Larz Anderson

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Larz Kilgour Anderson (August 15, 1866 – April 13, 1937) was an American diplomat, social leader, and collector. Born in Paris during his parents’ honeymoon, he came from a wealthy American family and studied at Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College, where he joined several clubs before graduating in 1888.

Anderson began his diplomatic career after his father helped him secure a post in London as second secretary of the American legation (1891–1894). He then served in Rome as first secretary of the embassy and briefly as chargé d’affaires in 1897. He resigned to marry Isabel Weld Perkins, a Boston heiress.

He returned to diplomacy later in his career, serving as United States Minister to Belgium (1911–1912) and, briefly, as Ambassador to Japan in 1913. He resigned from Japan after the Taft administration ended; the exact reasons are unclear. He also sought the position of Ambassador to Italy but never received it. He sometimes wore a formal diplomatic uniform, though such attire was restricted by law, and his uniform was never worn publicly.

In 1897 he married Isabel Weld Perkins, and the couple lived a life of travel, culture, and public service. They expanded their Weld estate in Brookline, Massachusetts, and built Anderson House in Washington, D.C., a grand Beaux-Arts mansion that became a social hub. After Isabel’s death, Anderson House was donated to the Society of the Cincinnati and remains its national headquarters. The Andersons supported projects such as the Anderson Memorial Bridge in Boston and the Lady Chapel of the Washington National Cathedral.

Larz and Isabel collected carriages, sleighs, and early automobiles. Their collection, known as the Larz Anderson Collection, is displayed at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, the oldest car collection in the United States. Isabel also donated bonsai trees to the Arnold Arboretum, with some later donated permanently. A gilded eagle sculpture from the Tokyo embassy they owned eventually ended up at Boston College and is now a prominent feature on campus.

Some of Anderson’s private writings show racist and anti-Semitic views, which historians note about his diaries. He died in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, in 1937 and was buried at Washington National Cathedral beside his wife.

Their legacy includes Larz Anderson Park, the Washington, D.C. mansion that became a national headquarters for the Society of the Cincinnati, and the enduring Larz Anderson Collection and its museum.