Francis Henry Taylor Explained

Francis Henry Taylor
Birth Date:	1903
Birth Place:	Philadelphia
Death Date:	1957
Nationality:	American

Francis Henry Taylor (1903–1957) was a distinguished American museum director and curator, who served as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for fifteen years.

He was born in Philadelphia, and started his career as a curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 1931 he became director of the Worcester Art Museum Massachusetts, before joining the Metropolitan Museum in New York City as its director in 1940.

Taylor was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1939 and the American Philosophical Society in 1946.^{[1] [2]}

Sometimes described as a showman, he developed a theory of the museum as an institution of active public service, not simply a repository of art. He was credited with doubling the number of people visiting the museum, up to 2.3 million a year.^[3]

Books

His writings include:

• Babel's Tower: The Dilemma of the Modern Museum (1945)
• The Taste of Angels: A History of Art Collecting from Rameses to Napoleon (1948, reprint 1955) -
• Fifty Centuries of Art (1954)
• Pierpont Morgan as Collector and Patron, 1837-1913 (1957), Pierpont Morgan Library -

See also

• Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program

External links

• Image of Francis Henry Taylor, Smithsonian Archives of American Art
• Francis Henry Taylor records, 1892-1956 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives, New York.
• Photo by Yousuf Karsh
  • Francis Henry Taylor papers, 1920-1958 from Houghton Library, Harvard College Library.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Francis Henry Taylor . 2023-03-22 . American Academy of Arts & Sciences . en.
2. Web site: APS Member History . 2023-03-22 . search.amphilsoc.org.
3. https://web.archive.org/web/20070122010623/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,822588,00.html "Custodian of the Attic"