Donor Profile: Rachel Mellon Walton

The history of Carnegie Museums is, among other things, a story about Pittsburgh families who have nourished and cared about the organization over generations. As a daughter, wife, and mother, and through her own generosity, Rachel Mellon Walton has been associated with support of Carnegie Museums for 100 years. 

Rachel Mellon Walton was born in 1899, the daughter of William Larimer Mellon who organized Gulf Oil Corporation. Mr. Mellon served as a Carnegie Institute Trustee for many years, as did Mrs. Walton's husband, John F. Walton Jr., whom she married in 1922. One of their four children, James M. Walton was President of Carnegie Institute from 1968 to 1984 and is a Life Trustee.

Jim Walton also served as co-chair of the Second Century Fund, a capital and endowment campaign which ended in 1995 and raised $139 million. Among the many projects of the campaign were new exhibition halls for the Museum of Natural History. Jim remembers what the museum's Egyptian displays were like before his mother made a campaign gift to create The Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt. "Generations of children had been fascinated by the mummies and other artifacts, but the exhibits were dark and out of date. My mother recognized that housing the collection in a proper exhibit space would attract audiences to the museum because of the general interest in things Egyptian, but also tell a more complete story of the Egyptian people and culture." 

Mrs. Walton subsequently made endowment gifts to support the ongoing maintenance of Egypt Hall and continues to make generous annual operating gifts. She also supported the recent installation of The Chariot of Aurora in the Museum of Art's Scaife Galleries. 

"Mother is steadfast in the values she has believed in all her life: family, which now includes 15 grandchildren and 24 great grandchildren, and the Pittsburgh community," says Jim Walton. "She has been and continues to be a model to us about taking responsibility for the place you call home."

A visitor to Carnegie Museums since she was a child, Mrs. Walton has been delighted by the changes over the years. " It's so different now," she says. "There is much more for children to see and do." Through her lifelong support and encouragement, she has helped to make it so.