The Cleveland Museum of Art
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The Cleveland Museum of Art: Inaugural Exhibition  - Summer 2008

Inaugural Exhibition - Rotunda and Armor Court   At 9:00am on Wednesday June 7th 1916 the "building and its contents were thrown open to the general public" (Inaugural catalog). The first visitors to the museum were greeted with an exhibition of objects loaned from private collections, museums and dealers from all over the country which filled every gallery.

Collecting for the new Cleveland Museum of Art started immediately upon incorporation. Objects were donated beginning in 1914 with a collection of laces from Jeptha Homer Wade II. Objects were also purchased from dealers and through agents worldwide, but the collection was still small. In addition to borrowing art to fill the museum, the Inaugural Exhibition also served as a wish list of objects the museum wanted. Art dealers loaned many objects to the exhibition which were for sale and were, "secured in the hope that friends might be interested to acquire them as gifts to the museum" (Inaugural catalog).

The main floor galleries were installed by collection, time period or nationality. Many of the galleries retained these designations when objects from the permanent collection were installed.

Rotunda - Classical Art   Gallery I - Colonial Art, including early American Silver
Gallery II - Gothic Art   Gallery III - Renaissance Art
Gallery IV - A Collection of Paintings given by Mrs. Liberty E. Holden   Gallery V - Painters: Dutch and Spanish
Gallery VI - Painters: French   Gallery VII - Painters: English
Gallery VIII - Painters: American, 19th Century   Gallery IX - Painters: American, Contemporary
Gallery X - The Freer Collection, Lent by the Smithsonian Institution   Gallery XI - The W.S. and J.T. Spaulding Collection of Surimono Japanese Paintings
Gallery XII - Art of the Near East   Gallery XIII - Chinese Art
Gallery XIV - Japanese Art   Gallery XV - Ancient Egyptian Art
Court of Tapestries and Armor - Eight Tapestries: The Story of Dido and Aeneas, Gift of Mrs. Dudley Peter Allen; Arms and Armor, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance   Garden Court

The Inaugural Exhibition was on view from June 6 to September 20, 1916. By the closing of the exhibition 191,547 visitors had come to the new museum to view the exhibition, with nearly 9,000 visitors on the last day (First 50 Years).

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