-ever published photograph of the Peacock Room
Blueprints for Freer's new home on Ferry Avenue completed by Wilson Eyre
1890
Jacob Riis publishes How the Other Half Lives; U.S. Census Bureau announces the settlement of the west and the closing of the frontier
1891
Whistler's work enters public collections when the Corporation of Glasgow purchases his 1872 portrait of Thomas Carlyle and the French government purchases The Mother
1893
'Panic of 1893' sends U.S. into economic depression; Michigan-Peninsular Car Company forced to stop manufacturing for five months
1894
Freer purchases Japanese ukiyo-e prints by Hokusai (1760 - 1849)
Freer embarks on eleven-month trip around the world, traveling first to Europe and then to Asia (September 1894 - August 1895)
49 Prince's Gate sold to Blanche Watney, who begins to contemplate the sale of the Peacock Room
1895
Sino-Japanese War (August 1894 - April 1895) establishes Japan as a major world power
1896
Freer acquires first Japanese screens, purchasing two from Matsuki, and loans Japanese prints to exhibition at the Grolier Club in New York
Whistler's wife, Beatrice, dies of cancer
1896
William Jennings Bryan gives 'Cross of Gold' speech at Democratic National Convention in Chicago; U.S. Supreme Court upholds racial segregation in Plessy v. Fergusson decision
1897
National economic difficulties affect Michigan-Peninsular stock; as shares plummet, Hecker and Freer gain controlling interest in the company
1897
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrated in London
1899
Freer is instrumental in consolidating thirteen railroad car companies into the American Car and Foundry Company; he then retires from business to devote himself to collecting art
Freer purchases seven works on paper by Whistler as well as thirteen Japanese paintings
1899
Boxer Rebellion breaks out in China in response to western 'spheres of influence'
1901
Freer meets Siegfried Bing in Paris
Freer meets Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908), a scholar-dealer and key advisor in Freer's quest to become a knowledgeable connoisseur of Asian art
1901
U.S. President William McKinley assassinated at Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York; is succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt
1902
Anglo-Japanese Alliance signed
1903
Freer travels to Europe and is with Whistler in London during the artist's final illness
Freer purchases La Princesse from the Glasgow collector William Burrell -- one of more than 130 works by Whistler to enter Freer's collection in 1903
Freer purchases 57 East Asian, Near Eastern, and Islamic ceramics from western dealers and at auction
1909
Freer tours Europe to study the design of art museums
1909
First Lady Helen Taft plants first Japanese cherry trees along the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.
1909
Ford Motor Company produces the first Model Ts from its Detroit factory
1910
Freer makes final trip to Asia, embarking from San Francisco; visits Buddhist caves at Longmen, Henan for study and acquisition
Kelekian publishes The Kelekian Collection of Persian and Analogous Potteries, 1884-1911
1911
Freer suffers stroke shortly after returning from China
1911
Chinese revolution, led by Sun Yat-Sen, overthrows Qing dynasty
1912
Freer loans part of his collection for a preview exhibition to the Smithsonian's newly opened 'National Museum' building, now the National Museum of Natural History.
1913
Freer commissions architect Charles Adams Platt (1861-1933) to design museum in Washington
1913
Armory Show in New York City introduces European modernism to American
1914
Freer meets Katharine Nash Rhoades (1885-1965), who will become his confidante and assistant
1914
World War I begins in July; Panama Canal opens in August
1915
Freer settles in New York City
1915
First long distance telephone service, between San Francisco and New York, is introduced
1917
U.S. enters World War I
1918
Construction of the Freer Gallery delayed by war
1919
Freer adds codicil to his will, allowing for future acquisitions to Asian collections after his death
Freer suffers final illness and dies in New York City on September 26
Construction of Freer Gallery completed
1919
Treaty of Versailles ends World War I
1920
John Ellerton Lodge (1876-1942) of Boston becomes first director of the Freer Gallery