The Met and the Masses in Postwar America: A Study of the Museum and Popular Art Education

This book tells the story of the unifying of two major institutions during a turning point in American public art education. Traditionally separated in the hierarchy of ’highbrow’ and ’middlebrow’ culture, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Book-of-the-Month Club joined forces between 1948 and 1962 to bring art from the Met’s collections right into the homes of subscribers. This democratic approach transformed the way art was consumed and gave the public newfound agency as collectors and museum visitors.

Using never before published archival material, the book demonstrates how the Met sought to bring art to the masses in postwar America, whilst upholding its reputation as an institution of high culture. By describing this egalitarian programme in depth, the book offers new insights into the history of museum outreach and provides fascinating examples of successful audience engagement for contemporary practitioners.

The Met and the Masses in Postwar America places these commercial enterprises in a variety of contemporary and historical contexts, including the relation of cultural education to democracy in America, the history of the Met as an educational institution, the rise of art education in postwar America, and the concurrent transformation of the home into a space that mediated familial privacy and the public sphere. It is essential reading for scholars, researchers and curators interested in the history of modern art, museum and curatorial studies, arts and cultural management, heritage studies, as well as the history of art publications.

Mitchell B. Frank, Director of the School for Studies in Art and Culture at Carleton University, Canada, is the author of German Romantic Painting Redefined (2001) and Central European Drawings from the National Gallery of Canada (2007). He co-edited German Art History and Scientific Thought (2012) and History and Art History: Looking Past Disciplines (2020). He is currently editor-in-chief of the Canadian art historical journal RACAR (Revue d’art canadienne / Canadian Art Review).