90th Anniversary: A Timeline

November 21, 2025

By Noah Purdy and Vincent Tolentino, Senior and Assistant Editors for External Affairs

In honor of The Frick Collection’s 90th anniversary, we invite you to explore a timeline of key moments in the institution’s history, from our original opening in 1935 to our grand reopening in 2025. Travel through the decades to discover major acquisitions, reactions to world events, expansions of our buildings and programs, and more.

Find more celebratory content on our dedicated 90th anniversary page, and visit our About page to access more information on the Frick’s history.

December 16, 1935

The Frick Collection opens to the public, following its transformation from a private mansion into an art museum.

Invitation reading "The Trustees of The Frick Collection have the honor to announce that the Collection will be opened to the public on Monday, December sixteenth nineteen hundred and thirty-five One East Seventieth Street New York" opposite a photo of a museum gallery with a large skylight
Left: Invitation to the opening of The Frick Collection, 1935 (“The Trustees of The Frick Collection have the honor to announce that the Collection will be opened to the public on Monday, December sixteenth nineteen hundred and thirty-five / One East Seventieth Street / New York”). Right: West Gallery, 1935, photo: Ira W. Martin (1886–1960). The Frick Collection Archives

December 27, 1937

Ingres’s Comtesse d’Haussonville is featured on the cover of Life magazine, helping introduce the Frick to more than a million readers.

"Life" magazine cover featuring a painting of a woman in a blue silk dress with her hand under her chin
Cover of Life magazine, December 27, 1937, featuring Ingres’s Comtesse d’Haussonville (1845), photo: George Koelle

1938

The Frick debuts its concert series, captivating audiences with performances by distinguished soloists, chamber groups, and early music ensembles. The following year, WNYC radio begins airing live broadcasts of Frick concerts, further establishing the museum in the city’s cultural landscape.

Concert program and multicolored tickets from The Frick Collection's 1938/39 concert season
Program and tickets from the Frick’s inaugural concert season, 1938–39, The Frick Collection Archives

1940s

During World War II, the museum builds a new vault to protect its art.

The Frick Art Reference Library (now the Frick Art Research Library) serves as the headquarters of the Committee on the Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas (part of the so-called Monuments Men program), preparing maps to safeguard works of art and monuments across Europe during bombing raids.

Construction of a museum vault opposite image of three people working on a map at a desk
Left: Construction of The Frick Collection’s vault, 1941/42. Right: Bill Burke and Jane Mull (center), members of the Committee on the Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas, headquartered at the Frick Art Research Library, working with Gladys Hamlin, draftswoman, on a map of Paris, 1943–44. The Frick Collection Archives

1943

As the Frick’s permanent collection continues to grow, a number of important works are acquired this year, including Rembrandt’s Nicolaes Ruts, Constable’s White Horse, Goya’s Don Pedro, Duque de Osuna, and Barbet’s Angel.

Painting of a man in a fur hat and fur-lined cloak opposite an image of a bronze angel with large wings
Left: Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606–1669), Nicolaes Ruts, 1631, oil on panel. Right: Jean (Jehan) Barbet (d. 1514), Angel, 1475, bronze. The Frick Collection, New York

1960

Frank O’Hara composes the love poem “Having a Coke with You,” which mentions visiting the Frick:

I look / at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world / except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick / which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together for the first time

Manuscript of a poem opposite a painting detail of a soldier on horseback in a moody landscape
Left: Typescript of Frank O’Hara’s “Having a Coke with You,” dated April 21, 1960, courtesy Bibliothèque de la danse Vincent-Warren. Right: Rembrandt, The Polish Rider (detail), ca. 1655, oil on canvas, The Frick Collection, New York

1965

The Frick receives a major bequest of more than 200 Chinese blue-and-white porcelain objects from Childs Frick, son of the museum’s founder.

Two blue-and-white Chinese porcelain objects
Left: Bottle-Shaped Vase Painted with Dragons (One of a Pair), Chinese, Kangxi Period, 1662–1722. Right: Octagonal Form Bowl, Chinese, Traditional Period, ca. 1650. Both works hard-paste porcelain with underglaze blue, The Frick Collection, New York, bequest of Childs Frick in memory of Frances Dixon Frick

1977

The Frick’s buildings expand. The Reception Hall is built to accommodate growing visitor numbers, and the 70th Street Garden is created by famed landscape architect Russell Page.

Museum Reception Hall opposite image of a courtyard garden with white tulips, trees, and a lawn
Left: Newly constructed Reception Hall, 1977. Right: 70th Street Garden, early 1980s. The Frick Collection Archives

November 9, 1984

Helen Clay Frick, daughter of the museum’s founder, dies. Helen helped augment her father’s legacy after his death, founding the Frick Art Research Library and overseeing art acquisitions for four decades, with particular emphasis on early Italian Renaissance paintings.

A woman seated in an office opposite an image of a painting of Christ casting out the Devil on top of a mountain with angels
Left: Helen Clay Frick in her office at the Frick Art Research Library, 1939, The Frick Collection Archives. Right: Duccio di Buoninsegna (ca. 1255–ca. 1319), The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain, 1308–11, tempera on poplar panel, The Frick Collection, New York

1990s

The Frick creates a dedicated Education Program and steadily expands its educational outreach and public offerings, which are renowned to this day.

Museum educator giving a talk to a crowd in a gallery
Habiba Hopson, Ayesha Bulchandani Undergraduate Education Intern, delivering a talk in the West Gallery, 2018, photo: Lucas Chilczuk

1997

The Frick creates an Archives Department to organize and make accessible institutional records, Frick family papers, and archival collections related to art history and collecting.

Cable reading "Are you interested in Constable fine example of his late period same size as your Turner Calais pier"
Cable from dealer Charles S. Carstairs to Henry Clay Frick, June 25, 1909, reading “Are you interested in Constable fine example of his late period same size as your Turner Calais pier,” The Frick Collection Archives

1999

The Frick receives a major bequest of clocks and watches from the collection of Winthrop Kellogg Edey.

Two elaborate gilt-bronze clocks, one with classical figures and a spire and the other shaped like a lion
Left: André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732) and Isaac Thuret (1630–1706) or Jacques Thuret (1669–1738), Barometer Clock, ca. 1690–1700, ebony, turtle shell, brass, gilt bronze, and enamel. Right: Christoph Miller, Automaton Lion Clock, 1640, gilt bronze and ebony on oak. Both works from The Frick Collection, New York, bequest of Winthrop Kellogg Edey

2001

The Frick Art Research Library launches its digital preservation program, scanning materials from its collections for public access online. To date, more than 2.5 million pages of books, archival materials, photographs, and ephemera have been made available digitally.

Woman scanning a photo at a digitization station
Sara Center, Imaging Assistant at the Frick Art Research Library, scanning a photograph for digitization, 2018, photo: George Koelle

2011

The north loggia of the Fifth Avenue Garden is enclosed to create the Portico Gallery—a space for the display of sculpture and decorative arts, including Meissen porcelain from the major promised gift of Henry H. Arnhold.

A museum gallery with large windows seen from the exterior opposite an image of a white porcelain plate with red dragon decorations
Left: Portico Gallery, 2011, photo: Michael Bodycomb. Right: Dish from the “Red Dragon” Service, Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, ca. 1730–35, hard-paste porcelain, The Frick Collection, New York, gift of Henry H. Arnhold

2016–18

The Frick presents significant new gifts of sculpture and decorative arts: portrait medals from Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher, Du Paquier porcelain from the Melinda and Paul Sullivan Collection, and French faience from Sidney R. Knafel.

Two colorful ceramic ewers flanking a bronze portrait medal
Left: Ewer, Du Paquier Porcelain Manufactory, 1725–30, hard-paste porcelain, gift from the Melinda and Paul Sullivan Collection. Center: Pisanello (Antonio di Puccio Pisano) (ca. 1395–1455), Leonello d’Este, Marquis of Ferrara (obverse); Allegory (reverse, not pictured), ca. 1445, bronze, gift of Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher. Right: Ewer, French, Nevers, ca. 1680, faience (tin-glazed earthenware), gift of Sidney R. Knafel. All works from The Frick Collection, New York

2020

The Frick closes to prepare for its first comprehensive renovation in nearly a century, designed by Selldorf Architects.

Rendering of a museum building seen from a city street with bikers and pedestrians
Rendering of the renovated Frick Collection building from East 70th Street, courtesy Selldorf Architects

2021

A temporary home, Frick Madison, opens in the modernist Breuer building on Madison Avenue, where highlights from the permanent collection are installed chronologically and by region.

The Frick also invites dialogues with its collection from leading contemporary artists, showing works by Doron Langberg, Salman Toor, Jenna Gribbon, and Toyin Ojih Odutola, as well as Giuseppe Penone, Olafur Eliasson, Nicolas Party, and Barkley L. Hendricks.

At left, a modernist gallery with a large window and colorful paintings; in the center, a colorful painting of a shirtless man reading a paper; at right, a painting of a woman with a large afro against a gold background
Left: Fragonard galleries at Frick Madison, photo: Joseph Coscia Jr. Center: Doron Langberg (b. 1985), Lover, 2021, oil on linen, courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro, photo: Joseph Coscia Jr. Right: Barkley L. Hendricks (1945–2017), Lawdy Mama, 1969, oil and gold leaf on canvas, Studio Museum in Harlem, gift of Stuart Liebman, in memory of Joseph B. Liebman © Barkley L. Hendricks, courtesy of the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

2022–23

At Frick Madison, the Frick presents major new acquisitions, including a promised gift of drawings and pastels from the Collection of Elizabeth and Jean-Marie Eveillard, Moroni’s Portrait of a Woman from the Assadour O. Tavitian Trust, and a group of fine and decorative works from Alexis Gregory.

At left, a pastel of a woman with a red headband; at center, a gilded rhinoceros sculpture with a clock on its back; at right, a painting of a woman in a pink brocade dress with jewels and a high lace collar
Left: Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842), Head of a Woman, 1784, pastel on paper, promised gift from the Collection of Elizabeth and Jean-Marie Eveillard. Center: James Cox (ca. 1723–1800), Musical Automaton Rhinoceros Clock, ca. 1765–72, case: gilt bronze, silver enamel, and paste jewels, pedestal: white marble and agate, The Frick Collection, New York, gift of Alexis Gregory, 2021. Right: Giovanni Battista Moroni (ca. 1520/24–1579/80), Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1575, oil on canvas, The Frick Collection, New York, gift of the Assadour O. Tavitian Trust

April 17, 2025

The Frick Collection completes the renovation of its historic Fifth Avenue home and reopens to the public.

The revitalized institution includes an expanded James S. and Barbara N. Reibel Reception Hall, the dedicated Ronald S. Lauder Exhibition Galleries and Ian Wardropper Education Room, our new Westmoreland café and Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium, a restored reading room, and new galleries on the second floor, which is opened to visitors for the first time.

Collage of four images of museum galleries, a museum reception hall, and an audience enjoying a concert in a curved auditorium
Clockwise from top left: The restored West Gallery, the new James S. and Barbara N. Reibel Reception Hall, a concert in the new Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium, and the reinstalled Fragonard Room, The Frick Collection, photos: Joseph Coscia Jr., Nicholas Venezia, and Lawrence Sumulong
Link(s): 90th Anniversary page About page Timeline of Art Acquisitions
Tags: Noah Purdy Vincent Tolentino