NARRATOR: The couple shown on this gilded bronze medal, cast to commemorate their fiftieth wedding anniversary, seem relaxed and happy. Dogwood blossoms, a symbol of reliability, encircle them. In the display case, they're surrounded by objects from their personal art collection. And if you step back even further, you have the entire American Wing, which wouldn't exist without them.

Meet Emily Johnston de Forest and Robert W. de Forest.

ACTOR (AS EMILY DE FOREST): My Rob, who had gradually become very sympathetic to my hobby, said to me: ‘You and I are becoming more and more interested in early Americana…”

NARRATOR: That's a reading of a letter by Emily Johnson de Forest, the woman on the medal. The ‘hobby' she mentions is the collection of American art she built with her husband, Robert W. de Forest. Emily was the daughter of The Met's first President and became an avid collector herself. Robert, a lawyer and philanthropist, served as a Met trustee, and would later become the museum's fifth president.

ACTOR (AS EMILY DE FOREST): "... and the more we think about it the more we wish that such pieces of early American furniture, silver, brass, glass and china as are now scattered in The Metropolitan Museum could all be collected and shown together.

NARRATOR: The de Forests embraced a broad definition of American art. Emily de Forest especially treasured decorative objects-artistically designed, but meant for practical, everyday use- like the ones seen in this case. She gifted her extraordinary collection of Mexican ceramics to the museum in 1911; you can see one example here, along with pieces from her extensive collection of Pennsylvania German artworks, donated in 1933.

The de Forests gave the funds to build an American Wing. In 1924, after fifteen years of planning, it opened to the public. Robert de Forest declared “The American public is rediscovering its own artistic origins.” As you move through the galleries of the American Wing today, you can explore objects that expand and– in some ways, upend - notions of what constitutes American Art.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. de Forest

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