During the 1930s and 1940s Maynard Walker was a primary promoter of Regionalist artists such as John Steuart Curry, Grant Wood, and Thomas Hart Benton. In 1951 Maynard donated his collection of paintings, which also included works by European artists George Grosz, Edouard Manet, and Jean Baptiste Corot, to the city to establish an art gallery in honor of his mother, Mary Bridget Walker.