1958, his widow Mary safeguarded the collection in their South Philadelphia rowhouse. She resisted requests from art dealers to see the works or offers to broker a sale of them. At the urging of her attorney, William J. Kelly, Mary Bregler allowed PAFA curator Kathleen A. Foster and art historian Elizabeth Milroy to examine the works in 1983. That visit led to PAFA's 1985 purchase of the collection, with grants provided by the Mable Pew Myrin Trust and other funds. PAFA's Bregler Collection consists of nearly 1,600 items—29 paintings (most oil sketches for larger works), 12 sculptures, 261 drawings, 535 photographs, about 380 glass-plate negatives, 361 documents, and memorabilia such as Eakins's watercolor box and paintbrushes. Thomas Eakins works once owned by Bregler References Sources Charles Bregler, "Thomas Eakins as a Teacher." The Arts, vol. 17 (March 1931), pp. 376–86. Charles Bregler, "Thomas Eakins as a Teacher, Second Article." The Arts, vol. 18 (October 1931), pp. 27–42. Charles Bregler, "Photos by Eakins: How the Famous Painter Anticipated the Modern Movie Camera," Magazine of Art, vol. 36 (January 1943), p. 28. Susan Danly and Cheryl Leibold, Eakins and the Photograph: Works by Thomas Eakins and His Circle in the Collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. Kathleen A. Foster and Cheryl Leibold, Writing about Eakins: Manuscripts in Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989. . Kathleen A. Foster, Thomas Eakins Rediscovered: Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Yale University Press, 1997. . Gordon Hendricks, The Life and Work of Thomas Eakins (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1974). Susan James-Gadzinski and Mary Mullen Cunningham, American Sculpture in the Museum of American Art of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. University of Washington Press, 1997. Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, The Revenge of Thomas Eakins. Yale University Press, 2006. . Margaret McHenry, Thomas Eakins who painted (by the author, 1946). Roland McKinney, Thomas Eakins (New York: Crown Publishers, 1942). Phyllis D. Rosenzweig, The Thomas Eakins Collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977. External links Charles Begler's Thomas Eakins Collection from PAFA 1864 births 1958 deaths Artists from Philadelphia Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni Students of Thomas Eakins American portrait painters American art collectors