Samuel Putnam Avery
Samuel Putnam Avery (1822–1904) was an American connoisseur and dealer in art. He was born in New York City where he studied wood and copper engraving and was extensively employed by leading publishers.[1] He began business as a dealer in art in 1865. In 1867 Mr. Avery was appointed commissioner in charge of the American art department of the Exposition Universelle in Paris. He was a founding, and for a long time, trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was a life member of important scientific, artistic and educational associations. He founded the Avery Architectural Library at Columbia University in memory of his son Henry Ogden Avery, an architect of note, who died in 1890. In 1900 he donated his collection of 17,775 etchings and lithographs to the New York Public Library.
| Samuel Putnam Avery | |
|---|---|
 Samuel Putnam Avery, painted by Charles Loring Elliott in 1863 | |
| Born | 17 March 1822  |
| Died | 11 August 1904 New York City |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Ann Ogden |
| Children | 2 |
Avery died at his home in New York City in 1904.[2]
In 1912 Avery Hall, in memory of father and son, was erected on the Columbia campus. Its first floor houses the Avery Library, now rated the richest collection in the country of works on architecture and the allied arts.
References
- "Archives Directory for the History of Collecting". research.frick.org. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
- American Art Annual, Volume 5. MacMillan Company. 1905. p. 118.
External links
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Wikisource has original works written by or about: Samuel Putnam Avery |
- Works by or about Samuel Putnam Avery in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Works by or about Samuel Putnam Avery at Internet Archive
- Samuel Putnam Avery papers, 1857-1902 from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - Samuel Putnam Avery papers from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, including many letters to Putnam
- A fully digitized scrapbook of Samuel Putnam Avery paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries
- Samuel Putnam Avery Diaries, 1871-1882 from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries.