The Met

Jonathan Conlin is professor of modern history at the University of Southampton. His books include Tales of Two Cities: Paris, London, and the Birth of the Modern City (2014) and Mr. Five Per Cent: The Many Lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, the World’s Richest Man (2019).

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Innocents Abroad: The Founding Trustees, 1866–18802. General Cesnola and the Temple of Curium: Showmanship and Scholarship in the Age of Barnum, 1865–18953. Indentured Gratitude: The Havemeyers and Other Oligarchs, 1869–19134. Downtown: Artist-Artisans Between Commerce and Philanthropy, 1880–19145. The Guards: Ethnicity, Class, and Labor, 1880–19586. Colonial Flatware: Judge Clearwater and the Limits of Americanization, 1906–19337. The Ladies Lunch Club: Women and the Curatorial Profession, 1900–19408. The Modernists: The Museum and Modern Art, 1921–19509. Pupils on Parade: Museum Education as Theater, 1907–197310. Uptown: The Met and the “Total Black Community,” 1943–197711. Self-Culture for Out-of-Towners: From Miniatures to the Annenberg Center, 1948–197712. Changing Occupations: Mannequins at the Met, 1942–200413. Legacy Systems: From Multimedia to Digital, 1983–2019Conclusion: 2020 Vision?AbbreviationsNotesSources and Select BibliographyIndex

As well researched and illustrated as it is written, Conlin’s The Met offers a rich, incisive, original, and highly entertaining account of the evolution of America’s most famous museum.