DC -- Freer Gallery of Art -- Not Covered Elsewhere:
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- Description of Pictures: The previous day, I had gotten a Facebook notice that one of my groups -- "Smithsonian's Freer..." (Facebook truncated the title) -- had changed its name. I went to visit the museum to ask questions.
Someone at the desk said the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery used to be known as "Freer | Sackler" under the slogan "Where America Meets Asia". Now the combined museums were being called the "National Museum of Asian Art" but they still exist as two separate museums. The URL for the museums is http://asia.si.edu
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- Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- SIFG_190626_01.JPG: The McMillan Plan
- SIFG_190626_21.JPG: Charles Lang Freer
- SIFG_190626_27.JPG: 1854: Charles Lang Freer is born in Kingston, New York.
1880: Freer moves to Detroit with business partner Frank Hecker and launches Peninsular Car Works. After a series of mergers, it becomes American Car and Foundry (left) in 1899.
1887: After collector Howard Mansfield introduces him to the work of American expatriate artist James McNeill Whistler. Freer purchases his first set of Whistler etching later that year.
1890: Freer hires architect Wilson Eyre to design a shingle-style house on Ferry Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. For the next four years he works closely with artists and craftsmen to decorate his home.
- SIFG_190626_31.JPG: 1887: After collector Howard Mansfield introduces him to the work of American expatriate artist James McNeill Whistler. Freer purchases his first set of Whistler etching later that year.
1890: Freer hires architect Wilson Eyre to design a shingle-style house on Ferry Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. For the next four years he works closely with artists and craftsmen to decorate his home.
1890: While in London, Freer meets Whistler for the first time.
1892: In addition to acquiring Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony, his first oil painting by Whistler. Freer also makes his first purchase of Asian ceramics.
1894-95: Freer makes his first tour of Asia, stopping in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, Singapore, China, and Japan.
- SIFG_190626_33.JPG: 1892: In addition to acquiring Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony, his first oil painting by Whistler. Freer also makes his first purchase of Asian ceramics.
1894-95: Freer makes his first tour of Asia, stopping in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, Singapore, China, and Japan.
1899: After orchestrating a massive consolidation of the railroad cat manufacturing industry to create the American Car and Foundry Company. Freer retires to collect art full time.
1904: Whistler had transformed a private dining room in London into the Peacock Room in 1876-77. Freer purchases the room, dismantles and ships it to the United States, and installs it in his Detroit home.
1906: At the urging of President Theodore Roosevelt, the Smithsonian accepts Freer's gift of art and funds for a new museum on the National Mall. Freer commissions artist Gari Melchers to paint Roosevelt's portrait (right) as a sign of his appreciation.
- SIFG_190626_36.JPG: 1906: At the urging of President Theodore Roosevelt, the Smithsonian accepts Freer's gift of art and funds for a new museum on the National Mall. Freer commissions artist Gari Melchers to paint Roosevelt's portrait (right) as a sign of his appreciation.
1907-11: In addition to acquiring works for his collection of American art. Freer undertakes four tours of Asia to purchase objects and to meet dealers, fellow collectors, and scholars.
1913: Arthur Sackler is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1913: His health failing, Freer commissions architect Charles Platt to design the Freer Gallery of Art.
- SIFG_190626_40.JPG: 1919: Charles Lang Freer changes his will to allow Asian, Egyptian, and Near Eastern art to be added to his collection posthumously. He dies in New York City at age sixty-five.
1920: Freer's assistant Katharine Rhoades (left) oversees the transfer of artwork from Detroit to Washington.
1921-46: Grace Dunham Guest oversees major growth of the ancient Chinese and Islamic collections as an assistant curator and later as assistant director, a post she holds for eight years.
1923: The Freer Gallery of Art opens to the public. John Ellerton Lodge, appointed as the museum's first director in 1920, serves until 1942.
- SIFG_190626_46.JPG: 1923: The Freer Gallery of Art opens to the public. John Ellerton Lodge, appointed as the museum's first director in 1920, serves until 1942.
1923-27: The museum sponsors archaeological expeditions to China. Future director Archibald Wenley (left) visits Yungang Grottoes in Shanxi, China, in 1925.
1926-29: After his parents lose their business, Sackeler works as a delivery boy to support his family financially.
1930: A memorial dedicated to Freer is unveiled at the Koetsu Temple in Kyoto, Japan.
1933-37: After earning a bachelor's degree from New York University in 1933. Sackler graduates with a medical degree from NYU in 1937.
- SIFG_190626_49.JPG: 1933-37: After earning a bachelor's degree from New York University in 1933. Sackler graduates with a medical degree from NYU in 1937.
1941: Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, all Japanese art is removed from view in the Freer Gallery to protect it from possible vandalism.
1942: To finance further medical studies, Sackler joins a medical advertising firm that he later acquires. He becomes a major figure in the world of pharmaceutical advertising.
1943-62: Archibald Wenley, director from 1943 to 1962, builds the Freer Gallery's Near East collection by acquiring significant examples of Islamic art.
1945: The Freer Gallery expands its collection of Mughal art by acquiring several folios from the famed St. Petersburg album, in addition to other works.
- SIFG_190626_53.JPG: 1947-50: The Peacock Room undergoes extensive conservation to stabilize its physical structure.
1950: Arthur Sackler begins collecting Chinese art. He gradually assembles one of the world's most comprehensive collections of ancient Chinese bronzes.
1952: Rutherford J. Gettens establishes a Laboratory for Technical Studies in Oriental Art and Archaeology at the Freer Gallery. It is one of the first museum conservation labs for Asian art in the country.
1954: The first issue of Ars Orientalis is copublished by the Freer Gallery of Art and the University of Michigan. Presenting current research on the art of the Middle East and Asia, the journal continues in publication today.
- SIFG_190626_56.JPG: 1958: Among the many Chinese porcelains acquired at mid-century is this large canteen decorated with a mixture of Chinese and Islamic motifs.
1962-71: John Alexander Pope director of the Freer Gallery from 1962 to 1971, oversees significant acquisitions of Chinese porcelains.
- SIFG_190626_59.JPG: 1968: The Freer Gallery's holding of Chinese art expand significantly with the acquisition of the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer collection.
1971-77: The Japanese collection expands in size, range, and quality of works undeer the leadership of Harold Stern, director from 1971 to 1977.
1974: In refining his collection of Asian art, Freer sold many of his Japanese woodblock prints from the Edo period. Under the direction of Harold Stern, the Freer Gallery rebuilds its Japanese collection by acquiring prints by Utamaro (left) and Hiroshige.
1977-87: Thomas Lawton, director from 1977 to 1987, makes the Freer Gallery's first major acquisitions of Chinese calligraphy.
- SIFG_190626_62.JPG: 1979: Congress passes legislation authorizing construction of the "South Quadrangle Project' to include new Smithsonian museums for Asian and African art. Ground is officially broken in 1983.
1982: Sackler agrees to donate approximately 1,000 objects, from Sasanian silver to ancient Chinese jades and bronzes, and to help fund a new museum of Asian art.
1984: The Freer Gallery mounts a major retrospective exhibition to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of artist James McNeill Whistler.
1986: The Sackler Gallery acquires the Vever collection of Islamic manuscripts.
1987: The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery opens to the public on September 2, four months after Dr. Sackler's death.
1987-2001: Milo Beach, an expert of Indian art director from 1987 to 2001, develops exhibitions on Japanese woven baskets, court arts in Indonesian and Hindu and Maghal art from India.
- SIFG_190626_65.JPG: 1987: The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery opens to the public on September 2, four months after Dr. Sackler's death.
1987-2001: Milo Beach, an expert of Indian art director from 1987 to 2001, develops exhibitions on Japanese woven baskets, court arts in Indonesian and Hindu and Maghal art from India.
1989-93: The Freer Gallery of Art closes for a four-year renovation.
1991: The Sackler Gallery acquires the Pritztaff collection of Chinese ancestor portraits.
1993: Now linked by an underground connecting gallery, the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery reopen to the public.
- SIFG_190626_68.JPG: 1996-2005: The Sackler Gallery acquires works from the Hauge collection of ceramics made in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, as well as Chinese vessels exported to Southeast Asia.
1997: Dr. Paul Singer bequests his vast and eclectic collection of Chinese art to the Sackler Gallery.
2001: Chinese artist Xu Bing creates Monkeys Grasp for the Moon as part of an exhibition of his artwork. The sculpture is recreated for permanent display in the Sackler Gallery.
2003: The Perspectives series of exhibitions is initiated to present works by contemporary artists from Asia and the Asian diaspora. Japanese artist Yayoi Kasama is featured first.
- SIFG_190626_72.JPG: 2002-17: Julian Raby, a scholar of Islamic art and director from 2002 to 2017, champions international exhibitions and digital initiatives during his tenure.
2003: Robert O. Muller bequeaths his collection of Japanese woodblock prints created in the 1860s through the 1940s to the Sackler Gallery.
2007: The Freer Gallery acquires the Gerhard Pulverer collection of Japanese illustrated books produced in the Edo period and beyond
2011: The Dalai Lama visits the Sackler Gallery when Alice Kendell donates her collection of Tibetan Buddhist art to the museum.
- SIFG_190626_75.JPG: 2007: The Freer Gallery acquires the Gerhard Pulverer collection of Japanese illustrated books produced in the Edo period and beyond
2011: The Dalai Lama visits the Sackler Gallery when Alice Kendell donates her collection of Tibetan Buddhist art to the museum.
2011: The Peacock Room is restored to its appearance in 1908 when Charles Lang Freer used the room to display more than 250 ceramics he collected throughout Asia.
2017: The Freer|Sackler reopens on October 14 wit grand festivities attended by thousands of art and museum lovers.
2018: The Secretary of the Smithsonian announces the appointment of Chase Robinson, an Islamic scholar, as director of the Freer|Sackler.
2023: Join us when the Freer Gallery of Art celebrates the centennial of opening its doors to the public. Here's to another century of presenting and preserving the arts!
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