Bir adam kendisine çocuk veren kadından ayrılmak isterse ... - MÜZE

National goal
In America, culture and art movements gained momentum in the
second half of the 19 th century. The Brooklyn Museum moved into its
new venue, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper founded the
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan,
New York City. Yet, the leaders of the country were feeling the necessity
to establish a common cultural ground to foster the unity of the
young American nation, composed of a variety of ethnic and social
communities with different backgrounds. In this vein, a group of civic
leaders, businessmen, artists, art collectors, and philanthropists
joined forces under the “Union League Club” in New York to create a
“national institution and gallery of art” to bring art and art education
to the American people. Their endeavours culminated in the establishment,
as a non-profit organization of public interest, of “The Metropolitan
Museum of Art” on 13 April 1870.
Growth through contributions
The Met secured its first collection of art, due to William T. Blodgett, a
member of the executive committee, who on his own initiative bought
three private collections consisting of 174 Dutch and Flemish masterpiece
paintings during a journey to Europe. The museum acquired
the Cesnola Collection consisting of 6 thousand Helen, Roman and
Minoan sculptures, from General Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the American
Consul to Cyprus, and amateur archaeologist. In 1879, Cesnola
became the first director of the newly expanded Metropolitan Museum
of Art. During his tenure, various new collections were acquired and
the museum was restored to house the new pieces; wings were added
to the north and south of the building, the façade overlooking the 5 th
Avenue and its rear side overlooking the Central Park were redesigned
and rebuilt in 1888. The same year, the railroads entrepreneur, philanthropist
and art collector Henry Gurdon Marquand, made valuable
presents and loans from his collection of paintings, including works of
Van Dyck, Vermeer and Manet. The numerous new donations, through
which the museum was being constantly expanded, were prompted by
27