Entrance Ticket for New York Gallery of Fine Arts, issued to H. T. Haviland
Engraver Anonymous, American, 19th century American
Signed by Jonathan Sturges
Not on view
This ticket is the nineteenth-century equivalent of a membership card that granted the holder access to the city's first art museum, the New York Gallery of Fine Arts. The latter's core holdings were collected by the art patron and business man Luman Reed (1787-1836). In 1844, when his family prepared to sell these works, Reed's former partner Jonathan Sturges led the committee that raised funds to establish the new institution. Unfortunately, it never found a permanent home–initially being shown at the National Academy of Design at Leonard Street and Broadway from October 1844 to March 1845. It then moved into the City-owned Rotunda (formerly the Vanderly Rotunda) from July 1845 to June 1848 then returned to the Academy's new premises at 663 Broadway, where it was shown in the winter months of 1850-51 and 1851-52. After this the collection was stored and the Gallery finally dissolved in 1858; its holdings of 79 paintings, 3 sculptures and numerous engravings being placed "on deposit in perpetuity" at the New York Historical Society.
