Albany Institute of History Art 125 Washington Avenue Albany Ny 12210

Albany Institute of History & Art

South elevation and east contour of Rice Building; south profile of entrance building and main building, 2011
Established	1791 (1791)
Location	125 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York
Coordinates	42°39′21″N 73°45′37″W  /  42.655774°N 73.760372°Due west  / 42.655774; -73.760372
Manager	Tammis K. Groft
Website	http://www.albanyinstitute.org/
Albany Constitute of History & Art
U.Southward. National Register of Celebrated Places
Architect	Richard Morris Hunt, Marcus T. Reynolds
NRHP referenceNo.	76001202[1]
Added to NRHP	July 12, 1976

The Albany Institute of History & Art (AIHA) is a museum in Albany, New York, United States, "dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting and promoting interest in the history, art, and civilisation of Albany and the Upper Hudson Valley region".^[2] It is located on Washington Artery (New York State Route v) in downtown Albany. Founded in 1791, information technology is among the oldest museums in the United States.^[3]

Several other institutions accept merged over time to become today's Albany Found. The earliest were learned societies devoted to the natural sciences, and for a time it was the state legislature'south breezy advisory body on agriculture. Robert R. Livingston was the offset president. Joseph Henry delivered his first paper on electromagnetism to the Institute. Its collections of animate being, vegetable and mineral specimens from state surveys eventually became the foundations of the New York Land Museum. Later in the century information technology became more than focused on the humanities, and eventually merged with the Albany Historical and Art Society. It has had its nowadays name since 1926. Over the course of the 20th century information technology has become more firmly established as a regional fine art museum.

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

Buildings and grounds [edit]

The institute occupies the one⅔-acre (6,800 m²) parcel of Dove Street betwixt Washington and Elk Street. It is surrounded past buildings generally of a like scale and vintage, some of which are also listed on the National Register. Facing it across Pigeon 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's. Across Washington are some smaller commercial buildings. On the southwest corner of the intersection is another Fuller brick Classical Revival building, the quondam Harmanus Bleecker Library.^[4]

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

The Rice Edifice 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 building to the street, and a modern sculpture. A low metal railing on a stepped stone base of operations sets off the holding from Washington. In the middle of it is a alpine modern stone entryway with two pillars of blocks similar to those on the Rice Building 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 2 is a mod hyphen of large stone blocks with steel and drinking glass on both sides.^[four]

Primary building seen from contrary side

The main building is a 2-story brick structure with quoins and a limestone belt course and Renaissance Revival cornice. A hipped roof with green metal cladding and a flat cardinal tower is in a higher place. On the south side, the primary entrance is located in a projecting octagonal pavilion. There are a few large 18- and 24-pane windows. An auditorium fly protrudes from the kickoff floor.^[4]

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

Four bays past iii, the Rice Building sits on a raised rock foundation supporting golden Roman brick walls with quoined corners topped by a flat roof. A slightly lower three-by-three-bay fly extends from the north facade. The eastward top has a balustraded porch on the three northern bays serving what is now the main entrance; the original main entry on the opposite side has been bricked in.^[four]

There are rectangular windows in the exposed basement wall. The first floor has round segmental-arched French windows with patently transoms; in that location are only three on the east elevation and the eye bay of the s is bullheaded on all stories. In front end they accept a decorative ironwork railing; at their tops a molded rock form runs effectually the building.^[four]

The second story has double 1-over-1 double-hung sash windows everywhere except the middle two bays of the e side where they are unmarried. They accept patently rock sills and splayed-brick lintels with each splaying multiple bricks long. Another continuous stone belt course serves every bit the baseline for the cranium windows; 1-over-one similar the ones below but shorter. A decorative stone carving replaces the corner quoins above the class. Above the windows the roofline is marked by an elaborate cornice with egg-and-sprint molding and brackets holding upward a broad overhanging eave. A parapet encloses the unabridged roof.^[four]

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

Inside many of the original finishes remain. They include salons with decorative wall art, carved mahogany fireplace mantels and the library'due south built-in bookcases. A stairway with iron balustrade goes up to the tertiary floor. The marble in the bathroom is as well original.^[4]

History [edit]

From its beginnings every bit a learned society that advised the country legislature on how to improve agronomical product, the Institute has evolved into a regional art museum. Twice in the 19th century information technology went into serious decline, revived by a change in direction. In the afterward 20th century information technology finally found a permanent direction and its own dwelling house.

Robert R. Livingston, the institute'due south first president

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

The Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Articles, the primeval predecessor system to today's AIHA, was established in New York City in 1791 every bit a learned guild. At that time the city was both state and national majuscule, and the Society served as an informal advisor to the state legislature, which later funded it, on ways to improve the land'due 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 fellow member of that body was considered an honorary member of the Society. Robert R. Livingston, a signer of the Proclamation of Independence, was chosen as the Order's first president. Other early members of notation included John Jay, first Chief Justice of the The states and a future governor of the state, and George Clinton, another later governor who would somewhen go Vice President.^{[three] [4]}

When Albany was permanently designated as the state capital in 1796, the Society moved with it. It met in the former Metropolis Hall at offset. In 1804, as its original charter expired, it was renamed the Guild for the Promotion of the Useful Arts. Livingston continued to serve as president. Ten years later, it established a Fine Arts Committee. Among its members were architect Philip Hooker and painter Ezra Ames. Its first deed was to commission from Ames a portrait of Livingston, who had died in 1813. It was the plant's first arts accretion.^{[3] [4]}

In 1819, New York became the starting time state to found a government bureau devoted to agronomics^[5] when the legislature created the Board of Agronomics. The state no longer needed the Society, and withdrew its funding. Many of the founding members had grown older or, like Livingston, died, and the Order became less active.^{[3] [4]}

1823–1850: Albany Institute [edit]

It was rejuvenated by a merger with the Albany Lyceum of Natural History, a year after that arrangement was founded in 1823 with Stephen Van Rensselaer, a erstwhile lieutenant governor so serving in Congress. The members of the Lyceum were younger, and focused on the natural sciences, specially geology and mineralogy, paleontology, and astronomy. In accordance with the first iii fields, information technology had devoted itself to preserving mineral and botanical specimens collected on land surveys.^{[3] [four]}

The merged organization became known equally the Albany Establish, 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 Found's natural-history department, delivered his first paper on electromagnetism, an expanse in which he went on to make significant contributions. By the following year the Institute's libraries had almost doubled in size when Governor DeWitt Clinton willed most of his books to it.^{[3] [4]}

Henry left in 1832 to teach at Princeton; later he would become the first secretarial assistant of the Smithsonian Institution. His departure did non affect the Albany Institute, which recorded over a thousand members the next year. For other reasons, this would nonetheless exist a peak yr for the Institute every bit it was in the early 19th century.^{[iii] [4]}

Betwixt 1834 and 1837, attendance declined at meetings due to the excessive output of the Institute's master meteorologist, Matthew Henry Webster, who took enthusiastically to the duty of coordinating the land weather surveys for the Board of Regents. He presented many papers on the subject, sometimes three at a unmarried meeting, and attendees became increasingly bored and stopped attention. Financial problems resulting from the Panic of 1837 limited the Establish's publications. During this time information technology continued to collect scientific specimens, accumulating more than 15,000, and started the land Natural History Survey, both activities that led to the establishment of the New York Country Museum.^{[three] [4]}

Van Rensselaer's expiry in 1839 was another setback for the Institute. Its functions were also duplicated by newer institutions, particularly colleges and universities such as Union Higher and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, that had been established in the Albany area. Throughout the 1840s it remained dormant.^{[3] [four]}

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

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

The Establish was again revived in 1851, when the new American Clan for the Advancement of Science held its third almanac meeting at the Albany Academy. As had happened before, the improver of members changed the nature of the organization, making it a learned gild interested in many areas besides the natural sciences. John V. L. Pruyn, a Congressman and officer of the New York Central Railroad, became president in 1857 and reoriented the lodge toward the public rather than the interests of its members. Ten years subsequently, in 1867, the Institute 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] [4]}

Celebrations of the city's bicentennial in 1886 included an exhibit at the Albany Academy of historical relics and fine art from the private collections of many socially prominent Albany families. The Albany Historical and Fine art Society (AHAS) was established after to maintain the collection and find a permanent habitation for information technology. Its membership approached nearly 1,200.^[iii]

Past 1897 AHAS had raised enough money to purchase a Country Street edifice, on which information technology congenital an improver to business firm all its works. The post-obit year it absorbed the collection of the Albany Gallery of Fine Art, which had been opened in 1846 and closed within a decade due to declining subscriptions. James McDougal Hart had worked there before kickoff his artistic career. The gallery'south holdings had been kept in trust past the metropolis's Young Men's Association e'er since.^{[iii] [iv]}

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

In 1900, the AHAS and the Albany Institute merged,^[four] becoming the Albany Institute and Historical and Art Guild. Local judge William Learned Shaw became the combined organization's beginning president. 4 years later it bought the belongings on which the main building stands. In 1907 the cornerstone of the Fuller & Pitcher Company'due south Renaissance Revival building was laid, and the building was completed the following year. Mayor Charles Henry Gaus described it as "the capstone of educational evolution in our city". Its first exhibit, in 1909, was devoted to the tricentennial of Henry Hudson's exploration of the river named after him and the centennial of Robert Fulton'south inaugural steamboat voyage upwards information technology.^[3]

To clear more infinite for exhibits, the institute donated some of its books a cake abroad to the newly built Harmanus Bleecker Library in 1924. The newspaper and pamphlet collections were donated to the state museum shortyl afterwards. Ii years later, it shortened its name to the "more than symmetrical" Albany Institute of History & Fine art." This coincided with the first of an endeavor to make the collections more than accessible to the public. Those outreach programs, such every bit tours, schoolhouse trips and performances, continued through the Not bad Depression of the next decade, helping establish the institute as a regional museum. It 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 honour of the 250th anniversary of the city charter in 1936. The latter outcome led to a continuing commitment in that area.^[3]

As the next decade dawned and war began, John Davis Hatch came from the Art Institute of Seattle to take over equally AIHA director. 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 Historic period", featured the work of 45 African American artists and drew national attention afterward it went to the Brooklyn Museum. Behind the scenes, Hatch began the process of modernizing the museum'southward record-keeping to harmonize with the systems in use 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 have some connection to it. With that in identify, he created special exhibitions devoted to regional work and renovated the galleries.^[3]

In 1956 he was in turn succeeded by Janet McFarlane, who was at the time one of only seven women serving as a museum manager in the U.Southward. Five years later, the museum'south Women'south Council, which has since become a major fundraiser and source of volunteers, was founded. A yr after curator Norman Rice began a twenty-year tenure as director in 1967, the Rice family donated their old house on the corner, expanded sympathetically in 1940, to the museum. It renovated the 1895 Beaux-Arts home designed past Richard Morris Hunt, builder 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^[four] for use both as offices and gallery space. As director, Rice would head an conquering effort that grew the special collections to over a million items before he stepped down in 1986.^[3]

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 Gimmicky Art Auction to heighten money for a new Contemporary Collections Fund. The acquisitions it fabricated possible have more than doubled the museum'due south collections in that surface area. That year the museum also began a decade-long projection to document and meliorate catalog its holdings in order to brand them more accessible for researchers also equally 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 drove devoted to the black experience in the metropolis.^[three]

The museum facilities needed to exist redesigned, and in 1994 a local architect, Solomon + Bauer, was commissioned for the work. The following year the museum's trustees voted to heighten $10 1000000, later increased to $12.5 1000000, toward the endeavour. Sculptor George Rickey donated ane of his works, Etoile Variation 5, to be permanently installed in the entrance atrium. The coin was raised via public and private grants and the museum closed in 1999, moving to temporary quarters on State Street. Information technology reopened in 2001.^[three]

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 clothing and accessories, and 5450 other historical artifacts. Its library collections house 140,000 printed volumes and 85,000 photographs.^[6] To supplement its permanent exhibits, the found hosts a number of traveling exhibitions yearly.

Permanent exhibits [edit]

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

• The Mural 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 showroom in the Lansing Gallery that includes of import portraits by Ezra Ames and Ralph Earl, and genre paintings by Walter Launt Palmer and John Thomas Peele.
• 19th Century American Sculpture: An showroom in the Sculpture Gallery of xx works past Erastus Dow Palmer, Launt Thompson, and Charles Calverley.
• Ancient Egypt: An showroom in the Aboriginal Egypt Gallery featuring the found's 2 mummies and other artifacts.
• Traders and Civilisation: Colonial Albany and the Germination of American Identity: An exhibit in the Colonial Albany Gallery on the city in the 17th and 18th centuries.
• Entry Point Gallery: Visitors entering the museum first come upon this gallery, which houses a sampling of the institute's contempo acquisitions.^[7]

Hours and fees [edit]

External video
The Albany Institute'south Dutch Collections (10:11), C-SPAN[eight]

The Albany Institute of History & Art is open from Midweek to Sabbatum from 10:00 a.thousand. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 12:00 a.thou. to 5:00 p.thou. Access costs $ten.00 for adults, $8.00 for senior citizens and students, and $six.00 for children anile vi to twelve (those under five are free). The library is open on Thursdays from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. and by appointment.^[9] The museum has a parking lot in the rear.

See likewise [edit]

• List of museums in New York
• National Register of Celebrated Places listings in Albany, New York
• George Rogers Howell, secretary

References [edit]

1. ^ "NPS Focus". National Register of Celebrated Places. National Park Service. Retrieved Nov 10, 2011.
2. ^ Albany Institute of History and Fine art
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f m h i j k l 1000 n o p q r s} "History of the Albany Constitute". Albany Constitute of History & Art. Archived from the original on February 29, 2012. Retrieved Jan 24, 2011.
4. ^ ^{a b c d eastward f thousand h i j grand l m n o p q r s t u v} Ralph, Elizabeth Chiliad. (1976-07-12). "National Register of Celebrated Places Inventory/Nomination: Albany Institute of History & Art". New York State Part of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Archived from the original on 2011-12-10. Retrieved 2011-08-12 .
5. ^ "A History of American Agronomics: Regime and Policy". Agronomics in the Classroom. United states Department of Agriculture. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
6. ^ "Collections Index". Archived from the original on 2007-04-04. Retrieved 2007-04-xi .
7. ^ Albany Institute Exhibits Archived Apr iv, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
8. ^ "The Albany Constitute'south Dutch Collections". C-Bridge. November fifteen, 2012. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
9. ^ [1] Archived April four, 2007, at the Wayback Automobile

External links [edit]

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

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany_Institute_of_History_&_Art

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