Bradford Brinton

Bradford Brinton (26 June 1880 – 15 February 1936) was a machinery manufacturer whose collections of Western and American Indian art formed the basis of the collections of the Brinton Museum created as a memorial to him by his sister after his death.

Early life Brinton was born in Tuscola, Illinois to William B. Brinton, owner of several wagon and plow companies, and his wife, born Rhoda Wyeth. His only sibling, Helen, had been born in 1874.

Brinton was commissioned a captain in the Quartermaster Corps of the U.S. Army in 1917, and was involved with government testing of motor vehicles. He served overseas as liaison officer to the Motor Transport Corps in 1918 and took part in the Meuse-Argonne and Somme offensives. He left his ranch to his sister Helen, who used it as a summer home. On her death on 18 January 1960, she left the ranch in trust with the Northern Trust Company of Chicago, which administered it in accordance with her will as the Bradford Brinton Memorial & Museum. Hosting her brother’s collection of 17th, 18th and 19th century Western and Indian art, it subsequently was renamed “The Brinton Museum.”