Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875 - 1968) was born in New York city, he graduated from Columbia University as a mining engineer. A collector from an early age, he had, by the 1940s, built up a remarkable and impressive collection of Oriental and Western material. He moved his collections to Dublin, Ireland in 1950. The present library and museum was opened in Dublin Castle in 2000. Knighted in 1954, Beatty was made an honorary citizen of Ireland in 1957 and on his death in 1968 he was accorded a State Funeral - the only private citizen in Irish history to receive such an honour.