Albany Institute of History and Art 125 Washington Ave Albany

Albany Plant of History & Art

S elevation and e profile of Rice Edifice; south profile of archway building and main edifice, 2011
Established	1791 (1791)
Location	125 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York
Coordinates	42°39′21″N 73°45′37″West  /  42.655774°N 73.760372°W  / 42.655774; -73.760372
Director	Tammis K. Groft
Website	http://www.albanyinstitute.org/
Albany Institute of History & Art
U.Due south. National Annals of Historic Places
Architect	Richard Morris Chase, Marcus T. Reynolds
NRHP referenceNo.	76001202[i]
Added to NRHP	July 12, 1976

The Albany Institute of History & Fine art (AIHA) is a museum in Albany, New York, Us, "dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting and promoting involvement in the history, art, and culture of Albany and the Upper Hudson Valley region".^[2] It is located on Washington Avenue (New York State Route five) in downtown Albany. Founded in 1791, information technology is among the oldest museums in the United States.^[iii]

Several other institutions have merged over fourth dimension to go today'south Albany Found. The earliest were learned societies devoted to the natural sciences, and for a time information technology was the land legislature'southward breezy advisory body on agriculture. Robert R. Livingston was the first president. Joseph Henry delivered his first newspaper on electromagnetism to the Found. Its collections of animal, vegetable and mineral specimens from land surveys eventually became the foundations of the New York State Museum. Later on in the century it became more focused on the humanities, and eventually merged with the Albany Historical and Art Order. It has had its present name since 1926. Over the course of the 20th century it has go more than firmly established as a regional art museum.

The establish's three-building complex includes the late 19th-century Rice Building, the just freestanding Beaux-Arts mansion in the city, designed past Richard Morris Chase and donated to the institute past ane of its former benefactors. Its master edifice is a 1920s Classical Revival structure designed by local architect Marcus T. Reynolds. A more modern glass construction connects the 2. The original two buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. At the outset of the 21st century, the plant completed an extensive renovation in which the archway edifice was constructed and new climate-controlled storage space for the collections was built.

Buildings and grounds [edit]

The found occupies the 1⅔-acre (6,800 m^two) bundle of Dove Street between Washington and Elk Street. Information technology is surrounded past buildings mostly of a similar calibration and vintage, some of which are also listed on the National Register. Facing information technology across Dove Street is the University Society of Albany, itself a complex of brick buildings dominated by a Colonial Revival main edifice by local architect Albert Fuller that complements the institute'due south. Across Washington are some smaller commercial buildings. On the southwest corner of the intersection is another Fuller brick Classical Revival building, the former Harmanus Bleecker Library.^[four]

A block to the eastward is the big New York State Department of Education Building, and the park behind the New York Country Capitol, a National Historic Landmark that also contributes to the Lafayette Park Historic District. The Alfred E. Smith Land Role Building, a contributing property to the Eye Square/Hudson–Park Historic District south of Washington, towers over the block from the southeast where it faces the capitol. A block to the w is the Washington Avenue Armory, with the Italianate Walter Merchant House beyond the street from it. North of the institute, across Elk, is a large parking lot with the small Sheridan Park beyond.^[4]

The Rice Building sits on the southwest corner of the institute lot, on the intersection of Washington and Dove. To its east is a small lawn with mature trees and a walkway from the connecting edifice to the street, and a mod sculpture. A depression metal railing on a stepped stone base sets off the property from Washington. In the eye of information technology is a alpine modern rock entryway with ii pillars of blocks similar to those on the Rice Edifice supporting a modern steel and drinking glass hood. The larger main building occupies the northeast corner, with a large parking lot in the northwest. Between the two is a modern hyphen of large stone blocks with steel and glass on both sides.^[4]

Main building seen from reverse side

The main building is a two-story brick construction with quoins and a limestone belt course and Renaissance Revival cornice. A hipped roof with dark-green metallic cladding and a flat central tower is in a higher place. On the s side, the main entrance is located in a projecting octagonal pavilion. There are a few large 18- and 24-pane windows. An auditorium wing protrudes from the kickoff floor.^[four]

Inside the building a large main hallway, with exhibit halls on either side, runs from the foyer at the main archway to a large hall in the n just south of the auditorium fly. Double staircases from the vestibule go to the 2d flooring, which has a like plan only without admission to the auditorium wing. Some entrances are busy with Doric columns, but otherwise the walls are plain sheetrock.^[4]

Four bays by three, the Rice Edifice sits on a raised stone foundation supporting gold Roman brick walls with quoined corners topped by a apartment roof. A slightly lower three-past-3-bay fly extends from the due north facade. The east elevation has a balustraded porch on the three northern bays serving what is now the main archway; the original principal entry on the reverse side has been bricked in.^[4]

At that place are rectangular windows in the exposed basement wall. The first floor has round segmental-biconvex French windows with obviously transoms; there are only three on the eastward elevation and the middle bay of the south is blind on all stories. In front they have a decorative ironwork railing; at their tops a molded stone course runs around the building.^[four]

The 2nd story has double ane-over-one double-hung sash windows everywhere except the centre 2 trophy of the e side where they are unmarried. They have plain stone sills and splayed-brick lintels with each splaying multiple bricks long. Some other continuous stone belt course serves equally the baseline for the attic windows; one-over-one like the ones below merely shorter. A decorative stone carving replaces the corner quoins higher up the course. Above the windows the roofline is marked by an elaborate cornice with egg-and-dart molding and brackets holding up a wide overhanging eave. A parapet encloses the entire roof.^[4]

The north wing has a similar handling to the main block but is more restrained. It lacks the upper belt course and corner carvings. In its place is a plain stone frieze. The roof cornice is narrower and unbracketed, with only denticulated stone beneath.^[4]

Inside many of the original finishes remain. They include salons with decorative wall art, carved mahogany fireplace mantels and the library's built-in bookcases. A stairway with fe balustrade goes up to the third flooring. The marble in the bathroom is also original.^[4]

History [edit]

From its beginnings every bit a learned guild that advised the state legislature on how to improve agronomical production, the Institute has evolved into a regional art museum. Twice in the 19th century it went into serious decline, revived by a change in direction. In the later 20th century it finally found a permanent direction and its own domicile.

Robert R. Livingston, the institute'south first president

1791–1823: Society for the Promotion of the Useful Arts [edit]

The Social club for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures, the primeval predecessor arrangement to today'due south AIHA, was established in New York City in 1791 every bit a learned gild. At that time the city was both land and national capital, and the Gild served as an informal counselor to the land legislature, which later funded it, on ways to meliorate the state'south economy, primarily the agricultural sector, and better the lives of its citizens. Among the 72 founders who met in Federal Hall, 25 had served in the legislature and every sitting member of that torso was considered an honorary member of the Society. Robert R. Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was chosen as the Society's first president. Other early members of annotation included John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States and a future governor of the country, and George Clinton, some other later governor who would somewhen become Vice President.^{[3] [4]}

When Albany was permanently designated as the state capital in 1796, the Society moved with it. It met in the quondam City Hall at first. In 1804, equally its original charter expired, information technology was renamed the Lodge for the Promotion of the Useful Arts. Livingston continued to serve equally president. Ten years afterward, it established a Fine Arts Committee. Amongst its members were architect Philip Hooker and painter Ezra Ames. Its first act was to commission from Ames a portrait of Livingston, who had died in 1813. It was the establish'due south first arts accretion.^{[three] [4]}

In 1819, New York became the first state to institute a government agency devoted to agronomics^[5] when the legislature created the Lath of Agriculture. The land no longer needed the Gild, and withdrew its funding. Many of the founding members had grown older or, like Livingston, died, and the Society became less active.^{[3] [4]}

1823–1850: Albany Institute [edit]

Information technology was rejuvenated by a merger with the Albany Lyceum of Natural History, a year after that organization was founded in 1823 with Stephen Van Rensselaer, a onetime lieutenant governor then serving in Congress. The members of the Lyceum were younger, and focused on the natural sciences, especially geology and mineralogy, paleontology, and astronomy. In accordance with the first three fields, it had devoted itself to preserving mineral and botanical specimens collected on country surveys.^{[three] [iv]}

The merged organization became known as the Albany Institute, with a membership of over a hundred. At its meetings over the side by side few years many scholarly papers were presented in advance of their eventual publication. In 1829 Joseph Henry, curator of the Constitute's natural-history department, delivered his first paper on electromagnetism, an area in which he went on to brand significant contributions. Past the following year the Institute's libraries had about doubled in size when Governor DeWitt Clinton willed about of his books to it.^{[iii] [4]}

Henry left in 1832 to teach at Princeton; subsequently he would become the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. His departure did not touch on the Albany Institute, which recorded over a thousand members the next year. For other reasons, this would nonetheless be a peak twelvemonth for the Institute as it was in the early on 19th century.^{[3] [4]}

Between 1834 and 1837, attendance declined at meetings due to the excessive output of the Institute'south chief meteorologist, Matthew Henry Webster, who took enthusiastically to the duty of coordinating the state conditions surveys for the Board of Regents. He presented many papers on the subject, sometimes iii at a single coming together, and attendees became increasingly bored and stopped attending. Financial problems resulting from the Panic of 1837 limited the Institute'south publications. During this time information technology connected to collect scientific specimens, accumulating more than fifteen,000, and started the state Natural History Survey, both activities that led to the institution of the New York State Museum.^{[3] [4]}

Van Rensselaer's death in 1839 was another setback for the Institute. Its functions were also duplicated by newer institutions, particularly colleges and universities such as Union College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Found, that had been established in the Albany expanse. Throughout the 1840s information technology remained dormant.^{[3] [4]}

John V.L. Pruyn, who revived the Institute equally its president in the mid-19th century

1851–1899: Albany Historical and Art Club [edit]

The Found was again revived in 1851, when the new American Association for the Advancement of Scientific discipline held its 3rd annual meeting at the Albany Academy. Equally had happened before, the addition of members changed the nature of the organization, making it a learned society interested in many areas besides the natural sciences. John V. 50. Pruyn, a Congressman and officer of the New York Central Railroad, became president in 1857 and reoriented the gild toward the public rather than the interests of its members. Ten years subsequently, in 1867, the Plant donated its science and natural-history collections to the state Cabinet of Natural History, a predecessor of the state museum. Later it would donate its geological collection.^{[3] [four]}

Celebrations of the metropolis's bicentennial in 1886 included an exhibit at the Albany University of historical relics and art from the private collections of many socially prominent Albany families. The Albany Historical and Art Society (AHAS) was established afterward to maintain the collection and find a permanent home for it. Its membership approached almost 1,200.^[3]

By 1897 AHAS had raised enough money to buy a State Street edifice, on which it congenital an addition to house all its works. The following year it captivated the collection of the Albany Gallery of Fine Fine art, which had been opened in 1846 and closed within a decade due to declining subscriptions. James McDougal Hart had worked there before beginning his artistic career. The gallery'south holdings had been kept in trust by the metropolis'south Young Men's Association ever since.^{[three] [4]}

1900–1947: Albany Institute for History & Art [edit]

In 1900, the AHAS and the Albany Institute merged,^[iv] becoming the Albany Found and Historical and Art Society. Local judge William Learned Shaw became the combined arrangement's start president. Four years later it bought the belongings on which the chief building stands. In 1907 the cornerstone of the Fuller & Bullpen Company'south Renaissance Revival building was laid, and the building was completed the following yr. Mayor Charles Henry Gaus described it every bit "the capstone of educational development in our city". Its starting time exhibit, in 1909, was devoted to the tricentennial of Henry Hudson'southward exploration of the river named after him and the centennial of Robert Fulton'due south countdown steamboat voyage upwards it.^[3]

To clear more than space for exhibits, the institute donated some of its books a block abroad to the newly built Harmanus Bleecker Library in 1924. The newspaper and pamphlet collections were donated to the state museum shortyl afterwards. Two years afterwards, it shortened its name to the "more symmetrical" Albany Found of History & Art." This coincided with the beginning of an effort to brand the collections more attainable to the public. Those outreach programs, such as tours, school trips and performances, continued through the Great Low of the next decade, helping establish the constitute every bit a regional museum. Information technology started the Print Club of Albany, bringing nationally known printmakers to the city for lectures and demonstrations, and hosted an exhibit of contemporary regional art in honor of the 250th anniversary of the urban center charter in 1936. The latter event led to a continuing commitment in that area.^[3]

As the side by side decade dawned and state of war began, John Davis Hatch came from the Art Institute of Seattle to take over as AIHA manager. He began a series of exhibits of major regional artists. One devoted to Thomas Cole was the first major 20th-century retrospective of his work. In 1945, "The Negro Artist Comes of Age", featured the work of 45 African American artists and drew national attending after information technology went to the Brooklyn Museum. Behind the scenes, Hatch began the process of modernizing the museum's record-keeping to harmonize with the systems in utilize at other museums.^[3]

1948–present: Emergence as a regional art museum [edit]

Hatch's assistant Robert Wheeler took over in 1948. He instituted a policy that new acquisitions exist from the region or accept some connection to it. With that in identify, he created special exhibitions devoted to regional piece of work and renovated the galleries.^[three]

In 1956 he was in turn succeeded by Janet McFarlane, who was at the time ane of merely seven women serving as a museum managing director in the U.South. 5 years subsequently, the museum's Women's Council, which has since become a major fundraiser and source of volunteers, was founded. A year later curator Norman Rice began a 20-year tenure as director in 1967, the Rice family unit donated their old firm on the corner, expanded sympathetically in 1940, to the museum. Information technology renovated the 1895 Beaux-Arts abode designed by Richard Morris Hunt, architect of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and several mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, in the style of a 15th-century Italian palazzo^[4] for utilise both every bit offices and gallery infinite. As director, Rice would head an conquering effort that grew the special collections to over a million items earlier he stepped down in 1986.^[iii]

Christine Miles took over from him after having directed the Fraunces Tavern museum in Lower Manhattan. Iii years later, AIHA held its first Museum Ball and Contemporary Art Auction to raise coin for a new Contemporary Collections Fund. The acquisitions it fabricated possible have more than doubled the museum's collections in that area. That yr the museum also began a decade-long project to certificate and improve catalog its holdings in order to make them more accessible for researchers as well as the public, part of Miles' effort to position the museum for the upcoming century. In 1990 the City Neighbors project, designed to promote understanding of the people of Albany, produced its first exhibit, a collection devoted to the black experience in the city.^[3]

The museum facilities needed to be redesigned, and in 1994 a local architect, Solomon + Bauer, was commissioned for the work. The following year the museum'southward trustees voted to raise $10 million, later increased to $12.v million, toward the effort. Sculptor George Rickey donated one of his works, Etoile Variation 5, to exist permanently installed in the archway atrium. The money was raised via public and private grants and the museum closed in 1999, moving to temporary quarters on State Street. It reopened in 2001.^[3]

Collection [edit]

AIHA has over 20,000 objects in its permanent collections, including 1600 paintings, 1100 drawings, 4000 prints, 600 sculptures, 500 pieces of furniture, 1200 ceramics, 4000 pieces of wearable and accessories, and 5450 other historical artifacts. Its library collections firm 140,000 printed volumes and 85,000 photographs.^[6] To supplement its permanent exhibits, the institute hosts a number of traveling exhibitions yearly.

Permanent exhibits [edit]

The permanent exhibits are located on two floors of the museum's original building.

• The Landscape That Divers America: The Hudson River School: An exhibit in the Hudson River Schoolhouse Gallery featuring paintings past Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, and other artists of the Hudson River School.
• Sense of Place: 18th and 19th Century Paintings and Sculpture: An exhibit in the Lansing Gallery that includes important portraits past Ezra Ames and Ralph Earl, and genre paintings by Walter Launt Palmer and John Thomas Peele.
• 19th Century American Sculpture: An exhibit in the Sculpture Gallery of twenty works by Erastus Dow Palmer, Launt Thompson, and Charles Calverley.
• Ancient Egypt: An exhibit in the Ancient Arab republic of egypt Gallery featuring the plant's ii mummies and other artifacts.
• Traders and Culture: Colonial Albany and the Formation of American Identity: An showroom in the Colonial Albany Gallery on the urban center in the 17th and 18th centuries.
• Entry Indicate Gallery: Visitors entering the museum start come upon this gallery, which houses a sampling of the institute'south recent acquisitions.^[vii]

Hours and fees [edit]

External video
The Albany Institute's Dutch Collections (10:eleven), C-Bridge[8]

The Albany Institute of History & Fine art is open from Wednesday to Sat from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Dominicus from 12:00 a.chiliad. to 5:00 p.m. Admission costs $10.00 for adults, $viii.00 for senior citizens and students, and $vi.00 for children anile six to twelve (those nether five are gratuitous). The library is open on Thursdays from ane:00 to four:xxx p.m. and by appointment.^[ix] The museum has a parking lot in the rear.

See also [edit]

• List of museums in New York
• National Annals of Historic Places listings in Albany, New York
• George Rogers Howell, secretarial assistant

References [edit]

1. ^ "NPS Focus". National Register of Celebrated Places. National Park Service. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
2. ^ Albany Constitute of History and Art
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f 1000 h i j k 50 m due north o p q r south} "History of the Albany Institute". Albany Institute of History & Art. Archived from the original on February 29, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2011.
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k fifty m due north o p q r s t u v} Ralph, Elizabeth Thousand. (1976-07-12). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Albany Establish of History & Fine art". New York State Function of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Archived from the original on 2011-12-ten. Retrieved 2011-08-12 .
5. ^ "A History of American Agriculture: Government and Policy". Agriculture in the Classroom. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved Jan 24, 2012.
6. ^ "Collections Alphabetize". Archived from the original on 2007-04-04. Retrieved 2007-04-11 .
7. ^ Albany Institute Exhibits Archived April 4, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
8. ^ "The Albany Institute's Dutch Collections". C-Bridge. Nov fifteen, 2012. Retrieved March xiv, 2013.
9. ^ [1] Archived April 4, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

External links [edit]

• Albany Institute of History & Art (official site)
• Digital collection
• Articles on the Albany Institute of History & Art

alvaradodedishe.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany_Institute_of_History_%26_Art

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