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Article: William Holbrook Beard (1824-1900). (American artist)
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- November 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When President Ulysses S. Grant laid the corn the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on June 2, 1874, he and the others who spoke at the ceremony tried to envision a time when the rough, wild West look of the museum's location would give way to the civility of its new building designed by Calvert Vaux (1824-1895). At least one New Yorker, the artist William Holbrook Beard, had a very different vision. Five years earlier he had prepared an alternate plan for the site that was intended to exploit, rather than tame, its wild appearance (see Pl. II and Figs. 2-4). The museum he proposed was unlike anything anyone had seen before.(1)
Beard had been living ...