New-York tribune., 1922-11-18
De Forests Give
2 Millions for
Art Building
Plans for New Wing at
Metropolitan Show First
Quadrangle To Be De-
voted to Early Art
Assay Facade To Be Part
When Wall Street Landmark
Was Raced Front Was
Kept for Present Purpose

i ne metropolitan Museum OF Art an
nounced plans yesterday for the com
pletion Of an American wing, given by
Robert w. de Forest, New York lawyer
and president Of the museum, and Mrs.
Emily Johnston de Forest, work on
which has already been started.
The wing will be three-story struc-
ture, the first unit in what ultimately
will be new quadrangle of buildings
devoted to early American art and hay
ing Colonial garden, all of which
will cost about S2,OoO,o00, it is esti-
mated.
Announcement of the improvements
which constitute one of the most i'm
portant and educationally farreaching
expansions to the institution yet made,
was made by Edward Robinson. direc-
tor OF the Museum, in connection with
the further announcement of several
important recent acquisitions from
Egyptian and Chinese antiquity.
The De Forest wing will be devoted
entirely to American art of the Colo
nial, Revolutionary and early repub-
llcan periods. 1t viii be 81 by so feet
and viii be reached from the Morgan
wing, at the northwesterly extremity of
the present building, by passageway.
most interesting historical feature
attaches to the plan of the new build
ing. The marble front of the old
United States Assay. 0fFsss. .ahich4 was
formerly at 8 Wall Stre@B sin be re-
constructed DIS part Of the s5ath facade
of the wing. When the landmark was
demolished some years ago its fine
Colonial facade was carefully pre-
served, with specifications for its re-
construction, through the efforts of
Mr.. De Forest, who had the present
object in view The front is two stories
high and is dominated by central
bay, the second story supporting four
Ionic colonnades.
Eighteen Exhibition Rooms
The wing itself win have eighteen
exhibition rooms. These will include
en- each of its three floors large
three sides into smaller rooms. The
central gallery will be used for the
arrangement of collections of furniture
and other decorative arts grouped by
material. The smaller rooms will be
installed with the actual woodwork
and fittings from q number of early
rooms. These will be furnished and
appointed to contribute toward the re-
creation of the complete room of the
particular period.
The third floor will contain speci-
mems Of the seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries and will house
the earliest furniture, of the Bolles
collection. The second floor, devoted
to types of the middle eighteenth CEN
tury, will exemplifv the finer and more
q Sc{t s,.Se Of
Revolutionary period. The furniture
will be principally Chippendale. Both
npper floors will be accessible from the
second floor of the Pierpont Morgan
wing. The last decade of the eigh-
.eenth century and first quarter of the
nineteenth century will be represented
in the woodwork and decorative arts
shown on the first floor. The wood
work will exemplify rooms from Mass
achusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland and
Virginia.
The wealth of material which the
museum already has awaiting the op-
portunity of displaying in this wing
includes fifteen rooms representative
of various periods OF American archi-
lecture and covers in range practically
tremities of the thirteen original
states.
Will Form Part of Quadrangle
In it's final form the new American
wing will form the north side of u
quadrangle, on the south of which wild
be Reconstructed the Wentworth
Gardner house from Portsmouth, N. H.,
purchased some years ago. The east
and west sides of the Enclosure will be
formed by one story, connecting cor
ridors, against the walls of which will
be set Colonial doorways. The ground
within will be treated as Colonial
(continued on pass sen)