Page 42 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New York City

40  INTRODUCING NE W Y ORK CIT Y

Exploring New York’s Museums

You could devote months to New York’s museums and still Prints and Photography
not do them justice. There are more than 60 museums in The International Center
Manhattan alone, and half as many again in the other of Photography Museum is
boroughs. The wealth of art and the huge variety of offerings the only museum in New York
that is totally devoted to this
– from Old Masters to old fire engines, dinosaurs to dolls, medium. Collections can also
Tibetan tapestries to African masks – are equal to that of any be seen at the Metropolitan
city in the world. Some museums close on Monday, as well as Museum of Art and MoMA,
on another day. Many stay open late one or two evenings a and there are many examples
week, and some have one evening when entry is free. Most of early photography at
the Museum of the City of
museums charge for admission; for some, this is a suggested New York and Ellis Island.
donation rather than a mandatory fee. Prints and drawings by
such great book illustrators
as Kate Greenaway and Sir
Painting and Sculpture New York displays a fine John Tenniel are featured at
New York is best known collection of German and The Morgan Library &
for its art museums. The Austrian art and design. In Museum. The Cooper Hewitt,
Metropolitan Museum of Art Harlem, the Studio Museum Smithsonian Design Museum
houses an extensive collection shows the work of black artists. has examples of the use of
of American art, as well as prints in the decorative arts.
world-famous masterpieces. Crafts and Design
The Cloisters, a branch of the If you are interested Furniture and Costumes
“Met” in Upper Manhattan, in textiles, porcelain and The annual exhibition
is a treasury of medieval art glass, embroideries of the Costume Institute
and architecture. The Frick and laces, wallpaper, at the Metropolitan
Collection has a superb display and prints, visit Museum of Art is
of Old Masters. In contrast, the Cooper Hewitt, always worth a visit.
the Museum of Modern Art Smithsonian Also impressive is
(MoMA) houses Impressionist Design Museum, the American Wing,
and modern paintings. the decorative with its 24 rooms of
The Whitney Museum of arts outpost of original furnishings
American Art and the Washington’s tracing life from 1640
Solomon R. Guggenheim Smithsonian to the 20th century.
Museum also specialize in Institu tion. The Period rooms depicting
modern art, with the Whitney’s collections at New York in various
biennial show being the MoMA trace the Corn husk doll, American settings, beginning
foremost display of work by history of design Museum of Natural History with the 17th-century
living artists. Today’s cutting- from clocks to Dutch, are on display
edge art is at the New couches. The Museum of at the Museum of the City
Museum of Contemporary Arts and Design offers the of New York.
Art, while the work of craft finest work of today’s skilled There are also some
artists can be seen at the artisans in mediums from house museums that give a
American Folk Art Museum. furniture to pottery, and the realistic picture of life and
Housed in a grand Fifth Avenue American Folk Art Museum furnishings in old New York.
mansion, the Neue Galerie presents folk forms, from quilts The Merchant’s House
to canes. Silver Museum, a preserved
collections residence from 1832, was
are notable at occupied by the same
the Museum family for 98 years. Gracie
of the City Mansion, built by merchant
of New York. Archibald Gracie in 1799,
The fine now serves as the official
displays of mayoral residence and is
native art at periodically open for public
the National tours. The Theodore Roosevelt
Museum Birthplace is the brownstone
of the where the 26th president of
American the United States grew up,
Indian include and the Mount Vernon
The Peaceable Kingdom (c.1833–4) by Edward Hicks, at the jewelry, rugs Hotel Museum was an
Brooklyn Museum and pottery. early 19th-century inn.

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