Brooklyn Museum

The origins of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences extend back to 1823, with the founding of the Brooklyn Apprentices' Library. The Library, located at the corner of Cranberry and Henry Streets in the neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, was established for the education and cultural enrichment of young tradesmen. In 1841, the Library relocated to the building of the Brooklyn Lyceum, an organization devoted to intellectual pursuits in the arts and sciences, at the corner of Washington and Concord Streets. In 1843, the Library and the Lyceum merged to form the Brooklyn Institute, an organization offering a variety of scientific, literary, cultural, and educational programs.

In 1890, the Institute was renamed the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in reflection of an ambitious new initiative to expand its programming through the development of several divisions devoted to the arts and sciences. In accordance with this initiative, four new divisions were established between 1890 and 1911, including the Brooklyn Museum, devoted to the collecting of fine arts and the natural sciences; the Brooklyn Children's Museum, the world's first cultural and educational center devoted entirely to children; the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which functioned as a city park and an institution devoted to the collection and exhibition of plants and trees, as well as the dissemination of botanical knowledge; and the Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor in Long Island, devoted to education and research in the biological sciences. Later in 1936, the Institute absorbed Brooklyn's premier performing arts center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), which had been founded in 1859.

To coincide with its organizational expansion, the Institute developed plans for the construction of a grand museum building on Eastern Parkway. The building, designed by the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, was intended to eventually serve as the center for all the Institute's programs and activities. Initial construction took place between 1895 and 1926, with the west wing being opened to the public as part of the Brooklyn Museum as early as 1897. However, the Institute's original plan for a grandiose, all-encompassing building proved to be too ambitious, and the finished building was only one-quarter the size that the Institute had originally intended. Rather than serving as a comprehensive facility for the Institute's myriad activities, the new building instead came to exclusively house the Brooklyn Museum.

In the early 1920s, the Institute transferred the Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor to the Long Island Biological Association. With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the Institute was compelled to further narrow its focus. The Brooklyn Museum was refashioned exclusively as an art museum, and its scientific exhibitions were transferred to other institutions. In time, the Institute came to be primarily associated with the Brooklyn Museum, and in the ensuing decades the Institute's other divisions began operating more and more as self-sufficient organizations. In the 1970s, the Brooklyn Children's Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and BAM all became independent entities separate from the Institute. The Institute's name was later officially changed to the Brooklyn Museum.