Fairmount Parkway plan, developed in 1917In the early 1900s, the museum started an education program for the basic public, in addition to a membership program. Fiske Kimball was the museum director in the course of the fast development of the mid- to late-1920s, which included a million visitors in 1928—the new constructing Art Galery‘s first yr. The museum enlarged its print collection in 1928 with about 5,000 Old Master prints and drawings from the present of Charles M. Lea, together with French, German, Italian, and Netherlandish engravings. Major exhibitions of the 1930s included works by Eakins, Manet, Renoir, Cézanne, …

The collection started when 174 work have been purchased from European sellers in 1871. Almost two-thirds of those work have been deaccessioned, however high quality work by Jordaens, Van Dyck, Poussin, the Tiepolos, Guardi, and some other artists stay within the collection. Major gifts from Henry Gurdon Marquand in 1889, 1890 and 1891 gave the Met a much more solid basis. Additionally, his example helped to create a taste for accumulating Old Master work. In 1913, the Benjamin Altman bequest had enough vary and depth to place the Met’s collection of work on the map. The Robert Lehman Collection, which …