Anniversaries, gold & silver

Fifty years ago today, The Museum of Primitive Art opened its doors on West Fifty-fourth Street to the public.

It was the beginning of a distinguished history of presenting the finest examples of material culture from the cultures of Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas in ground-breaking, informative and imaginative displays. During those years the Museum also issued a succession of distinguished scholarly publications on these cultures and the finest private collections of the era.

For nearly that entire period the Library of the Museum of Primitive Art offered an unrivaled collection of books and journals on art and anthropology combined with knowledgeable public reference.

After nearly eighteen years the Museum shut its door on Jan. 1, 1975.

The Museum, of course, is the precursor to the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas (AAOA) in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the host for this blog. In May 1969 Nelson Rockefeller, president and founding spirit of the Museum of Primitive Art, announced the transfer of the collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to be housed in a new wing ...

February also marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening to the public of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing here in The Metropolitan Museum, and by extension The Robert Goldwater Library.

This blogger for one finds it hard to believe, since I recall all the festivities and hoopla surrounding the opening of Library and the Wing that houses it.

I won't say it was only yesterday. Much of the furniture remains the same, in remarkably good condition. But the once sparsely populated stacks are now full to the gunwales. The card catalog has been entirely replaced by the online catalog, WATSONLINE.

And over these twenty-five years have come and gone a remarkable sequence of talented librarians and assistants: my mentor and predecessor Allan Chapman; the more recent librarians Jean Wagner, Jane Garry, Kay Perring, Peter Blank, Leslie Preston, and Barbara Mathé; all with the talented assistance of Bill, Helice, Linda, Lois, Chrissa, Gabriella, as well as incumbents Joy and Erika. My thanks and congratulations to these and anyone I've unintentionally omitted from the honor roll.

Happy Anniversaries!

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[Ross Day]

And here's another anniversary, if less momentous: On March 12, 1991, the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art officially changed the name of the Department of Primitive Art to Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.