Dates
Biography
Worcester R. Warner’s early interest in astronomy, fostered by his mother, led to his company’s specialization in the design and production of telescopes. Worcester Warner and Ambrose Swasey, who were both at Pratt & Whitney in Hartford, Connecticut, formed Warner & Swasey Company, established in Chicago in 1880. The company became a leader in designing and building turret lathes, but its early reputation was built on telescopes.
In 1880, the purchase of a telescope built at their Chicago plant by Beloit College put the company in the telescope business. In 1881 the partners relocated the company from Chicago to Cleveland which had more skilled mechanics. Soon they were a major builder of equatorial mounts, known for their accurate and reliable drive mechanisms, and refractor telescopes. The first order received by the firm for a large telescope was from the University of California for the Lick telescope, an instrument with a 36-inch lens, the largest telescope in its time, in 1886. Warner and Swasey designed and built the 26-inch telescope of the Naval Observatory in Washington, the 40-inch Yerkes telescope, a 72-inch telescope for the Canadian government, and 60-inch ones for the Argentine National Observatory and for Ohio Wesleyan University. In 1918, Warner donated a 9.5-inch refractor telescope to Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland. After 1900, the company concentrated on producing machine tools of high precision but still built telescopes until 1970, long after the deaths of its founding partners. The company’s last plant in the Cleveland area closed in 1992.
Warner was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Western Pennsylvania in 1897 and Case School of Applied Science in 1925. He was a charter member and president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Additionally, he was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was a member of many other educational and scientific organizations.
Worcester R. Warner retired in 1911, relocating with his wife and daughter to Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson, New York. From 1914 until his death, Warner was a member of the Advisory Committee of the CMA. He had built a personal collection of Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese and Korean art during his travels, from which he gave over 100 pieces to the CMA in its early years. Warner died on a European tour with his family in 1929. His wife Cornelia Blakemore presented the CMA with twenty-one Asian porcelains for the Worcester R. Warner Collection in 1931 in her husband’s memory.
Sources
“Warner, Worcester Reed,” “Warner & Swasey Co.,” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, accessed May 23, 2025.
Ingalls Library Clipping file
-Biography by Anne Cuyler Salsich, 2025
Occupations
Found in 9 Collections and/or Records:
File — Box: 14, Folder: 1
Scope and Contents note
From the Series:
This is the largest series of records documenting Whiting's tenure as director of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Most of the series dates from 1913 to 1930, the years that Whiting was director, although a small percentage predates his arrival in Cleveland (see, for example, Henry Kent's correspondence with the building committee from 1912-1913, located in box 1). These records reflect a time when museum functions and departments were not yet fully delineated. Together, they...
Dates:
1917-1921
File — Box: 14, Folder: 8
Scope and Contents note
From the Series:
This is the largest series of records documenting Whiting's tenure as director of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Most of the series dates from 1913 to 1930, the years that Whiting was director, although a small percentage predates his arrival in Cleveland (see, for example, Henry Kent's correspondence with the building committee from 1912-1913, located in box 1). These records reflect a time when museum functions and departments were not yet fully delineated. Together, they...
Dates:
1913-1916
File — Box: 14, Folder: 15
Scope and Contents note
From the Series:
This is the largest series of records documenting Whiting's tenure as director of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Most of the series dates from 1913 to 1930, the years that Whiting was director, although a small percentage predates his arrival in Cleveland (see, for example, Henry Kent's correspondence with the building committee from 1912-1913, located in box 1). These records reflect a time when museum functions and departments were not yet fully delineated. Together, they...
Dates:
1915-1922
File — Box: 15, Folder: 10
Scope and Contents note
From the Series:
This is the largest series of records documenting Whiting's tenure as director of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Most of the series dates from 1913 to 1930, the years that Whiting was director, although a small percentage predates his arrival in Cleveland (see, for example, Henry Kent's correspondence with the building committee from 1912-1913, located in box 1). These records reflect a time when museum functions and departments were not yet fully delineated. Together, they...
Dates:
1924
File — Box: 15, Folder: 11
Scope and Contents note
From the Series:
This is the largest series of records documenting Whiting's tenure as director of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Most of the series dates from 1913 to 1930, the years that Whiting was director, although a small percentage predates his arrival in Cleveland (see, for example, Henry Kent's correspondence with the building committee from 1912-1913, located in box 1). These records reflect a time when museum functions and departments were not yet fully delineated. Together, they...
Dates:
1917-1925
File — Box: 15, Folder: 9
Scope and Contents note
From the Series:
This is the largest series of records documenting Whiting's tenure as director of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Most of the series dates from 1913 to 1930, the years that Whiting was director, although a small percentage predates his arrival in Cleveland (see, for example, Henry Kent's correspondence with the building committee from 1912-1913, located in box 1). These records reflect a time when museum functions and departments were not yet fully delineated. Together, they...
Dates:
1915-1929
File — Box: 15, Folder: 8
Scope and Contents note
From the Series:
This is the largest series of records documenting Whiting's tenure as director of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Most of the series dates from 1913 to 1930, the years that Whiting was director, although a small percentage predates his arrival in Cleveland (see, for example, Henry Kent's correspondence with the building committee from 1912-1913, located in box 1). These records reflect a time when museum functions and departments were not yet fully delineated. Together, they...
Dates:
1915-1916
File — Box: 5, Folder: 17
Scope and Contents note
From the Series:
The Views series has been divided into two subseries. The first is exterior views. These are arranged by direction of the view, and then chronologically. This subseries also contains all Fine Arts Garden photographs. The second subseries is interiors. This includes photos of galleries and other spaces not included in the Registrar's Collection. They are arranged numerically for numbered galleries, then alphabetically for named spaces.
Dates:
1917
File — Box: 13, Folder: 45
Scope and Contents note
From the Series:
The CMA Portraits series includes two subseries: named individuals and groups/events/programs. Named individuals are arranged alphabetically, and groups/events/programs are arranged chronologically. Most photographs are of staff, trustees, donors, visiting lecturers, organists and other performers. Files for the museum directors include the director's family and group photographs. The people in the photographs in the groups subseries may or may not be directly related to the museum. Not all...
Dates:
approximately 1880-2014
