Type: Art Museums



Library: E. Kirkbride Miller Art Research Library
Library Web site or Online Catalog: http://www.artbma.org/education/library.html
Library Collection Highlights:
Auction catalogs and indexes
Exhibition catalogs
Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone Papers
Dr. William Rush Dunton, Jr. Papers
Antioch Expedition Field Notebooks & Diaries
Library Collection Strengths: American Native Art, African Art, Oceanic Art, Asian Art, American art, decorative arts, prints, drawings, photography, contemporary art, textiles
Library History: From the year of incorporation in 1914, the founders of the Baltimore Museum of Art envisioned an art library as an integral part of the museum. When the Museum opened in 1929, the library was on the ground floor, equipped with shelves to house several thousand volumes, reading tables, and chairs. The first books were purchased with the Julius Levy fund, established by the family and friends of the late Julius Levy. In 1983 the library was reinstalled in its current location, on the third floor of the Cone Wing, and named in honor of E. Kirkbride Miller, a longtime supporter of the Museum.
Contact: Linda Tompkins-Baldwin
Title: Library Director
E-mail: Ltompkins@artbma.org
Telephone: 410-396-6317
Fax: 410-545-0156
Mailing Address: 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218



Institution Highlights: In the early 20th century, two Baltimore sisters Claribel and Etta Cone assembled one of the most important art collections in the world. Visiting the Paris studios of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, they acquired an exceptional collection of art, which they displayed in their Baltimore apartments. The sisters also collected paintings by Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, and Renoir, and a variety of textiles, jewelry, furniture, and African, Asian, and Near Eastern art. The newly renovated Cone Wing showcases more of the Collection than ever before. Galleries provide an intimate setting in which to view these masterpieces as well as new insights into the sisters' diversity as collectors.
Institution Strengths:
American painting & decorative arts
European painting & sculpture
Arts of Africa, Asia, the Americas & Oceania
Modern & contemporary art
Prints, drawings & photographs
Sculpture garden
Institution History: After the heart of Baltimore was destroyed by fire in 1904, a City-Wide Congress was organized to develop a master plan for the city. Headed by Dr. A.R.L. Dohme, the Congress decided that a major deficiency of the city was the lack of an art museum. They formed an eighteen-person Committee on the Art Museum and named art dealer and industrialist Henry H. Wiegand as the Chairman. Ten years later, on November 16, 1914, the founders were incorporated.

William-Sergeant Kendall's painting Mischief, donated by Dr. Dohme, was the first work of art accessioned by the new museum. Without a permanent site, the Peabody Institute agreed to hold the museum's collection until a home was found. The group did try to get Henry L. Walters to open his recently completed Italienate palazzo, which he had built as a showcase for his works of art, as the city's museum, when he refused, the committee began planning a permanent home for the museum. In 1916 they purchased a building on the southwest corner of Charles and Biddle Streets and employed an architect to remodel it, but it was never occupied. The group had decided in 1915 to locate the museum permanently in Wyman Park, and by 1917 they had received a promise from Johns Hopkins University for the land it currently occupies. Before moving into its permanent home in 1929, however, the museum temporarily moved to 101 West Monument in 1922.

Meanwhile, back at Wyman Park, the architect John Russell Pope was engaged to design the museum's permanent home, and the cornerstone was laid on October 20, 1927. The building phase was marked by controversy over its location, cost, and the quality of workmanship, but on April 19, 1929, it opened on schedule without much fanfare. The first visitors were greeted by Rodin's Thinker in the Sculpture Court and most of the objects on display were lent by Baltimore and Maryland collectors. An average of 584 visitors attended the museum each day during the first two months of its opening.

Many of the objects lent to the museum when it opened were eventually donated to The Baltimore Museum of Art. Among the generous donors who have shaped the museum's collection are Blanche Adler, Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone, Jacob Epstein, Edward J. Gallagher, Jr., John W. and Robert Garrett, Mary Frick Jacobs, Ryda H. and Robert H. Levi, Saidie Adler May, Dorothy McIlvain Scott, Elsie C. Woodward, and Alan and Janet Wurtzburger. The growing collection is reflected in three major expansions that occurred in the 1950s: the Saidie A. May Wing in 1950, the Woodward Wing in 1956, and the Cone Wing in 1957. The three additions were all designed by local architects Wrenn, Lewis and Jencks to harmonize with the original Pope Building.

Today, The Baltimore Museum of Art's permanent collection includes over 85,000 objects, making it the largest art museum in Maryland. It is governed by a private Board of Trustees and receives funding from the City of Baltimore, surrounding Counties, the State of Maryland, corporations and foundations, Federal agencies, Trustees, and private citizens. The Baltimore Museum of Art welcomes over 300,000 visitors annually. In addition to its impressive permanent collection, it is host to traveling exhibitions and serves as a major arts center through its program offerings.
Institution Web site: http://www.artbma.org