WALTERS, William Thompson, merchant, born on the Juniata river, Pennsylvania, 23 May, 1820. He is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his father, Henry Walters, a banker of Pennsylvania, sent him to Philadelphia to be educated as a civil engineer. He was placed in charge of a large smelting establishment in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, where under his management the first iron that was manufactured in the United States from mineral coal was made. In 1841 he removed to Baltimore, Maryland, and engaged in the general commission business, and in 1847 he established the firm of W. T. Walters and Co., wine-merchants. When the first line of steamers between Baltimore and Savannah was established he was chosen its president, and from that time he has been a director in every line from Baltimore to the south. After the civil war he aided in the reorganization of the southern steamship lines. For many years he has been a director of the Northern Central railway company, and he is also interested in many southern lines. From 1861 till 1865 he resided in Europe, where he became the personal friend of many prominent continental artists, and travelled extensively to study the history and development of art and to purchase pictures for the collection that he had begun at an early period. He was art commissioner from the United States to the Paris exposition of 1867, that in Vienna in 1873, and that in Paris in 1878. He is one of the permanent trustees of the Corcoran art gallery in Washington, D. C., and is also chairman of the purchasing committee, a trustee of the Peabody institute, and chairman of its committee on art. He is also a trustee of the estate left for art uses by the sculptor William H. Rinehart, who was enabled to procure his art education largely through the generosity of Mr. Walters. Albert Wolff, the French critic, says that Mr. Walters's private collection is the most complete gallery of French pictures in the world with a single exception. He owns a large and rare collection of Bonvin's water-colors, and many Barye bronzes. His collection of Oriental porcelain, and ceramics numbers 3,000 pieces. For many years Mr. Waiters has annually opened his gallery to the public, and the proceeds are devoted to the Poor association of Baltimore. He has given to the city of Baltimore several bronzes, which adorn the four public squares adjoining the Washington monument. They are the great lion, a masterpiece made by Antoine Lotiis Barye, in 1847, for the Tuileries; four groups--" War," " Peace," " Strength," and '" Order "--productions of the models made by Barye for the exterior decoration of the Louvre; and a reproduction in bronze by Barbedienne of "Military Courage," made by Paul Dubois for the Lamoriciere monument in Nantes. He has also given to the city a reproduction in bronze of the statue of Chief-Justice Taney in Annapolis, Maryland, made by Rinehart. During his visit to Europe, Mr. Walters became interested in the Percheron horses; he brought eighteen of them to the United States in 1866, and extended the importation of this stock. To increase an intelligent interest on this subject, he published "The Percheron Horse," from the French of Charles Du Hays, with artistic etchings (printed privately, New York, 1886). He has also published " Antoine Louis Barye, from the French of Various Critics" (Baltimore, 1885), and "Notes upon Certain Masters of the XIX. Century" (New York, 1886).