Thomas Busciglio-Ritter: "They Have Built Themselves a Fine House" The Art Gallery of the New York Historical Society, Link in the Development of American Museum History (1850-1873)

Founded in 1804 for preservation and educational purposes, the New York Historical Society (or NYHS), during the first half of the 19th century, gradually brought together a growing collection of objects and works of art. This process finally led to the inauguration in 1857 of a veritable art gallery intended to house these works and to present them to the public. During the first period, between 1850 and 1857, this project of a gallery was slowly and carefully elaborated, confronted with the necessity of inventing an institutional type that did not yet exist in Manhattan. A second period, from 1857 to 1870 saw the above mentioned gallery attain a certain preeminence. Its reputation was accompanied by real artistic and curatorial aspiration on every level. The joint desire to build an even more ambitious museum for the city was materialized at the same time by the efforts of the NYHS to acquire land in Central Park. But this aspiration clashed with internal and external limits. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, founded in 1869, ultimately supplanted the NYHS project and plunged their gallery into a relative oblivion. This article seeks to reinstate its place as a link in the development of the history of American museums.