Francis Henry Taylor (1903–1957) was a distinguished American museum director and curator, who served as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for fifteen years.
Biography He was born in Philadelphia, and started his career as a curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 1931 he became director of the Worcester Art Museum Massachusetts, before joining the Metropolitan Museum in New York City as its director in 1940.
Taylor was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1939 and the American Philosophical Society in 1946.
Sometimes described as a showman, he developed a theory of the museum as an institution of active public service, not simply a repository of art. He was credited with doubling the number of people visiting the museum, up to 2.3 million a year."Custodian of the Attic", Time, December 29, 1952. Retrieved October 13, 2006.
Death Taylor died at the Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts on November 23, 1957."Francis Henry Taylor" (death notice). New York, New York: Daily News, November 23, 1957 (subscription required).
Books His writings include: Babel's Tower: The Dilemma of the Modern Museum (1945) The Taste of Angels: A History of Art Collecting from Rameses to Napoleon (1948, reprint 1955) - Fifty Centuries of Art (1954) Pierpont Morgan as Collector and Patron, 1837-1913 (1957), Pierpont Morgan Library -
See also Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program
References
External links Image of Francis Henry Taylor, Smithsonian Archives of American Art Francis Henry Taylor records, 1892-1956 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives, New York. Photo by Yousuf Karsh
Francis Henry Taylor papers, 1920-1958 from Houghton Library, Harvard College Library.