9. The portrait of Humphrey Barker Chamberlin (1847-1897), Denver entrepeneur, who originally financed the building of the observatory. His $50,000 donation would translate into over $1,000,000 about 100 years later (1996).
Sadly, Chamberlin himself never fully regained his health after the Silver Panic. He moved from Denver shortly after his business failed and looked through his telescope only once, in February of 1897. His plans to endow a chair in Astronomy were also dashed by his financial losses in the Silver Panic. "All I have left," he is reported to have said about the telescope, "is what I gave away." He died three months later.
Home, Previous image, Next image.