AN ART MUSEUM FOR PRINCETON:
ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. Mid-campus: Museum of Historic Art, Brown Hall, Dod Hall, ca.1905

MUSEUM OF HISTORIC ART. North façade, ca. 1893

• Dates of Commission/Occupancy:1886/1892
• Architects: Arthur Page Brown, New York City; A. C. Schweinfurth
• Donors: Trustees, College of New Jersey
• Materials: Brownstone; Tiffany brick; glazed terracotta tile
ornamentation
• Dimensions: 75' x 25'

• Only the center section built; wings and lecture hall to south never realized

MUSEUM OF HISTORIC ART. Proposed plan

• The proposed plan projects a building four times as large as that constructed and with more harmonious exterior proportions

MUSEUM OF HISTORIC ART. Plan as realized, main floor

• Original presentation drawing by A. Page Brown for three-story symmetrical-plan building

• 1890/91: Main floor galleries completed
• West gallery: Trumbull-Prime collection of ceramics
• Center (entrance) gallery: sculpture, with plaster statue of Richard Stockton (now destroyed)
• East gallery: antiquities (mainly ceramic), Trumbull-Prime collection

MUSEUM OF HISTORIC ART. Upper floor, Center gallery, looking into West gallery, ca. 1900

• 1892: Upper floor galleries completed
• 1892-1898: Loan exhibition of print collection of T. Harrison Garrett
• 1898: Garrett collection returned; replaced with library for classical archaeology; casts, prints, and paintings on walls

MUSEUM OF HISTORIC ART. North façade, ca. 1890

• Dates of Commission/Occupancy:1886/1892
• Architects: Arthur Page Brown, New York City; A. C. Schweinfurth
• Donors: Trustees, College of New Jersey
• Materials: Brownstone; Tiffany brick; glazed terracotta tile
ornamentation
• Dimensions: 75' x 25'

• Dates of Commission/ Occupancy/ Dedication: 1921/ 1922/ June 1923
• Architects: Ralph Adams Cram (Cram and Ferguson, Boston)
• Donors: Cyrus H. McCormick, Jr., Class of 1879; Mrs. Cyrus McCormick, Sr.
• Materials: Brownstone, stucco
• Function: Department of Art and Archaeology; School of Architecture; Program in Music

MUSEUM OF HISTORIC ART/ McCORMICK HALL. Northeast view, ca. 1923

• McCormick Hall was attached to west end of Museum with access on two levels

MUSEUM OF HISTORIC ART. Main floor, West gallery, 1925

• West (Trumbull-Prime) gallery with stained glass window from Chartres Cathedral
• 1923: Galleries reinstalled by Frank Jewett Mather, Jr. appointed director in 1922

MUSEUM OF HISTORIC ART. Upper floor, Center gallery, north wall, 1925.

• With construction of McCormick Hall, Museum regained East and Center galleries on upper floor
• West gallery (behind blocked-off opening to left) retained by Department of Art and Archaeology for study photographs library with access from McCormick Hall

McCORMICK HALL: 1927 ADDITION. Southwest view

• Date of Commission/ Occupancy: 1927
• Architects: School of Architecture faculty
• Function: Lecture Hall; School of Architecture
  • Museum regained use of West gallery, upper floor, for post-Renaissance paintings and special exhibitions
  • Small two-story addition to Museum, southwest corner: prints, drawings, Chinese paintings (main level); storage (lower level)
  • Room provided for exhibitions sponsored by the Department of Art and Archaeology

MUSEUM OF HISTORIC ART/ McCORMICK HALL. North façade, after 1929

• 1929: Roof of Museum lowered to conform in scale to McCormick Hall

• East wing of 1927 addition rebuilt as two-story building; roof in center removed and spaces remodelled for Antioch Court
• Museum gained small storage room off stair landing between main and upper levels

DEMOLITION OF MUSEUM AND PART OF McCORMICK HALL: 1964

• A. Page Brown building judged obsolete and demolished
• South two thirds of 1922 McCormick Hall building retained

THE ART MUSEUM/ McCORMICK HALL: 1965. Northeast view

• Dates of Commission/ Occupancy/Dedication: 1964/ 1965/ June 1966
• Architects: Steinmann, Cain and White, New York City
• Materials: Brownstone
• Functions: New building was 38,000 square feet; 24,000 square feet was Museum gallery space; 12,000 square feet was offices, classrooms, art library, storage and utility rooms.

THE ART MUSEUM/ McCORMICK HALL: 1965. Southwest view

• Ancient and Medieval galleries, Museum offices, lounge, and faculty offices in old McCormick Hall

THE ART MUSEUM: 1965. Marquand-Mather Sculpture Court, looking south

• Upper level: Galleries for European and American paintings and Medieval Art, Prints and Drawings rooms
• Lower level: Galleries for Special Exhibitions, Ancient, Far Eastern, and Contemporary art

THE ART MUSEUM: 1965. Boudinot Drawing Room

• Two simulated period rooms were given by Mr. and Mrs. Landon K. Thorne to evoke the eighteenth-century times of Mrs. Thorne's collateral ancestor, Elias Boudinot IV, President of the Continental Congress and Princeton resident. The rooms were abandoned in the 1988 renovations and paintings integrated into the American Paintings Gallery.

THE ART MUSEUM/ McCORMICK HALL: 1965. Northeast view , after 1971

• 1971: Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman, cast concrete, executed by Carl Nesjar from Picasso's maquette of 1962

THE ART MUSEUM: 1988. ADDITION AND RENOVATIONS. Southwest view

• Dates of Commission/ Occupancy/ Dedication: 1984/ 1988/ May 1989
• Architects: Mitchell/Giurgola, Philadelphia
• Donors: Mitchell Wolfson, Jr., Class of 1963; Class of 1963; many individual donors to galleries and gallery renovations
• Function: Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Wing added over 27,000 square feet to Museum, divided about equally between galleries and storage and utility rooms.

THE ART MUSEUM: 1988. ADDITION AND RENOVATIONS Southeast view

• New Wing provides galleries for Contemporary, Special, and smaller rotating exhibitions on upper level; storage and utility rooms, offices, on lower level

THE ART MUSEUM: 1988. Marquand-Mather Court (American Gallery), looking north

• Major renovations accomplished in this area of 1965 building
• Galleries in 1965 building renovated, study storage and seminar rooms added

THE ART MUSEUM: 1988. Ancient Gallery

THE ART MUSEUM: 1988. Asian Gallery

THE ART MUSEUM/McCORMICK HALL: 1988. Northeast view

• Museum today

MUSEUM OF HISTORIC ART: 1890. North façade

• Museum 100 years ago

Museum of Historic Art and McCormick Hall:
Computer Models
The animations you are about to see were generated by the software developed for "Evolution of a Campus: The First 250 Years of Princeton," a computer-based, interactive tool that allows users to see what the Princeton University campus looked like at any point in its 250-year history. This information system now serves as an interactive document of the University's architectural history, and is expected to meet the challenge of building computerized model, image and text collections, a fundamental component for the future of scholarly computing at Princeton.

Credits: Kirk Alexander, Christine Kitto, Laura Schneider, Keith Johnson, Paul Hanson, Barbara T. Ross, Sara Bush

Photo credits:Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library; The Art Museum Princeton University; Elizabeth C.G. Menzies.