Helen Swift Neilson

Neilson was the daughter of Annie Maria (née Higgins) and Gustavus Franklin Swift, founder of the meatpacking company Swift & Co. Her first husband was Edward Morris, son of Nelson Morris, the founder of Morris & Company, a competitor to her father.^[1] They had four children: Edward Morris, Jr., Nelson Swift Morris, Ruth Morris Bakwin, and Muriel Morris Gardiner Buttinger.^[1][2] In 1913, her husband died, and in 1917, she married British politician and writer Francis Neilson, with whom she founded the weekly paper The Freeman in 1920.^[3]

She is perhaps best known for her book about her parents, titled My Father and My Mother.^[4]

Neilson died in Chicago, Illinois. She bequeathed several notable paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

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  Portrait of a Young Woman with a Fan, by Rembrandt
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  The Lovesick Maiden, by Jan Steen
• 
  Portrait of Janet Law, by Henry Raeburn
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  Portrait of Mrs. Thomas Pechell (Charlotte Clavering, died 1841), by John Hoppner
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  Portrait of Thomas Pechell (1753–1826), by John Hoppner