The Bowdoin College Museum of Art traces its origins to the collection of James Bowdoin III (1752–1811). This American businessman had studied law at Oxford and, in 1804, moved to Madrid as the United States ambassador. During his travels throughout Europe, he acquired numerous works of art, which he later brought back with him to Maine (United States). In 1811, he bequeathed 70 paintings and 141 drawings to a small art gallery at Bowdoin. His nieces, Harriet and Sophia Walker, spearheaded the construction of a building designed to properly showcase their uncle’s collection. Thus, the complex—designed by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White—was inaugurated in 1894.