Here are dates of institutions chartered in NY in 1868 or earlier that are in existence today.  The names given are the modern names (there were no planetariums in 1868 to my knowledge!).  Some dates are for the parent institution.

A "New York museum" might also refer to a private institution such as Barnum's American Museum.  See A. H. Saxon's "P. T. Barnum, The Legend and the Man."  Barnum's museums had art galleries; he also may have purchased or commissioned art as backdrops for his displays of objects.  I believe Barnum's third and last museum fire was in 1868 so if the paintings were there, they were lost.


TITLE                                CHAR_DATE

General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen 11/30/1791
New York Historical Society 01/31/1809
Staten Island Historical Society 04/13/1848
Livingston County Historical Society 10/15/1852
American Geographical Society 03/31/1854
Yates County Genealogical and Historical Society 02/04/1860
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (Vassar College) 12/31/1860
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy Albright-Knox Art Gallery 11/30/1862
Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society 12/31/1862
Brooklyn Historical Society 04/10/1863
Onondaga Historical Association 04/29/1863
American Museum of Natural History - Hayden Planetarium 11/30/1868


David W. Palmquist
Head, Chartering Program
NY State Museum
State Education Department
3090 Cultural Education Center
Albany NY 12230
518-473-3131
FAX 518-473-8496
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
web site:  www.nysm.nysed.gov/charter/

>>> [log in to unmask] 11/29/00 10:27AM >>>
In his book _Across the Wide Missouri_ (1947), Bernard DeVoto refers to the purchase by "a New York Museum in 1868" of paintings of American indians by Karl Bodmer, a famous artist of the early American West.  The book provides no further details.

Does anyone have a list of museums in the state that were active in 1868, and which ones might have been likely to be collecting material like this?

Thank you.

Reed Augliere