For the Brooklyn Museum, the year 2024 marks its 200th anniversary. Located near Prospect Heights, the museum now contains about 500,000 artifacts and is one of the largest museums in New York City. But how exactly did what started out as a public library become one of the most renowned and diverse art museums in the city?
At its founding in 1823, the Brooklyn Museum was actually called the Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library. The library was formally incorporated a year later, explaining why this year would mark the museum’s 200th’s year of existence. The library then combined with another institution in 1843 to form the Brooklyn Institute, located on Washington Street. However, a fire destroyed the building in 1891.
Two years prior, calls for a new museum for the Brooklyn Institute resulted in director Franklin Hooper issuing an architectural design competition. The winning architectural firm McKim, Mead & White had their building placed east of Prospect Park. The mayor of Brooklyn at the time, Charles A. Schieron, administered $300,000 in bonds every year to help finance the construction of the large building. The formal opening of the Brooklyn Institute museum occurred on October 2, 1897. However, only 600 paintings were in the museum then, a number that pales in comparison to the amount of artifacts that are on display today.
Throughout the early 20th century, the museum continued to expand by adding wings to the main building. As the size of the museum expanded, so did the number of artifacts. However, the municipal government of New York City was reluctant to fund the museum, resulting in a lot of artwork that was sent to the museum being stored away or declined.
The situation improved during the 1920s and 1930s as some of the exhibits that exemplify the diversity of the museum were installed, including the African, Venetian, Japanese, and German exhibits. The museum’s first Assyrian and Egyptian art was added a decade later. Throughout the 20th century, the Brooklyn Museum also started collaborating with other museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Today, the Brooklyn Museum stands as one of the great cultural hubs in New York City for art. To celebrate the museum’s two-hundred year history, it announced a series of events and exhibits throughout 2024 and 2025 on its website. The first of these, the Birthday Bash, has already taken place this past weekend. Other events aim to showcase American art and artists from Brooklyn in particular. However, just the museum itself serves as a testament to the diverse art and culture of the world, which should be preserved with absolute priority regardless of the financial situation of the museum.
