0.4 Chapter two: the formative years, 1804-1920  (Page 3/8)

Going its own way, 1857-1900

The completion of the new building, one of the few fire-safe depositories in New York City, made the Society a most attractive place for the protection and public display of valuable materials of all types. In the decade between 1858 and 1867, the Society's collection of art grew significantly through both donations and purchases. In 1858, the Society received the entire New York Gallery of the Fine Arts, including the collection of Luman Reed, one of America's foremost early-nineteenth-century patrons of the fine arts. In 1860, the Society raised $60,000 through public subscription to purchase the Abbott collection of Egyp­tian artifacts, which included three mummies and was at that time the greatest Egyptian collection in America. In 1863, the Society raised $4,000 to purchase 433 of the original watercolor paintings used to print Birds of America, by John James Audubon, from Audubon's widow.

During this period, the Society's library collection also grew. Under the direction of George Moore (1849-1876), the library expanded from twenty-five thousand volumes in 1857 to over sixty thousand in 1872. These figures do not include the considerable growth in other items, such as manuscripts, maps, and newspapers. This remarkable growth took place without a clearly denned acqui­sitions policy; no policy had been written that superseded the original broad appeal to the public. The Society basically accepted anything and everything it was given.

Such a broad acquisitions policy and the considerable growth in the Society's collections reflected the priorities of Frederic De Peyster, then president of the Society (1864-1866, 1873-1882). De Peyster saw an "opportunity to inaugurate a new power in the social progress of the nation, one of the grandest that has ever been offered."

But the growth in the Society's collections and the expansion of the Society's goals did not come without cost. This transformation of the Society into an art gallery, library, and educational institution introduced competing purposes and emphases in the Society's mission that would prove very difficult to manage. More­over, from a more immediate and practical standpoint, art galleries had not been incorporated in the original plans of the new building. The rapid growth of both the library and the museum collections put particular strain on library users and librarians because of a lack of space for books and limited desk room.