The Walters at Ninety

The Early Years

The museum’s attendance steadily increased from the time of its opening, jumping from around 34,000 annual visitors in 1937 to nearly 50,000 visitors in 1941. However, at the end of 1941, America entered World War II, causing a drastic change in museum operations. The museum never shuttered during the war, but several objects that were considered irreplaceable treasures were removed for safekeeping and sealed inside the Frederick Armory’s underground swimming pool in Frederick, MD, for the duration of the war.

Many museum staff members served during the war, including Marvin Chauncey Ross (1904–1977), the Walters’ first curator of Byzantine, medieval, and decorative arts. Ross enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and later became part of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section Unit, colloquially known as the “Monuments Men.” Among other accomplishments during Ross’s 18-year tenure at the Walters, he contributed significantly to The Journal of the Walters Art Museum. Launched in 1938, it is one of the oldest continuously published scholarly art museum journals in the United States.

Despite the challenges of World War II and its aftermath, the Walters quickly became known as one of America’s premier art institutions. The museum was particularly noted for its collection of medieval art and manuscripts, which were both highlighted in the Walters’ earliest major exhibitions. The first, Early Christian and Byzantine Art, was presented in collaboration with the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in 1947 and brought together more than 1,000 objects from public and private collections. This exhibition was followed by Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in 1948, another collaboration with the BMA that provided a comprehensive review of illuminated manuscripts in America.

The Expansion Years

As America recovered from World War II, the Walters expanded exponentially, welcoming a growing number of visitors and increasing its staff and offerings to keep pace with demand, including radio and television programs, lectures and classes, concerts in the galleries, and more. Educational visits to the Walters became a staple of the school-going experience in Maryland. In 1946 alone, more than 20,000 children visited the galleries. More recently, the focus has shifted to family participation at the museum. From 2006 to 2015, there was an 89 percent increase in families engaging with educational programs like Art Carts, family festivals, guided tours, and drop-in art activities.

The Women’s Committee of the Walters Art Museum was established in 1963 with a mission to “create goodwill for the museum.” Beginning with 12 determined founders, the Committee grew to nearly 100 members at its peak and donated gifts in excess of $2 million to the museum. In 2021, the committee also created the Walters Women’s Committee Legacy Endowment, which continues to support the museum’s exhibitions and education programs.

Although the committee sunset in 2021, women have been a driving force behind the work at the Walters since the beginning. Several members of the original staff were women, including Dorothy Kent Hill (1907–1986), the museum’s first curator of classical art; Winifred Kennedy (1902–1994), the museum’s first registrar; and Dorothy Miner (1904–1973), the first librarian and keeper of manuscripts, who worked at the Walters for an impressive 39 years.

The Walters’ Conservation and Technical Research department has also been helmed by female leaders for much of its existence, most notably Elisabeth Packard (1907–1994) and Terry Drayman-Weisser. Founded in 1934, it is the third-oldest museum laboratory in the country and is also marking its 90th anniversary this year. The conservation team has often been at the forefront of discovery, as in the case of The Archimedes Palimpsest. The oldest surviving copy of works by the greatest mathematician of antiquity, this incredible object was loaned to the Walters for conservation, imaging, and study in 1999. Over 12 years, the team worked diligently to reveal and decipher its original text, saving the book’s contents from oblivion.