Quick Facts
Biography
Howard Vanderslice (April 8, 1853-October 10, 1929) was a Kansas City, Missouri businessman who donated the land that forms the campus of today's Kansas City Art Institute.
Vanderslice was born in Great Crossing, Kentucky in Scott County, Kentucky.
Vanderslice is portrayed as the baby being carried in the Pioneer Mother statue by Alexander Phimister Proctor in Penn Valley Park (which portrays his grandfather Daniel Vanderslice agent to the tribes and Vanderslice's father Thomas J. Vanderslice and mother). Vanderslice gave the statue to the city in 1927.
However other biographies say that he came to Kansas City in 1890.
He was head of the Vanderslice-Lynds Mercantile Company, president of the City Ice Company and treasurer of the Lucky Tiger Combination Gold Mining Company.
In 1927 Vanderslice purchased the August R. Meyer residence and 8 acres (32,000 m2) at 44th and Warwick Boulevard adjacent to the about to be built Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. He donated the land to the Kansas City Art Institute and it makes up the school's main campus. The residence was later renamed "Vanderslice Hall"