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 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM 
 
 OF ART 
 
 J'JL 24 iy24 
 
 THE 
 
 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 CELEBRATION 
 
 MDCCCLXX 
 
 TO 
 
 MCMXX 
 
I 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2007 witii funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 littp://www.arcliive.org/details/fiftietlianniversOOmetrricli 
 
THE 
 
 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 CELEBRATION 
 
" >* • • . 
 
 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM 
 
 OF ART 
 
 THE 
 
 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 CELEBRATION 
 
 MDCCCLXX — MCMXX 
 
 NEW YORK 
 M C M X X I 
 

 COPYRIGHT, 1 92 1, BY 
 
 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM 
 
 OF ART 
 
 KXCHAHOK 
 
OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES OF 
 
 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 MCMXX 
 
 Robert W. de Forest, President 
 Elihu Root, First Vice-President 
 Henry Walters, Second Vice-President 
 Howard Mansfield, Treasurer 
 Henry W. Kent, Secretary 
 
 Edward D. Adams 
 George F. Baker 
 George Blumenthal 
 Daniel C. French 
 
 Charles W. Gould 
 R. T. Haines Halsey 
 Edward S. Harkness 
 Arthur Curtiss James 
 
 Francis C. Jones 
 Lewis Cass Ledyard 
 V. EvERiT Macy 
 J. Pierpont Morgan 
 Charles D. Norton 
 William Church Osborn 
 Samuel T. Peters 
 Henry S. Pritchett 
 
 The Mayor of the City of New York 
 
 The Comptroller of the City of New York 
 
 The President of the Department of Parks 
 
 The President of the National Academy of Design 
 
 SPECIAL COMMITTEE 
 
 ON ARRANGEMENTS 
 The President Samuel T. Peters 
 
 The First Vice-President Edward Robinson, Director 
 The Second Vice-President Henry W. Kent, Secretary 
 
 r;47'):?ri 
 
THE STAFF 
 
 Edward Robinson, Director 
 Joseph Breck, Assistant Director 
 Elial T. Foote, Assistant Treasurer 
 Henry F. Davidson, Registrar 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF PAINTINGS 
 
 George H. Story, Curator Emeritus 
 Bryson Burroughs, Curator 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICAL ART 
 
 Edward Robinson, Curator 
 
 GiSELA M. A. RicHTER, Assistant Curator 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN ART 
 
 Albert M. Lythgoe, Curator 
 
 Albert C. Mace ) a • r- 
 
 TT T- TIT \ Assistant Curators 
 
 Herbert E. Winlock ) 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF DECORATIVE ARTS 
 
 Joseph Breck, Curator 
 
 Frances Morris ^ 
 
 Russell A. Plimpton . . ^ 
 
 ^. r. T. ? Assistant Curators 
 
 Meyric R. Rogers i 
 
 Charles O. Cornelius i 
 
 Theodore Y. Hobby, Keeper, Benjamin Altman Collection 
 Arthur J. Boston, Assistant Keeper, Benjamin Altman Collection 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF ARMS AND ARMOR 
 Bashford Dean, Curator 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF FAR EASTERN ART 
 S. C. Bosch Reitz, Curator 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF PRINTS 
 William M. Ivins, Jr., Curator 
 
 vi 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 William Clifford, Librarian 
 Alice L. Felton, Assistant in Charge of Photographs 
 
 Edith R. Abbot \ 
 
 Anna Curtis Chandler ( -, 
 
 y-, ^ ^ } Instructors 
 
 Llise r. Carey ( 
 
 Alice T. Coseo ) 
 
 Richard F. Bach, Associate in Industrial Arts 
 
 Winifred E. Howe ) ^ i a • 
 
 T» 'T' XT c vjeneral Assistants 
 
 Robert 1. Nichol ) 
 
 Margaret A. Gash, Assistant in Charge of Cataloguing 
 
 Juliet W. Robinson, Assistant in Charge of Information Desk 
 
 Bessie D. Davis, Assistant in Charge of Lending Collection 
 
 Conrad Hewitt, Superintendent of the Building 
 
 vn 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 CELEBRATION 
 
 TO COMMEMORATE the fiftieth anniversary of the found- 
 ing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 13, 1870, 
 the Board of Trustees, at a meeting held November 25, 1919, 
 appointed a Committee on Arrangements, and at their December 
 meeting, the Trustees authorized the erection of two tablets in 
 memory of the Founders and of the Benefactors of the Museum. 
 
 The events arranged by the Committee were a loan exhibition 
 of objects of art to be displayed with the collections in the various 
 departments; an exhibition of the memorabilia connected with the 
 history of the development of the Museum, together with portraits 
 of all the Founders, Trustees, and Benefactors; formal exercises with 
 addresses by representatives of the State of New York, City of New 
 York, and other museums of art; the unveiling of the memorial 
 tablets; and a dinner given by the Trustees in honor of the distin- 
 guished representatives at the exercises and the lenders to the exhi- 
 bition. 
 
 The following paragraphs are devoted to these events in the 
 order of their occurrence. 
 
 THE LOAN EXHIBITION 
 
 The following letter was sent to the well-known collectors of 
 objects of art in New York, in pursuance of the decision of the Com- 
 mittee on Arrangements, to ask contributions to what proved to 
 be the most important exhibition of its kind ever held in the Museum: 
 
 Sir: 
 
 The spring of 1920 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the foun- 
 dation of the Museum, and its Trustees propose to make an 
 especial effort to celebrate this event in a manner which shall 
 
' " " * THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 not only be worthy of the occasion, but shall emphasize the 
 importance the Museum has attained as a national institution 
 in the first fifty years of its growth, and shall also show the 
 interest which the people of New York take in its progress and 
 welfare. 
 
 As one feature of this celebration it is proposed to make an 
 exhibition in which every department of the Museum shall have 
 its due share; and it is desired to do this, first, by displaying our 
 own collections at their best, and second, by supplementing these 
 with works from private collections in and about New York, 
 where our material can be enriched by such loans. Objects 
 thus lent would not be segregated into a loan exhibition by them- 
 selves, but would be placed in the galleries of the several de- 
 partments together with the Museum's objects of a kindred 
 nature, and would be properly labeled with the lender's name. 
 
 If this project can be successfully carried out, it will not only 
 be a testimony to visitors of the friendly relations that exist 
 between the Museum and the private collectors of the city, and 
 the readiness of the latter to join in the Museum's celebration, 
 but will result in an exhibition which will be memorable for 
 many years. 
 
 The Committee hopes, therefore, that its plan for this part 
 of the celebration will receive the sympathy and cooperation of 
 those to whom a request is made for the loan of works of art 
 which will contribute towards making the exhibition a success. 
 It is proposed to open the exhibition about the first of May, and 
 to have it continue through the summer so far as the arrange- 
 ment suits the convenience of the lenders. This would enable 
 the large number of people from every part of the country who 
 pass through New York during the summer to see it. 
 
 Special Committee on the Celebration 
 OF THE Museum's Fiftieth Anniversary. 
 
 The appeal resulted in the receipt of 1,154 objects, which may be 
 classified according to the Departments of the Museum as follows: 
 Department of Egyptian Art 107 Department of Arms and Armor 79 
 Department of Classical Art 7 Department of Prints 129 
 
 Department of Paintings 125 Department of Oriental Art 173 
 Department of Decorative Arts 534 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 The names of those who so generously responded to this appeal 
 
 are: 
 
 COPLEY AMORY, JR. 
 
 JULES S. B-ACHE 
 
 EMIL BAERWALD 
 
 GEORGE F, BAKER 
 
 H. H. BENEDICT 
 
 S. READING BERTRON 
 
 HARRY PAYNE BINGHAM 
 
 MRS. GEORGE T, BLISS 
 
 MISS LIZZIE P. BLISS 
 
 MRS. ALBERT BLUM 
 
 MR. & MRS. GEORGE BLUMENTHAL 
 
 MISS A. MILES CARPENTER 
 LEWIS L. CLARKE 
 WILLIAM H. CLARKE 
 HON. A. T. CLEARWATER 
 MRS. GEORGE H. CLEMENTS 
 OGDEN CODMAN 
 MRS. DE WITT CLINTON COHEN 
 MRS. JOSEPH MCKEE COOK 
 MRS. W. BAYARD CUTTING 
 
 GEORGE W. DAVISON 
 
 HENRY P. DAVISON 
 
 MR. & MRS. ROBERT W. DE FOREST 
 
 S. K. DE FOREST 
 
 S. W. DEJONGE 
 
 MRS. W. P. DOUGLAS 
 
 MICHAEL DREICER 
 
 MR. &. MRS. GODDARD DU BOIS 
 
 MISS MARGARET E. DUNCAN 
 
 CHARLES B. EDDY 
 
 MRS. HARRIS FAHNESTOCK 
 
 WILLIAM B. OSGOOD FIELD 
 HARRY HARKNESS FLAGLER 
 MICHAEL FRIEDSAM 
 
 MRS. RICHARD GAMBRILL, II 
 
 MRS. FRANCIS P. GARVAN 
 
 HENRY GOLDMAN 
 
 GEORGE J. GOULD 
 
 RICHARD C. GREENLEAF 
 
 MR. & MRS. F. GRAY GRISWOLD 
 
 MISS MARIAN HAGUE 
 
 R. T. HAINES HALSEY 
 
 CARL W. HAMILTON 
 
 J. HORACE HARDING 
 
 EDWARD S. HARKNESS 
 
 ROBERT HARTSHORNE 
 
 MRS. RUFUS HATCH 
 
 MRS. H. O. HAVEMEYER 
 
 SUMNER HEALEY 
 
 THE MISSES HEWITT 
 
 MRS. CHARLES B. HILLHOUSE 
 
 FISHER HOWE 
 
 MRS. HENRY E. HUNTINGTON 
 
 PIERRE JAY 
 ALPHONSE JONGERS 
 
 MR, & MRS. OTTO H. KAHN 
 MRS. JOHN CLAPPERTON KERR 
 C. O. KIENBUSCH 
 
 MRS. J. P. D. LANIER 
 GEORGE LEARY, JR. 
 ARTHUR LEHMAN 
 ADOLPH LEWISOHN 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 EDWARD H. LITCHFIELD 
 
 LUKE VINCENT LOCKWOOD 
 
 HOWARD MANSFIELD 
 
 MRS. HARRY MARKOE 
 
 MISS MINNIE I. MEACHAM 
 
 MR. & MRS. EUGENE MEYER, JR. 
 
 MRS. ROBERT B. MINTURN 
 
 MRS. W. H. MOORE 
 
 MR. & MRS. J. PIERPONT MORGAN 
 
 THEODORE OFFERMAN 
 WILLIAM CHURCH OSBORN 
 
 JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. 
 THOMAS FORTUNE RYAN 
 
 PAUL J. SACHS 
 
 MRS. WILLIAM SALOMON 
 
 MRS. HERBERT L. SATTERXEE 
 
 MORTIMER L. SCHIFF 
 
 CHARLES M. SCHWAB 
 
 MRS. GINO SPERANZA 
 
 GEORGE C. STONE 
 
 MRS. F. F. THOMPSON 
 
 HENRY MCM. PAINTER 
 
 MRS. CLARENCE C. PELL 
 
 MR. & MRS. MARSDEN J. PERRY 
 
 SAMUEL T. PETERS 
 
 CHARLES A. PLATT 
 
 DAN FELLOWS PLATT 
 
 FREDERIC B. PRATT 
 
 JOHN Q.UINN 
 
 MR. & MRS. JOHNSTON L. REDMOND 
 PHILIP RHINELANDER, 2D 
 
 W. K. VANDERBILT 
 
 HENRY WALTERS 
 
 FELIX M. WARBURG 
 
 MRS. F. E. WEBB 
 
 ALEXANDER MCMILLAN WELCH 
 
 MRS. GEORGE T. WHELAN 
 WILLIAM AUGUSTUS WHITE 
 HARRY PAYNE WHITNEY 
 
 JOHN N. WILLYS 
 ORME WILSON, JR. 
 MRS. CHARLES A. WIMPFHEIMER 
 GRENVILLE L. WINTHROP 
 
 The exhibition was opened with a private view for the members 
 of the Museum and their friends, and a number of distinguished 
 guests including the lenders, on Friday afternoon. May 7, from two 
 until six o'clock. 
 
 DECORATIONS 
 
 The great hall at the Fifth Avenue entrance was decorated for 
 the opening of the Loan Exhibition with garlands, wreaths, and the 
 coats of arms or emblems of the State, City, and various countries 
 represented in the Museum collections, by the Siedle Studios after 
 designs by Messrs. McKim, Mead & White, the architects of the build- 
 
 4 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 ing. The emblematic figures within the garlands were the work of 
 Ezra Winter, 
 
 MEMORABILIA 
 
 The collection of memorabilia illustrating graphically the growth 
 of the Museum, and embracing all of the printed notices, documents, 
 charts, plans, and photographs, together with photographs of the 
 Founders, Trustees, and Benefactors, was displayed in the Room of 
 Recent Accessions, and a group of similar material showing the devel- 
 opment of the educational work was shown in Class Room B. 
 
 MEMORIAL TABLETS 
 
 The tablets of Botticino marble commemorative of the Founders 
 of the Museum and of its Benefactors, cut by the Traitel Marble 
 Company, after designs by Messrs. McKim, Mead & White, are set 
 into the wall, one on either side, at the foot of the main staircase 
 leading from the Fifth Avenue entrance. The inscriptions read as 
 follows : 
 
 THE FOUNDERS OF 
 
 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 APRIL 13, MDCCCLXX 
 
 JOHN TAYLOR JOHNSTON 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 
 JOHN A. DIX 
 GEORGE W. CURTIS 
 WILLIAM H. ASPINWALL 
 CHRISTIAN E. DETMOLD 
 ANDREW H. GREEN 
 WILLIAM J. HOPPIN 
 JOHN F. KENSETT 
 EDWIN D. MORGAN 
 HOWARD POTTER 
 HENRY G. STEBBINS 
 WILLIAM T. BLODGETT 
 SAMUEL L. M. BARLOW 
 
 GEORGE F. COMFORT 
 JOSEPH H. CHOATE 
 FREDERIC E. CHURCH 
 ROBERT GORDON 
 RICHARD M. HUNT 
 ROBERT HOE, JR. 
 EASTMAN JOHNSON 
 FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED 
 GEORGE P. PUTNAM 
 LUCIUS TUCKERMAN 
 JOHN Q.UINCY ADAMS WARD 
 SAMUEL G. WARD 
 THEODORE WESTON 
 RUSSELL STURGIS, JR. 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 BENEFACTORS OF THE MUSEUM 
 DURING THE FIRST HALF CENTURY OF STRUGGLE 
 
 AND GROWTH 
 MDCCCLXX-MDCCCCXX 
 
 JOHN TAYLOR JOHNSTON 
 WILLIAM TILDEN BLODGETT 
 HENRY GURDON MARQUAND 
 STEPHEN WHITNEY PHOENIX 
 GIDEON F. T. REED 
 LEVI HALE WILLARD 
 WILLIAM H. HUNTINGTON 
 WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT 
 CATHARINE LORILLARD WOLFE 
 CORNELIUS VANDERBILT 
 GEORGE I. SENEY 
 JUNIUS S. MORGAN 
 HENRY HILTON 
 JOHN JACOB ASTOR 
 MARY E. BROWN 
 J.PIERPONT MORGAN 
 HEBER R. BISHOP 
 ELIZABETH U. COLES 
 AMELIA B. LAZARUS 
 GEORGE A. HEARN 
 AUGUSTUS VAN HORNE ELLIS 
 J. HENRY SMITH 
 JACOB S. ROGERS 
 MARY CLARK THOMPSON 
 DARIUS OGDEN MILLS 
 EDWARD DEAN ADAMS 
 MARGARET OLIVIA SAGE 
 
 FREDERICK C. HEWITT 
 JOHN STEWART KENNEDY 
 JOSEPH PULITZER 
 FRANCIS L, LELAND 
 ALEXANDER SMITH COCHRAN 
 BENJAMIN ALTMAN 
 WILLIAM HENRY RIGGS 
 EDWARD S. HARKNESS 
 JOHN LAMBERT CADWALADER 
 BENJAMIN P. DAVIS 
 LILLIAN STOKES GILLESPIE 
 JAMES B. HAMMOND 
 MARIA DE WITT JESUP 
 J. PIERPONT MORGAN, JR. 
 HENRY WALTERS 
 GEORGE F. BAKER 
 HARRIS BRISBANE DICK 
 ISAAC D. FLETCHER 
 JESSIE GILLENDER 
 JOHN HOGE 
 EDWARD C. MOORE 
 OLIVER H. PAYNE 
 CHARLOTTE M. TYTUS 
 HELEN COSSITT JUILLIARD 
 JACQUES SELIGMANN 
 ROBERT W. DE FOREST 
 EMILY JOHNSTON DE FOREST 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE EXERCISES 
 
 The formal exercises were held in the Lecture Hall on Tuesday, 
 May 1 8, at 4 p. m., the President of the Museum, Robert W. de 
 Forest, in the Chair. 
 
 6 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 Invitations were sent to the Governor of the State of New York, 
 the Mayor of the City of New York, the Commissioner of Parks, 
 presidents and directors of art museums, presidents and secretaries 
 of art societies, presidents of colleges in New York City, the President 
 of the University of the State of New York, the President and Super- 
 intendents of the Department of Education, New York City, dele- 
 gates to the Convention of the American Federation of Arts, the mem- 
 bers and staff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and lenders to 
 the Anniversary Exhibition. 
 
 The program of the exercises in the Lecture Hall was as follows: 
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES 
 MUSIC: MINUET AND FINALE 
 
 QUARTETTE, OP. 76, NO. 2, HAYDN 
 
 ADDRESS BY FRANCIS D. GALLATIN 
 
 COMMISSIONER OF PARKS 
 
 ADDRESS BY JOHN H. FINLEY 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW 
 YORK 
 
 ADDRESS BY MORRIS GRAY 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON, 
 MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 MUSIC: WALTZ, OP. 21, REBIKOFF 
 ADDRESS BY CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE ART INSTITUTE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
 
 ADDRESS BY ROBERT W. DE FOREST 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 MUSIC: WALTZES, OP. 39, BRAHMS 
 
 Upon the completion of these exercises, the audience adjourned to 
 the foot of the main staircase, where at the unveiling of the tablets 
 
 7 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 commemorative of the Founders and the Benefactors of the Museum 
 the following program was carried out: 
 
 ADDRESS BY ELIHU ROOT 
 
 FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT, THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF 
 ART 
 
 UNVEILING OF THE TABLETS 
 MUSIC: ANDANTE CANTABILE 
 
 QUARTETTE, OP. 11, TSCHAIKOVSKY 
 
 THE DINNER 
 
 The dinner, given by the Trustees, was held at the University 
 Club, on Tuesday evening. May i8, at eight o'clock. 
 The guests present were: 
 
 PRESIDENTS OF MUSEUMS 
 
 Frank L. Babbott 
 Ralph H. Booth 
 C. T. Crocker 
 Francis H. Dewey 
 Morris Gray 
 
 McDoUGALL HaWKES 
 
 Charles L. Hutchinson 
 Henry Fairfield Osborn 
 Frederic B. Pratt 
 John A. Weekes 
 
 Brooklyn 
 
 Detroit 
 
 San Francisco 
 
 Worcester 
 
 Boston 
 
 New York 
 
 Chicago 
 
 New York 
 
 Brooklyn 
 
 New York 
 
 DIRECTORS OF MUSEUMS 
 
 John W. Beatty 
 H. H. Brown 
 Clyde H. Burroughs 
 Edward W. Forbes 
 William Henry Fox 
 
 Pittsburgh 
 
 Indianapolis 
 
 Detroit 
 
 Cambridge 
 
 Brooklyn 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 J. H. Gest Cincinnati 
 
 George B, Gordon Philadelphia 
 
 Edgar L. Hewett Santa Fe 
 
 Robert Allen Holland St. Louis 
 
 William H. Holmes Washington 
 
 J. NiLSEN Laurvik San Francisco 
 
 C. Powell Minnigerode Washington 
 
 Charles R. Richards New York 
 
 L. Earle Rowe Providence 
 
 George W. Stevens Toledo 
 
 F. Allen Whiting Cleveland 
 
 Raymond Wyer Worcester 
 
 Herbert Adams 
 
 Elmer E. Brown, Chancellor, New York University 
 
 Michael Dreicer 
 
 Michael Friedsam 
 
 John H. Finley, Pres., University of the State of New York 
 
 Henry Goldman 
 
 A. Augustus Healy 
 
 Adolph Lewisohn 
 
 Thomas F. Ryan 
 
 Mortimer L. Schiff 
 
 Felix M. Warburg 
 
 Grenville L. Winthrop 
 
 ■ TRUSTEES, OFFICERS, AND STAFF OF 
 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 Robert W. de Forest 
 
 Edward D. Adams 
 
 Edwin H. Blashfield, Ex-officio 
 
 George Blumenthal 
 
 Charles L. Craig, Ex-officio 
 
 Daniel C. French 
 
 Francis D. Gallatin, Ex-officio 
 
 Charles W. Gould 
 
 R. T. Haines Halsey 
 
 Francis C. Jones 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 Howard Mansfield 
 
 Charles D. Norton 
 
 Samuel T. Peters 
 
 Henry S. Pritchett • 
 
 Elihu Root 
 
 Edward Robinson 
 Henry W. Kent 
 Joseph Breck 
 
 There were no formal speeches, but an address of congratulation 
 was presented by the President of the American Museum of Natural 
 History, Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, reading as follows: 
 
 the trustees of 
 the american museum of natural history 
 
 desire TO EXTEND TO THEIR FELLOW TRUSTEES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 THEIR CORDIAL AND FRATERNAL FELICITATIONS 
 
 ON THE OCCASION OF THE 
 
 GOLDEN JUBILEE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 THIS MARKS THE COMPLETION OF THE FIRST FIFTY 
 YEARS OF IDEALISM IN DIRECTION AND OF UNEX- 
 AMPLED GENEROSITY IN CONTRIBUTION WHICH IN A 
 BRIEF PERIOD OF HALF A CENTURY HAS PLACED OUR 
 SISTER INSTITUTION THE FOREMOST IN AMERICA 
 AND AMONG THE FOREMOST IN THE WORLD 
 
 WE LOOK FORWARD WITH CONFIDENCE TO THE NEW 
 HALF CENTURY OF ADVANCE IN ALL THAT ART AND 
 BEAUTY CAN MEAN IN THEIR INFLUENCE ON AMER- 
 ICAN LIFE, CULTURE, AND CIVILIZATION 
 
 lO 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 PRIZE CONTEST IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS 
 
 In connection with the Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration, the 
 Trustees of the Museum, at the suggestion of the President, Robert 
 W. de Forest, offered to each High School in Manhattan and the Bronx 
 a prize for the best composition written by a pupil of the school on 
 the topic "A Visit to the Metropolitan Museum" or some nearly 
 related subject. The prizes consisted of framed enlargements from 
 photographs of paintings and sculpture in the Museum collection and 
 became the property of the respective schools. An additional prize, 
 also a framed photograph, was awarded to the writer of the composi- 
 tion adjudged best among the prize-winning compositions, for his 
 own possession. 
 
 On November 3, 1920, the prizes were awarded at the Washington 
 Irving High School by Robert W. de Forest and Gustave Strauben- 
 miiller. Associate Superintendent of Schools. The winners in the 
 eight schools entering into the contest were as follows: 
 
 Lillian Bronstein, Julia Richmond High School 
 Florence Hauser, Washington Irving High School 
 Helen Gundersheemer, Theodore Roosevelt High School 
 Jack Albert Walker, DeWitt Clinton High School 
 Florence Buell, Wadleigh High School 
 George Henry Hornstein, Morris High School 
 Lillian Litzenburger, George Washington High School 
 Eleanor Mann, Evander Childs High School 
 
 To Eleanor Mann, winner of the prize for the Evander Childs High 
 School, was awarded the special prize for the best composition of all 
 those receiving prizes. 
 
 II 
 
3> 
 
 ADDRESS BY FRANCIS D. GALLATIN . 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 It has been well said — as it has been often said — that stone walls 
 do not a prison make. This is also true of a city — stone walls do not 
 make a city. A city is composed of the spirit and pride of its 
 citizens. Any thing and every thing which raises and ennobles 
 its citizens is of the greatest importance to its government. There- 
 fore it has always been the great joy and the great pleasure of the 
 City of New York to do all in its power to encourage the work of 
 this Museum. 
 
 I was visiting today the Natural History Museum, and I 
 saw a picture in its galleries by one of our ancient forebears. Per- 
 haps forty or fifty thousand years ago he had drawn that wonderful 
 picture in a cave in France. It seemed to me then that perhaps 
 it was at that moment that man first recognized the importance of his 
 position, that he first assumed the privileges of his birthright, that 
 he left aside the merely practical, so called, and launched himself 
 into works of the imagination, and into the ideal. It was then 
 that for the first time he raised himself from earth and made himself, 
 as it were, the equal of God, a creator with God. 
 
 Every thing may perish, but ideas are eternal. And the idea of 
 beauty is the greatest idea of all. As you will remember, Sappho 
 taught us in days of old that the beautiful are good and the good shall 
 soon be beautiful. I myself think that goodness and beauty are 
 one, that one cannot distinguish one from the other, and therefore 
 I take it that every thing which encourages the love of beauty in a 
 city encourages the goodness of that city and promotes its welfare 
 in the highest sense of the word. 
 
 Why people should distinguish so insistently between the practica 
 and the ideal has often been a wonder to me. They tell us that an 
 electric light is practical, but a work of art, or a good book is not 
 
 13 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 practical. But let me ask you, "Wouldn't the worth of the light be 
 greatly diminished — reduced to nothing — if there were not this work 
 of art and this book to be studied by the light?" No, ladies and 
 gentlemen, it is the ideal which really counts. The practical simply 
 exists for the ideal, in order that through it we may enjoy and 
 ennoble ourselves by the consideration of the ideal — beauty. 
 
 And even in matters of science, the imagination has vast import- 
 ance, for I take it that imagination is, as it.were, the scout aeroplane 
 of science. With its piercing eye it finds the way, and points it 
 out to science, which can only follow with heavy and stumbling 
 steps. 
 
 Ideas, as I said before, are perpetual and eternal. They are 
 the only things that man can produce which will last forever. The 
 ideas which were created and were imagined centuries and thousands 
 of years ago are still active in our midst. The canvas, perhaps, on 
 which those ideas were displayed has perished. Perhaps the very 
 stone which has been carved in semblance of a god has disappeared. 
 Perhaps the very words in which those ideas were formulated have 
 become null, simply nonsense to our now understanding ears. And 
 yet those ideas go on, go on. So it follows that everything which 
 promotes the goodness and the purity and the highness of our 
 ideas, is of the utmost importance to the city government. 
 
 One of the very few things, one might almost say, that remain 
 of the great conquest of Alexander in Asia is the fact that a marked 
 impression is even to this day seen in Chinese art — the effect of the 
 Grecian art which was brought into Asia in those long-ago days. 
 We can say that once the love of the beautiful is aroused in man 
 it will go on forever to all future generations. 
 
 It is not only my duty, but my privilege, and one of the greatest 
 pleasures I have ever enjoyed, to be here present to congratulate the 
 President and the Trustees of this great Museum on the first fifty 
 years of its labors. I hope that fifty years more will see this Museum 
 still continuing prosperous on its fruitful career, still the center of 
 the high ideal life of this great city of ours, of this great country 
 of ours — that it may still continue teaching that that which is not 
 beautiful can not be good, and that beauty and goodness are one. 
 
 14 
 
ADDRESS BY JOHN H. FINLEY 
 
 When Themistocles was asked, says Plutarch, to speak freely 
 concerning the affairs of the Greeks, before the Persian King, Xerxes, 
 he replied that a man's discourse was like a Persian carpet, the 
 beautiful figures and patterns of which can be shown only by spread- 
 ing and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up they 
 are obscured and lost. The King bidding him take what time he 
 would, he said that he desired a year, in which time he learned the 
 Persian language sufficiently to say in the King's own tongue what 
 he wished to speak to the King. 
 
 I should (like Themistocles) need a whole year in which to pre- 
 pare an address which could be worthy to be presented in this House 
 of Beautiful Things and in the presence of those living and dead 
 who have adorned it. 
 
 As it is, I can bring but a sketch of the figure and pattern of 
 what I would say on behalf of the State (the mother of your immortal 
 corporate self) since the Governor, to his great regret, cumbered with 
 many bills, cannot be here; of the University of the State of New 
 York (your mystical, all-loving, God-mother) ; and of my own self, 
 a devoted friend of your President, Mr. de Forest. 
 
 Despite the fact that I may not extend my brief address to its 
 full pattern, I begin near the beginning of time — as it is recorded 
 in the Book of Books. 
 
 There is a legend that Enoch (not the son of Cain but the 
 Enoch, an early descendant of Adam, who according to the scriptural 
 record was translated), being forewarned that the earth would perish 
 once by water and once by fire, erected two pillars, known as "Enoch's 
 Pillars," one of stone and one of brick, on which he caused to be 
 engraved "all such learning as had been delivered to or invented by 
 mankind." "Thus," the legend adds, "it was that all knowledge and 
 learning were not lost; for one of these pillars remained after the flood." 
 
 IS 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 How meagre must have been that which mankind had to remember 
 when all that it was thought necessary to preserve against oblivion 
 by fire or flood could be written on a pillar of stone (and a duplicate 
 copy on one of brick). And how simple, elemental, and short an 
 educational curriculum it would have taken to compass all that one 
 generation had to transmit to the next, if all that the schoolmaster 
 had to teach were graven on these shafts which were mindful ever of 
 the past and yet portentous ever of the fate that was threatening 
 the earth! 
 
 I have often wished that the content of the school courses of all 
 the peoples of the earth might be analyzed and compared (French, 
 English, German, Italian, American) in order that we might know 
 after eliminating the purely local material, just what, in detail and 
 in scope, the race as a whole most wished to transmit to its children 
 (and so to a new race if a Noachian disaster were again to overwhelm 
 the earth). If we could but summarize this residuum, it would be 
 worth while to have engraved elementary Enochian pillars erected at 
 every street corner for the living, or set upon our highest mountains 
 and buried in fire-proof vaults against such emergencies as Enoch 
 prepared for. 
 
 I have seen in one of our museums the clay copy-book of a Baby- 
 lonian school boy (of beyond 2000 B. C.) in which having failed, evi- 
 dently, to follow the copy to the satisfaction of the teacher, he had 
 pressed out with his thumb a part of what he had written leaving a 
 print for some specialist centuries later to examine. How meagre 
 must his "copy" have been. Yet it was presumably still farther 
 back that Enoch's Pillars stood in the midst of the squalid urban 
 huts, on the dim edge of history and on the brink of the deserts. 
 What would we not give to know what was written there? Was there 
 anything that the world has forgotten, of its genesis and childhood? 
 
 This we know, that no thing of color hung upon it such as adorned 
 the Tabernacle. No workmanship of Bezaleel or Aholiab embellished 
 it. No Madonna's face enhaloed by Raphael looked out from it. 
 There was "no framed Correggio's fleeting glow." No figures such 
 as Angelo wrought, no bas-relief as that of our own St. Gaudens 
 rested the eyes of those who looked on it. It had nothing more of 
 beauty on it than the pillar of stone from Egypt which stands back of 
 this great building. 
 
 And yet how bare, as Enoch's Pillars, of rare beauty, wrought of 
 
 16 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 human hands, are those pillars of knowledge toward which millions 
 of children today look for their heritage; as bare as if Phidias and 
 Praxiteles, Angelo and Raphael, Frans Hals and Rembrandt, Turner, 
 Millet, and Rodin and all the rest had never lived; as bare aestheti- 
 cally as if the world's past were such as lies back of — I was going 
 to say a Hopi Indian; but even his world has more of the aesthetic 
 in it than that of children, yes and men and women, I have seen not a 
 hundred miles from this place. 
 
 But now and here in the midst of this metropolis grown to a "cos- 
 mopolis" there rise new "Pillars of Enoch," pillars that have so 
 much to carry upon them that they have to be extended into walls, 
 many hundreds of feet in length and enclosing many chambers — 
 pillars erected not that all "learning and knowledge" but that the 
 most beautiful of all that has been "delivered to" man on this side 
 of the water or that has been "invented by" him, shall not be lost! 
 Nor that alone! Not alone that it shall not be lost but that it shall be 
 made an inspiriting, vital part of the daily life of the people. Such 
 is this great Museum, whose golden jubilee we celebrate today. 
 
 For this Museum is in its new functioning primarily an educa- 
 tional institution, a place not simply of conserving or recording but 
 of teaching — a pillar not merely of memory nor yet of portent, like 
 that of Enoch, or like that which the Tartars set up (after their flight 
 from Russia, as recorded by De Quincey) in the shadow of the Great 
 Wall of China, to mark the end of a journey, but rather of progress 
 like a pillar of cloud by day, with its duplicate of fire by night, in 
 the midst of this wilderness of houses, ever leading on to a promised 
 land, a land of ideals never reached. 
 
 For inscription on this pillar, there is nothing better to be written 
 than the creed which you have yourselves composed, a creed which 
 will, however, be impotent to save, unless the people say it with you, 
 and especially through their schools. Representing, as I think I may, 
 the teachers of this State and City, I repeat it today with you: 
 
 "i. We believe that every human being is born with a potential 
 love of beauty, and whether this capacity lies dormant or springs 
 into activity depends largely upon his education. 
 
 "2. We believe that whether the cultivation of this faculty 
 adds to the earning capacity of its possessor or not, it does unques- 
 tionably increase his happiness and this in time reacts upon his health 
 of mind and body. 
 
 17 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 "3. We believe that the Metropolitan Museum has an importan-t 
 role to play in the education of the innate love of beauty. 
 
 "4. We believe that through the cooperation of the Museum 
 and the schools a generation of young Americans may grow up who 
 will know how to see beauty everywhere because they have learned 
 its language here. 
 
 "5. We believe" (and here I catch into the creed the words of 
 Joseph H. Choate at the dedication of this building in 1880, words in 
 which he expressed the feeling of the founders), "not only that the 
 diffusion of a knowledge of art in its highest forms of beauty will tend 
 directly to humanize, to educate, and refine a practical and laborious 
 people . . . but will also show to students and artisans of every 
 branch of industry, in the high and acknowledged standards of form 
 and color, what the past has accomplished for them to imitate and 
 excel." 
 
 But that this creed may have potency not only must it be repeated 
 daily by both the Museum and the schools, as I have intimated, but 
 constantly must the pillars (this Museum) be enriched with the 
 continuing best that has been or will be "delivered to" or "invented 
 by" mankind and then transmuted into the vision and the skill of 
 the succeeding generations. Every school-room must open upon the 
 Museum or the Museum must open every school-room. And there 
 should not be a tenement, however bare, in which some of the paint- 
 ings of these galleries do not hang or some bit of sculpture does not 
 stand, or the fire of some jewel does not glow, because they who live 
 in it have carried back to it what they have seen here in this (other) 
 common room of their home. 
 
 And more and more essential to the life of our people is this Mu- 
 seum, not only because of its practical ministry to the efficiency of 
 the crafts (the "mysteries," as they were once called) but also because 
 of its ennobling and enriching contribution to the increasing leisure 
 time of millions; for I have come to believe (I find that Aristotle 
 anticipated me by more than two thousand years in this view, though 
 I did not know this till I had reached it myself) that the right use of 
 leisure is a chief end of education. 
 
 The Children of Israel were commanded to observe once a year 
 for the period of seven days the Feast of Tabernacles, and live in tents 
 or under temporary roofs in order that they might be kept gratefully 
 mindful of the way by which their fathers had been led out of cap- 
 
 18 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 tivity in Egypt. I have often wished that all of us might celebrate 
 such a feast each year for as many days (even if not consecutively 
 and without more holidays, but in our leisure hours, with this same 
 purpose). It would keep us out of pessimism. It would not be 
 practicable for us to go out and live in tents or booths perhaps, and, 
 indeed, we could more profitably and to better purpose observe such a 
 feast beneath the roofs of our great museums — the Natural History 
 Museum and the Metropolitan Museum. 
 
 If the Governor of this State were willing to add another to his 
 many helpful proclamations, I would recommend this one, though I 
 suspect that he would hardly be willing to follow the form into which 
 I have put it: 
 
 This shall ye do, O men of Earth, 
 Ye who've forgotten your far birth 
 Your forbears of the slanting skull 
 Barbaric, brutal, sluggard, dull, 
 (Of whom no portraits hang to boast 
 The ancient lineage of the host). 
 Ye who've forgot the time when they 
 Were redolent of primal clay. 
 Or lived in wattled hut, or cave. 
 But, turned to dust or drowned by wave, 
 Have left no traces on Time's shores 
 Save mounds of shells at their cave doors 
 And lithic knives and spears and darts 
 And savage passions in our hearts 
 This shall ye do: * * * 
 
 (Then would follow specific directions as to visiting the Museum 
 of Natural History) : 
 
 Beneath whose roofs 
 
 Ye yet may hear the flying hoofs 
 
 Of beasts long gone, the cries of those 
 
 Who were your fathers' forest foes 
 
 Or see their shadows riding fast 
 
 Along the edges of the past. 
 
 19 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 (And then would be given other specific directions as to reaching 
 the place of the crowning glories, the supreme mysteries, of man's 
 handiwork, this Metropolitan Museum of Art.) 
 
 All this that ye may keep in mind 
 The nomad way by which mankind 
 Has come from his captivity; 
 Walking dry-shod the earth-wide sea, 
 Riding the air, consulting stars, 
 Driving great caravans of cars, 
 Building the furnace, bridge, and spire 
 Of earth-control and heav'n desire. 
 Stamping on canvas, bronze, and stone 
 The highest beauty earth has known, 
 Rising in journey from the clod 
 Into the glory of a God — 
 This shall ye do, O men of Earth, 
 That ye may know the crowned worth 
 Of what ye are — and hope renew, 
 Seeing the road from dawn to you. 
 
 Seeing this road, then, turning from these museums toward the 
 day's works and the day's leisures, we should find a new courage, 
 a new joy, a new heaven, and a new earth — for the golden days, 
 though this is a golden jubilee, are not all behind us. 
 
 The saddest picture I think I have ever seen was of Eve, the grand- 
 mother of Enoch, in her old age (and I had never before thought of 
 Eve as growing old). She was being borne on a litter, her great 
 son Cain at her side, and was pointing, as she sat, toward a clump of 
 trees on a distant knoll and saying or seeming to say to Cain, "You 
 see those trees yonder? Well, that was Paradise." But Paradise 
 does not lie behind us — back beyond "Enoch's Pillars." It lies in 
 the direction in which this glorious and immortal Mother of Beauty 
 looks in these collections — forward — the direction in which I hope 
 she will guide, through countless fifty years, the eyes of all the children 
 in this, the first city of the earth. 
 
 That this may be the relationship between art museums (and 
 this Museum especially) and public education, is my jubilee wish on 
 behalf of the State. 
 
ADDRESS BY MORRIS GRAY 
 
 It is a great pleasure to bring to the Metropolitan the tribute of 
 the Boston Museum — tribute for a great service, greatly rendered; 
 not confined to the limits of the city but extending far beyond. For 
 the Metropolitan is indeed the gift of New York to the country. And 
 we Americans of other cities who have no share in the making must 
 needs feel gratitude for the gift — proud of the giver. 
 
 How great the achievement of your fifty years! The splendor 
 of your collections an inspiration for all time. The teaching of the 
 knowledge of art in all its manifold intellectual importance. And 
 far different and far more important the development of the love of 
 beauty of which art is a manifestation, the development of it not 
 as a luxury but as an integral part of life. It is in this that your great 
 opportunity lies. 
 
 The knowledge of art is common. But the love of art that brings 
 real happiness and inspiration to the heart of man is rare. One is 
 an intellectual interest. The other is a great emotion. Think not 
 that this development of the love of beauty is necessary for the poor 
 and uneducated only. It is necessary and in fully as high degree 
 for the rich and educated. It applies in many instances to us who 
 have gathered here, certainly to me; it applies often to those who 
 possessing great works of art think that a knowledge of prices, of 
 names, of schools, of technique, means a love of art. It is not so. 
 If you have that and only that you may have knowledge. But love 
 lies far beyond. Before a great painting or a great sculpture the real 
 love of art manifests itself, not in the clever criticism that one hears so 
 often at an afternoon tea or at evening around the dinner table. It 
 manifests itself rather in silence — the silence that is like the hush that 
 one feels when one stands in the cathedral of an alien faith hallowed 
 by the worship of many generations. It manifests itself rather in 
 
 21 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 the clutch at your heart, in the mist in your eyes. It is the love of 
 art, not merely the knowledge of art, that is the great thing. 
 
 No, the love of beauty is not restricted to the aristocracy of 
 wealth and education. It belongs rather to the democracy of the 
 things of the spirit — free to all. It is as likely to be the possession of 
 the immigrant who comes to our shores this day as it is to be the 
 possession of the native American of many generations. Let me give 
 you an instance; for we are apt to differentiate between the immi- 
 grant and ourselves in terms of money and material things and to 
 forget the spiritual things that give value to life. At one of your 
 concerts here last March I sat near a girl and her mother and sister, 
 recent immigrants from one of the countries of southeastern Europe, 
 black hair, growing low upon the forehead, a white pallor and out 
 of it beautiful eyes that seemed to hold generations of tragedy yet 
 shimmered now and then into sudden gladness. After a while the 
 musicians played something which came out of that part of the world. 
 It had the wild, weird, primitive human quality. It tore at the 
 heartstrings. Presently the girl put her elbows on her knees, her 
 head between her hands and I saw that her shoulders were quivering 
 with emotion. When the musicians stopped she threw back her head 
 and the tears were running down her cheeks yet the eyes were the 
 eyes of joy and of vision. And she had spiritual wealth far greater 
 than we had for she saw beauty, as it must always be seen at its 
 greatest, through tears — tears of exaltation. 
 
 Yet the development of this love of beauty has not only a value 
 to the happiness of the individual, it has a value to the welfare of the 
 nation. The things that are material, the house, the food, the cloth- 
 ing, the business — what you choose — tend to differentiate us. The 
 things of the spirit tend to bring us together. It is not on the things 
 that are material, it is on the things that are spiritual that the great 
 kinships of life, the great kinships of the world are founded. The 
 war and the aftermath of the war are instances of this. During the 
 war we were all united in carrying through one great spiritual ideal, 
 liberty. The man who stood beside you in front of the Bulletin 
 Board was your friend, your kin. The divergence of the material 
 interests of the individual fell by the wayside. But today that 
 divergence has again come to the fore. The old antagonisms arise. 
 The kinship of the spiritual cause is vanishing. The hope that the 
 idealism of the war would remanifest itself in an idealism of peace 
 
 22 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 fails. The reaction is to materialism. It is not well with our coun- 
 try. It is for you and such as you to see to it that America carries 
 on the things of the spirit because they are the great things of life; 
 because only out of their greatness and their kinship can America 
 render the greatest service to the world. 
 
 The love of beauty is a thing of the spirit. It is free. It is al- 
 ready shared to some extent at least by rich and poor, by educated and 
 uneducated. It brings us together. It makes us kin. And it is. in 
 this development of the love of beauty for the happiness of the individ- 
 ual and for the welfare of the state that your great opportunity 
 lies. And backed by the great generosity of private citizens, sup- 
 plemented by that of the City itself, led by men of far-reaching vis- 
 ion, Mr. de Forest, Mr. Robinson and their associates, it is not only 
 your opportunity — it is, I believe, your destiny. And to this des- 
 tiny, I bid you God speed. 
 
 And out of it all will come the day when the master will be born 
 who shall embody the great ideals of America in imperishable art. 
 The art that speaks for all time. The art that knows no barrier of 
 tongue or race. And although you and I be blind and deaf and dumb 
 in our power of expression we shall know that he has embodied the 
 longing of our hearts. We shall know that whether the America of 
 today lives or dies its great ideals will live an inspiration for ages yet 
 unborn. For nations come and go but art, the art that embodies 
 their great ideals, lives. And the master will go singing through the 
 ages. And we shall be forgot yet we too shall serve. Even as the 
 earth that nourisheth the divine seed lives in the perfect flower. 
 
 a3 
 
ADDRESS BY CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON 
 
 Mr. President and Members of the Board of Trustees of The 
 Metropolitan Museum of Art: 
 It is my privilege and my pleasure to bring greetings and con- 
 gratulations from the Trustees of The Art Institute of Chicago. 
 They rejoice with you as you celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the 
 founding of this Museum, for they appreciate the great work which 
 it has done and are ahve to the importance of that work. They 
 are happy also to have this opportunity of publicly thanking you not 
 only for the inspiration but also for the kindly cooperation received 
 at your hands, and from the efficient members of your staff. First 
 among the art museums of our land, the Metropolitan is a true 
 leader in museum work. No director of any art museum of our 
 country is abreast of the times if he is not cognizant of what you are 
 doing here. Your work has been successful in the highest degree. 
 I know that you are aware of this, still it must be gratifying for you 
 to know that your efforts are appreciated by others engaged in the 
 same noble work, who understand the educational value of art in 
 every field of human endeavor. I am strongly tempted to speak 
 upon a "hobby." It would furnish a fitting text for this occasion, 
 for my hobby is — The Democracy of Art. The subject is almost as 
 hackneyed as the word "art" itself. What word in the English 
 language has been more often misused and so much abused? Think 
 of the crimes committed in its name. Think of all that we are called 
 upon to accept as masterpieces of art. Would that we could coin 
 another word to express that coordinating intelligence and skill which 
 man exercises in creating beautiful things, which we call Art. Until 
 the true mission of art is more widely understood, there will be need 
 of much preaching, of emphasizing the democratic nature of art, and 
 setting forth the great value of art as a vital factor in the every-day 
 life of the materialistic age in which we live. Perhaps the whole 
 
 - 24 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 theory of the Democracy of Art is best expressed in the words of 
 Thomas Nelson Page — Art is a luxury for the rich and a necessity for 
 the poor. 
 
 However, we will not yield to temptation but follow the lines 
 suggested by your President, when he invited us to speak on this 
 occasion; with characteristic broadmindedness, he would not have 
 us consider the wonderful growth of your Museum but rather tell 
 of the progress of art and art museums in the United States during the 
 last half-century. The history of the founding and of the develop- 
 ment of the Metropolitan Museum has been presented to us in the 
 able and comprehensive account by Miss Winifred E. Howe. A 
 wonderful story, ably presented. You will note that only two speak- 
 ers outside of the State of New York are upon the program this 
 afternoon — one from the East and one from the West. Coming 
 from the West, I infer that it would be fitting for me to speak on 
 the development of art in the West. Still East and West are so 
 closely bound together that it is perhaps unfair to make any distinc- 
 tion between them. 
 
 Since the foundation of the Metropolitan Museum, America has 
 made great progress in the fostering and developing of the Fine 
 Arts — or rather, let us say, since eighteen hundred and eighty-two. 
 We choose this date, because in that year for the first time our Gov- 
 ernment recognized the Fine Arts in the report of its Bureau of Edu- 
 cation. 
 
 This progress, however, has been especially marked during the 
 past twenty-five years. The work has gone forward with great 
 rapidity in the West as well as in the East. By West I mean the 
 country west of the Allegheny Mountains. 
 
 In discussing the progress of the Fine Arts, one must necessarily 
 give consideration to the three principal agencies through which they 
 have been advanced — they are the Art Museum and Art School and 
 Art Society. The increase and growth of all of these agencies during 
 the past fifty years have, as I have already stated, been phenomenal 
 and furnish a good index of the progress of art in our country. Of 
 these agencies the museum has been the most potent. 
 
 During the past twenty-five years there has been a phenomenal 
 development of museums in the United States, especially in the 
 West. This is due to the fact that the Trustees of our museums 
 realize as never before the true function of the art museum. For- 
 
 25 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 merly it did not include the education of the artistic sense of the 
 visitor. Today we appreciate the great educational possibilities 
 of the museum and are endeavoring through it to diffuse informa- 
 tion about art and to develop an appreciation of art among the 
 people. 
 
 The introduction of this educational function or feature into our 
 museums, has been the most significant fact in the progress of the 
 Fine Arts in recent years. The art museum of the past is set aside. 
 It has been reconstructed, it has been transferred from a cemetery 
 of bric-a-brac into a nursery of living thought. The museum of 
 today is democratic in the highest sense of the word. Its motto is 
 that adopted by your own American Museum of Natural History 
 many years ago — For the people, — for Education, — for Science. 
 This expresses the ideals of the modern museum. The museum of 
 the future will stand side by side with the library and laboratory. 
 It must be introduced into our colleges and universities. It must 
 cooperate with the library and the school as one of the principal 
 agencies for the enlightenment of the people. It must be a cause of 
 inspiration, as well as a means of happiness, — a vital factor in the 
 every-day life of the community. 
 
 Art for art's sake is a selfish and erroneous doctrine, unworthy 
 of any true lover of art. Art for humanity and a service of art for 
 those who live and strive in a humdrum world, is the true doctrine 
 and one that every art museum should cherish. 
 
 The value of an art museum is measured by the service it renders 
 to the community in which it stands. The principal function of 
 an art museum is the cultivation of an appreciation of the beautiful. 
 In the advancement of the civilization of the present age no agency 
 save that of commerce is more potent than that of art. 
 
 The first museum devoted wholly to art established in this 
 country was the Wadsworth Atheneum of Hartford, Connecticut, 
 opened to the public in eighteen hundred and forty-two. To this 
 Museum, in nineteen hundred and twelve, seventy years after its 
 foundation, was added the fine Morgan Memorial. The Museum 
 is still, as you know, an active one. The last museum thrown open 
 to the people is the Butler Gallery at Youngstown, Ohio. Only 
 four of the Eastern museums, those at Hartford, Baltimore, Buffalo, 
 and New Haven, are older than the Metropolitan, while the Boston 
 Museum was organized in the same year. During the past twenty- 
 
 26 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 five years, thirteen museums have been established west of the 
 Allegheny Mountains, while during the same period seven were 
 organized in the East. The museums of the West have been visited 
 during the past two years by three million visitors annually, while 
 the attendance at one of the Western museums has been over a mil- 
 lion each year for the past two years. There are fifty cities in the 
 United States having a population of one hundred thousand or over. 
 In these fifty cities, there are more than forty museums of art and 
 two hundred and sixteen schools of art. More than one half of these 
 museums are in the West. The attendance in these Western museums 
 is more than double that of the Eastern museums. 
 
 It is of course impossible to speak of each one of these museums 
 upon this occasion. Three, however, are worthy of especial men- 
 tion. One has been a pioneer, and two at least leaders in museum 
 work. 
 
 One of the three museums is worthy of special mention on account 
 of its rapid and wise development during the past nine years. It is 
 the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. 
 
 The founding of this Museum was unique in the history of mu- 
 seums in this country. More than two hundred of the leading citi- 
 zens of Minneapolis were mvited to dine at the Minneapolis Club 
 in January, nineteen hundred and eleven. At this dinner a self- 
 appointed committee surprised most of those present by presenting 
 plans for the building of an art museum. One of the number offered 
 a site for the Museum, valued at two hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars, provided five hundred thousand dollars should be raised 
 for the necessary building. Another citizen started the Fund to be 
 raised by a subscription of one hundred thousand dollars. At the 
 close of the evening, nearly four hundred thousand dollars had been 
 subscribed — the full amount was obtained before the close of the 
 month. As I read of the initial efforts of the gentlemen who founded 
 the Metropolitan Museum, I could not refrain from comparing their 
 experience in raising money with that of our Minneapolis friends. — 
 A more notable company of men met and organized for the purpose 
 of founding an art museum in New York. Two hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars was the sum deemed necessary for the venture — and 
 this sum they started out to raise. At the end of one year, only 
 one hundred and six thousand dollars had been secured. How times 
 have changed! How different was their experience from that of our 
 
 27 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 Minneapolis friends — who, in a much smaller city in the benighted 
 West, raised for an art museum more than seven times as much money, 
 in less than one month. This is not all. The Minneapolis Mu- 
 seum has been conspicuous for the rapid development of its Museum 
 and School since that eventful evening in January, nineteen hundred 
 and eleven. 
 
 The second museum worthy of special consideration is that of 
 Toledo, Ohio. 
 
 Of the Toledo Museum I can speak without embarrassment. It 
 furnishes perhaps the best example in the United States of what a 
 museum should strive to do and what a museum can do in a small 
 city, if it has men like William Drummond Libbey behind it, and 
 can enlist the interest of the people, as he and his associates have 
 done during the past fifteen years. In this short space of time the 
 Museum has built for itself one of the most beautiful of all museum 
 buildings. Without large collections of any kind, it has cultivated 
 a most intimate relation with the people of Toledo — all classes of 
 citizens are interested in it and contribute to its support — merchants, 
 bankers, school children, members of women's clubs, artists, students, 
 and wage earners — the list of the educational activities of the To- 
 ledo Museum will astonish you. The scope of its work is far beyond 
 the general conception of work proper for an art museum. The 
 most conspicuous fact brought out by the work of the Museum is 
 the ready response made by the people of the city to the advances 
 of the Museum. 
 
 This leads me to speak of the Art Institute of Chicago, whose 
 representative I have the honor of being here today. The Toledo 
 Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago are working along 
 the same lines and are furnishing good examples of what a real live 
 museum can do. They have energy, vitality, and genuine demo- 
 cratic aspirations. They are doing much to bring beauty and joy to 
 a large public. They are potent factors in the life of a busy commer- 
 cial city. 
 
 I was not born in Chicago but I have lived there so long that 
 I have acquired that characteristic modesty for which its citizens are 
 noted and of which the Bostonian has so little — so I hesitate to speak 
 of the greatest of all the museums of the West — ^The Art Institute of 
 Chicago. Surely the history of the development of the Fine Arts not 
 only in the West but in the country cannot be written without men- 
 
 28 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 tion of it. Chicago is regarded, even in the East, as an art center 
 and as such it is rather unique among the cities of the land. While 
 it is an art center, it has within its borders an active, influential center 
 of art. Few cities are so fortunate. The center of art in Chicago is 
 the Art Institute. I do not mean to say that there is nothing 
 artistic in Chicago outside of the Art Institute — far from it — there is 
 much, but in and about the Art Institute you will find gathered in 
 one way or other a great majority of all people interested in the 
 artistic development of the community. This is as it should be, for 
 in every city the museum of art should be the center of all artistic 
 forces. I wonder if I dare quote the opinion of one in no way con- 
 nected with the Art Institute. I will venture to do so. 
 
 "The Art Institute is the inspiring center of the free education 
 in the Art of Painting, Sculpture, Handicraft and Music, and the 
 intellectual life for all citizens — men, women and children of high and 
 low degree. During the past year the visitors at the Art Institute 
 numbered a full million. All were welcome. Other Museums 
 throughout the country will record more acquisitions and endowments 
 but no one is enveloped in a more liberal atmosphere of good will 
 toward the public — from the Director and his associates, the office 
 force, the guards, the messenger boy and the humble women polish- 
 ing the floor — none are ever so busy that they cannot stop in courtesy 
 to a stranger. Each and everyone has the service of the Art Insti- 
 tute as an ideal and it is this personal hospitality that enhances 
 the value of the Art Institute a hundredfold. It is a never-ending 
 cause of comment among artists and travelers who have visited all 
 the great Galleries and Museums of the world." The Trustees of 
 the Art Institute are striving to create just such a museum as is 
 here described. 
 
 Other influences besides these of the Museum, School, and Art 
 Society have been at work in the West. Some of the most conspicu- 
 ous events in the history of the advancement of art in our country 
 have occurred west of the AUeghenies. Foremost among them are 
 the five expositions held in the West during the past twenty-five 
 years. 
 
 Probably no one event in the progress of art in the West has been 
 more potent than that of the World's Columbian Exposition, held 
 in Chicago in eighteen hundred and ninety-three. The Centennial 
 Exposition of eighteen hundred and seventy-six awakened an interest 
 
 29 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 in art among the people of the East, but in the development of the art 
 movement not only in the West, but in our whole country, the World's 
 Columbian Exposition still stands as the one supreme event. It 
 marks the beginning of a new era in the history of art in the United 
 States. 
 
 The Exposition at St. Louis was also of great value — so were 
 the two California expositions, those at San Francisco and San 
 Diego, especially the one at San Diego. Its buildings and grounds 
 presented the most perfect and exquisite setting for an exposition 
 ever created. 
 
 These five expositions have done much to advance the progress 
 of art among us by arousing the people to a proper appreciation of, 
 and interest in the Fine Arts. It would be difficult to overestimate 
 the value of their influence. 
 
 Let me quote from the writing of a distinguished Eastern critic 
 who said — "Over and above all that has been done for the progress 
 of the Fine Arts, the most significant event is that of the building of 
 the World's Columbian Fair at Chicago." It was the turning-point 
 in the artistic progress of our country. It was so marked that it may 
 well be called another epoch. Its effect was profound and far-reaching, 
 strongly influencing our subsequent work and point of view. It was 
 the first occasion upon which there were brought together to work for 
 a common result, — not only a number of architects, but also prac- 
 titioners of the allied arts. It taught a lesson that the architect, 
 the painter, and the sculptor, if each is to reach his highest expres- 
 sion, must all work together, mind to mind, hand to hand, — not as 
 separate units fortuitously assembled, but as an intimately interwoven, 
 mutually comprehending team, as men worked in the great ages of 
 the past — to make great art. The World's Columbian Exposition 
 taught a great lesson of collaboration. 
 
 We are not unmindful of all that has been going on in the East. 
 We realize that the Metropolitan alone has achieved a position sur- 
 passing that of all the Western museums combined. It is one of the 
 greatest museums of the world. 
 
 There are several notable facts in the history of the Metropolitan 
 Museum which should not be overlooked. They furnish a wise ex- 
 ample for every community seeking to better the condition of its 
 people. 
 
 First of all, your Museum has been exceedingly fortunate in hav- 
 
 30 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 ing from the first year of its existence, the cooperation of the muni- 
 cipality with individual contributions — State, City, and private 
 citizens have been interested in your work. From the time Mr. 
 Tweed and Mr. Sweeney befriended you, until the time when you 
 received the magnificent gift of Mr. Altman, this help has been forth- 
 coming. Let us give Tammany Hall the credit due it for the support 
 it has given not only to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but also to 
 the Museum of Natural History. Mr. Sweeney may have been a 
 shrewd politician but he was a far-sighted man when he said to your 
 representative who went to him for recognition of the Museum, 
 "This is just in our line, in line with our ideas of progress in New 
 York City." Would that all our politicians were as wise and would 
 that every state would follow the example set by New York in foster- 
 ing public museums. 
 
 One cannot review the history of this Museum or the development 
 of art in our country without recalling first of all the great personal 
 devotion and princely gifts of J. Pierpont Morgan. Mr. Altman's 
 gift is also valuable as an example showing what can be done by a 
 public-spirited citizen for the good of his fellow-man. With one 
 exception no single gift has ever been made to any public museum 
 of art as fine and as valuable as that of Mr. Altman. The one ex- 
 ception is that of the Wallace Collection. The latter was the work of 
 three generations, while the collection of Mr. Altman was brought 
 together in three decades. Probably no museum of the world has 
 had so large a number of conspicuous gifts such as those of Mr. Rogers, 
 during the past fifty years, as the Metropolitan. I wish there were 
 time to mention the many benefactors who have enriched your his- 
 tory by devotion and treasure from John Taylor Johnston, its first 
 President, do,wn to its present incumbent — Robert W. de Forest. 
 To no one does the Museum owe more than to the man who has for 
 the past seven years guided the work of the Museum and inspired 
 not only the members of its staff but all those vitally interested in 
 museum work throughout the country. 
 
 It is our good fortune to be citizens of a noble Republic. Of this 
 citizenship we are justly proud. We do not always appreciate our 
 heritage or realize the duty it imposes upon us. We seldom stop to 
 think at what sacrifice it has been bequeathed to us. Nowhere else 
 on the face of the earth is democracy more triumphant than in this 
 land of ours, but even here it still falls far short of that ideal democracy 
 
 31 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 of which we sometimes dream. Recognizing this fact, it is well to 
 ask ourselves what is the ultimate object of democracy. I think it 
 was President Eliot who said, "Democracy is to increase the satisfac- 
 tion and joys of life for the great masses of people." We are seeking 
 to advance the civilization of the age in which we live. Some people 
 look upon civilization as they look upon art, — something to be separ- 
 ated from common every-day life. True civilization is simply a 
 knowledge of how to live and a way to use that knowledge. Our 
 task is that of civilizing the great democracy of which we are citizens. 
 For this, first of all we must have orderly, healthy, well-governed 
 communities. 
 
 In them we must establish certain great institutions of light and 
 learning to stimulate thought, to refine and elevate taste, to make life 
 more full of joy. These institutions must be amply endowed and in- 
 telligently conducted. Through them every effort must be made to 
 reach and uplift all classes of citizens. Among these institutions there 
 should be great universities, libraries, hospitals, opera houses, theatres, 
 public parks and playgrounds, and museums of art — the last is not the 
 least. It is to promote and foster them that we are gathered here 
 today. 
 
 There have been two great epochs in the history of art. The 
 first was that of classical antiquity and the second that of the Renais- 
 sance. These two epochs were separated the one from the other by 
 only a thousand years. In the first epoch, architecture and sculpture 
 were preeminent. Greek influence dominated the world. In the 
 second period, that of the Renaissance, Italian creative genius led 
 all nations. Is there any good reason why there should not be an- 
 other Renaissance of Art? Indeed, are we not already on its thresh- 
 old? The more you consider the state of art in our country and the 
 conditions surrounding it, the more you will rejoice at the outlook 
 for the future. There is an awakening on every hand. Public- 
 spirited citizens throughout the country are intent on the advance- 
 ment of the Fine Arts. There is no such activity in the world of art 
 in any other part of the world. 
 
 In this third great period in the history of art there is no reason 
 why American influence should not prevail. Why should not our 
 country be the center of this new movement? Conditions are 
 favorable. In this new movement why should not the Metropolitan 
 Museum take the lead? The opportunity is yours. In the light 
 
 32 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 of what you have accomplished during the first fifty years of your 
 existence, no one need hesitate to prophesy that you will embrace the 
 opportunity. As you lead, we will follow. We will rejoice at your 
 success, as we do today, and gladly acclaim you first and foremost of 
 us all. Again I congratulate you. 
 
 33 
 
ADDRESS BY ROBERT W. de FOREST 
 
 Fifty years ago The Metropolitan Museum of Art existed only 
 as the vision of a group of public-spirited persons — artists, clergymen, 
 lawyers, men of affairs. It was fitting that a poet, William Cullen 
 Bryant, should have presided at the meeting which first made their 
 vision articulate. 
 
 This vision, unlike most dreams, had clear definition. It embod- 
 ied a museum to contain objects illustrative of "all the arts, whether 
 industrial, educational, or recreative;" a museum "to encourage and 
 develop the study of the fine arts and the application of arts to man- 
 ufactures and practical life." 
 
 But however clearly defined, it was then only a vision. Those 
 dreamers had "no building, not even a site; no existing collection as a 
 nucleus; no money." But they were practical men. They were not 
 content merely to dream a beautiful dream. They set out at once to 
 make their dream come true. Today the institution which they 
 founded has a building extending along four blocks on Fifth Avenue; 
 a site on which there is still room for expansion; collections which al- 
 ready rival in extent and surpass in installation those of the great 
 museums of Europe, and money to the amount of more than 
 1 1 6,000,000. True, the Museum is restricted in the use of most of 
 this money but it is none the less Museum money. 
 
 The Founders, if they could today see the realization of their 
 vision (I hope they can), would not recognize it. The conception, 
 the purpose of this Museum, its foundation, is theirs — the same now 
 as it was then. The structure which has been built on this foundation 
 has mounted up far beyond the wildest flight of their imaginings. 
 
 It is even pathetic to recall their early eflForts. Their appeal for 
 support reads — "A subscription of 56250,000 will ensure the complete 
 success of the Museum." The funding of a million of dollars " would 
 
 34 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 give an annual income sufficient to provide for proper care of the build- 
 ing and collections and to add to the collections annually." 
 
 It took a long time to find even that 1250,000. In March, 1871, 
 only 1 1 06,000 had been subscribed. It was not until later that the 
 initial $250,000 had been secured and the subscriptions became 
 binding. |io,ooo was the largest subscription. There were two of 
 $5,000. The rest came in sums of $1,000 and of $500. 
 
 The Founders began their collections by the purchase of 174 
 old masters, for $116,180.27. They held their first exhibition two 
 years after organization in a rented dancing school. 
 
 They then had their first lesson in accepting gifts. "Mr. Rowe 
 presents us," writes Mr. Johnston, "with a colossal dancing girl, 
 by Schwanthaler, the celebrated German sculptor at Munich. It 
 may be very fine but eight feet of dance is a trial to the feelings. 
 Hereafter we must curb the exuberance of donors, except in the article 
 of money, of which latter they may give as much as they please." 
 
 That was forty-eight years ago. Today we have a different kind 
 of exhibition. As we look through these spacious galleries filled with 
 priceless objects of art, most of them in perpetual possession of the 
 Museum, others lent to it to celebrate this occasion, we may well put 
 to ourselves the question, how is it that the vision of the Founders 
 has been realized so far beyond their most extravagant expectation? 
 How has all this come to pass? I say come to pass rather than been 
 brought to pass; for to say it has been brought to pass would be to 
 ascribe the result entirely to human direction. But it would never 
 have come to pass unless it had been in large measure brought to 
 pass. I put this question not in a spirit of self-congratulation or self- 
 laudation. The future is before us. It should be a future quite as 
 much beyond our present realization as that realization is beyond the 
 expectation of the Founders. It can be so if we clearly apprehend the 
 causes of our present development and continue to pursue the same 
 policies which have produced it. Nor is this inquiry solely of interest 
 to ourselves. It equally concerns the rapidly increasing fellowship of 
 art museums in America so many of which have honored us today 
 by the presence of their presidents and directors. 
 
 I will try to enumerate some of the chief causes to which I attribute 
 our present position. 
 
 First, I name the breadth of our foundation. This we owe not 
 only to our first President, John Taylor Johnston, but to those who 
 
 35 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 were associated with him at the outset, such as George F. Comfortj 
 William T, Blodgett, Russell Sturgis, Jr., George P. Putnam, and 
 William C. Prime. It would have been quite in the spirit of the 
 time when our Museum was organized to have fashioned it after 
 most European museums and made it simply a collection of paintings 
 and sculpture. But the purpose of our institution was far broader. 
 It was to represent not only the fine arts but all the arts — "not paint- 
 ing and statuary alone, but multiplied art such as prints, and bronzes, 
 and industrial and decorative art of all kinds," and the application of 
 all arts "to manufactures and practical life." It was not confined 
 to ancient art. Modern art was equally within its scope. It was 
 not merely intended to show beautiful objects — to be "recreative." 
 It was to show them for a practical purpose — to be "educational." 
 We are carrying out this fundamental purpose of the Founders by 
 representing all the arts in our collections and giving to each propor- 
 tionate representation. This has been possible only during the last 
 fifteen years, since our resources have been increased. It is illustrated 
 by the creation of our different departments and the assembling of 
 our staff. It is further illustrated by the allocation of our purchase 
 funds to different departments. We have now, besides the Depart- 
 ment of Paintings, which has existed almost from the start, the follow- 
 ing departments, which are named in the order of their establishment: 
 Classical Art, Egyptian Art, Decorative Arts, Arms and Armor, Far 
 Eastern Art, Prints. The youngest of these departments, now only 
 three years old, has already attained full growth, as is illustrated 
 by its present exhibition. 
 
 Secondly, our Museum was popular in its origin. It was the 
 project of no single man. A large group of men of different and vari- 
 ous callings took part in defining its purposes and laying its founda- 
 tions. It was not to be a Corcoran Gallery or a Field Museum. Not 
 that I would belittle the public spirit of a Corcoran or a Field, but 
 the form in which their public spirit found expression brought with it 
 some limitations. 
 
 Because popular in its origin it has been popular in the support 
 which it has received from a generous and public-spirited public. 
 This is both cause and effect. Except for such support in the past 
 many of its activities could not have been undertaken or developed. 
 Except for such support it would have no purchase funds with which 
 systematically to increase its collections and make them useful to the 
 
 36 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 public. Except for such support to supplement the decreasing city 
 appropriation for maintenance it could not sustain itself and throw its 
 collections open so freely to the public. That it has such support is 
 due to the fact that like the profitable servant in the New Testament 
 parable, it has not kept its talent in a napkin, and like that profitable 
 servant has had more talents given to it. 
 
 It is gratifying to us to realize that our public support comes not 
 only from the citizens of our own city but from others. It is right 
 that this should be so if thereby we do not diminish the resources of 
 art museums in other American cities. For we are serving not only 
 the City of New York, but all parts of the country. We are not 
 merely a New York museum, we are in title as well as in fact a metro- 
 politan museum. The largest gift the Museum ever received was 
 from a citizen of New Jersey, Jacob S. Rogers. True, the two next 
 largest came from our own city. But of the two next in order, and 
 each amounting to more than $1,000,000, one came from Owego, 
 New York, and the other from Zanesville, Ohio. 
 
 Among the causes which have contributed to the Museum's 
 present development I should not omit the personality of its Founders 
 and their successors or of its staff. Here also cause and effect are 
 intermingled. We could not have secured for the Museum trustees 
 with the qualifications which our Trustees have had without giving 
 them opportunity for effective service. We could not have given 
 them that opportunity without the defined purpose given to us by our 
 Founders and the resources to carry out that purpose given to us by a 
 generous public. Nor could these Trustees carry out that purpose, 
 even with such resources, without an able and efficient staff. The 
 Museum family as now constituted — Director, staff, and Trustees — 
 is and has been for many years a happy family, without any of the 
 jars which frequently invade the family relation, and all the members 
 of that family are working cordially together to make our Museum a 
 faithful servant of the people. 
 
 Our Museum, besides being popular in its origin and in its support, 
 has been popular and democratic in its organization. From the out- 
 set it sought and had close relation with our city government, and 
 city officers are ex-officio members of its Board of Trustees. It was 
 because of such relation that we have our site and our building. It 
 is because of such relation that we have a city contribution toward 
 our annual cost of maintenance. I know that some of our Trustees 
 
 37 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 at times questioned the advisability of this relation. They feared 
 lest it might lead to political interference. I know that our sister- 
 museum in Boston without such a relation has singularly prospered. 
 But during all of these fifty years the fears of timid trustees have 
 proved groundless. And even if this relation may involve some em- 
 barrassment, some loss, the gain, to me, is far greater. By reason of 
 this relation our Museum is essentially a people's museum. It is not a 
 private gallery for the use of our Trustees and members. It is a 
 public gallery for the use of all the people, high and low, and even 
 more for the low than for the high, for the high can find artistic in- 
 spiration in their own homes. The low can find it only here. 
 
 The great crowds from east side, west side, and every side — men, 
 women, and children — which throng our galleries every Saturday and 
 Sunday, which stand in silent rapture when music combines with its 
 sister arts to voice a harmony more perfect than music can produce 
 alone, feel and have a right to feel that it is their museum and can 
 add the joy of possession to their other delights. 
 
 Do not understand me as advocating complete public control, be 
 it municipal or state, of any American art museum. It is the com- 
 bination of public and private control which we have in the Metro- 
 politan that seems to me so desirable. That is, a board of trustees, 
 elected by the corporation for terms of office sufficiently long to 
 ensure continuous policies, and ex-officio trustees in the persons of 
 particular city officers to hold office for the term of their election by 
 the people. The present lease by the City under which the Museum 
 occupies its buildings, coupled with the presence on our Board of city 
 officers, seems to me to make this partnership, as it may be called, 
 between the City and the Museum quite perfect. 
 
 Chief, however, among all the causes which have given the Mu- 
 seum, in my opinion, its present position, is what I may call, for 
 lack of a better term, the active part it is taking in community life. 
 In a sense it is its direct contribution to education. In another sense 
 it is its direct contribution to recreation. It is evidenced on the edu- 
 cational side by our close relation to the teachers and children of our 
 schools, public and private, by our Museum instructors who give ex- 
 pert guidance, by the hospitality of our class rooms, by our many 
 lecture courses for artisans as well as art students, by the labeling 
 of our collections, by their illustration with photographs and plans, 
 and by our catalogues and handbooks. It is evidenced on the side 
 
 38 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 of recreation by our story-telling hours for children and by our free 
 concerts. 
 
 Americanism is a popular term just now, though of somewhat 
 undefined application, but what can make more for Americanism in its 
 true sense, and for what is more than Americanism, for good citizen- 
 ship and neigh borliness, than our free concerts, the latest of which was 
 attended by more than 10,000 people, and than the crowds of children 
 who come to our Museum every Sunday afternoon to listen to the 
 story telling and who frequently fill our lecture hall twice over? 
 
 Such activities demonstrate to the people of our city that our 
 Museum is a real, living, human organism, with heart as well as mind; 
 that it is ready not only to open its doors to invited guests, but go 
 out "into the by-ways and hedges" and to bid all to come in and that 
 all who do come in will be equally welcomed. For there are no privi- 
 leged classes in our Museum unless it be the children, and they are 
 not a class. We are not content simply to show dead things, however 
 beautiful they are and however much inspiration may come from 
 their dead beauty. We seek to make everything in our Museum 
 alive and to enter as a living force into all the interests of our com- 
 munity. This is our contribution toward making art free for de- 
 mocracy. 
 
 In such policies we enter a field quite unknown to the European 
 art museums. Our policy exemplifies what may be called the Amer- 
 ican museum idea, which is practised by many of our fellow American 
 museums. 
 
 And what should be the policies of the Museum in the future, so 
 that our successors, when they come fifty years hence to celebrate 
 its hundredth anniversary, may do so with the same satisfaction with 
 which we celebrate its fiftieth? Strict adherence, in my judgment, 
 to the policies of the past, with possibly some difference of emphasis 
 and an open-minded readiness to meet the changes of public senti- 
 ment in the future just as the Trustees of the past generation met the 
 changing sentiment of later times. For instance, Sunday opening of 
 the Museum would have shocked the Founders and seemed to most 
 of them sinful. Some of them, could they have foreseen it, would 
 have refused to take any part in the enterprise. But many of these 
 same Founders joined with Trustees of a newer generation in forming 
 the majority which in 1891 decreed Sunday opening. 
 
 Our Museum should continue its original policy of recognizing 
 
 29 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 all the arts and giving no undue preponderance to any. It should 
 be educational quite as much as recreative and recreative quite as 
 much as educational. I look to greater emphasis being laid on 
 modern art. The art of past centuries which has stood the test of 
 time and created standards to which we must ever look for guidance 
 must always be the fundamental basis of any art museum, but mod- 
 ern art should not be excluded. We are interested quite as much, if 
 not more, in what the art world is doing now as we are in what it 
 has done in the past. Modern art in painting and sculpture is well 
 represented in our Museum. The other forms of modern art are 
 still to be adequately represented. 
 
 Our Museum has been accused of neglecting our own national 
 American art. There was a time not long since when I think this 
 accusation was justified. It is certainly not justified now. Four of 
 our galleries are now given up entirely to American painting. Fif- 
 teen years ago (1904) we had only 147 American pictures, represent- 
 ing 83 American painters, and 48 pieces of American sculpture, repre- 
 senting 26 American sculptors. Today we have 503 paintings, rep- 
 resenting 214 American painters, and 186 pieces of sculpture, repre- 
 senting 91 American sculptors. We have in these later years ac- 
 quired a very complete collection of American decorative art, original 
 rooms and their furnishings, but we have so far been able to exhibit 
 only a small part of these collections and even that part inadequately. 
 I confidently look forward to greater emphasis being placed on Amer- 
 ican art and it would not be at all surprising if our next develop- 
 ment in the line of departmental organization would be a Department 
 of American Decorative Art. 
 
 Our Museum has recently experimented in the line of what may 
 be called museum extension. We have many paintings, gladly wel- 
 comed in the earlier years, which can no longer find place on our 
 walls. We have many other objects of art of which the same is 
 true. Except for lack of space we would gladly exhibit much of 
 this museum material. With present limitations of space we cannot. 
 Instead of leaving it in our storerooms we have set it to work outside. 
 We have a loan exhibit of pictures now circulating in the branch public 
 libraries. We have another in the Bronx. We have several exhibits 
 touring the country under the management of the American Federa- 
 tion of Arts. A Metropolitan Museum collection of pictures which 
 the Founders would have eagerly welcomed for their first exhibition 
 
 40 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 is now on the road and has this winter visited eight cities as follows: 
 Youngstown, Ohio; Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia; Fort 
 Worth and Galveston, Texas; Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South 
 Carolina; and Lima, Ohio. We are lending textiles and other exhibits 
 to the City high schools. This is museum extension. We have 
 definitely adopted this policy. It should be as useful as university 
 extension. There is no limit to the degree to which it can be carried 
 out except that of resources. 
 
 And what is our forecast of the future.^ How will it be with the 
 Museum fifty years hence? Our ship has been well designed and well 
 built. It lingered, to be sure, at the launching, but in the retrospect 
 the voyage so far has been exceedingly prosperous. There have been 
 storms, but it has outridden them. There have been reefs, but it 
 has avoided them. In later years it has sailed on with the favoring 
 winds and favoring tides of country-wide growth and prosperity. 
 The ship, as it sails along, will be no less staunch. The crew will be 
 no less able and faithful. But winds and tides we cannot control. 
 
 Looking ahead, I see but one storm signal. Can and will our 
 city continue to perform its part of our partnership relation? Our 
 new south wing, begun by the City six years ago, has never been com- 
 pleted. Work on it has been at a standstill since 1917. There is no 
 city appropriation to continue it. Ten years ago (1909) the City 
 contributed 68 per cent, of our cost of maintenance. Five years 
 ago (1914) this was 43 per cent. Last year (1919) it was only 28 
 per cent. Meanwhile the cost of our service to the public has been 
 constantly increasing. Last year our administrative expenses were 
 $617,214.05, to which the City contributed $175,00x3. After using 
 for these expenses all our income applicable to administration and 
 supplementing it by all the income which we could lawfully divert 
 from other purposes to that of administration, there remained a defi- 
 cit of $45,503.47. This year, I am glad to say, the city contribu- 
 tion has been increased to $300,000. But there will still be a deficit. 
 
 Our future development, the extent of our future service to the 
 people of New York, depends upon the degree to which the City will 
 provide buildings and contribute toward the cost of operation. 
 
 In Europe Government supplies to art museums not only all the 
 buildings, but all the cost of operation and almost all the purchase 
 funds. In New York Government is now supplying less than half 
 the cost of operation and none of the purchase funds. 
 
 41 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 We have invited our fellow art museums to join with us in this 
 celebration, not so much with the thought of receiving their congratu- 
 lations as of giving them ours. True, it is our fiftieth birthday. But 
 it is fifty years of progress in the growth of art museums in America 
 that we really celebrate today. For the art museum impulse was 
 national in extent and has gathered momentum as the years have 
 passed by. 
 
 The Boston Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1870 and is 
 practically of our own age. The Chicago Art Institute dates from 
 1 879 and is only a few years younger. The St. Louis Museum was 
 organized in the same year as Chicago. The Pennsylvania Museum 
 preceded it in 1876. Cincinnati and Brooklyn date from the 8o's, 
 Pittsburgh and Worcester from the 90's, Toledo, Indianapolis, Detroit, 
 Minneapolis, and Cleveland from the present century. I am not nam- 
 ing all the art museums in the country. They number, according to my 
 latest statistics (of ten years ago), 92, not counting the museum in- 
 cluded in Mr. Rea's catalogue of American museums whose art collec- 
 tion is described as "one case of chinaware." Many are parts of other 
 institutions — universities, schools, and libraries, like the Fogg Art 
 Museum at Harvard and the Art School of Yale. But I have named 
 the principal ones which are independent in organization, public in 
 character, educational in purpose, aggressive in policy, and which 
 like ours are not content to be mere depositories of objects of art 
 but aspire to be community art centers. It is a large and increasing 
 family. Every year will, I trust, add to its number. Some of its 
 members have grown, in proportion to the population of the cities in 
 which they are located, even faster than we have. Some of them have 
 pursued an open-door, community policy even further than we have. 
 We are glad to profit by their experience. We are glad to share with 
 them ours. They give inspiration to us. We hope to give some 
 inspiration to them. We have no feeling of jealousy toward them or 
 rivalry with them, for our American public art museums form one 
 sympathetic family, every member of which rejoices in the success and 
 prosperity of the others. To all we give a hearty birthday greeting. 
 
 42 
 
ADDRESS BY ELIHU ROOT 
 
 It has seemed fitting to the Trustees of the Museum that upon this 
 celebration of the close of the first half-century of the Museum's 
 existence, the names of the Founders and the Benefactors during that 
 critical period should be inscribed in permanent form and in conspicu- 
 ous place amid the works that have lived after them. 
 
 On the 23rd of November, 1869, there was a meeting of a little 
 group of men in the hall of the Union League Club in this city for the 
 purpose of considering a proposal to establish a museum of art in the 
 City of New York. They appointed committees. They agreed upon 
 a constitution. They applied to the Legislature and received a char- 
 ter granted in April, 1870— fifty years ago last month. The condi- 
 tions under which they met and acted it is very difficult for us to 
 realize now. It is difficult even for those of us who can remember 
 them. We were just approaching the close of that dreadful period of 
 taste which extended from the presidency of Jackson to the presi- 
 dency of Grant — that dreadful period which found its consummate 
 flower among the French in the meretricious adornment of the Second 
 Empire, and which has associated the idea of goodness with the idea 
 of ugliness in the term "Victorian Period." The newly awakening 
 desire of the American people for art was finding expression in sawed- 
 scroll-work and basswood-towers. The women of America, with all 
 the innate and natural taste of womanhood, were pressing autumn 
 leaves and doing crude worsted work as an expression of art. The 
 reign of Mullet was just before us — the reign of that incredible 
 architecture which has given to us the New York Post Office, and in 
 Washington the State, War, and Navy Building with its job-lot of 
 granite columns opposite the beautiful relic of colonial days in the 
 White House. Long rows of brownstone, high-stooped houses ex- 
 pressed the idea of New Yorkers in regard to living. In the homes 
 of the American people who had about them all the beauties of nature 
 
 43 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 Prang chromos expressed their ideas of art. More than twenty years 
 were yet to come before that wonderful white city on the shore of Lake 
 Michigan was to strike the imagination of the American people with 
 a new idea that the beautiful was better than the sqixalid. 
 
 The giving habit had not been cultivated — hardly created in New 
 York. Fortunes were small. There were many faint hearts in the 
 group that gathered in the Union League Club. There was so little 
 art for the public that it was not understood, and there was so little 
 public for art that it was hardly manifest. There were no consid- 
 erable museums. There were some praiseworthy private attempts 
 on a small scale, but not here. There were no sources from which to 
 draw. Our conception of art was of something far away in the old 
 world. The men who gathered in that meeting and resolved to estab- 
 lish an art museum, played the role of Columbus. And what they 
 did compared with what we are doing has the same relation that the 
 courage and faith of Columbus bore to the ordinary matter-of-course 
 voyage of the master of an ocean steamer on the Atlantic today. 
 
 But the development of this free, intelligent, individually inde- 
 pendent people had been passing through the stage I have attempted 
 to describe, and had come to the beginning of a new era, and like the 
 faint breath of the breeze before the dawn something touched the 
 spirit of the men who gathered at the call of enthusiasts to con- 
 sider the project of establishing a museum in New York. It was felt 
 not here alone, but in Boston and faintly stirring in favored places 
 throughout the land. The men who gathered included artists and 
 authors and lawyers and clergymen and men of affairs. There were 
 Hunt, Ward, Johnson, Kensett, and Olmsted, whose art is living now. 
 There were Bryant and Curtis. There were Bellows and Thompson, 
 Choate and Barlow. And there were John Taylor Johnston and 
 Dix, Aspinwall, Blodgett, Putnam, and Marquand, and other names 
 of the great business men of New York, to whom at that time, as a 
 youth, I looked up as to the gods upon Olympus. They belonged 
 to that great class of nation builders — men whose strength of char- 
 acter and ability and power, through the process of natural selection, 
 made them the leaders in the march of the American people toward the 
 amazing development of our country in the last half-century. And 
 like all men of distinguished success in business as well as in literature 
 and in art, they had the quality of imagination. Inspired by the 
 artists and authors who joined with them, they overbore the doubting 
 
 44 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 and vacillating — the men of little faith — and determined to accom- 
 plish the apparently almost hopeless task. There was one man whose 
 inspiration was the most valuable of all, and whose name should not 
 be omitted here — George F. Comfort of Princeton University, who 
 was not only an enthusiast in art, but a reformer with the instincts of 
 reform, with the enthusiasm of propaganda, and devoted to sharing his 
 love of art and his joy in it among all the people of this country. 
 His knowledge and direction and inspiration played a great part in 
 making the effort a success. 
 
 Under that kind of influence, and with that character, the men 
 who undertook to begin the establishment of the Museum, formed a 
 sound conception of what it was they were undertaking. They knew 
 that their task was something more than the establishment of a de- 
 pository for works of art. They understood that the cultivation of 
 taste is one of the mightiest agencies in the eternal conflict, the strug- 
 gle for happiness against the discontent and the tedium of life. They 
 knew that when for rich and poor alike food and drink and clothing 
 and shelter have been supplied, there still comes the question of 
 happiness. They knew that then Satan enters into the empty cham- 
 bers of the soul that has no spiritual interest in life. They knew what 
 we see today, that the great problem for the laboring people of 
 America, with their higher wages and their shorter hours, is what to 
 do with their higher wages and their leisure hours. They knew that 
 no wealth and no material things can fill the void in human nature. 
 And with that deep knowledge they proceeded with a breadth of 
 view worthy of all honor. They determined to establish an institution 
 which should be not to gratify curiosity, but to educate taste, which 
 should be not for amusement but an essential means of high culti- 
 vation. And they declared that they were determined to establish an 
 institution which should gather for the education of all the people 
 the human documents of art in all its phases and in all its possibilities 
 — painting and sculpture, the graphic arts, handiwork, textiles and 
 metals, music, the arts of East and West, of the present and the past 
 — all were to be made to contribute toward the cultivation of that 
 taste which makes for human happiness. And the institution which 
 they founded upon that broad basis has stood the test of common 
 judgment. It has been accepted as not a foible of the rich, but a 
 benefit for the whole community. It has justified and brought about 
 the support of government in the City and State, and it has com- 
 
 45 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 mended itself to a long line of spiritual successors of the men who 
 founded it — of successors inspired by the same high purpose, capable 
 of the same faith, and instinct with the same spirit of service. John 
 Taylor Johnston, Founder and Benefactor; William T. Blodgett, who 
 without authority made the purchase of 174 paintings in Europe and 
 borrowed the money to pay for them, so that the Museum had to 
 go on; Marquand and Rhinelander and that greatest of art collectors, 
 Pierpont Morgan, and many others whose names you will presently 
 see graven in marble, have carried on the purpose, have kept the faith, 
 and have brought fruition to the hopes of the little group of men who 
 founded the institution fifty years ago in the Union League Club. 
 It is impossible for me here, upon this occasion which permits but 
 brief remarks, to do justice to the devotion and lofty spirit and enthu- 
 siasm of such men as Mr. Johnston and Mr. Marquand and Mr. 
 Rhinelander and Mr. Morgan and Mr. de Forest. The nobility of 
 the work has found in them fitting association, and I doubt not that 
 they have received in full measure from that work a reward for the 
 noble service they have rendered. It is especially grateful to me, and 
 I know it must be to all of you, that while the first name on the list 
 of the Founders and the first name on the list of the Benefactors is 
 that great citizen of New York, John Taylor Johnston, the last names 
 on the list of Benefactors are his daughter, Emily Johnston de Forest, 
 and his son-in-law, Robert de Forest. In the character of the found- 
 ers, in the universal public approval of their work, in the knowledge 
 that they have swung open the doors of vision to the school and the 
 factory, the children and the teachers, the artisans, the laborers, the 
 millions who are wearied by the dull and squalid sights of a great city, 
 in the succession of noble men who have kept alive the work they be- 
 gan, we find an augury inevitable for the future of the institution. 
 The spirit of great and noble citizenship lives still in America. The 
 instinct of service, the habit of benevolence, the urge of patriotism, 
 the love of beauty, the devotion to humanity live still in America. 
 And so long as our free republic retains its freedom this institution 
 and all the ranks of other institutions which have come along in the 
 same cause and are inspired by the same spirit will live and increase 
 and be a blessing to mankind. 
 
 The tablet of the Founders. The tablet of the Benefactors. 
 Surely of no man could it more appropriately be said than of these, 
 the trite old Latin saying, "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice." 
 
 46 
 
A BRIEF REVIEW OF FIFTY YEARS' DEVELOPMENT 
 
 1866 Suggestion of John Jay in Paris that 'it was time for the Amer- 
 ican people to lay the foundation of a National Institution and 
 Gallery of Art and that the American gentlemen then in Europe 
 were the men to inaugurate the plan.' 
 
 1869 Memorial from American citizens in Paris to Union League Club 
 
 urging establishment of permanent gallery of art in New York 
 referred to Art Committee in February, Report of Committee 
 adopted October 14 and public meeting planned. Meeting 
 held in Theatre of Union League Club, November 23 and Pro- 
 visional Committee of Fifty appointed. 
 
 1870 Officers, Trustees, and Executive Committee elected, Janu- 
 
 ary 31. 
 
 First President, John Taylor Johnston. 
 
 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, incorporated by the State 
 of New York, April 13, "for the purpose of establishing and 
 maintaining a museum and library of art, of encouraging and 
 developing the study of the fine arts, and the application of 
 arts to manufacture and practical life, of advancing the 
 knowledge of kindred subjects, and to that end, of furnishing 
 popular instruction and recreation." 
 
 Permanent Constitution adopted at first annual meeting. 
 May 24. 
 
 Resolution adopted to raise ^250,000 by public subscription to 
 establish Museum. 
 
 First gift, Roman sarcophagus from Tarsus, from Abdo Debbas. 
 
 1 87 1 First purchase through William T. Blodgett and John Taylor 
 
 Johnston, 174 paintings of various schools. 
 Only |io6,ooo reported to be subscribed out of the total of 
 ^250,000 desired, March 3. 
 
 47 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 Act authorizing erection and maintenance "upon that portion 
 of Central Park formerly known as Manhattan Square, or 
 any other park, square or place" of a suitable building for 
 the Museum. 
 
 First annual report issued. 
 
 Sums pledged, with amounts subscribed, exceeded required 
 ^250,000, May 3. 
 
 First temporary quarters leased, Dodworth Building, 681 Fifth 
 Avenue, annual rental |9,ooo. 
 
 1872 First exhibition, consisting of the Museum's collection of 
 
 paintings and other objects of art lent for the occasion, opened 
 February 20. 
 
 "We have now something to point to as the Museum, some- 
 thing tangible and something good." John Taylor Johnston. 
 
 Students given copyists' privilege. 
 
 First lectures given: Hiram Hitchcock on General di Cesnola's 
 discoveries in Cyprus, Russell Sturgis, Jr., on Ceramic Art. 
 
 Permanent location of museum building, Seventy-ninth Street 
 to Eighty-fourth Street, Central Park, ratified by Trustees on 
 the site designated for such a purpose on plan of Central Park, 
 in Report of Park Commissioners, 1869. 
 
 1873 Second temporary quarters leased, the Douglas Mansion, 128 
 
 West Fourteenth Street, annual rental, $8,000. 
 
 Cesnola Collection of Cypriote antiquities exhibited. 
 
 Original fund of $250,000 raised by subscription exhausted. 
 
 Act enabling Park Department to apply annually to mainte- 
 nance of Museum a sum not exceeding $15,000. 
 
 Admission fee charged, except on Monday. 
 
 First catalogue of a loan exhibition of paintings. 
 
 1874 Cesnola collection of Cypriote antiquities bought. 
 First Secretary, William J. Hoppin, elected. 
 
 1875 Free days, Monday and Thursday, established. (Average 
 
 attendance 577.) 
 First guide to collections issued. 
 Privileges to students granted. 
 
 1876 Annual membership class formed. 600 enrolled. 
 Centennial loan exhibition, in cooperation with National Acad- 
 emy of Design. 
 
 48 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 1877 Second Secretary, General L. P. di Cesnola, elected. 
 
 1878 Act enabling City to appropriate $30,000 for moving collections 
 
 and fitting up building in Central Park. 
 Relations between City and Museum established by lease. 
 
 1879 Last reception in Douglas Mansion. 
 
 First Director, General L. P. di Cesnola, elected. 
 Removal to Central Park. 
 
 1880 First Museum Building in Park opened, Calvert Vaux and J. 
 
 W. Mould, Architects. 
 Industrial Art School established through gift of Gideon F. T. 
 
 Reed. 
 Library organized. $500 appropriated. 
 
 1881 First bequest, Stephen Whitney Phoenix collection of objects of 
 
 art. 
 
 1883 First bequest of money, about $100,000, Levi Hale Willard, 
 
 for purchase of architectural casts. 
 
 1884 Loan exhibition, paintings by George Frederick Watts. 
 
 1886 Department of Paintings organized- 
 Department of Sculpture organized. 
 
 William H. Vanderbilt bequest, nucleus of General Endowment 
 
 Fund. 
 First purchase of Egyptian art. 
 
 1887 Catharine Lorillard Wolfe bequest, modern paintings and fund 
 
 for maintenance. 
 
 1888 First addition to building (Addition B), Theodore Weston, 
 
 Architect. 
 Henry G. Marquand gives paintings by Old Masters. 
 
 1889 Mrs. John Crosby Brown gives collection of musical instru- 
 
 ments. 
 John Taylor Johnston elected Honorary President. 
 Second President, Henry G. Marquand, elected. 
 Department of Casts created. 
 
 1890 John Jacob Astor bequest. 
 
 49 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 1 891 Sunday opening inaugurated. 
 
 Appointment of Special Committee to form collection of casts 
 of sculpture, on initiative of Robert W. de Forest. Over 
 $78,cx)0 obtained. Increased later by George W. Cullum 
 bequest and John Taylor Johnston memorial fund. 
 
 Edward C. Moore bequest of objects of art. 
 
 189a Act authorizing yearly appropriation by City; ^70,000 received. 
 Mrs. Amelia B. Lazarus gives Jacob H. Lazarus Traveling 
 Scholarship. 
 
 1893 Mrs. Elizabeth U. Coles bequest, tapestries and other objects 
 
 of art, and fund. 
 Restaurant opened. 
 
 1894 Second addition to building (Addition C), Arthur L. Tucker- 
 
 man, Architect. 
 
 1895 Loan exhibition of early American paintings. 
 
 1901 Jacob S. Rogers bequest, for the purchase of objects of art 
 
 and books, over $5,cxx),ooo. 
 
 1902 Third addition to building (Addition D), main Fifth Avenue 
 
 entrance, Richard Morris Hunt, Architect. 
 George W. Vanderbilt lends collection of paintings. 
 Second President, Henry G. Marquand, died. 
 Third President, Frederick W. Rhinelander, elected. 
 Heber R. Bishop gives collection of jade. 
 
 1903 Boscoreale frescoes and Etruscan bronze biga, 6th century 
 
 B.C., bought. 
 
 1904 Death of General L. P. di Cesnola. 
 
 Third President, Frederick W. Rhinelander, died. 
 Fourth President, J. Pierpont Morgan, elected. 
 Third Secretary, Robert W. de Forest, elected. 
 
 1905 Second Director, Sir C. Purdon Clarke, elected. 
 Edward Robinson elected Assistant Director. 
 Membership classes, Sustaining and Fellowship, established. 
 
 ■ 50 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 Departments re-organized, Department of Classical Antiquities 
 
 organized. 
 Educational work organized; cooperation with Public Schools 
 
 initiated. 
 Publication of Bulletin begun. 
 
 1906 Accessions Room opened. 
 Photograph Department established. 
 Information Desk established. 
 Department of Egyptian Art organized. 
 Egyptian Expedition for excavation organized. 
 
 George A. Hearn gives English and American paintings and 
 fund for purchase of paintings by living American artists. 
 
 1907 Department of Decorative Arts organized. 
 Class Room opened. 
 
 Lantern slide lending collection begun. 
 
 Fourth addition to building (Addition E), McKim, Mead & 
 White, Architects. 
 
 1908 First Museum Instructor appointed. 
 Frederick C. Hewitt bequest, over ^1,500,000, 
 
 1909 Loan exhibition, Hudson-Fulton celebration. 
 First Study Room, of Textiles, opened. 
 
 1 9 10 Fifth addition to building (Addition F), Wing of Decorative 
 
 Arts, McKim, Mead & White, Architects. 
 
 J. Pierpont Morgan gives part and lends part of Hoentschel 
 Collection. 
 
 Mrs. Russell Sage gives Bolles Collection of American furni- 
 ture. 
 
 Sixth addition to building (Addition G), The Library, McKim, 
 Mead & White, Architects. 
 
 Sir C. Purdon Clarke, Director, resigns. 
 
 Third Director, Edward Robinson, elected. 
 
 George A. Hearn gives another collection of English and Amer- 
 ican paintings. 
 
 John Stewart Kennedy bequest, over ^2,600,000. 
 
 1 9 1 1 Lecture Hall opened. 
 
 51 
 
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
 
 191 2 Francis L. Leland gift, over $1,000,000. 
 
 Seventh addition to the building (Addition H), McKim, Mead 
 & White, Architects. 
 Joseph Pulitzer bequest, over $900,000. 
 Department of Arms and Armor organized. 
 
 1913 Death of J. Pierpont Morgan. 
 
 Fifth President, Robert W. de Forest, elected. 
 Fourth Secretary, Henry W. Kent, elected. 
 Benjamin Altman bequest, paintings, sculpture, Chinese porce- 
 lains, etc., and fund. 
 
 William Henry Riggs gives collection of arms and armor. 
 History of the Museum published. 
 
 1914 Loan exhibition, the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection. 
 
 Mrs. Edward J. Tytus gives fund for publication of Museum 
 
 Egyptian Expedition work. 
 John L. Cadwalader bequest, English furniture, porcelains, 
 
 and fund. 
 
 1915 Department of Far Eastern Art organized. 
 
 Mrs. Morris K. Jesup bequest, paintings and funds. 
 Mrs. Robert W. Gillespie bequest of tapestries. 
 
 1916 Edward S. Harkness gives Tomb of Perneb. 
 
 J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr., gives Colonna Raphael and sculpture 
 • from the Chateau de Biron. 
 
 1917 Department of Prints organized. 
 
 Harris B. Dick bequest, collections and fund, over $1,000,000. 
 
 First manufacturers' exhibition. 
 
 Isaac D. Fletcher bequest, collection of paintings and objects 
 
 of art, and fund, over $3,400,000. 
 Eighth addition to building (Addition J occupied. Addition 
 
 K not yet completed), McKim, Mead & White, Architects. 
 J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr., gives collection of objects of art. 
 
 191 8 J. Pierpont Morgan Collection of objects of art installed in 
 
 Wing of Decorative Arts, hereafter to be called the Pierpont 
 
 Morgan Wing. 
 John Hoge bequest, over $1,000,000. 
 Loan exhibition, contemporary American sculpture. 
 
 5^ 
 
THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 
 
 Free concerts inaugurated. 
 i Associate in Industrial Arts appointed. 
 
 1919 Cooperative Exhibition of Plant Forms in Ornament by Mu- 
 ^ seum and New York Botanical Garden. 
 
 Tablet commemorative of men who served in the war unveiled. 
 
 53 
 
OF THIS BOOK 
 
 FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE 
 
 COPIES HAVE BEEN PRINTED 
 
 ON MACHINE-MADE PAPER 
 
 AND THIRTY-FIVE ON 
 
 HAND-MADE PAPER 
 
 MARCH 1 92 1 
 
 i 
 
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