Philanthropist and art collector Elisabeth Severance Allen Prentiss, born in 1865, expanded on the values of her public-spirited Cleveland family to help establish the world-class Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Orchestra, University Hospitals and many other institutions.

Her family, the Severances, had ties to medicine, banking, industry, music and the arts. Her father founded Severance Hospital in Seoul, Korea; her mother and grandmother managed an orphanage, and her uncle and aunt traveled with Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain.

Elisabeth’s father, Louis, worked in the fledgling oil business in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Elisabeth was eight when her mother died. Her father moved the family in with his mother and grandmother and continued in the oil business, working his way up to treasurer of the fledgling Standard Oil Company.

After Wellesley College, Elisabeth’s long stays in Germany and France cultivated a lifelong passion for art, music and horticulture. In 1892, Elisabeth married a friend of her father’s, eminent surgeon, medical professor and civic leader, Dudley Peter Allen. A connoisseur of fine arts and expert in Chinese porcelain, Allen was one of the first trustees of the Cleveland Museum of Art and as a trustee of Oberlin College. He worked with the Olmstead Brothers firm to redesign the Oberlin campus. Together, they made trips to Europe, collecting art to decorate their house with an eye to future Cleveland Museum of Art donations.

Elisabeth and her brother, John, had a friendly competition to collect the best Old-Master paintings, Renaissance tapestries, Chinese porcelains and Louis XV and XVI furniture. John was the major force behind building Severance Hall for the Cleveland Orchestra. He was also an early supporter of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Their collections were donated to the Cleveland Museum of Art upon their deaths.

After Dudley died in 1915, Elisabeth endowed the construction of St. Luke’s Hospital in Cleveland as well as the Allen Memorial Hospital and the Allen Art Museum, both in Oberlin, Ohio, in his memory.

In 1917, Elisabeth married industrialist, civic leader and widower Francis Fleury Prentiss. Wintering in Pasadena, California, Elisabeth bought the last house designed by the firm Greene and Greene, leading proponents of a Japanese-influenced style of the American Arts and Crafts movement.

Before she passed away in 1944, Elisabeth set up the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Foundation to continue her charitable work. Over the Foundation's 75 year history, it has given generously to University Hospitals, The Free Clinic of Cleveland, Achievement Centers for Children, Central School of Practical Nursing and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, among many others.