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Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Source: Officials of the Institution

The most distinguished Department of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, on Huntington Ave., is the Asiatic and the collection of Chinese and Japanese sculpture and painting is the most important in the Occident and outside of Tokyo. Certain pieces like the Chinese Dragon Roll of the thirteenth century or the so-called Keion Roll of the same period in Papan are well known.

The Indian collection is, too, probably the most distinguished one outside of India. There is a smaller but very important collection of the arts of the Near East. Many of the objects were obtained by the Museum's excavations. The collections of the Egyptian Department were obtained almost entirely through excavation, especially at Gizeh where the Museum has been at work for thirty years. Thanks partly to the skill and tact of the Curator, Dr. Reisner, and partly to the good fortune of having obtained a most fruitful Old Kingdom site, the quality of the best pieces is on a par with those of the Cairo Museum, and in actual quality, probably ahead of any other collection outside of Cairo. The majority of the pieces in the Classical Collection go back to the early years of the Museum when it was especially active in that field. A few, like the two fourth century heads, the Eros Relief, the Chryselephantine Statuette, and the Gold Bowl would equal in importance anything in the Acropolis Museum. There is a large and growing Department of Textiles, especially strong in the French and Flemish Art of the Middle Ages, and in Asiatic and Peruvian Textiles. It is constantly used by students of Design and by workers in modern

textiles seeking information and inspiration. The Department of Decorative Arts contains sculptures, furniture, and minor arts, from the beginning of the Middle Ages to the present day. Its best known display, however, is probably the series of American Period Rooms of the seventeenth to the early nineteenth century. There are also other fine Period Rooms, French and English, and a very important collection of English and American silver. Among the latter are many famous pieces by Paul Revere.

The Print Department is one of the most active in the Museum. It has the most extensive and important collection of prints in the United States and its study rooms are constanly in use. One of the largest Departments and most active is that of Western Painting. It contains important pieces of the artists of all the important schools from the early Sienese and Florentine to the present day. Certain pictures like Velazquez' Infanta with the Dwarf, El Greco's Fray Paravicino, Van der Weyden's St. Luke Drawing the Virgin Rembrandt's St. John, Ambrogia Lorenzetti's Madonna, Canaletto's great View of Venice, Gaugin's Que Sommes-Nous?, and Renoir's Bal à Bougival make the Department a place of pilgrimage. The European section is especially strong in the French, nineteenth century. The American collection is particularly distinguished in the work of Copley and Stuart, and other Colonial portrait painters. The Athenaeum portraits of Washington and Martha Washington by Gilbert Stuart are perhaps the most popular in the Museum. Among the later Americans, the best represented are Whistler, Sargent and Winslow Homer.

Bourne Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Mass.

Source: Officials of the Institution

The Bourne Whaling Museum of the Old Dartmouth Historical Society, in New Bedford, Mass., was founded by Miss Emily H. Bourne, as a memorial to her father, the late Jonathan Bourne, one of the most successful whaling merchants. In the Museum is the largest model in the world, that of his favorite vessel, the Lagoda.

Among the exhibits is the crew list of the whaleship Acushnet, which bears the name of Herman Melville, who gathered experience for "Moby Dick" on the voyage. He was 21 years old. The ship hailed from Fair Haven, Capt. Valentine Pease. She cleared from New Bedford, Dec. 30, 1840.

In the Museum are models of other whaling ships, frigates and other craft; articles made from whalebone; ship figure heads; whale's teeth; skull of a sea elephant; model of a Chinese junk: bone lantern; whale ivory and bone canes; sled made of whale bone.

Also in the Museum is a London-made British drum captured at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The drummer had been killed by an American soldier. The drum was given to a drummer boy from Rhode Island. Levi Smith. Repaired and restored it was the legacy of the late Israel Smith.

Another treasure of the museum is a pitcher with a portrait of the ship Rebecca. built by George Claghorn who built the Constitution.

Worcester, Mass., Art Museum

Source: An Official of the Institution

The Worcester Art Museum was founded in 1896 by Stephen Salisbury.

The permanent collections contain selections of European, American and Asiatic art of all periods. They are notably strong in paintings of the Italian, French, Spanish and American Schools. Painting, sculpture and decorative arts of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the ancient East, and of Classical and Mediaeval times are also represented, as well as the art of Asia and the Near East. Separate departments are maintained for the study and display of prints and engravings, textiles, metalwork, glass and domestic crafts.

The Library of the Museum contains over 12,000 books and periodicals on art and related subjects which may be consulted by the public. It also contains a loan collection of about 27,000 mounted photographs and 16,000 lantern slides covering subjects in art-architecture, sculpture, painting and minor arts-history and travel, and exhibitions

for elementary and secondary schools.

The School of the Worcester Art Museum occupies the Salisbury House at 24 Highland Street. Recently reorganized and operated under the direct supervision of the Museum, the School now offers a general course in fine and commercial art. The curriculum is designed to develop the individual creative ability of the student and provide him with technical proficiency in the various media of art expression. Special emphasis is laid upon current commercial and industrial problems with a view to making the student, as rapidly as possible, a self-sustaining member of the community.

Among the religious paintings in the Museum, acquired in 1938, is the Man of Sorrows raised from the tomb and supported by two angels. The representation is the familiar one associated in the late middle ages with the legend of the Vision of Saint Gregory and which was in constant demand for objects of special prayer and indulgence.

Currier Gallery of Art

Source: An Official of the Institution

The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, N. H., contains the Howe collection of early American antiques-furniture, household accessories, pottery and glass, textiles; pewters and rugs, bedspreads, table cloths, shawls, needlework.

Household utensils on exhibition include a Connecticut oven; tin hot dish cover; iron boiling pot for doughnuts; two brass kettles; copper warming pan: two metal oil lamps; rope tightener for poster bed; oil lamp with sandwich glass bowl: painted tin tray; eight pairs of steel-bladed, bone-handled knives and forks; two salt-glaze jugs; early sewing machine; hand-wrought nails; steelyards or scales; two yarn-winders or "niddy-nodders".

There are 276 glass cup plates; also collections of early American glass, chiefly of the present variety.

English ple-crust plates and platters; English printed-ware cups and saucers.

Among the paintings are examples of Copley, Sargent, Raeburn, Stuart, Clays, Alma-Tadema, Isabey, Bonheur, Bougereau, Corot, Cuyp, Daubigny, Gainsborough, Inness, Schreyer, Wyant, Ziem.

Etchings and engravings, Chinese prints, Goya block prints, sculptures, bronzes, carvings, American Indian relics, tapestries, vases, weapons, medals, and coins, are shown.

Texas Memorial Museum, Austin
Source: Officials of the Institution

The Texas Memorial Museum on San Jacinto Boulevard, Austin, was opened to the public January 15, 1939. The directors are the Regents of The University of Texas. Exhibits cover anthropology, botany, geology, history, and zoology. The Museum is open to the public weekdays 10-12 a.m. and 2-5 p.m.; Sundays, 2-5 p.m. The entrance to the Museum is into Memorial Hall designed to commemorate notable events in Texas history. History exhibits are on this floor.

The anthropology exhibits are on the fourth floor. The tools, utensils, weapons, ornaments and costumes of several races of man and many tribes are represented. The north half of the exhibit hall contains ethnological materials and the south half archaeological materials. Interesting collections of objects of the Chinese, Japanese, Javanese, African

Many

Negro, and American Indian are shown.
cases are devoted to the stone and flint work of the
Texas Indians. Others contain numerous specimens
of Caddoan and Asinai pottery, smoking pipes, and
shell ornaments. Seven dioramas in an alcove of
this room represent the domestic life of some of

the better known tribes of Texas Indians.

The botany and zoology exhibits are on the third floor. These represent various phases of plant and animal life, particularly as found in Texas. Illustrations of Texas wildflowers in natural colors are on this floor.

The geology exhibits, including fossils and minerals, are. on the ground floor. In a room at the north on this floor are five dioramas illustrating types of oil fields in Texas. In the recess at the east side of this room is the skeleton of one of the largest of the bony fishes.

The Museum of New Mexico

Source: An Official The Museum of New Mexico, a state. institution, has its headquarters in the historic Palace of the Governors, the oldest public building in the United States, built in 1610, on the Plaze of Santa Fe. The exhibits of the Museum are almost entirely confined to the Southwest. The Palace proper contains the archaeological exhibits and a section on the post-Spanish periods, under the direction of the State Historical Society.

A second building, an Art Museum, contains permanent and temporary exhibits of the work of Southwestern artists.

A third building, the Hall of Ethnology, has a series of exhibits on the evolution of the human

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race and its implements.

The main room illustrates the living Indian of the Southwest and his cultural attainments.

The Museum is also engaged in extension work, and has developed branch museums in several other New Mexico cities. The Museum also adminsters the State Monuments, four of which contain ruins of early Spanish Missions.

The management of the Museum is provided by the School of American Research, a corporation under the direction of the Archaeological Institute

of America.

The School of American Research also carries on research in South America, Central America and in the Southwest.

Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art

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Source: An Official of the Institution The Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art, founded by Miss Mary C. Wheelwright, is located on the Camino Lejo, near the Old Pecos Road, two miles southeast of the Santa Fe plaza. The site, com

prising 10 acres in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, is the gift of Miss A. E. White. The architect was Wm. P. Henderson.

Designed as an interpretation in modern form of a Navajo ceremonial Hoghan, the building itself is an integral background for the exhibition of sand paintings, as well as a repository for the myths, music, poetry, sacred lore and objects connected with Navajo religion.

The purpose of the Museum is thus to perpetuate for the general public, for research students, and for the Indians themselves, this great example of a primitive people's spiritual culture.

The extraordinary beauty achieved by Navajo sand paintings, in what is probably the most ephemeral of all forms of graphic art, entitles them to an enduring record. Both because of their highly developed symbolism, and because of the interesting parallel they afford to present-day

forms of the art in India, Tibet, and China-and possibly far earlier Asiatic sources-they are a unique contribution to the art of the Americas.

The importance of these paintings for the student of primitive art and religion is that they are graphic symbols of the thought embodied in Navajo myths and rituals-the only example of such a complete record in this respect among American Indians.

In the Research Department, the Wheelwright Collections include over 300 sand paintings transcribed from the originals by various recorders on different parts of the Navajo Reservation; music records of approximately 2000 Navajo chants; ceremonial objects, baskets, blankets and silver; and an extensive library of books and manuscripts on Navajo art and religion. Comparative material from Asia and other countries is also represented. The collections are constantly being augmented by field work, purchase and gifts.

The facilities of the Research Department and Library are available, under the rules of the Museum, to members and accredited research students.

Denver Art Museum

Source: Officials of the Institution

The Denver Art Museum, in its Indian Art De- | beadwork of the Plains and Great Lakes tribes. partment, which is being constantly enlarged, is rich in the products of the Southwest tribes. The Pueblo pottery collection is one of the best in the country. It contains hundreds of specimens of every sort of modern work. The collection of Navajo blankets is also outstanding. Almost all other types of Indian weaving are represented. The basket collection of several hundred items makes possible a survey of the entire field, since very few types of basketry are not included.

The wood carver's art of the Alaska and British Columbia Indians is well represented as is the

Another outstanding collection is that of modern Indian Pueblo water colors, probably the largest in any museum. Equally important is the collection of plates of Indian designs. These plates are made by the department's artists as part of the Museum's educational work and to give an opportunity to local students to study Indian art. This collection numbers well over one thousand and is constantly being increased.

Other objects in the Museum galleries include the permanent collections of paintings, sculpture. water colors, prints and drawings.

Arizona State Museum

Source: Officials of the Institution

The Arizona State Museum, a department of the University of Arizona, in Tucson, was established as a Territorial Museum in 1893 and was installed in a separate building in 1935, with the Department of Anthropology of the University in the same building.

The Museum is chiefly anthropological, stressing particularly the archaeology and ethnology of the Southwest. However, there are historical and

natural history materials. There are about 25,000 specimens in the Museum. Outstanding exhibits and collections include the following:

Set of 6 original Navaho Indian sand paintings. Excellent Western Apache exhibit, perhaps the most complete in existence.

Tree ring exhibit, including a 10-foot section of Giant Sequoia with over 1700 annual rings. Prehistoric Southwestern textile, pottery, store and bone work.

Minnesota State Historical Society, St. Paul

in the United States, which is supplemented by the special library of the Swedish Historical Society of America, on permanent deposit with the state society.

In the society's division of manuscripts is a constantly growing body of letters, diaries, and other documents left by men and women who have played some part in the making of Minnesota.

Source: Officials of the Institution Incorporated and chartered by the first Minnesota territorial legislature (Oct. 1849) the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul has accumulated one of the largest and best historical libraries in the West, containing approximately 197,000 books, pamphlets, and newspaper volumes. An important part of the library consists of materials on Minnesota history-the most comprehensive collection of its kind in existence. The library is strong in the general field of Americana, particularly in the subjects of the West, the Northwest and Canada. It has also one of the largest collections of genealogical and biographical publications in the United States; and an extensive collection of material relating to the Scandinavians

Scarcely less important historically are the 19,500 bound volumes of Minnesota and other newspapers in the society's library, files extending from the first newspaper published in the territory down to the present.

An historical museum visualizes the conditions of life in Minnesota's past.

William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art

Source: Officials of the Institution

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Mo., is located on Rockhill Road at 45th St. The Atkins Museum of Fine Arts is a part thereof. The collection represents Italian, Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish, French and English painters.

American painters in the gallery are Earle. Stuart, West, Sully, Copley. Waldo, Morse, Fulton, Twachtman, Inness, Fuller.

The European Period Rooms, showing furniture, etc.. include Italian-Spanish, Renaissance French Regence, English Georgian.

The City Art Museum of St. Louis

Source: Officials of the Institution

The Western paintings and prints range from Italian primitives to the work of modern American and European artists. The sculpture includes Gothic, Renaissance and modern examples.

The collection of American and European de

corative arts embraces textiles, furniture, ceramics and other objects, and centers about a series of some 16 period rooms fitted with original wood and stonework from Romanesque times in the early 19th century American period.

In the Chinese and Japanese collections are ceramics, bronze, jades, textiles, paintings and sculpture representative of the historic periods of Oriental culture. From the near East are carpets, ceramics, metal work, etc. originating in Persia and the adjacent regions.

The collection of Classical art contains Greek sculpture in marble and bronze, ceramics, glass, mosaic and gems, Roman portrait busts, ceramics, glass and metal work.

The institution is situated in Forest Park.

Layton Art Gallery, Milwaukee

Source: An Official of the Institution

The Layton Art Gallery, Milwaukee, founded by Frederick Layton, was opened to the public on April 5, 1888.

In the Sculpture Hall are works by Albano, Fedi, Megret, Trentanove, Ciniselli, Hiram Powers and others..

In the Picture Gallery are paintings by Hugh Bolton Jones (Salt Meadow); John Constable (English Landscape); Julien Dupre (Minding the Flock);. Bonguerean (Homer and His Guide); Verboeckhoven (Summer Evening); G. H. Boughton (Departure of the Mayflower); Millet (A Hymn); Sir John Gilbert (The King's Trumpeter); East

man Johnson (Old Stage Coach); Dupre (Landscape); Wyant (Summer Landscape); Pettle (Drumhead Court Martial); Winslow Homer (Hark, the Lark!); Bast jen-Lepage (The Wood Gatherer); A. B. Durand (In the Catskills); F. E. Church (a Passing Shower); A. Schreyor (a Wallachian Pest Carriza); Rosa Bonheur (Two Goats); Cazin (Evening); Munkacsy (The Rivals).

Several of the painters named above are represented by more than one canvas. There are also examples of Smillie, Alma-Tadema, Leighton, Corot, Bierstadt, George Junes, Harpignies, Blakelock, Thomas Moran, and others.

Thayer Art Museum, University of Kansas, Lawrence

Source: Officials of the Institution

The Thayer Art Collection, given to the University of Kansas by the late Mrs. William B. Thayer, of Kansas City, Mo.. illustrates the development of design in textiles, ceramics, glassware and costumes. It includes important paintings of the American school, Chinese and Japanese paintings and Japanese prints of exceptional merit. The collection of textiles includes examples of Coptic and Byzantine weavings, Venetian embroi

dery of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, French and Spanish brocades of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Chinese tapestries and embroideries, Indian and Persian shawls and rugs, Paisley shawls and American quilts, counterpanes and embroideries.

There are paintings by Innes, Murphy, Charles Partridge Adams, Mesdag, Ciardi, Thaulow, Leemputten, W. T. Richards, Charles Davis, Edward Gay, Green, Lambinet, Vrolyk, and others.

John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis

Source: Officials of the Institution

The John Herron Art Institute, of Indianapolis, including an art museum and school in separate buildings, was erected in 1906 from funds bequeathed by John Herron to the Art Association of Indianapolis. That association, organized (1883) continues to be the controlling and administrative organization, composed of officers, a board of directors, and a membership of approximately 700 persons. The museum building, a modified Re

naissance type, has two floors of galleries in addition to space devoted to a library, offices, storage rooms and carpenter shop.

The collection contains more than 11,000 items. including loan or study material, and the following generic classification suggests the scope: arms and armour, book arts, coins, costumes, drawings, furniture, glass, jewelry, lacquer, metal objects, paintings; pottery and porcelain, prints, rugs, sculpture, textiles and laces.

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Source: Officials of the Institution

Permanent collections include tapestries and armor; classical art; sculpture and metal work; prints; Italian Renaissance paintings; early American paintings; modern paintings of all schools; Egyptian, Japanese, Chinese and Near Eastern art; textiles and handicrafts. Two galleries are reserved for temporary exhibitions.

The educational work covers a broad field. Free public lectures, concerts and entertainments, some

especially for children, are given Friday evenings. Saturday and Sunday afternoons during the season. Courses (some for university credit) are given for adults, on art history and aesthetics: clubs are conducted for sketching and crafts. Graded classes in comparative arts reach about 800 children cach Saturday morning; drawing. painting, modeling, music theatre, and dancing are included.

M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco

Source: Officials of the Institution

In the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, in Golden Gate Park, there are three rooms containing Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art. Two Medieval rooms adjoin a series of galleries containing Italian works of the Renaissance, the 17th and 18th centuries. Dutch, Flemish and English works of art of these periods are shown together. An original 18th century French room. two galleries containing paintings, tapestries, and furniture and early German porcelain, and an Empire room are in the series, followed by five rooms containing English and early American furniture and furnishings.

In the west wing is shown the California ma

terial. Prints in the entrance gallery serve as an introduction to the early history, geography, and cultural background of the State. Four interiors illustrate milieux of the first four decades after the gold rush. The entire state was canvassed for material to provide furniture (with original upholstery), draperies, rugs and bric-a-brac for these four period rooms.

In the northeast wing is shown Chinese, Japanese, Alaskan and Indian material, and also ethnographical collections from India, Tibet, Oceania, Australia, Java and Bali; musical instruments; textiles; plaster casts and bronze reproductions; and the Colonial Dames collection.

San Francisco Museum of Art

Source: Officials of the Institution

Opened Jan. 1935 in Veterans' Building, 14 | contemporary movements of art is stressed, but galleries; sponsored by San Francisco Art Association; supported by privale contributions.

The San Francisco Museum of Art, 14 galleries, owns large collections, prints and drawings, principally modern European and American; collection of paintings, by contemporary Western artists, also by contemporary European and Eastern

American.

All exhibitions, even those from Permanent Collection are changing. Each gallery changes on the average of once each month. Review of

at intervals an historic show building up the background of some phase of modern art is presented.

Important exhibitions organized by the Museum: Evolution of Landscape Painting from 15th Century Through 19th; Paintings, Drawings, Prints by Paul Gauguin: Contemporary Landscape Architecture and Its Sources; Paintings and Drawings by Paul Cezanne. The Museum offers to Francisco in addition exhibitions from The Museum of Modern Art in New York and other exhibitions of special interest in its field.

Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery

Source: An Official

The library art gallery and botanical gardens, founded by the late Henry E. Huntington, are located on his 200 acre estate at San Marino, near Los Angeles, Calif.

Among the treasures of the library are:
The Gundulf Bible, 11th-century manuscript
Bible.

The Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, made about 1400.

The Gutenberg Bible [Mainz, about 1450-55]. first printed Bible and the earliest extant book produced with movable type in Europe.

The first book printed in the English language, The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. Printed at Bruges, by Caxton & Mansion in 1475.

The Traveling Library of Sir Thomas Egerton (1540?-1617), founder of the Bridgewater House Library; 44 classics in a box designed to carry them.

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A "first folio" of Shakespeare's plays, printed in 1623.

Poems of Robert Burns, Edgar Allan Poe, and Rudyard Kipling, in the handwriting of the authors.

Christopher Columbus' "Book of Privileges" granted to him by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain as a reward for his discovery of the New World, with marginal notes in his handwriting [Seville, 1502].

The Richard King Portolano," about 1502, one of the earliest maps showing a portion of the American continent.

The only known copy of the first pinted collection of the laws of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, printed at Cambridge, 1648.

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography in his own handwriting.

Letter by George III, written in 1782, disclaiming all responsibility for granting independence to the American colonies.

San Diego, Calif., Fine Arts Gallery

Source: An Official of the Institution

The San Diego, Calif., Fine Arts Gallery, which dates from 1926, has a permanent collection valued at $1,500,000. First emphasis is placed upon contemporary American art and second upon Old Master paintings. Old Asiatic arts are receiving an ever-growing sponsorship. The Gallery's collection is most distinguished in its collection of Old Masters. The old Spanish painting, together with the contemporary work of Spain, is second only in this country, to that of the Hispanic Society of America, in New York City. Included is the portrait of the Marques de Sofraga, by Goya, as fine as any Goya in the world. The three Zurbarans already owned, and a fourth one which

will eventually come into the permanent collection, comprise the second feature in San Diego. These paintings are: the very early St. Jerome and the still-life-with-fruit, in purest Spanish spirit; the somewhat later portrait of the artist's daughter; and the Madonna with Infant St. John, of 1653, this latest picture revealing the influence of Italians and others. A third gem in the old Spanish section is the so-called "Portrait of a Young Soldier," attributed to the Velasquez of about 1628. The modern Spanish paintings have special significance from such work as: "Elvira and Tiberio," by de Caviedes; "Blanche," by Pedro Pruna; and several examples by the brothers de Zubiaurre.

California Academy of Sciences

Source: An Official of the Institution

African mammals contributed by the late Leslie Simson of Berkeley, California. The first unit of this hall, containing twenty-four groups of African animals shown in their natural surroundings, was opened to the public in 1936.

The Steinhart Aquarium erected in 1923 with funds bequeathed by the late Ignatz Steinhart of San Francisco, is operated by the Academy with funds supplied by the City of San Francisco.

The California Academy of Sciences, San Fran- | 1930 to accommodate the magnificent collection of cisco incorporated in 1853 for the advancement of the natural sciences.through public education, exploration and research, is the oldest scientific institution on the Pacific coast. It maintains in Golden Gate Park a public museum of natural history, the Steinhart Aquarium, a scientific 11brary, and research departments with large scientific collections. In its large halls of North American mammals and birds are preserved in permanent form some of the most beautiful and striking aspects of the natural history of the west. In an adjoining corridor are to be found exhibits of butterflies, flowers and minerals, especially the William B. Pitts collection of semi-precious stones. The latest edition to the Academy's group of buildings, the Simson African Hall, was begun in

The Academy's research collections include some 8,000 mammals, 57,000 birds, 69,000 reptiles and amphibians, 300,000 plant specimens, 1,000,000 insects, and 1,600,000 specimens in the field of paleontology. Its collections are especially rich in mater. from California, Alaska, and the Galap Islands

The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Source: Officials of the Institution

The charitable and educational corporation which today bears the name of the Philadelphia Museum of Art was incorporated in 1875 and chartered in 1876 "to establish . . . a Museum of Art, in all its branches." At the conclusion of the Centennial Exposition of 1876, the fine arts building there, Memorial Hall, was entrusted to the corporation. It still houses many of the study collections of the Museum. A new building, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, projected in 1907 in connection with the Parkway enterprise, was begun in 1919 by the Commissioners of Fairmount Park with funds provided by the City of Philadelphia. The shell of the whole building was completed in 1927 and the first section of the display galleries was opened to the public March 26, 1928.

Arrangement of the Building and Collections

The collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art embrace the arts of Europe and Asia since the beginning of the Christian era, and of America from the time of European colonization. (The art of ancient and primitive peoples, East and West, is shown in Philadelphia at the University Museum, 34th and Spruce Streets).

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On the second floor of the Museum is shown a display collection of the history of art, including many of the finest works, arranged in the general order of artistic evolution. On the first floor, beside galleries for transient exhibitions, specialized collections of paintings and prints, as well as of ceramics, glass, textiles, furniture and other objects of special interest to the craftsman, designer, manufacturer, amateur and student of single arts and crafts.

One enters from the east the stair hall, dominated by St. Gauden's bronze figure of Diana; from the west, a foyer installed with works of French XVIII century sculpture, given in memory of Edward T. Stotesbury, and with oriental carpets of the Joseph Lees Williams Memorial Collection. On the staircase here is the tapestry, woven from Boucher's design, for the Prince's Chamber of the Hôtel de Soubise in Paris.

Collection of the History of Art

The scheme of the display collection is to exhibit, in the section devoted to each school, works of all the arts and crafts in association, as they were created to adorn the churches, the temples, the houses of nobles and of the people. In connection with these galleries there are antique architectural units which give the background and atmosphere of different periods. To the right, toward the north, are the sections devoted to Renaissance art and modern art in different countries; to the left. toward the south, those devoted to the arts of the Middle Ages and of the Orient.

Art of the Middle Ages

South of the stair hall is a Romanesque Cloister of the XI century from Saint-Genis de Fontaines on the northeast border of Spain. Adjoining, through two Romanesque doors, are units containing mediaeval glass, notably three rondels from the French royal abbey of Saint Denis, about 1250. The Romanesque Hall includes a portal from the Abbey of Saint Laurent (Nièvre), XII century. A suit of tournament armor here, formerly in the Imperial Collection at Vienna, was made by Lorenz Colman at Augsburg, about 1500.

The French Gothic chapel of the XIV century from the Commanderie d'Aumonière at Pierrecourt (Haute Saône) has an altar from the Church of the Templars at Norroy-sur-Vair (Vosges), about 1400, and is installed with fine examples of glass, sculpture, and devotional objects. A French Gothic Le Mans room of the XV century from near (Sarthe) contains carved furniture formerly in the Figdor Collection in Vienna.

From the Gothic Hall open five French Gothic doorways of the XIII to XV centuries, leading to Italian Gothic rooms from Florence and Venice, and to the collection of English Gothic woodwork.

Renaissance and Modern Art

North of the stair hall are the sections devoted to Renaissance and modern art, successively in Italy, in Spain and Germany, in Flanders and Holland, in France, in England and in America. Galleries devoted to these countries are flanked on elther side by antique rooms of corresponding period. Conspicuous among the Renaissance objects from Italy and France are the sculptures and carv

ings in marble, bronze and wood from the Foulc collection purchased by the Museum, including a Virgin and Child by Desiderio, an Adoring Virgin by Luca della Robbia and numerous XV century bronzes. Among the architectural units are elements from the Picolomini Palace in Siena, from Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, and from the Château de Pagny, including its choir screen and the sculptured Virgin of Pagny.

Beginning with the Dutch School there are paitings from the collections given by William L. Elkins and George W. Elkins, including also French, English and American works. Particularly interesting is the series of French rooms of the Louis XIV, XV and XVI periods, including especially the collection of French decorative art bequeathed by Mrs. A. Hamilton Rice. The north wing has at either side suites of antique English and American rooms, several of the former being hung with the British paintings bequeathed by John H. McFadden.

Art of the Orient

The south wing of the Museum is devoted to oriental art, beginning with the Near East. From Sasanian Persia comes an arched portal excavated at Damghan, as well as a series of bas-reliefs from Rayy. Islamic art of Egypt, Anatolia and Persia is represented, the last by a mosque revetment of mosaic tile and by a vaulted interior of painted The display stucco-both of the Safavid period.

of art of India includes an entire sculptured temple portico of the XV century from Madura, beside many works of the Graeco-Buddhist, Buddhist and Hindu periods. The section devoted to the art of China surrounds a large palace hall of the Ming period, and includes as other major units a stone tomb chamber of the T'ang dynasty, a Ming temple interior with carved ceiling and a Chinese scholar's study in lacquer of the reign of K'ang Hsi. The collection of Chinese sculpture, paintings, prints and ceramics is extensive. A Japanese temple and tea-house complete the series of architectural units. On the FIRST FLOOR of the Museum are the galleries devoted to paintings; those for transient exhibitions, for prints, and for the decorative arts.

Department of Paintings

THE JOHNSON and WILSTACK COLLECTIONS -The late John G. Johnson left his collection to the City of Philadelphia. which entrusted its administration to the Trustee of the John G. Johnson estate. By agreement with the Philadelphia Museum of Art it is now displayed in a suite of galleries at the Museum under administration of the trustee. It comprises over a thousand works comprehensively illustrating the evolution of painting, with many masterpieces of the first importance, especially in the Italian and Flemish schools, by such masters as Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, Masolino, Antonello da Messina Botticelli, etc.

Founded by Anna H. Wilstach, that collection includes especially Italian and Spanish baroque paintings, characteristic works by many Dutch masters, English XVIII century portraits and landscapes, American paintings by Whistler, Sargent, Inness and Mary Cassatt, and a French XIX century group crowned by Cézanne's Grandes Baig

neuses.

DEPARTMENT OF PRINTS In its gallery is maintained a constant series of changing exhibitions. The large permanent collection, from which many of these are drawn, includes collections given or bequeathed to the Museum by the heirs of Charles M. Lea, by William S. Pilling, and by Ellis Ames Ballard, among many other donors.

DEPARTMENT OF DECORATIVE ARTS-It comprises the arts of earth-ceramics and glass; the arts of fibre-textiles, embroidery, lace and costume; the arts of wood-carvings and furniture. Beyond will be galleries devoted to the arts of metal, still housed in the old museum building. Memorial Hall.

LIBRARY-A reference collection of about 15,000 volumes, with its own photo-duplication facilities. AUDITORIUM-Seating 500. Free film-showings related to art-appreciation are held here every Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 and at 3:30.

DIVISION OF EDUCATION-Including galleries for educational exhibitions, as well as lecture rooms, classrooms, and studios. Special leaflets regarding the free public educational work of the division, for adults and for children, are available on request at the information desk or at the offices of the division.

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