New York City Museums and Cultural Leadership, 1917-1940

Many New York City museums were regarded as bastions of conservatism and elitism at the threshold of the twentieth century. This was particularly true of the New York Historical Society, where the largest exhibit attracted a mere 2,000 viewers in 1909, and the annual attendance plateaued at 15,000 by decade’s end. However, the city’s repositories would begin to play an increasingly active role in New York’s cultural life after World War I, aided by fresh infusions of ideas and funds from an increasingly varied portfolio of donors. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Historical Society, the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of the City of New York all expanded their services for visitors, significantly enhancing their popularity. Women, corporations, foundations and local and national governments all played a role in funding and democratizing museum fare.

This study traces the changes wrought by these actors in four New York repositories: the New-York Historical Society (NYHS), the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), the Metropolitan Museum (MMA) and the Brooklyn Museum (BMA). Taken together, their collective histories highlight the cultural transformations that colored the city’s museological landscape during the first four decades of the twentieth century, as well as the flashpoints of disagreement that these changes entailed. Many important changes had taken place by the onset of World War II in determining what a museum should be and whom it should serve. Rare or nonexistentduring the early part of the century, education departments with staff docents, eveninghours, classes for students of industrial design and artisans, coordination with public school curricula, and outreach to publicize museum programs were regularly offered at all these museums by 1940, reflecting more ecumenical visions of museum missions and mandates under the guidance of an array of new donors.