A Museum of One's Own

In this beautifully and generously illustrated publication (featuring more than 70 black-and-white and 130 color reproductions), Higonnet (chair, art history dept., Barnard Coll.) examines the origins and growth of collection museums that developed as wealthy Europeans and Americans acquired fine and decorative art objects for their oftentimes specially built homes. Arising during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, collection museums were reactions to the large, public survey museums like New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Although diverse, they were characterized by their founders' personal art collections and installations within domestic settings. Over the course of a decade of research, Higonnet studied letters, auction records, photographs, and other documents pertaining to renowned and obscure collection museums owned by Sir Richard Wallace, Duke of Aumale Henri d'Orléans, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Henry Clay Frick, Henry E. Huntington, Mildred and Robert Bliss, and others. Focusing on these six principal collection museums, Higonnet covers their many aspects, including common characteristics, collections, roles in history, founders' self-representations, and private-to-public features.