Riches, Rivals, and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America

Riches, Rivals, and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America Synopsis

"Riches, Rivals and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums In America" shows that the museum world does not lack heroes and visionaries: Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed that museums were part of the very "warp and woof" of democracy. His Works Progress Administration employment program engaged artists -- such as Jackson Pollock and Jacob Lawrence, who worked in museums. John Cotton Dana, founder of New Jersey's Newark Museum created integrated art classes and apprenticeship programs for young women seeking museum careers. He exhibited factory objects as works of art to increase awareness of the contributions of immigrant factory workers. Julius Rosenwald, founder of Sears and Roebuck also founded the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Frank Oppenheimer, the nuclear physicist, founded San Francisco's Exploratorium in 1969.