THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK CITY
The story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art begins with an address by John Jay before a company of Americans at a Fourth of July dinner in Paris in 1866. In the course of his address Mr. Jay stated that “it was time for the American people to lay the foundation of a national institution and gallery of art.” This suggestion commended itself to a number of notable American gentlemen who were present, and who formed themselves into a committee for inaugurating the movement. This committee subsequently addressed an appeal to the Union League Club of New York City, urging the importance of founding a permanent national gallery of art and museum of historical relics for the benefit of the people at large, and suggesting that the Union League Club might properly institute the means for promoting this great object.
Mr. Jay, on returning home from Paris, was elected president of the Union League Club, and the letter from the committee came up for his own official notice. The result was a meeting at the Union League Club on November 23, 1869, to consider the founding of a museum, and a committee of fifty, made up of some of the most distinguished men of the day, was appointed to carry out the project.
It is interesting to read today that the sum of money that the founders placed before them as the goal of their ambition with which to establish this great art institution was only $250,000—a sum $100,000 less than the present administration’s expenses for one year. And yet this distinguished committee, after more than a year’s effort, raised less than half of the desired sum—only $106,000. Such, financially, was the modest beginning of the great Metropolitan Museum which now, besides its extensive buildings and its priceless collections, has an endowment for a purchase fund of over ten million dollars.
The idea of locating the art museum in Central Park originated with Andrew H. Green, known as the father of that great park. From 1870 until 1879 the Museum was housed, first on Fifth Avenue, and then on Fourteenth Street. The original building, in Central Park, was completed in 1880, and was opened by President Rutherford B. Hayes. Additions were erected in 1888, 1894 and 1902. Since then more contributions have been made to the complete plan which, when realized, will comprise a group of buildings that will cover an area of 18½ acres, and will cost about $20,000,000. The architects were Calvert Vaux, then Theodore Weston, Richard M. Hunt and McKim, Mead & White. The Museum had first to rely largely upon voluntary service. This ended in 1879 with the election of a salaried director, General di Cesnola. At his death, in 1904, he left a valuable memorial in the collection of antiquities that he gathered together while United States consul in Cyprus, and which includes over 30,000 specimens. A new era in the affairs of the Museum began with the election of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan as president. Under Mr. Morgan’s presidency the Metropolitan became one of the richest museums in the world, and on his death, in 1914, it received for exhibition his great collection of art objects, valued at $50,000,000. Of this, the greatest private collection in the world, a large part has now become the property of the Museum through the princely gift of Mr. Morgan’s son, the present J. Pierpont Morgan, and is being installed by itself in a wing called the Pierpont Morgan Wing. The Museum has been the recipient of many large endowments, and many fine private collections. Notable among the benefactors may be named three of New York’s most distinguished merchants, A. T. Stewart, James A. Hearn and Benjamin Altman.
During its existence many of the most prominent citizens of New York City have been connected in some active capacity with the Museum. The past presidents of the Institution were John Taylor Johnston, Henry G. Marquand, Frederick W. Rhinelander and J. Pierpont Morgan. Mr. Robert W. de Forest, for many years secretary of the Museum, is now its president. Among the vice-presidents were William Cullen Bryant, Andrew H. Green, General John A. Dix, A. T. Stewart, John S. Kennedy, D. O. Mills, Joseph H. Choate, and others. The affairs of the Museum were directed during the first years by General di Cesnola, then by Sir Casper Purdon Clarke, and now by Mr. Edward Robinson.
Under the direction of the present secretary, Mr. Henry W. Kent, the history of the Metropolitan Museum has been written by Winifred E. Howe, and published in a luxurious volume of 360 pages. This beautiful book affords a most interesting and instructive lesson in what can be accomplished in less than fifty years in the development of a great art institution.
