Museum of the City of New York

The Museum of the City of New York is from a museum of art and history of New York City and its people.

Location

The museum is located at the northern end of Museum Mile at 1220 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, between 103rd Street and 104th Streets across from Central Park.

History

The Museum of the City of New York is a non-profit organization and is publicly funded. It was founded in 1923 and was initially housed in Gracie Mansion. Today it is the residence of the mayor of New York City. Just a few years later, today's home on Fifth Avenue by Joseph J. Freedlander was designed and built in the Georgian style ( Construction period: 1928-1930 ), so that the museum here could open its doors in 1932.

In 1982, the Museum obtained by The Hundred Year Association of New York the Gold Medal Award in recognition for outstanding contributions over the city of New York.

2000 was considered to move the museum to the historic Tweed Courthouse in the City Hall in Lower Manhattan. And situated near El Museo del Barrio Museum would then be able to move into the former building of the Museum of the City of New York. Ultimately, however, decided Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the Tweed Courthouse, the new New York City Department of Education to settle, which meant that the then director of the Museum of the City of New York, Robert R. Mcdonald, submitted his resignation.

The new museum director, Susan Henshaw Jones, took the expansion and renovation of the museum building in attack and put to the appreciation of the location on Fifth Avenue at the junction between the Upper East Side and East Harlem. The first sod of this place on 2 August 2006. The first part of the museum extension was officially opened on 13 August 2008. It involves the Pavilion Gallery, a glass extension with an area of ​​approximately 280 m², which displays archaeological artifacts on two levels. In addition to the expansion of the museum, the main house was renovated and received a safe space for its silver collection, a space for scientific work as well as a space for processing and examination of artifacts. The total cost for this first stage of renovation amounted to 28 million dollars. It joined another renovation stages, which are expected to be completed in autumn 2011. Ultimately, the entire renovation project will cost approximately 85 million dollars.

Collection

The collection of the Museum of the City of New York includes more than 1.5 million exhibits. The museum collects, preserves and presents objects that relate to the history of New York City and its people. In addition to paintings, drawings, prints, maps and photographs are also garments, decorative objects and furniture, old toys, rare books, manuscripts, memorabilia, objects from marine, military, police, fire, etc.

The theater collection documents including the Golden Age of Broadway - including 3,500 costumes, props, costume drawings, stage sets and models, photographs and theater pieces, programs and memorabilia from the theater area.

The collection of garments from the history of New York City includes early testimonies of dresses Dutch women from the 17th century and christening gowns, diapers, sportswear and outerwear from four centuries to the present. Due to the size and quality of this collection, it has become an important source of scientific research in the field of fashion.

Among the exhibits to transportation are Schiffsgalionsfiguren, a bus, an ambulance of the Bellevue Hospital, a police car from the 19th century and a Checker Cab of 1980.

The collection of silver objects (New York Silver Collection ) from the period 1678-1984 is on the 1st floor of the museum building.

The museum is also known for rooms that are decorated in different historical epochs in the history of New York City, such as the dressing room and bedroom of John D. Rockefeller, who donated John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to the museum. A special collection of the museum is, for example, the chair that once belonged to Sarah Rapelje, daughter of Joris Jansen Rapelje of Nieuw Amsterdam, from which it is, they would be the first child of Europeans was that was born in New York State. The chair is a donation of their Brinckerhoff descendants.

A significant part of the collection consists of prints, photographs and drawings. So one about the extensive photo collection, among other things, also includes work of Jacob Riis and Berenice Abbott, the most important photo collections in the United States.

Other artifacts from the culture and history of New York City are seats from Yankee Stadium, hats congressmen or women's rights activist Bella Abzug, one designed by Vera Maxwell jumpsuit for war workers ( " was workers jumpsuit ") or a barber chair from a barber shop.

Promotion

In addition to donations from individuals and grants from foundations and companies, the museum's public funding from the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. The City of New York, owner of the museum building, supported the museum in the form of equipment and resources for museum offers by the Department of Cultural Affairs.