Some of America's most noteworthy museums were built in the Victorian era, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery, and the first stages of the Smithsonian. Museum-building was perhaps an extension of the Victorian passion for collecting objects, antiquities, and curiosities from around the world. In England, in fact, many museums originated from such personal collections, made public either by the original collector or his heirs. In America, museum-building was a more formal affair, overseen by experts and conducted with a view to creating massive educational collections. That such endeavors were successful is attested by the lines that you'll see outside places like The Metropolitan Museum of Art on any weekend (or even weekday) morning!

The Library of Congress (Harper's Monthly, 1873A)

American Museums of Art (Scribners, 1879B)

"My desire is chiefly to suggest how many smaller cities and towns may found museums of great practical value and comparatively small cost, each of which shall become a popular educator, the center of a beneficent and widespread interest." The article proceeds with advice on how art museums should be designed and constructed, to best organize, display and protect their collections.

The Lenox Library [New York] (Demorest, 1879)

Metropolitan Museum of Art (Demorest, 1879)

The establishment of the museum in its current location.

The Proposed National Library Building (Century Magazine, 1882A)

The beginnings of what would become the Library of Congress.

The American Museum of Natural History, by J.B. Holder (Century Magazine, 1882B)

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, by S.G.W. Benjamin (Century Magazine, 1882B)

The Metropolitan Museum and Its Director (Century Magazine, 1882B)

The controversy over the Cesnola collection, a collection of Greek statues and artifacts that were said to have been "restored" or altered by their owner.

The Future of the Metropolitan Museum (Century Magazine, 1884A)

The Proposed Library Building in Washington, by George Edgar Montgomery (Century Magazine, 1884A)

A new building for the Library of Congress, with comments by the architects.

The Making of a Museum, by Ernest Ingersoll (Century Magazine, 1885A)

The founding and development of the Smithsonian.

The Western Art Movement, by Ripley Hitchcock (Century Magazine, 1886B)

A look at the proliferation of libraries and art galleries in the US.

The Metropolitan Museum (Century Magazine, 1892A)

If Public Libraries, Why Not Public Museums? by Edward R. Morse (Atlantic Monthly, 1893)

It's hard to imagine a time when, in America, there were none...

The New Public Library in Boston, by M.G. van Rensselaer and Lindsay Swift (Century Magazine, 1895B)

A two-part article; Rensselaer covers the library's artistic and architectural features, while Swift covers "its ideals and working conditions."

The Nation's Library, by William A. Coffin (Century Magazine, 1897A)

On the newly built Library of Congress.