Whitworth Wallis was the first director of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England.Entrance to the Museum and Art Gallery is free, but some major exhibitions in the Gas Hall incur an entrance fee...

 (opened in 1883). He was knighted in 1912.

Family

He was the son of artist George Wallis

George Wallis

George Wallis, FSA, , artist, museum curator and art educator, was the first Keeper of Fine Art Collection at South Kensington Museum .-Early years:...

 (1811–1891), also the first Keeper of Fine Art Collection at South Kensington Museum (later the Victoria & Albert Museum), and Matilda Condell (1818–1888) who married in 1842. His father's lifelong friend was Sir Joseph Whitworth

Joseph Whitworth

Sir Joseph Whitworth, 1st Baronet was an English engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist. In 1841, he devised the British Standard Whitworth system, which created an accepted standard for screw threads...

.

Two of his siblings died in infancy. The others were George Harry (1847–1936; the first Director of Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery, opened 1878), Jane Kate (1849–1934), and Rosa (1857-c.1939; also a successful artist). The family lived at 4, The Residences, South Kensington

South Kensington

South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area located 2.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross....

.

Career

Whitworth, like George Harry, was trained by his father at the South Kensington Museum.