museum director

d’Harnoncourt, René (17 May 1901–13 August 1968), museum director, was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Hubert d’Harnoncourt, an amateur historian, and Julianna Mittrowsky. Both of his parents came from noble families with large landholdings in Austria and Czechoslovakia, and d’Harnoncourt was born with the title of count, which he later dropped. Having been tutored at home, he attended the University of Graz from 1918 to 1921, studying chemistry and pursuing his interest in art outside of school by painting, drawing, collecting prints, and mounting shows of contemporary art with a group of friends. In 1922 he went on to the Technische Hochschule in Vienna and wrote a thesis, “The Creosote Contents of Certain Coals in Southern Yugoslavia,” which was published in the German technical journal ...

The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City on 13 April 1870. Ten years later it moved to its current primary location on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, where it became the largest art museum in the United States and one of the most significant museums in the world, permanently holding over two million pieces of art. Today its American Wing alone features 20,000 works of painting, sculpture, and domestic art by African Americans, Latin Americans, Native Americans, and European Americans....

The British scientist James Smithson (1765–1829) stipulated in his will that his estate should go to his nephew Henry James Hungerford. If Hungerford died with no heirs, Smithson wanted his estate to go “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” When Hungerford died without a wife or children, Congress authorized Smithson’s bequest, and President James K. Polk signed legislation creating the Smithsonian Institution on 10 August 1846. It grew to become the world’s largest museum and research complex; today it houses twenty-one museums and galleries as well as the National Zoo....