Nelson Atkins Museum of Art
this fabulous art museum located in Kansas City,
Missouri is best known for its beautiful neoclassical
architecture and comprehensive collection of Asian artworks,
constructed on the grounds of Oak Hall, the former estate of
Kansas City Star publisher, William Rockhill Nelson, who
instructed in his will of 1915, that after his widow and
daughter passed on, the entire estate would be sold and the
proceeds given to buy artworks for public enjoyment. His bequest
was augmented by his daughter, attorney and son-in-law. It
really began in 1911, when former schoolteacher, Mary Atkins,
the widow of real estate speculator, James Burris Atkins, left
$300,000 to start an art museum, and through the management of
the estate, it grew into $700,000 by 1927. The original plans
would call for two museums to be constructed based on the
different requests, with the Atkins being located in the Penn
Valley Park, but the trustees of the two estates got together
and thought that it would be more beneficial to the public if
they combined the bequests with smaller ones from other people
to create one single major art institution. When it opened, it
had cost $2.75 million, and the dimensions of the six story
structure was 390 feet long by 175 wide making it bigger than
the Cleveland Museum of Art. The museum would be called the
Nelson Art Gallery, although it was two museums contained in
one, but in 1983, it was officially changed to the Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art. The exterior has 23 limestone panels that depict
the march of civilization from east to west including wagon
trains going west from Westport Landing and were created by
Charles Keck.
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