Whitney Museum of American Art
"At Nos. 8-12 is the Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1931 'to help create rather than conserve a tradition.' It exhibits the works of Whistler, Ryder, Homer, Eakins, and La Farge, as well as the works of living American artists of greater and lesser fame, including the painters Sloan, Gropper, Davis, and Kuniyoshi, and sculptors Davidson, Lachaise, Noguchi, Robus, and Zorach. Murals by Thomas Benton decorate the library. The museum was founded and endowed by the sculptor, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (NYC Guide, pp. 137-138)."
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney saw American artists struggling to exhibit and sell their work because of new ideas. This began Whitney's journey of buying and showing artwork of unrepresented individuals. Later she founded her own Museum in 1930, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art declined her gift of hundreds of pieces in her collection (Whitney, accessed July 25, 2024).
During the time of founding this museum, Noel L. Miller was converting three-row houses into one building to construct the first museum of Whitney's (Wikipedia 2024). When opened in 1931, Juliana Force became the first director of the museum. The museum's focus was to display new and exciting works of American artists.
The collection of this Museum has now outgrew itself twice and has moved locations, however, the museum will never forget Whitney who founded the museum and the work since her passing in 1942.