History Of The Metropolitan Museum Of Art

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Standing proudly along Fifth Avenue beside Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world’s greatest cultural institutions. Home to millions of works of art spanning more than 5,000 years of human history, the museum has welcomed generations of visitors while continuing to expand its extraordinary collections. From its humble beginnings in 1870 to its status today as one of New York City’s most treasured landmarks, the Metropolitan Museum of Art remains an essential destination for anyone interested in history, culture, and the arts.

The History Of The Metropolitan Museum Of Art

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Our History of the Metropolitan Museum of Art explores one of the most wonderful museums in the United States. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is not the oldest museum in the United States; that distinction belongs to the Charleston Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. However, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest, most prestigious, and distinguished museums in the world. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located along Fifth Avenue bordering Central Park. The museum’s main entrance stands at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street in the borough of Manhattan.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art also has two satellite buildings: The Met Breuer, formerly at 945 Madison Avenue and 75th Street, and The Met Cloisters, at 99 Margaret Corbin Drive in Fort Tryon Park, New York.

The history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art dates back to 1866, when a meeting of American diplomats, including lawyer John Jay, agreed there was a need to establish a museum in the United States that would preserve and present world culture while serving as both an educational institution and a source of inspiration for the American public. It is obvious that those meeting in Paris were inspired by the magnificent Louvre Museum. Nonetheless, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has grown into one of the world’s great museums and stands comfortably among the finest cultural institutions anywhere.

The Museum’s Early Years

The Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue became the first home of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when the museum officially opened in 1870. Ten years later, on March 30, 1880, the museum relocated to its present location along Fifth Avenue and Central Park. The original building has undergone numerous expansions over the years.

The museum’s first structure was designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould. Today, portions of that original exterior are actually enclosed within the expanded museum complex. Visitors can still view sections of the original exterior wall preserved inside the museum.

Original Metropolitan Museum of Art building

Building One Of The World’s Great Collections

John Taylor Johnston, a successful American businessman and patron of the arts, served as the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first president. Equally important was his role in helping establish the museum’s first permanent collection. Johnston, together with New York art collector William Tilden Blodgett, personally financed the purchase of the museum’s first 174 paintings.

Over time, the Metropolitan Museum of Art continued acquiring extraordinary collections from private collectors. In 1874, the acquisition of the famous Cesnola Collection instantly established the museum as a serious competitor to Europe’s finest museums. The collection belonged to Luigi Palma di Cesnola, who had served as the American consul in Cyprus. During his years there, Cesnola assembled one of the world’s finest collections of Cypriot antiquities. Although France and Russia pursued the collection, wealthy American supporters convinced Cesnola to bring it to New York. He later served as the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first director until his death in 1904.

The acquisition of the Cesnola Collection demonstrated the importance of private collections to public museums. Throughout its history, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has continued expanding through donations, purchases, and bequests from collectors around the world.

Collections continue to grow over time as related works are discovered, purchased, and donated. Some collections are acquired in their entirety from individual collectors, while others come through generous bequests. One of the museum’s most significant acquisitions was the Robert Lehman Collection.

If the name Robert Lehman sounds familiar, it is because he was one of the owners of Lehman Brothers, which was once the fourth largest investment bank in the United States. For more than sixty years, Robert Lehman devoted much of his fortune to collecting art and decorative objects. His remarkable collection ranged from Kees van Dongen’s At the Racetrack to a thirteenth-century Syrian Biconical Bowl. Eventually, the entire collection found a permanent home at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Metropolitan Museum Today

Throughout its history, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has organized its galleries into collections based on geography, culture, and historical periods. These include Medieval Art, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, the Arts of Africa, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Greek and Roman Art, Photographs, Musical Instruments, and Modern and Contemporary Art.

The museum has also hosted many outstanding temporary exhibitions over the years. During our visit in June 2019, we enjoyed the remarkable Play It Loud exhibition, which featured legendary instruments borrowed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Special exhibitions such as Play It Loud typically remain on display for only a few months before traveling elsewhere.

New York City is filled with extraordinary museums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art anchors the famous Museum Mile along Fifth Avenue. Like Amsterdam’s Museumplein, Museum Mile features an outstanding concentration of cultural institutions, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Jewish Museum, Neue Galerie, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, and El Museo del Barrio. A visitor could easily spend weeks exploring these remarkable museums.

Planning Your Visit

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is open Sunday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Admission policies vary depending on residency. New York State residents and students from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut may pay what they wish with valid identification, while standard admission fees apply to most other visitors.

If you have never been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we hope this brief history inspires you to plan a visit. As with all of the world’s great museums, one can spend an entire day exploring its galleries and still experience only a small portion of what it offers. It is an extraordinary experience that should be enjoyed by everyone.