The New York Historical Society, the city’s oldest museum, is changing its name and plans to open a new wing on its Central Park West site. The expansion will open in 2026 on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. The work, initiated in 2023, received a boost thanks to the donation of 20 million dollars (approximately €18.9 million) from SM Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar L. Tang, who will also give their name to the new gallery.
The new wing will allow the museum to expand its exhibition spaces as well as open rooms dedicated to educational programs, which should allow it to accommodate 30,000 students per year instead of 3,000 today. The work will also allow the museum to repatriate part of the collections stored outside the building.
The new museum annex, designed by Robert A. Stern Architects (RAMSA), will be built on empty land adjacent to the museum it owns. The new 6,600 m² building will be constructed with a facade made of the same granite (originally from Deer Isle, Maine) as the historic neoclassical-style museum. The future wing will include a new permanent exhibition gallery, the Klingenstein Family Gallery. The top floor will be a museum within a museum, as it will become home to the American LGBTQ+ Museum, the first-ever museum institution dedicated to the history of this community.
The objects exhibited in the Klingenstein Family Gallery will be linked to the role of New York in the construction of American democracy. The collection will include items from George Washington’s inauguration (April 30, 1789), the Bible used during the ceremony, and the chair in which the first president of the United States sat.
In addition to the recent $20 million donation from the Tangs, the construction project was financed to the tune of $175 million (approximately €165 million) by the City of New York and private sponsors.
The museum also wants to modernize its image by changing its original name to The New York Historical. The term society, considered too traditional, was abandoned as well as the hyphen of New York, a grammatical convention which fell into disuse in 1800.
Founded in 1804, the New York Historical Society is the oldest museum in New York. Its collections of works of art, objects and documents are dedicated to the history of the United States and New York City over 400 years. The museum has a collection of 40 landscape paintings from the Hudson River School (1818-1886) with works by Thomas Cole, William L. Sontag, Asher B. Durand, and Louisa Davis Minot.
