Toledo Museum of Art - Toledo, OH - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

9. The TOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART (open 9-5 weekdays; 7-10 Tues. eve; 1-5 Sun. and holidays), 2449 Monroe St., is a #3,000,000 white Vermont marble structure with an Ionic facade. The museum was founded in 1901 by Edward Drummond Libby, the glass manufacturer, and a group of his friends. Construction of the present building was not begun until 1909; additional wings and galleries were added in 1926 and 1933. More than 600 feed long, it has eight acres of floor space. In attendance it ranks among the first six art museums in the country, annually attracting more than 250,000, partly as a result of its policy of giving free art instruction to school children. The museum is supported by an endowment fund to which Libby was one of the heaviest contributors.

In the East Wing the Peristyle, a colonnaded arena with 1,500 seats and a huge stage, is the scene of most of Toledo's concerts. The rich oak-paneled Hemicycle, or auditorium, is in the central unit; seating 850, it is used for lectures, classes, and motion pictures for children.

Of the 36 galleries, several are devoted to a glass collection that is rated the finest in existence. Among the pieces is an Egyptian item dating from 1350 B.C.; the collection ranges down through Roman, early Christian, Syrian, Saracenic, to modern work. In the ceramic group are some excellent Chines items.

Linking the rotunda and the Sculpture Court are seven galleries in which hang the works of American painters, including oils by Whistler and Benjamin West. The European masters include Rubens, Doré, Millet, Corot, Breton, Diaz, Rousseau, Goya, and many others. The modern school is represented by Matisse, Picasso, Laurencin, Pascin, Van Gogh, Speicher, and a great many more. Five galleries are devoted to prints.

The George W. Stevens Gallery, although small, has a goo collection of writing and bookmaking: the sixteenth-century Nebuchadnezzar Cylinder, some papyri, a rare fifteenth-century scroll of the Book of Esther, Caxton's Mirror of the World, and one of the 10 extant copies of Icrease Mather's book. In the Gothic Hall, which as the serene splendor of a cathedral, are three stained-glass windows dating from the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries; a sixteenth-century Flemish tapestry that almost covers one wall, and a thirteenth-century French figure of Christ, carved life-size in wood. Two of the arcades in the Medieval Cloister are from France, and the Swiss Room was transplanted intact, with its wood paneling and great glazed stove, from an old Lake Zurich village. -The Ohio Guide 1940

Today--More than 30,000 works of art represent American and European painting, the history of art in glass, ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian works, Asian and African art, medieval art, sculpture, decorative arts, graphic arts, and modern and contemporary art.

The main Museum building interior contains four and a half acres of floor space on two levels. It has 45 galleries, 15 classroom studios, the 1,750-seat Peristyle concert hall, the 176-seat Little Theater lecture hall, the Family Center, the Museum Café, and the Museum Store featuring Collector’s Corner.

The Toledo Museum of Art opens its collection to the public—free of charge—six days a week, 309 days a year. We are closed on Mondays and major holidays.

Museum galleries are fully accessible. Free wheelchairs and strollers are available at each entrance of the main Museum building and the Glass Pavilion.-Visit Toledo

The museum is still open today. Admission is free. There is now a sculpture garden along the entire front of the museum along Monroe Street.

Book: Ohio Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 334-3350 Year Originally Published: 1940

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