Dr. Mark Roglán, director of the Meadows Museum, is giving a lecture, “Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Museum,” today at 5:30 p.m. in the Meadows Museum auditorium.

The lecture will be the first in a six-part series, “Collectors, Philanthropists, and Visionaries: The Algur H. Meadows Generation.”

The series will focus on important arts patrons whose collections became the basis of prominent museums around the world. The lectures will be held throughout the fall and will be given by directors and curators from the respective museums to be discussed.

In today’s introductory lecture, Roglán will be discussing the life and achievements of Algur H. Meadows.

Meadows, who made the General American Oil Company of Texas into one of the United States’ most profitable independent oil and gas companies, was a renowned philanthropist and shared his wealth with a number of charities.

While on business trips to Spain during the 1950s Meadows acquired an interest in Spanish art and began collecting paintings by legendary artists like Goya and El Greco.

When his wife passed away in 1961, Meadows donated his collection to Southern Methodist University, along with funds to build a museum in her memory. Algur H. Meadows died in 1978 at the age of 79.

Today, the Meadows Museum is widely regarded as one of the most impressive collections of Spanish art not in Spain.

The lecture at Meadows Museum is free. For more information, call 214-768-2516.