Peggy Macdowell Thomas

Peggy Macdowell Thomas , who died in 2001 at age 89, was an only child who never had children. But she lived in the bosom of her family nonetheless.

They looked down at her from their portraits on her walls. There was eccentric Aunt Lizzie, who had lived at the Hotel Roanoke. Walter Macdowell, Peggy's grandfather, an auditor for the railroad. And Aunt Susie and
Uncle Tom Eakins, artists in Philadelphia.

Several of the portraits were by Uncle Tom himself, who died when Macdowell Thomas was 3. Macdowell Thomas never knew him — but she knew he was special. If you want them to roll out the red carpet for you at a museum in Philadelphia, she joked to a reporter in 1998, "Just tell them you're a relative of T.E."

Thomas Eakins, who died in 1916, was one of America's greatest painters. When Macdowell Thomas died 85 years later, she left a treasure trove of his paintings and memorabilia to the Art Museum of Western Virginia — now the Taubman Museum of Art.

The cornucopia includes more than 20 paintings, photographs and negatives, letters, sketches, sculpture — even Eakins' microscope. There are also some 200 Japanese prints.

Susan Eakins, Thomas Eakins' wife, was Macdowell Thomas's great-aunt. The collection bequeathed to the museum was retrieved by family members from the Eakins' home in Philadelphia at the time of Susan Eakins' death in 1938. The bequest was a catalyst for the building of a new museum.