Spreckels, Alma (24 March 1881–07 August 1968), museum builder and art collector, was born Alma de Bretteville in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Viggo de Bretteville, a farmer, and Mathilde Unserud. At age fourteen she was forced to quit school to go to work. At night she took art lessons at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute where, because of her beauty and statuesque figure (she was six feet tall), she also modeled for her instructors. One, the sculptor ...
