Mr. Luman Reed's Picture Gallery: A Pioneer Collection of American Art

Between 1830 and his death in 1836, New York merchant Luman Reed assembled one of the first significant collections of American art, which he displayed in a specially designed gallery in his townhouse on Greenwich Street in lower Manhattan. Reed's entire collection was purchased after his death by an association of Reed's friends in 1844, when it became the nucleus of the New-York Gallery of the Fine Arts. In 1858, it was given to the New-York Historical Society where it survives intact. This book is an exhaustive study of Reed's activities as a collector and patron of the arts. With 151 illustrations, including 66 plates in color.