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28-567: The AMAM is primarily a teaching museum and is aimed at the students, faculty and staff of Oberlin College, in addition to the surrounding community. Notable strengths include seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art, nineteenth and early twentieth-century European and contemporary American art, as well as Asian, European and American works on paper. The collection is housed in an Italian Renaissance-style building designed by Cass Gilbert and named after its founder, Dr. Dudley Peter Allen (B.A., 1875),

56-706: A full academician in 1908. Gilbert served as president of the academy from 1926 to 1933. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1934. He was a trustee of the Carnegie Institution from 1924 until he died in 1934. Gilbert was a skyscraper pioneer; when designing the Woolworth Building he moved into unproven ground — though he certainly was aware of the ground-breaking work done by Chicago architects on skyscrapers and once discussed merging firms with

84-479: A graduate and trustee of Oberlin College and the first husband of Elisabeth Severance Prentiss , whose bequest as Mrs. F. F. Prentiss included parts of her art collection started during her first marriage. In 1977, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown designed an addition that represents one of the earliest examples of postmodern architecture in the United States. In 2011, the historic museum underwent

112-420: A two-year retrofit, after which it was awarded with USGBC LEED Gold certification. The Allen Memorial Art Museum has a collection of more than 15,000 objects – including paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, prints, drawings and photographs – that provide a comprehensive overview of the history of art from a variety of cultures. The collection has a focus on European and American paintings and sculpture from

140-523: Is a municipal public library system in the city of St. Louis, Missouri . It operates sixteen locations, including the main Central Library location. In 1865, Ira Divoll, the superintendent of the St. Louis Public School system, created a subscription library in the public school library that would later evolve into the St. Louis Public Library. Divoll believed that a library should work in tandem with

168-493: Is after all only a skyscraper." Gilbert's two buildings on the University of Texas at Austin campus, Sutton Hall (1918) and Battle Hall (1911), are recognized by architectural historians as among the finest works of architecture in the state. Designed in a Spanish-Mediterranean revival style, the two buildings became the stylistic basis for the later expansion of the university in the 1920s and 1930s and helped popularize

196-828: The University of Texas at Austin , state capitols in Minnesota and West Virginia, the support towers of the George Washington Bridge , railroad stations (including the New Haven Union Station , 1920), and the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. His reputation declined among some professionals during the age of Modernism , but he was on the design committee that guided and eventually approved

224-685: The 15th century to today, and also has holdings of Asian paintings, scrolls, sculpture and decorative art, including a large group of Ukiyo-e prints. Ancient Egyptian , Greek , Roman , African and Pre-Columbian art is represented. The museum also houses the Eva Hesse archives, which includes the artist’s notebooks, diaries, photographs and letters, and it oversees, along with the Art Department, Frank Lloyd Wright 's Weltzheimer/Johnson House . Notable donations were made by Jewish industrialist, Eugene Leopold Garbaty, who fled Germany in

252-617: The 1930. In 2024, the museum restituted a watercolor by Egon Schiele entitled Schwarzes Mädchen to the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum , who was murdered in the Holocaust. The artwork was one of several seized by the Manhattan D.A. in a criminal investigation by the trafficking unit. Purchases made through the Mrs. F.F. Prentiss Fund include a Henry Moore sculpture and other works: At the beginning of every semester, students camp out in front of

280-468: The Board of Education building until 1909, as the Central Library was being constructed. The Board of Education building wasn't large enough to accommodate the library's growing collection. It was during this time that the library began its role as a lending library, allowing the public to ‘check out’ and take books home. In 1901, Andrew Carnegie made a large donation which was used for expansion, including

308-478: The Central Library building, Barr, Cabanne, Carpenter and Carondelet branch buildings were Carnegie libraries . The Central Library building at 13th and Olive was built in 1912 on a location formerly occupied by the St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall and was designed by Cass Gilbert . The main library for the city's public library system has an oval central pavilion surrounded by four light courts. The outer facades of

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336-717: The Minnesota capitol gave Gilbert his national reputation and in 1898 he permanently moved his base to New York. His breakthrough commission was the design of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City, which now houses the George Gustav Heye Center . Gilbert served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1910 to 1916. In 1906 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an associate member, and became

364-636: The age of modernism, but has since rebounded because of "respect for the integrity and classic beauty of his masterworks". Gilbert was born in Zanesville, Ohio , the middle of three sons, and was named after the statesman Lewis Cass , to whom he was distantly related. Gilbert's father General Samuel A. Gilbert was a Union veteran of the American Civil War and a surveyor for the United States Coast Survey . His uncle

392-548: The architecture program at MIT . Gilbert worked for a time with the firm of McKim, Mead & White before starting a practice in St. Paul with James Knox Taylor . He was commissioned to design a number of railroad stations, including those in Anoka , Willmar and the extant Little Falls depot , all in Minnesota. As a Minnesota architect he was best known for his design of the Minnesota State Capitol and

420-466: The building which is currently the Central Library. By this time the collection included 90,000 books. By 1938 the collection included 900,000 items, and by 2014, 4.6 million items. The St. Louis Public Library operates 16 libraries, including the main Central Library. Branches include Baden, Barr, Buder, Cabanne, Carondelet, Carpenter, Charing Cross, Compton, Julia Davis, Divoll, Kingshighway, Machacek, Marketplace, Schlafly, and Walnut Park. In addition to

448-500: The collection, which grew from 1,500 volumes in 1865 to 90,000 volumes by 1893, the library required more space. In 1893, the library moved into a new space on the top floors of the new Board of Education building. Also in 1893, the citizens of St. Louis voted to move the administration of the library to an independent board, supported by a property tax. This vote enabled the library to operate without subscription fees and be open to all St. Louis residents. The library occupied its space in

476-424: The downtown St. Paul Endicott Building . His goal was to move to New York City and gain a national reputation, but he remained in Minnesota from 1882 until 1898. Many of his Minnesota buildings are still standing, including more than a dozen private residences (especially those on St. Paul's Summit Avenue ), several churches featuring rich textures and colors, resort summer homes, and warehouses. The completion of

504-441: The famous Woolworth Building skyscraper on Broadway, while C. P. H. Gilbert designed Woolworth's personal mansion. The Ukrainian Institute building on Manhattan's 5th Avenue, the work of C. P. H. Gilbert, is often incorrectly attributed to Cass Gilbert. Cass Gilbert is sometimes also confused with his son, architect Cass Gilbert Jr. Notes Further reading Saint Louis Public Library The St. Louis Public Library

532-404: The free-standing building are of lightly rusticated Maine granite. The Olive Street front is disposed like a colossal arcade, with contrasting marble bas-relief panels. A projecting three-bay central block, like a pared-down triumphal arch, provides a monumental entrance. At the rear, the Central Library faces a sunken garden. The interiors feature some light-transmitting glass floors. The ceiling of

560-618: The large federal buildings along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., which he disliked. Architectural historian Margaret Heilbrun said that "Gilbert's pioneering buildings injected vitality into skyscraper design, and his 'Gothic skyscraper,' epitomized by the Woolworth Building, profoundly influenced architects during the first decades of the twentieth century." Historians Christen and Flanders wrote that his reputation among architectural critics went into eclipse during

588-499: The legendary Daniel Burnham — and his technique of cladding a steel frame became the model for decades. Modernists embraced his work: artist John Marin painted it several times; even Frank Lloyd Wright praised the lines of the building, though he decried the ornamentation. Gilbert was one of the first celebrity architects in America, designing skyscrapers in New York City and Cincinnati , campus buildings at Oberlin College and

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616-701: The modernist design of Manhattan's groundbreaking Rockefeller Center . Gilbert's body of work as a whole is more eclectic than many critics admit. In particular, his Union Station in New Haven lacks the embellishments common of the Beaux-Arts period and contains the simple lines common in Modernism. Gilbert wrote to a colleague, "I sometimes wish I had never built the Woolworth Building because I fear it may be regarded as my only work and you and I both know that whatever it may be in dimension and in certain lines it

644-714: The north gate of the museum to get first pick of original etchings, lithographs and paintings by artists including Pierre-Auguste Renoir , Andy Warhol , Salvador Dalí , and Pablo Picasso . For five dollars per semester, students can hang these works on their dorm room walls. The program was started in the 1940s by Ellen H. Johnson , a professor of art at Oberlin, in order to "develop the aesthetic sensibilities of students and encourage ordered thinking and discrimination in other areas of their lives." 41°17′37″N 82°13′00″W  /  41.293714°N 82.216782°W  / 41.293714; -82.216782 Cass Gilbert Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934)

672-401: The public education system and offer citizens an opportunity for self-improvement and culture. In 1869, Divoll's subscription library moved to the Board of Education building. The library consisted of 4 staff members who offered reference services 12 hours a day. The library also encouraged children to visit, and had no age restrictions as did most libraries of the day. Due to rapid growth of

700-628: The style throughout Texas. Gilbert's drawings and correspondence are preserved at the New-York Historical Society , the Minnesota Historical Society , the University of Minnesota, and the Library of Congress . Cass Gilbert is often confused with another prominent New York architect of the time, Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert , in part because Frank W. Woolworth engaged both; Cass Gilbert designed

728-460: Was Union General Charles Champion Gilbert . When he was nine, Gilbert's family moved to St. Paul , Minnesota, where he was raised by his mother after his father died. Cass was raised Presbyterian. He attended preparatory school but dropped out of Macalester College . He began his architectural career at age 17 by joining the Abraham M. Radcliffe office in St. Paul. In 1878, Gilbert enrolled in

756-611: Was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers , his works include the Woolworth Building , the United States Supreme Court building , the state capitols of Minnesota , Arkansas , and West Virginia , the Detroit Public Library , the Saint Louis Art Museum and Public Library . His public buildings in the Beaux Arts style reflect the optimistic American sense that the nation

784-512: Was heir to Greek democracy, Roman law and Renaissance humanism. Gilbert's achievements were recognized in his lifetime; he served as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1908–09. Gilbert was a conservative who believed architecture should reflect historic traditions and the established social order . His design of the new Supreme Court building in 1935, with its classical lines and small size, contrasted sharply with

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