Memphis’ Most Versatile Art Collector

Louis Phillip Wulff has the honor of being the Memphis Museum’s (Pink Palace’s) most frequent donor. Wulff was a professional interior designer and a world traveler. He was also a painter who served on the museum’s Advisory Board from 1934-5 and 1950-6. His broad interests led him to collect documents, fighting equipment, stamps and natural history specimen. Additionally, Wulff was an amateur archaeologist who collected hundreds of Native American artifacts from the Mid-South.

Wulff was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and moved to a farm in Nebraska when he was 6. According to a newspaper biography, he went to sea as a cabin boy when he was 12 and returned home two years later. He was known for taking off on trains or horseback to go on collecting expeditions. His collecting habit got substantially broader when he received an inheritance from his mother. At 22, he took his new bride on…